I have 50mb down internet service. Will a dual N modem get me that on a speedtest?

[jackie1]

Originally Posted by sfx2000

I don't put as much faith as others might in Speedtest.Net - they do a lot of buffering and this skews the results - even run to run.

If you're using it, try a different host rather than let it pick for you - West Coast US - SmugMug has proven to be very consistent, and they have a good pipe connected to the Speedtest.Net list of hosts - SmugMug is in San Jose.

I'm in harrisburg pa, so I always choose the "harrisburg, pa" server, which is the quickest it seems. I'm going out today and buying a few routers to test this out to see what happens.

[jackie1]

Originally Posted by thiggins

The WNDR3400 is a pretty old design. Find out exactly which model your friend is using.

Ok, I just found out my friend has the WNDR3700, and I have the WNDR3400.

[jackie1]

Ok, some very interesting things to report on the WNDR3400 vs WNDR3700.

1) I went to best buy and bought another 3400, just to make sure my current one wasn't defective. Ran a wifi "N" speed test on my iphone 5, and same result, about 25 mb down on wireless. Same old story.

2) Next, I hooked up the 3700. Bam! 52mb down! Crazy fast "N" wifi on my iphone 5. I don't know why it's faster, as these two routers should be the same speed and are basically identical, except the 3700 has gigabit port. Now, my Aris cable modem always had a amber blinking link light (which means a 10/100 connection as the manual says). After hooking up the 3700, that link light on the Aris modem turned green (which means a 10/1000 connection as the manual says). I'm thinking somehow that gigabit connection is making the wifi connection quicker?!? My wired speeds are the same as they were before, so this is very puzzling to me. The only other thing I noticed is the power adapter for the 3700 is 2.5 amp and the 3400 is 1.5 amp.
This leads me to believe the internals or hardware is different and possible because the 3700 calls for more power? If they both had the same power adpater, I wouldn't question this. I'm just trying to make sense of it all.

And I also want to note, I did more testing with my friend in addition to the speed tests before I got the 3700 to test -- just to make sure that speedtest.net wasn't wrong. I found an app on the app store that was 130 mb. I timed how long it took to download at my house on the 3400 modem, which was getting about 25mb down on N wifi, and it took me like 51 seconds. When he did it from his house, 52 down on his wifi, it tool 33 seconds aprox. SO this does mean the 3400 router really was much slower on wifi N...

Thoughs on why the 3700 is faster?

[devnull]

There's a small snippet of data on netgear's website that suggests that the 3400 is (probably) 2x MIMO and the 3700 is 3x MIMO.

[jackie1]

What does that mean

[devnull]

The 3400 can process a single session using two antennas simultaneously.

The 3700 can process a single session using three antennas.

The short answer to that is that the 3700 has more bandwidth because it can use three antennas simultaneously.

[jackie1]

Thanks but netgear doesn't mention this anywhere on the box. Misleading to me.

[tipstir]

Originally Posted by stevech

My modem and digital phone is an Arris. I think Arris has a near monopoly with Cox/TWC customers that do both Internet and Phone.
Mine's DOCSIS 2 (not 3). I pay only for 20Mbps down, 1Mbps up. That's all I really need and more.
I had a succession of Motorola (GI) cable modems without digital phone and they were OK. Went to Arris when I dumped AT&T at last (! happy face ) and went with TWC's phone/TV/Internet bundle. Not that I love TWC. But I tried 3 different classic VoIP providers - none were near enough to wireline quality to pass the WAF.

This Arris has been very good. And the phone has been as good/better than landline for quite a while. I've never purchased a cable modem; don't think I would, because TWC is on the hook to keep it working, and over the years, I've been pleased with TWC's field service.
----------
Arris looks similar to this:
http://www.arrisi.com/products/_images/hd/tm602.jpg

Has a built-in battery that runs it for a few hours. And it's plugged into my 1500W UPS. It and TWC's system was working in two recent local power failures. Of course, I keep a hardwired phone, and one cordless plugged into the UPS.

Info:

ARRIS DOCSIS 2.0 / PacketCable 1.0 Touchstone Telephony Modem HW_REV: 54
VENDOR: Arris Interactive, L.L.C.
BOOTR: 6.24
SW_REV: 6.1.77D.D11PLUS
MODEL: TM602G
Product Type: 00000108 010a3be2
Product Release: 00000004
Flash Part: AM29LV320MB
Download Revision: 2
Firmware Revision: 6.1.77D.D11PLUS
Serial Number: xxxxxxxx
Battery Charger FW Rev: 07.16

I've that box you had with digital cable but not with Cox they setup me differently where you don't need the Arris system. If the tech knows his stuff you could been using what I was using. Still going from D2 to D3 is huge improvement. Plus since I had purchased my own D3 I don't have to pay more per month/year with Comcast now. I've also re-wired their box and remove all additional splitters added 3GHz ground joiner to the fiber. Still the main line could be remove also. Right now my speeds have jumped to 12mb down and 67mb down. As I am on the 50mb down / 10mb up.

Sure I might go back to 30mb down and 5mb up. where I should get 47mb down and 6mbp up with the setup here. For less.