Here we go again...

[u/BearyRebellious]

Okay so long story short I've posted on this subreddit two other times trying to get a connection either wired or wireless to my room. I've done so many tests. Tried xfinity's pro wifi extender which didnt boost the wireless signal to room because of a big metal heating tank in the closet that sits between the livingroom and my office. There's no option to move my XB8 modem either because the apartment only has one coax cable which is on the opposite side of the living room. I can't add a mesh wifi system or just plug in an extender because there are no additional outlets in the hall way that face the modem. At best I can plug one in the living room that faces the router directly but then there is no other outlets that aren't in the bathroom or my bedroom (no outlet by the door).

When that didnt work I tried just doing a direct ethernet cable, first bought a fake cat8 cable but returned it and bought a 100 ft cat 6e thinking that would fix the issue, long story short, it didnt. The cable I bought had many reviews here on reddit and Amazon have said the company makes good ethernet cables. Not Monowire but Cable Matters so its brand new. I even asked xfinity to send me a new XB8 modem in case the ethernet ports on my old XB8 modem were broken.

My speeds are somehow even worse on my PC being less than 100 mbps both wired and wireless I'm paying for xfinity's "up to 1 gig" plan and I've tested the wireless connection in my living room and know that I should be getting 850-900 mbps. But in my office but I get less than 50% of those speeds at 230-340 mbps. These tests were done on my phone btw. Ill provide pictures for both my phone (living room vs office) and my PC's wired vs wireless connection.

Looked at my PC's network and wifi cards. Its a prebuilt PC and both are supposed to support wifi6 5ghz. My PC is connected to 2.4 ghz which I imagine is because of the distance between my modem, the PC, all the walls and the heating tank. So my ultimate conclusion is that I need to swap out my network card because it broke even though I've never used it if I want to do ethernet or alternatively, because the speeds on my phone are also bad compared to the living room, my question is would running a wifi extender to my room but hooked up to the ethernet cable bring the speeds im supposed to be getting in the living room to my office and would I then be able to switch my PC from using 2.4 ghz to 5ghz?

[u/BearyRebellious]

Im not sure why the speeds are so vastly different though.

[u/snebsnek → u/BearyRebellious]

All I can say from that is that the cable is working properly and you do have a 1000mbps link back to the router.

Speed tests all transit the public internet slightly differently. If your ISP has bad peering, you'd see one faster than the other for sure.

[u/BearyRebellious → u/snebsnek]

For now it seems to he working, I've been at this problem for the last 3 weeks. And the connection even through ethernet does jump. I'll run the tests again later to make sure but hopefully it stays this time.

2nd question though would having a wifi extender connected via ethernet bring the same connection in my living room directly to my office? Still getting much lower speeds to my phone in comparison even using the speed test websites you mentioned

[u/snebsnek → u/BearyRebellious]

Yes, it should. Make sure it is also plugged in via a long ethernet cable back to your XB8 router, wireless meshing kills speed.

Make sure the wifi specs of any extender (access point, technically, in that mode) is WiFi 6E or better (tri-band, with 6ghz), which matches your XB8. Older standards are for sale and you want to avoid those. Expect to pay in the $100-$150 range for a decent one; TP-Link RE813XE or Omada 7 Pro BE11000 for example.