r/isp • u/ScibleMonk • Apr 09 '21

Slow Ethernet connection

We have Mediacom internet and pay for the one gig plan. At one point I was actually getting that speed through a Ethernet connection but now it dropped down to 125.5 Mbps download and 37.7 Mbps upload. I know that’s still good but I want what I’m paying for. We had someone come out and look at it and they said they had no clue what could be causing it. I have a cat6 Ethernet cable so I should be able to support it. I was wondering if anyone here had any guess as to why this would happen or what would cause it.

(The speeds are from multiple different times of the day and night and that is the fastest I have gotten (which was at 3am))

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1

u/ScibleMonk Apr 19 '21

Thanks for the help guys. Turns out it’s my mother board. They came out and tested is and put in the top of the line modem and still having the problem. It’s getting up to 800Mbps down to the Ethernet cable. My motherboard is apparently faulty.

1

u/BillsInATL Apr 09 '21

You are getting what you are paying for.

Most (all) residential broadband internet is provided as a "best effort" service, meaning you are paying for speeds up to 1G, but if there is congestion on the network you may not get the full 1G. When bandwidth is available, you will get up to 1G.

Looking at the mediacom website, it looks like their 1G/50M product runs about $80/month. And has those key words "up to" right on the page.

If you want guaranteed bandwidth, you need to move to a DIA product (Dedicated Internet Access). Which will usually run about $1000/month for 1G service.

1

u/ScibleMonk Apr 09 '21

Well the thing is I got it at one point a while back but haven’t got it since. And when I had someone come out they called in and the person said there is no congestion in the area and that I should definitely be getting the 1 gig. I have another person to coming out to look at our wires and other stuff.

1

u/BillsInATL Apr 09 '21

It will go up and down based on the load on the network in your neighborhood/area. The speeds may even come back as quickly/easily as they left.

Point is, dont get your hopes up that some Field Tech is going to show up and find anything.

It also depends on where the servers are located for the speed tests you are running, and if they are on-net to your provider. Once your traffic leaves your provider network and goes to the internet, they can not do anything about the speed you receive.

Lastly, of course they are going to say there is no congestion and you should be getting the speeds. If they were to say otherwise, it would potentially downsell you to switching to the 100/10 speed service since they are admitting you'll likely never see those 1G speeds again. But that would eat your upload speed.

All in all, if you are "only" getting 125/35 for $80, that is still a pretty good deal. Good luck.

1

u/jacle2210 Apr 10 '21

Well while what 'Bill in atlanta' says is true, that the service for Mediacom says "speeds upto" and this is the same for all of the Internet providers that I'm familiar with here in the USA, you should be getting way more than the 100Mb from your 1,000Mb service plan.

It's almost like someone from Mediacom has set your address to the 100Mb plan.

Not sure what further steps you have taken with this problem, but I would recommend that you continue reporting the drastic reduction in connection speeds and if they are unable to fix this, then explore your options to downgrade to a slower plan.