Questions related to internet speed

[uminaginative]

I am not tech savvy, hence forgive my ignorance. Recently, I did some tests to see the internet speed I was getting. I have a few questions related to that. Thanks for looking.

Background: I used to have an Airtel 100 mbps connection. Some time ago, I was offered a special rate upgrade to 300 mbps. I didn't really need the upgrade but I thought of giving it a try and see if I liked the experience.

My primary observation was that barring one laptop, I couldn't see any real difference in speed. To be clear, I'd never done speed testing before. My connection and additional wiring was set up by a tech pro whom I knew, who also certified the speed was fine. I'm no longer in touch and I have no one else to ask. So I decided to read up things and try it on my own.

What I realized was that of my 3 laptops, 2 don't support 5 ghz and their ethernet capabilities are limited. Writing about all of what I experienced will be too lengthy for a single post I think, so I'll start with the wired line experience. I tested separately with 2 cables that I already had with me- one is marked as Cat 5, the other as Cat 5E. I also used a USB adapter which I had (one of laptops doesn't have an ethernet port)- the description on it says 'Gigabit Lan'. I have given below my observations and then my questions.

Laptop 1: It doesn't have an ethernet port so I used the adapter. With each of the ethernet cables, the download speed was 70-90 mbps. Link speed showed as 100/100.

Laptop 2: With each of the ethernet cables directly connected or even via the adapter, the download speed was 70-90 mbps. Link speed in all cases showed as 100/100.

Laptop 3: With the Cat 5 cable directly connected, the speed was 300+ mbps. Link speed showed as 1000/1000. With the Cat 5E cable directly connected, the speed was 70-90 mbps. Link speed showed as 100/100. When I connected each cable via the adapter, the speed was 70-90 mbps. Link speed showed as 100/100.

Questions:

1. It seems to me that the USB adapter, contrary to the description, can't go beyond 100 mbps. Is that understanding correct?

2. Why might it be that specifically in Laptop 3, speed via Cat 5E cable is less than via Cat 5? Is this also a case of wrong description?

3. If I buy another adapter and cables, is there any quick way to know that the actual product will match the description?

4. Based on the above, anything else I should check, bear in mind, or be concerned about, as regards wired access?

 

[Rajneesh Rana]

1. Yes it's a basic adaptor based on USB 2.0 and will only do 100Mbps
2. Yes cable could be faulty
3. Go for TP-Link usb 3.0 lan adaptor. this should give 1Gbps link speed with a good cable.
4. no

 

[Sushubh]

PC USB Ports would need to be USB3 as well I suppose. He did say his adapter is gigabit.

 

[imdarkray]

@Sushubh usb need not be usb3.0. A gigabit adapter will easily work with usb 2.0 and 300mbps connection as high speed usb is marked max upto 480mbps transfer speed.
@uminaginative I believe in your case your Cat 5e cable is faulty.

A gigabit adapter with Cat 5e cable should be fine enough to provide you your plan speed i.e. 300 mbps.

 

[uminaginative]

@imdarkray Am I right in understanding you are saying that I need not change the adapter, and only change the cable? If so, could you please help me understand why is it that the Cat 5 cable when directly connected to laptop 3, gives me 300 mbps but when connected via the adapter gives much lesser speed? Thanks.

 

[Lolita_Magnum]

What kind of USB Adapter are you using, if it's a standard 75-150Mbps one, then you won't be getting speeds above 30-40Mbps anyway.
Concerning the cable, usually cat 5 is 100Mbps and Cat5e is 1Gb, but probably there might a crimping issue with the cable or the cable wires might be just bad. If your cat 5 cable is 4 pair, that might explain why you are getting 1Gb.
Usually for testing and heavy users and gamers, USB adapters are not really recommended as they have added latency and their own performance issues. One thing I did on my own older laptop is, its wifi card was connected via pci m.2, I ordered an Intel card, upgraded it, added drivers and was getting good 867Mbps throughput for AC 5Ghz wifi.
Finally, for suggestion it seems you do not have any device that can actually make use of your bandwidth, the best use of having more bandwidth is more devices can get better speeds at the same time, so if you are downloading games on one device, your streaming experience on other device won't be hampered. While your family members are also happy with trickle amount of bandwidth they get on their own.

 

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[uminaginative]

@Lolita_Magnum It is an unbranded adapter with the words "USB 3.0" and "Gigabit Lan" written on it and looks exactly like this image. As for your other points, I am not into gaming at all and neither is anybody else in the family. The bandwidth is typically divided between 1 Smart TV and 3 laptops. We watch movies for sure but at any given time, no more than 3 of these devices might be playing movies. We were doing quite fine with the 100 mbps connection but I don't mind paying a bit more for the 300 mbps connection if it enhances the experience- and thats what I'm trying to ascertain. Thanks.

 

[Lolita_Magnum]

If no one in your family is tech savvy, even if you have Airtel 40Mbps connection, you will have no issues.
My family consists of 4 smartphones, 2 laptops, 1 desktop, 2 smart TVs, some smart other devices and 2NAS. I'm using a 65Mbps connection fiber and it works just fine for us, no one has any throttling issues. Unless some idiot is downloading torrent in some corner.
If you feel there is some throttling issues, nowadays modern routers come with a QOS option that smartly divides bandwidth across device as needed.

 

[uminaginative]

@Lolita_Magnum I get your point and like I said, I was quite fine with my earlier plan. This was more of an experiment to see if a higher plan can give a more enhanced experience and now it's turned out to be quite educational as well. Thanks.

 

[amansingh]

@Lolita_Magnum hi bro. My laptop wifi is not working. How to buy wifi card ? Can u help. My laptop has ralink rt3290 card which is a half height card. Which card should i buy