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Comment by r1ch | Hacker News Reader

"Pretty poor coverage" sounds like the author was relying on Wi-Fi for connectivity. I wouldn't trust an ISP-provided combo modem/router to do anything more than the bare minimum when it comes to wireless, most likely a single chain 2.4 GHz network (and 5 GHz if you're lucky). Replacing it with Google Wifi which is a Wave2 802.11ac 5 GHz device with Beamforming will make a world of difference.

Intentionally supplying old hardware that can't reach high speeds (eg a DOCSIS 2 modem) is actually bad for them as it wastes frequency.

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I just gave a DOCSIS 3.0 modem to a friend who was paying $7 per month on a DOCSIS 2 modem that couldn't provide the subscribed speed. Comcast had already charged her for a couple of truck rolls to troubleshoot the speeds, so it boggles my mind why the rented modem had not been replaced.

Even more interesting is that Comcast does have infrastructure in place to notify customers of these issues, though I have only seen them use it to convert customers who bought equipment back to renting. When I bumped my modem into the D3.1 threshold last year, the company made a number of calls to let me know that I could improve my experience by going back on a rental plan.

Comcast upgraded my speed because they thought google fiber was coming, and as part of that, has been bugging me to upgrade my modem. Multiple phone calls and emails. I own the modem and have never rented from them. And I haven't bothered upgrading because the download speed is basically fast enough already and I don't think it would improve the upload speed.

While I'm interested in considering this role of the router's wifi, I also feel like it doesn't take very good wifi to keep a speed test going 50 Mbps.

The author also mentions that their comparisons are done in cities, which are places populous enough such that it might be neighbors or people on the street using the Comcast Xfinity WIFI network via your router. It might be other people clogging channel time on your router's wifi, or it might be other people clogging the cable pipe!

Didn't see any other mentions, but turning off the public Xfinity hotspot is the #1 thing I'd try. It's a courteous service to leave open to travelers, but I wish there were some visibility to the home user about how much work it was doing for outsiders. Disabling guide: https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/disable-xfinity-wif...

In many apartment buildings the 2.4 Ghz spectrum is just too crowded. Just using a cheap 5Ghz 11n without breamforming would likely solve the problem. I've got at least 40 bss's on 2.4 and I'm the only one on 5Ghz. It's crazy.

I'd say Comcast should use 5Ghz but then that spectrum will get crowded too.

All devices going forward (especially isp routers) _should_ use only 5ghz.

Consumers should have to spend extra on 2.4 AP gear to support legacy client devices. 5ghz has reduced propagation and there are so many more channels available that it is actually optimal to use in dense evvironments. Mesh wifi is pretty much a requirement for a lot of users to keep the same coverage with multiple rooms compared with their existing 2.4 ghz network.

As far as I understand, 5ghz is weak on distance which is a problem at my apartment building. Every time I'm on the 5G SSID, the internet becomes unusable in the bedroom and kitchen which makes 5G unusable for me because my devices don't select the 2.4ghz band automatically.

I'm a little late with my reply, but I wanted the solution to be here as well.

Poor 5ghz propagation solved:

https://eero.com/ https://lumahome.com/ https://madeby.google.com/wifi/how-it-works/ http://www.samsung.com/us/smart-home/ https://www.open-mesh.com/

Mesh networks are definitely cool but the biggest downside is that they are a bit pricy and I have heard that some of them do not work well. I cannot speak for any of those which you provided, though, except google which works well supposedly.

5GHz isn't a panacea, at least in my experience. It doesn't penetrate walls well enough to reach to the edges of my (quite small) apartment, so my laptops and other devices drop down to an acceptable rate on 2.4GHz.

In addition, I think Sonos still sells devices without 5GHz radios (and probably plenty of other companies).

Maybe you have thicker walls, but 5Ghz should really be able to work in a small apartment.

Lack of support is a huge problem though. Tons of devices are sold without 5Ghz support.

I live in NYC with old, thick walls (and a lot of interference, even on 5GHz). Even though my apartment is small, there are 3-4 walls separating where my AP is (at one end) and the other end of my apartment (the bedroom).

Same experience here. Amusingly, 5ghz works halfway down the block outside the building but dies in my bedroom. It's an older building, and the walls are built like bunkers.

2.4ghz works perfectly, and always has. I think the real answer here is more dual band routers, even in cheapo ISP provided combo boxes.

It doesn't really matter if 5Ghz gets crowded. Walls quickly get rid of that problem. 2.4Ghz crowding is much worse.

I can see about 10 other 5Ghz networks around me, but they only marginally interfere with mine compared to 2.4Ghz.

This was my impression as well, especially since the Speedtest.net screenshots show each test was done on WiFi. It seems to me the author has a very loose technical understanding of WiFi and networking in general. I'll usually be among the first to criticize Comcast, but this was just a waste of time.

I'd wonder about the same. Easy to test by plugging the Google router into the Xfinity one.

The other factor could be the Xfinity wifi sharing feature (customers can connect to other routers). Could be causing some issues or interference.

Right, kind of disappointing that the author relied on Wifi. To draw any conclusions about the provided bandwidth I'd only trust measurements made using a wired ethernet connection. Wifi depends on too many variables.

And Comcast only guarantees speed on wiring directly to their modem. Their Wi-Fi is generally unable to put out the full bandwidth you'll get off Ethernet.

Unless you have a business plan, I don't feel that they even guarantee that.

Heh, true. "Guarantee" is too strong of a word there.

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