Many people in Moultonborough have complained about internet speeds from Spectrum cable. This document will help you troubleshoot speed problems and hopefully, improve your internet speed. If you have questions, comments or still have problems after following this document, please contact Bill Gassman at broadband @ billgassman. com If clusters of unresolved problems are found, a summary will be sent to the regional operations manager at Spectrum for resolution. Please send feedback on how to improve the document. It will be updated as needed. The town's goal is that everyone has high-speed available, especially during the pandemic, when students and telecommuters depend on high-speed access to streaming services and video conferencing. If you don't have access to Spectrum and need faster service than Consolidated/Fairpoint DSL, check with Hub 66 (hub66.com) to see if its fiber optic or fixed wireless service is available at your location. If not, let us know. The town is working with Hub 66 to connect locations in Moultonborough without high-speed internet and some areas are already up and running.
Spectrum's Cable internet is designed to be fast and reliable and this is the case for most of their customers. In Moultonboro, Spectrum offers download speeds range from 100 to 960 megabits per second (Mbps). The lowest tier of 100 megabits/second is enough for most households up to 10 people. Yet, some people are being routinely disconnected or see slow speeds. Why?
Lots of things can slow down your internet speed, but most can be lumped into one of three categories.
In Home - Local Area Network: There can be problems with the equipment in your home. It could be a bad cable modem but also could be your own router, WiFi access points and other components like hubs and switches. Problems can also arise when a Wifi access point is sharing a radio channel with too many neighbors or misconfigured in a variety of ways. WiFi disconnections problems are usually caused by the WiFi equipment.
Cable Company: The cable company may have problems with its infrastructure between you and the internet backbone. It could be isolated to just you, seen throughout your neighborhood or be system wide. Slow speeds or intermittent service can be traced to a bad cable to your house, a bad piece of Spectrum equipment or occasionally, one of your neighbors with an failing cable box. There can also be seasonal or weekend slowdowns when more people are sharing the neighborhood link. Shared capacity is less of a problem than in the past, because there is a lot of fiber optic network capacity between Moultonborough and Portland, ME, via North Conway, the path that your data takes from Moultonborough.
Internet services: The internet service that you are connecting to could be slow. Even services like Netflix experience an occasional slowdown or a small company's web site can be overwhelmed with traffic.
The typical sequence to trouble shoot speed problems is to test the speed capacity while hard-wired to your cable modem, where the speed will be the best. Next, look for problems with your internal network, then get in touch with Spectrum.
Before starting the troubleshooting process, get a baseline speed measurement using your current setup. Use the web site https://speedtest.net (or its application) to measure your speed capacity at every step in the troubleshooting path. Try the speed test at different times of the day and especially when you think the internet is slower than normal. Write down the time, test configuration and upload and download results of each speed test so that you can report to others what you saw, if asked. Take care to ensure that nothing else in your house is using the internet when you perform a speed test, or you will see results based on shared, rather than full capacity.
The next troubleshooting step is to reboot the equipment that makes up your network. Power off the cable modem, routers, WiFi access points, switches and anything else is between your PC or Phone/Tablet and the internet. Power them back on, starting with the cable modem, then each device in line. Give everything a few minutes to settle down, then run a speed test to see if you still have a speed problem. If the problem goes away but comes back later, keep track of when the problem happens. It is frustrating when a power cycle fixes a networking problem, because you won't learn the cause of your problems. However, power cycle rebooting fixes many problems.
The fastest internet speed will be seen when hardwired to your cable modem. This will tell you if Spectrum is delivering to your door what you are paying for. Unplug what ever is connected to the cable modem and plug in a PC (Windows, Mac or *Unix) with an Ethernet cable. The PC must have an Ethernet adapter that supports at least 100 Megabits/Second, which most PC's made since 2010 do. You probably will need to power cycle the cable modem every time you plug in a different device. Once the connection is stable, measure the speed with speedtest.net. If you subscribe to 100 megabits/second service, the hardwired results should be at least 70 megabits/second (Mbps) and could be as high as 120 Mbps. Upload speed should be around 7-12 Mbps. If you see speeds far below the speed that you subscribe to, while directly connected to the cable modem, it suggests that the cable company has a problem. Have the results of a direct-to-modem test ready when you call Spectrum. Note, many Spectrum customers have a modem/router/WiFi combination device. In this case, plug into one of the Ethernet ports on their router.
After the direct modem test, plug your network back together as it was, reboot the cable modem again. If you plug router into the modem, do a hardwired test to that. Then, start with your WiFi. Test at different locations in your house and if you have more than one WiFi access point, test while connected to each one. Write it all down to get a picture of how things work at each location.
To test a WiFi connection, start out close to the access point antenna. Newer WiFi devices, using 5 gigahertz channels, should get 50-100 megabits/second. Older devices or those using 2.5 gigahertz channels, should get 8 to 30 megabits/second. As you move away from the antenna, your speed will diminish. As more people share the same WiFi access point, maximum speeds, per device, will slow down. It is common for your WiFi speeds to be far below the speed tested directly at the modem.
If you can’t receive a good WiFi signal in parts of your house, move the WiFi to a more central place, adjust the antennas (if there are any visible) or put in a second WiFi Access point at a far end of the house. Additional WiFi access points can be Ethernet hardwired to your primary router (best method) or use a mesh network to connect the remote access point with a separate WiFi channel. Example mesh WiFi systems include:
AmpliFI https://www.amazon.com/AmpliFi-Ubiquiti-Seamless-Wireless-Extenders/dp/B01L9O08PW/ (note: there are several versions, from low to very high performance and range)
Google Mesh (less expensive) https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-eero-mesh-WiFi-system-3-pack-/dp/B07WMLPSRL/
If you have fixed location devices, like a desktop PC, smart TV, Roku, Apple TV, FireStick, Chromecast and so forth, consider hard wiring them with Ethernet cables to your router or a switch, rather than using WiFi. This will free up the WiFi channel use for laptops and mobile devices.
WiFi speeds can also degrade due to interference from other WiFi access points (yours or your neighbor's) running on the same channel. The easiest thing to try is log into your WiFi access point and change the channel. For the 2.5 Ghz channels, only use channels 1, 6 or 11. There are over 20 channel choices for the 5.2 Ghz band.
If you are getting bumped off your WiFi, try moving closer to the antenna, update the firmware in your WiFi access point or if it is more than 5 years old, consider getting new equipment. And, make sure your network name isn't the same as your neighbors'. Network names (also called SSID) of, "linksys", "guest" or "bedroom" could be duplicated by a neighbor, which would account for disconnections.
To perform a deeper analysis of your WiFi channel use, for example, to see if there is interference, install a free WiFi analyzer app on Android or Apple iOS device. It will show all the access points close by, the channels used and the signal strength for each one. Look for your WiFi’s network name in the list and see how many other WiFi access points are sharing your channel. Try a channel that is either unused or has the lowest signal strength from others that are sharing the channel. Channels in the 2.5 Ghz band have greater range than those in the 5 Ghz band, but since there are only three non-overlapping 2.5 Ghz channels (1, 6, 11), it is more likely that you will be sharing the channel with your neighbors.
Over the years, new WiFi protocols have come out, each faster than the ones before. They are designated as B, A, G, N, AC and now AX. If you have older devices that use the B WiFi protocol (802.1, they could be dragging your whole network down to a 11 Megabit/second maximum. Try disconnecting them and if that fixes your speed problem, try to hardware the devices or add a separate WiFi network for just the 802.11b devices.
The cable coming from outside your house to your cable modem is another possible source of problems. Check for cable splitters that fan out the cable to television cable boxes. Every splitter reduces the signal that reaches the cable modem and could lower your speed. One or two splitters between the cable drop and your cable modem is not normally a problem, but if there are three or more, it could be. Loose connections or poor quality splitters could also be the cause. This problem is best fixed by cable technician, who can measure the signal levels at the modem. The fix may be a new new line drop from the pole, or replacing the internal wiring and signal splitters. Depending on the situation, the responsibility for the internal cable may be the cable company's, or yours.
Less common internal house problems include bad internal coax cables to the modem, bad Ethernet cables, broken electronic components and poorly configured devices. There could also be runaway streaming devices loading down your network, although with 100 Mbps service, this is not a likely cause. Your neighbors might also be sharing your WiFi capacity if you don't use a WiFi password or have shared it with them.
The point of this section is that you must have your house in order before expecting the cable company to fix your speed problems. Increasing your service contract to 400 Mbps or 1 Gigabit/s won't help if the bottleneck is within your local area network. If you call the cable company, they will remotely test the signal to your modem and may ask you to reboot your equipment.
Once you have verified that the speed problem isn’t caused by your equipment, it is time to point a finger at the cable company. With a phone call or via online chat, they can remotely check the signal path to your house, reset your modem and see what equipment is directly connected to the modem. Some problems can be fixed over the phone. Other problems may require that a technician visit your house. It may be useful to ask the agent if others in the neighborhood are having similar problems, because if so, that can trigger a service call for troubleshooting equipment on the utility poles and not at your house.
The cable company is responsible for the internet path from where their cable connects to the outside of your house and the internal wires that they installed, to Spectrum's gateway into the internet. They are also responsible for any of the electronic equipment that they supply, such as the modem, router and WiFi access point. Internal wiring is the Spectrum’s responsibility only if they installed it. Otherwise, it is your responsibility. The cable technician can test the cable’s signal levels outside your house and at the modem. They may replace the wire from your house to the telephone pole if appropriate. It is not unusual for pole drops to the house that are over 15 years old to have trouble supporting today's higher speeds. If your internal wiring is isolated as the problem, you may have to fix it or ask the cable company what they will do, and at what cost.
If you have your cable account through an old Time Warner contract, consider upgrading to the Spectrum packages. This not only gets you a faster internet package but may also trigger the replacement of your modem. Older modems don't run as fast. If you supplied your own a modem, consider replacing it with one from the cable company. They no longer charges a rental fee for modems, so there is little reason to supply your own any more.
Diagnosing Internet Services Slowdown
Your internet data is routed through the internet to wherever web site, email system or streaming service that you connect to. Sometimes, portions of the internet backbone beyond Spectrum's control have temporary slowdowns and sometimes the service you connect to is slow.
Internet backbone slowdowns are quickly identified and is it unlikely the problem will last more than a few hours or days.
Many services can be slow, either because they are overloaded with users or they are having technical problems. Services like Google, Yahoo, major news services and other large organizations will usually be running OK. If you suspect a slowdown on one service, try another and see if everything is slow.
There are very few valid excuses for ongoing internet speed problems for customers of Spectrum. Problems with their equipment, the line to your house or the path to the internet is Spectrum's responsibility and they generally correct identified problems. There are many opportunities within the home, especially with WiFi, for slowdowns to occur. Test the speed while directly connected to Spectrum's equipment to see what is possible, work on delivering the best speed possible to your devices, then contact Spectrum armed with a good idea of what is causing the problem. Contact the town or Bill Gassman if you can't resolve the problem. We'd love to hear your feedback. Did this document help you improve your speed? What was the problem?
Bill Gassman retired from the information technology industry in 2013 with over 40 years of computer networking experience. He is the Moultonborough select board's delegate to the Carroll County Broadband Committee and is a frequent advisor to the town and neighbors on Internet issues. Bill has Spectrum 100/10 Mbps service. At last check, his WiFi speed was 71 Mbps download and 11 Mbps upload, using a 802.11AC access point. Hardwired, the speed was 105/11 Mbps. Bill's LinkedIn bio is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgassman