Xfinity Increases Internet Speeds

 A few weeks ago, I received a text message from Xfinity (Comcast) which said that they had doubled my Internet speed from 100 Mbps to 200 Mbps. It has been 3 years since I made a post about upgrading to the 100 Mbps speed and how I had to adjust the settings on my Linksys EA6350 AC1200+ Dual-Band router. The speed increase was a nice surprise. It also got me thinking about all of the devices on my home network and what type of connection speeds they were getting.

My router supports the following connection protocals:

• 802.11G - 54 Mbps @ 2.4 GHz
• 802.11N - 450 Mbps @ 2.4 or 5 GHz
• 802.11AC - 1200 Mbps @ 5 GHz

In the real world you might get half of these advertised speeds. It depends on a lot of factors, such as distance and router configuration. There are 9 devices in my home that connect to the router. Two computers, two smart TV's, two cell phones, an Ipad, the Alexa, and the Roku box. One of the computers was using an older Hawking wireless-G USB adapter. A speed test showed that this computer was only getting about 12 Mbps. I looked around and found a guy selling used Linksys AC600 USB adapters on Ebay for $11. The retail price is around $40, so that was a good deal. Most newer computers and laptops have Wifi built in, so there is less demand for USB Wifi adapters, unless you have an old computer.

 AC600 is capable of 600 Mbps instead of 1200 Mbps, which is still more than the 200 Mbps speed from Xfinity. The Hawking adapter didn't even show the 5 GHz connection option, but the Linksys AC600 had no problem connecting to it. I ran the speed test again and still got 12 Mbps download speed. I went into the router and cleared out the priority settings and set the 5 GHz channel to 802.11AC only at a channel width of 80 GHz. This time the Linksys AC600 adapter got 178 Mbps. Other devices on the network are now getting similar speeds. The best was 220 Mbps on the Ipad Pro. I don't know how the Ipad managed to get a faster speed than 200 Mbps, but I think processor speed plays a big role. I noticed that the range on the 5 GHz channel is about half that of the 2.4 GHz channel. Devices that are only 20 feet away often show a weak signal. The router is located in a lower-level laundry room on one side of the house where the cable connection is located. I would have to somehow relocate the router to the center of the house to improve 5GHz signal strength.

Xfinity has increased all of their Internet speeds. Options are now 75 Mbps, 200 Mbps, 400 Mbps, 800 Mbps, 1000 Mbps, and 1200 Mbps. My bill is $58 per month. New customers can get 200 Mbps for $39.99 per month for 24 months. I just hope they don't decide to raise prices now that they have so generously increased connection speeds. My download speed is faster, but they still have the same 1.2 TB data limit. In October we came close to the limit for the first time. Now with faster speeds, I'm afraid it will be easier to go over the data limit. If you log into your Xfinity account, you can see how much data you have used. But for some reason the link doesn't always work for me.