I have no idea how they’re wired. I guess I could just try it and see what happens. I still have Xfinity. Like I have both services right now. The Xfinity setup is a coax cable from the wall into the modem/router. That’s the only connection to or from the wall in the entire structure (other than power). Then I have an Ethernet cable that goes from the modem/router to the first google WiFi node. That node pushes the signal to the other nodes (one on the second floor, one on the third floor). I also run an Ethernet cable from the first google wifi node directly to the Xbox. I was considering upgrading because the current ones are old and don’t support 6 GHz, which the Verizon setup can do. But Verizon apparently found an extender despite being “out of stock” yesterday, and they’re sending it to me for free. So I’ll try that first.
Ok obviously you have to pick one or the other Verizon or Xfinity to run into your Nests. If your Xfinity modem is a modem/router combo nothing will stop your from having 2 separate WiFi networks (Xfinity WiFi running on you Xfinity hardware and Verizon WiFi through your Nests). But those two networks cannot talk to each other, so if you have like a ChromeCast connected to one and your phone to the other, you wont be able to cast to it (this isn't 100% true but true for the most part). One thing to remember about wireless frequencies is the higher the bit rate the more bandwidth it supports 6GHz > 5GHz > 2.4 GHz; however, the higher the frequency the less signal penetration you get through solid objects. So its a trade off. 2.4GHz will have much better coverage in a house than 6GHz because it can penetrate walls better albeit at a slower speed. Best case scenario is you can run an ethernet hardline to each extender, that way you have a shared backbone throughout the house with the wireless just supporting connected devices. Otherwise you're repeating network traffic over the air between extender nodes in addition to pushing the traffic to the appropriate devices which lowers your effective bandwidth. However with you speeds, this isn't much of an issue in practice, you'd have to be doing a lot on multiple devices simultaneously to start seeing network degradation. I installed hardline drops in my office and on the other side of the house where my extender is, but my attic layout made it super easy to run the cables. Hardline is always better, but most of the time it isn't a big deal. I WFH part time and when I do it's not uncommon for me to push large amounts of data over the network, so it made sense for me to put that in. But I would have done it anyways even if I didn't need it, just because.
With the Verizon 5G, I'm currently getting (over wifi): 400 in our bedroom (3rd floor, back of the house) - was getting 30 720 in the guest bedroom (2nd floor, back of the house) - was getting 5-30 700+ in the living room (1st floor, below the router) - was getting 250-300... The Verizon is getting faster speeds than the Xfinity, which has the modem/router in the same room 300 in the kitchen (1st floor, back of the house) - wasn't getting anything before 2 things have changed that could potentially have made the difference: (Imagine the house rectangle I mentioned) I moved the router from the front, top corner of the house to the bottom left corner of the office. So it's still in the office, but it's placed towards the door leading to the interior to the house. I wouldn't be surprised if it's positively impacting things, but I am surprised to see this significant of a change. My buddy who works in telecom sales reached out to some folks to make some changes. Something about our "node" resetting 333 times in 30 days which is apparently terrible. He told me someone was gonna do a "sweep" to "clean up some of the noise" on Friday of last week. He's telling me that fixing that node wouldn't affect the 5G at all because they're separate wavelengths, but I am kind of wondering if whatever they did helped. Outside of that, idk what the [uck fay] is happening, but I'm here for it. The Xbox is acting kind of weird though. My phone will get 700 in the living room with Verizon, then I run the test on the Xbox and it gets 160. I hooked it up to the Xfinity wifi and it got 260. Don't really have a good explanation for why my phone can be significantly faster on the Verizon, but the Xbox is faster on Xfinity (and 500 mbps slower than my phone when both use Verizon).
You speed comparisons are from your devices to presumably a speedtest.net (or equivalent) server. If the Xfinity node is overloaded because they have too many houses on the same one, then everyone starts canabalizing each other's bandwidths and your speeds plummet. If they said their node has reset that many times, there's an issue there, either with the switching hardware being used or just having too many people connected. Moving your router can help tremendously IF you have placement problems. Less walls is better and limiting the beaming of WiFi through appliances like microwaves can help. But I would bet your speed test increase is mostly ISP related. The Xbox sounds a little weird. Odds are your phone has a better WiFi chip than the Xbox so I wouldn't be surprised its faster, it is interesting that its significantly faster on one ISP than the other, when you have the opposite experience with all your other devices. It's possible Xfinity prioritizes gaming traffic on its network and Verizon might not, but I don't really know. Just seems like more of an outlier.
I have to chuckle. Reminds me of when I managed programmers, system architects, IT savy folks. They would [itch bay] about response time on-site, with a hardwired network. I have 1 "hi-speed" (wired and wi-fi) choice in my low-population density, rural area. Don't laff ... DSL. I am afraid to do a speed test. So I don't. As far as cell-options. With the best carrier, I always get service and have never dropped a call, but it is 2 bars on a good day. I "think" I farted once and it jumped to 3 bars for an instant. I worked from home for the entire time we have been in this house (~ last 4 years of my career); I can stream stuff via wi-fi on TV with no buffer/glitches/issues. That being said, I don't game and our grandsons have not complained when they do (of course they know better).
The Xbox thing continues to confuse me. I sit my phone on top of my Xbox, and the phone gets 1,135 down. I run the test on my Xbox, and it gets 186 down. I get that the phone has a better chip and will always be faster. But 1,135 vs 186 seems absurd. Surely something is going on there, yeah? Had problems playing Apex all weekend but unsure if it’s the WiFi connection or the game servers. Had no issues with GTA V.
Update: Cancelled Comcast/Xfinity today. Felt great. Verizon sent a WiFi extender (2nd time after the first one they sent wasn’t compatible with my router), which we have hooked up in the bedroom (3rd floor, back of the house). It absolutely drenches the 3rd floor in coverage, which is awesome. It seems to also help with the coverage in the kitchen (1st floor, back of the house). The only outstanding “potential” issue is the living room. And I say potential because the only challenge I’m facing is some lagginess with Apex on the Xbox, and I’m not sure if it’s the Apex servers or the connection. The coverage in the living room seems perfectly fine. I wouldn’t be able to get 1000+ down on my phone if there were coverage issues. But for whatever reason, the Xbox seems to struggle to pull those higher speeds. So in short, great coverage throughout the house with one minor, strange issue. I’m considering bringing in a professional to run Ethernet lines through the house. Would love a drop in the living room. One in the guest bedroom/wife’s office. It would solve the Xbox issue and just improve speeds in general where we can connect directly.
Ok you shouldn't have that issue on the newest one. The wireless chip in those can do over a Gbps in an ideal environment. Just keep in mind while playing games the vast majority of the time you use well less than 10Mbps of bandwidth. Just sucks when you need to download an update.
Did some troubleshooting on the phone with Microsoft. Nothing fixed it. Pulled the Xbox and a TV into the office where the router is located. Even with the Xbox set up 6 feet away from the router with direct line of sight, no improvement to the speed over wi-fi. Plugged it directly into the router - 965 mbps down. Sounds like a wifi card issue to me. But I'm 9 months outside of the 1-year warranty, so in order for them to replace the card, it will be $300, plus whatever it costs for me to ship it to them. I asked for a better solution. 10+ year customer. Device is less than 2 years old. Wifi card could very well have been completely defective out of the box, since this is literally the first time I've used it. They offered no alternative, of course. So now I'm just annoyed with Microsoft. Anything else I'm not thinking of here? Any setting with the router that could be impacting the Xbox, specifically?
Before you do anything on the assumption that it is the hardware, you may see if you can borrow or rent an xbox to check it on your network.
Only thing I could think of is to check in your wireless settings to see if you can/see or specify your wireless protocol. I'm not sure it's accessible but if it is you want it to show 802.11ac. My thinking is the chip might be [uck fay]ed or misconfigured. 802.11n tops out at a theoretical bandwidth of ~215Mbps. It almost sounds like that's the protocol its using if you're seeing ~186Mbps.
Is this wireless settings on the Xbox or on the router? I'm assuming Xbox, but just making 100% sure.
