I've been subscribed to a 30Mbps tier, and through Cat-6 cable and an old Linksys Wireless G (802.11g) with Seed Booster (whatever the heck that does) and Tomato firmware, the desktop almost always tests over 31Mbps, even during most high traffic periods, e.g. 5:00PM and at different test sites. I believe upload is supposed to be 2.5Mbps but usually tests over 3.5. These times are with wireless enabled or not. Since the four adult children will be home over the holidays with multiple gadgets I subscribed to a 50Mbps promotional plan for $5/month. Now I'm not naive enough to have assumed the ethernet connected desktop would test anywhere close to 50 but I figured it might hit the low 40s. For some unexplained reason I have trouble even testing to 20Mbps! Again, this is with wireless enabled or not. Laptop speeds (wireless of course) have increased substantially and upload is over 5. However, since 90% or more of my time is on this desktop, this phenomena is disappointing, although admittedly not noticeable! In fact, I post so as to learn and understand why this has happened and I thank you!
I recently received a similar benefit when I bought a new modem & router... A Netgear R6300v2 AC1750 Dual Band router, and Arris Surfboard SB6183 modem. I think it's mostly the modem after looking at similar comments on Amazon from people saying their speeds boosted, often dramatically after using them. Cable ISP's seem incapable of throttling them for some reason. I have only the cheapest plan Comcast has but get speeds around 100 Mbps, sometimes a tad over. I only get them hardwired though, with a very short Belkin Cat6 patch cable. Wireless I get around 54 Mbps which is still much more than I should get. Good timing too. I never cared for an expensive plan because I don't download large files, as I've already pretty much gotten everything I'd ever want (games, movies, music) years ago. But recently found myself downloading, converting & burning all the Anime I can get my hands on.
