lalala

We have some friends who have a lovely second house in the San Juans that we visit on most weekends we're home. We are four adults, with an average of 2 devices each (mostly mac). Some of us like to work on the weekends and the others would like to catch up on their TV streaming (Apple TV) or Hulu/Amazon/Netflix. Right now, neither is possible because the DSL is sooo slow. We're now left watching for eagles and orcas and actually interacting with each other. This is really not a bad thing, but still.

They have spoken to the CL tech and they think everything is okay. The wireless signal through out the house is okay since they put in a booster, but the connectivity sucks.

They have a Westel 7500 modem/router and I'm not sure it can handle seven to 10 devices at one time. We're happy to go buy a new more powerful router if that is the problem.

Cable is not an option.

Any thoughts or recommendations on what kind of router we need or do we need a new router/modem that is compatible with CL?

Merci.

lala

Jaimito Cartero

Have you tested the speed? Some dsl can be slow as snot. I use www.speedtest.net to check the speed/ping.

Tchiowa

DSL is like yesterday, man.

How new are your Macs? Is there a reason you don't use real computers instead of Macs (oops, wrong thread).

OK, serious. Use an N type router. Your Macs have to be new enough to support that. If you're stuck with G type then not much you can do. Use a multi-band. Take some time inside the configuration to boost all bands to maximum speed.

I use this one at home:
I have an Acer desktop, HP laptop, 2 Samsung note pads, a Samsung phone. My wife has 2 Lenovo laptops, an HP laptop and 2 iPhone 6+. She uses one band of the router and I use the other. We have cable internet coming into the house.

Absolutely. And try it using your wifi and try again with the computer directly connected to the DSL. That way you can see if it's the Wifi slowing you down.

But it's probably the Macs.

MAN Pax

Got to be the starting point. Ethernet connection to the router and everything else disconnected. See what you have to work with first.

UAVirgin

What speed is the service provisioned at? Do some searching on dslreports.com in the CenturyLink forum. There could be some advice there.

I have CenturyLink DSL in a rural area and I can get 3 streams to netflix/amazon/hulu on my 3.5gb connection. I use an Actiontech PK5000 DSL modem.

ScottC

DSL is always going to be your bottleneck, especially with 10 people. You'll maybe be lucky enough to get one Netflix stream working if everyone else disconnects.

gfunkdave

Though it really depends what speed tier they pay for. There are DSL technologies that can approach a slow cable modem. I think I've heard of 10 Mbps DSL. I used to have 6 Mbps a while back. I think the previous limit was 1.5, back in 2003 when I had DSL in San Francisco.

pseudoswede

My guess that this is a rural area, and you probably only have a 1.5mbps connection. You will struggle with 7-10 devices connected at the same time requiring bandwidth. Odds of getting higher bandwidth any time this decade will be slim to none.

pseudoswede

I use to have have 40mbps (with 20mbps upload) DSL at my house. Since I also subscribe to CTL's TV service, 20mbps is reserved for that. For some odd reason, my upload got knocked down to 5mbps, but I haven't had too many issues. Engineering has tried to bump it back up to 20mbps without success.

Some CTL areas offer 100mbps DSL.

WIRunner

Really depends where the nodes are, and if there's fibre running near by. Within 5 years we went from having access to dial up or a 3G cellular modem to having the option of getting a 1 GB fibre line.

To the OP, you might want to see if your router has Quality of Service options on it, and if you're able to restrict how much bandwidth can go where. That can make a difference on who has what to use.

lalala

Thanks all. I'm going to try a few things when I get up there later and also look to CL discussions to see what others have done.

pseudoswede

DSL Reports is the FT of broadband internet.

WWGuy

Can't help but laugh at the posts denigrating DSL technology. I switched from cable ISP to CenturyLink DSL with 20 Mbps download speed in 2011 and find DSL speed to be much more reliable than the cable ISP that was always fluctuating in actual speed. (Since then 40 Mbps DSL speed is also available in my neighborhood but 20 Mbps is plenty for my use.)

The OP should be aware that CenturyLink DSL is available in 7 different speeds from 1.5 Mbps to 40 Mbps download. Your actual speed depends on subscription package (how much you pay) and DSL limitation (how far you are from Centurylink's digital switch gear.)

IMHO 5 Mbps download speed is the bare minimum for a single HD video stream.

More info on CenturyLink speeds and general troubleshooting is available here.

pilotalan

Check your internet speed via WiFi and via direct connection (make sure your wifi on the computer is turned off when you do the second test).

If there's a major difference, you may have your router and another one on the same channel, fighting each other. You may also have wireless interference on the wifi channel. Change the channel and see what happens.
I once had that problem, killed the wireless on the modem and used a separate wireless access point. Things were much better after that.

If there's not a major difference between wired and wireless speeds and they are both slow, then there's either a problem with your connection, or with your router.

MaxBuck

Is there any single appliance in the modern world that is less reliable than the WiFi router? I've gone through four of the darn things in the past 3 years.