I'm a nut about performance and simplicity. Like you, I want things to work, all the time, and I want them to work at their optimal condition. I had some time after moving to Seattle to get my internet setup just right. I did something similar in Canada, and though Shaw wasn't nearly as good as Comcast, I still had some of the fastest internet speeds in Calgary.
Bringing some VoodooDNA to your Internet: Speed Up Your Home Internet Connection, crank it up to ludicrous speed!
I currently use Comcast Cable. I pay $30/month for guaranteed speeds of up to 20Mbps down and 4Mbps up. Below is an image of my Internet speeds. Ever since I posted this on Twitter I’ve been nailed with requests on how I did it.
Just to be sure, I’ve been measuring it over the last month and my speed has not dropped.
I must say, the service at Comcast has been pretty awesome. In fact, two weeks after Comcast installed my service the Internet stopped working, but they were more than accommodating. They spent hours with me on the phone, they even offered to send a tech out on New Years Eve to fix it. They were so nice on the phone, it was hard to be upset... I finally figured out that the first modem I purchased failed, and I quickly replaced it with a much better model.
I started with the standard modem that comes with the service, and a Belkin all-in-one router. My speeds were roughly 8-9Mbps down, and roughly 1Mbps up (or a little less). Since I had a couple of weeks off I decided to mess around with ways of speeding this up.
So just how did I multiply my Internet speeds by over 5x with some simple changes? It was much easier than you think. It required no hacks, no mods, nothing illegal. I worked within the rules of Comcast, allowed them to provision my modem, and I just bought the right hardware and installed it properly.
You ever heard the saying “you can’t be all things to everybody?” --- well that saying goes with technology as well. The first thing I did was pitch out the standard all in one router. Quite honestly there is no better alternative than to separate all the functions: dmark>modem>router+dhcp>wireless
I picked up a Motorola Surfboard Extreme Cable Modem (JUST the modem, no wireless built in). Do not order the all in one modem, it's hard to configure, and the wireless tends to conflict with other wireless access points in the home. It's also the same modem that failed on me two weeks after I installed it.
I then ordered a Cisco RV016 since my house is all wired. You don’t need a 16 port, you can always get an 8 port. Trust me, you will get much faster speeds through wired connections than through wireless, although my wireless is pretty awesome as well.
I ordered a couple of the Apple Airport Express’s, I may change those to the Cisco wireless Access Points instead, but the Airport Express works pretty well, and it allows me to stream music to my whole home audio system.
I upgraded the firmware on the Cisco RV016 from 2.X to 3.X, it made a significant difference. I increased the DHCP pool to 150 devices since I installed Direct TV in every room, we have Windows Phones, gaming consoles, a bunch of PCs, printer, etc. I just wanted a big pool of devices with no conflicts.
I made sure that all cable runs were as short as possible from the DMARK to the cable modem. I used the best quality cable I could find. I used a quality Monster gold splitter from the DMARK to separate the Internet from the home cable system. Although I’m running DirectTV instead for television, I also have the house wired for cable just incase (two coax in every room).
Every cable was short and clean, from the modem to the router, and from each point on the router to the junction box for the whole home distribution system. The shorter, tighter, and neater the cabling the better your overall installation will be (and the better it will look). Just to be clear on how it's wired up:
DMARK>MOTOROLA>ROUTER>WIRELESS ..make sure you mesh both Airport Express's (if you need two) to one network.
My best advice: don’t take short cuts, focus on the details, make the right investment in time & money and you’ll be surfing at 5x+ speeds in no time!
