QUESTION
How much is your
internet speed
affected by how you
are using it?
RESEARCH
I found that some people need faster internet because of the way they use it. If you do
a lot of things on the internet, you will need a faster speed, so you can do multiple
things at once without being slowed down. A lot of things use the home internet
connection. One of them is the phone. The VOIP phone uses the internet to make
phone calls instead of telephone wires. A Microcell uses the internet to route cell
phone traffic so you can get a better signal at home. Any streaming video service
plays movies over the internet. If you want to be able to watch a Netflix movie
without buffering, you should get a faster speed.
The quality of your online experience is affected by your internet speed. If you want to
watch a show in HD, you should get a faster speed, so you can watch more. Also,
videos will buffer less if you have a faster speed. The voice quality will be better if
you have a faster connection.
MATERIALS
•
1 Arris NVG589 RG (Residential Gateway/Modem-Router)
•
1 Cisco ISB7005 Wireless Cable Box
•
1 MacBook Air & USB Ethernet Adapter
•
1 Ooma Telo
•
1 Cordless Phone
•
1 AT&T 3G Microcell
•
1 Motorola VAP2500 Wireless Access Point
•
I Smart Phone
•
1 Apple TV
•
1 Sony TV
MATERIALS CONTINUED
•
1 Cat 5e Ethernet cable
PROCEDURE
1. Unplug everything except the DSL and power cable from the NVG589 modem
2. Take the MacBook Air and plug in the Cat5e cable into one of the yellow ethernet
ports on the NVG589 and the USB Adapter
3. Open Safari on the iMac and go to 192.168.1.254
4. Click on Home Network
5. Click Wireless
6. Enter Access Code
7. Turn Wireless off
8. Click Save
9. Reset Safari
PROCEDURE CONTINUED
10. Go to www.att.com/speedtest
11. Run a speedtest
12. Write down results
13. Plug Ooma back into the NVG589
14. Make a phone call on the house phone
15. Repeat steps 10-12 while still on the phone
16. Hang up the phone
17. Unplug the Ooma from the NVG589
18. Plug the AT&T 3G MicroCell into the NVG589
19. Use a Cell Phone to make a call
PROCEDURE CONTINUED
20. Repeat steps 10-12 while still on the phone
21. Unplug the MicroCell from the NVG589
22. Plug the VAP2500 into the NVG589
23. Turn on a Cable Box and watch something in HD
24. Repeat 10-12
25. Change channel to SD
26. Repeat 10-12
27. Unplug VAP2500 from NVG589
28. Turn the NVG589 Wireless on
29. Change Wi-Fi network name to ATTtest and password to attpassword
PROCEDURE CONTINUED
30. Go to Apple TV and change Wi-Fi network to ATTtest
31. Watch a Netflix movie
32. Repeat 10-12 while watching the movie
33. Change Wi-Fi network name and password on the NVG589 to the original
34. Plug the Coax and Ethernet cables into the NVG589
35. Repeat steps 10-12 with everything plugged into the NVG589
SPEED TEST 1 – ONLY COMPUTER CONNECTED
SPEED TEST 2 – OOMA
SPEED TEST 3 - MICROCELL
SPEED TEST 4 - HDTV
SPEED TEST 5 - SDTV
SPEED TEST 6 - NETFLIX
SPEED TEST 7 – ALL DEVICES CONNECTED
OBSERVATIONS
•
When I was making the phone calls, the upload speed went down and the
download speed went up.
•
Netflix uses less bandwidth than SDTV
•
HDTV uses the most bandwidth
•
MicroCell calls use the least bandwidth
CHART
55
50
45
40
35
30
Download
25
Upload
20
15
10
5
0
MacBook
Ooma
M-Cell
HDTV
SDTV
Netflix
All Connected
DATA TABLE
CONCLUSION
My IV was the devices using the internet.
The DV was the internet speed. The
controls were: same computer, same
speedtest server, same connection.
My data shows that the more devices
using the internet, the less available
bandwidth.
APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
• When your internet speed is slow and you
want to determine the cause
• Diagnosing Issues with your connection
• It would be useful to test the speed in a variety
of conditions