My android devices suddenly run slowly on wifi while laptop runs fine

[Android Central Question]

I have a Samsung Galaxy s7 and a Galaxy Tab 4. Just recently they have started to become extremely slow on my in home wifi. When testing the wifi on my laptop it runs at 100+ mbps, tested with google speed test. My phone and tablet both are running at sub 10mbps on 2g and 5g connections. I went through tons of forums, even on this website, about fixing this issue. Everything aside from factory reseting both devices, since why would both devices suddenly both plummet in speed for anything i might have been doing on my phone (i really use the tablet i just was checking the speed with it for comparison).
I rebooted modem/router, changed the channels, wiped phone cache, changed router mhz to 40 as someone said to try, hell i even just purchased a new modem (Netgear CM600) and router (Netgear Nighthawk R6700) to replace the Spectrum ones since that seemed to be my last option.
Well my ethernet and wifi speeds improved with using my laptop, but both the phone and laptop are still running at sub 10mbps. My phone used to measure speeds at or around 50mbps before a couple weeks ago (when i think it started happened).
Can someone please help.
Also i am not extremely technically apt so if you have suggestions of things to try please elaborate, thanks.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, welcome to Android Forums

I'd like to recommend creating a account so me or other members can assist you, as guest have limitations in replying here and if we need further Information to communicate with you.

I'll provide a link to register, please come back to your post so we can further assist you . Thank you


https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You've already tried some of the tips here, but see this: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...roubleshooting-wi-fi-connection-problems.html. One thing you didn't mention is temporarily disabling IPv6 in your router settings -- give that a try.

 

[Mr_Jumbles]

Okay yeah sorry i made the question before creating an account.
So i think first things first. Which speed test website should i be trusting??? Because each of them have such drastically different results. I used to use Ookla for years, then used Google since it was right there in the search page and it seemed accurate enough. But now Google says im running at ~5mbps, Fast[.]com says 80s, Xfinity says 80s,Speakeasy is saying 30s, At&t says 40s... And any that mention it are running the test out of the same server.
All i can say from my experience, i don't have the same speeds i used to.
Upgrading the modem and wifi nearly doubled the wired speed from around 100 to now 200, but wifi still runs as bad as it did before the new equipment.
Btw i always try to run speed tests like these as late in the night as possible for obvious reasons.


Previous Spectrum equipment didn't let me mess with IPv6 (whatever that is) so that's why i didn't try it.
This Netgear equipment does. It was set as is at IPv6 Disabled. For an expiriment i turned it on to Auto and it chose DHCP. Sorry i have no idea what any of these acronyms mean. I noticed no difference after turning it on.
If it matters at all, under this IPv6 menu the options are Internet Connection Type: Disabled, Auto Detect (which i tried), 6to4 Tunnel, Pass through, Fixed, DHCP, PPPoE, Auto Config, and 6rd Tunnel.
Again i have no idea what any of those mean, but when i tried Auto Detect it selected DHCP and i noticed no change, unless i like have to completely unplug my modem/router and reboot my computer in order to have it do anything???
Just set it back to Disabled and retested, still little or no change in speeds on all testing websites mentioned. Maybe a 10% increase, on a couple of the tests.


Thanks both of you for the replies btw.

 

[B. Diddy]

IPv6 is basically a newer internet protocol that allows for a huge number of additional possible web addresses, since the web was actually starting to run out of available addresses under the older IPv4 protocol. The 2 different protocols can sometimes cause issues with web connections -- see this article: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ipv6-issues. Sometimes, disabling IPv6 on a router can solve the problem at least temporarily, although in the long run, it's not a great solution, since IPv4 will ultimately be phased out.

Go to the Netgear website and see if there are any firmware upgrades available for your router -- that can sometimes help.

In terms of speed test sites, that can be dependent on the server being used to test. And that won't account for any issues with the server being used for some other website you find to be slow. I generally rely on Fast.com, since the result shows up immediately (Ookla gets a little tiresome with the needless animations).

 

[Mr_Jumbles]

Ya the router updated when i started it up and i made sure it was up to date once i had it running.

 

[me just saying]

look like you tried most of the common tests. maybe try an uncommon one. take your phone and laptop to another wifi location and see if the speeds differ there too. if it does, it would eliminate your wifi as the cause.

 

[Rukbat]

Go into the WiFi section of the router (by connecting to http://www.routerlogin.net) then see page 115 in the manual. Select WPA2-PSK [AES]. Do not select the next entry with TKIP! That's usually the problem.

As for which speedtest to rely on, the one that gives you the fastest reading - that's the closest (in internet topography) one. The farther the signal has to go, the slower it is. Ookla usually has the closest server to anyone, but Xfinity is probably Ethernet to the server (Spectum is Xfinity) so they'd be the fastest.

BUT! That's the speed from Spectrum to you. It has nothing to do with the speed from, say, Android Central to Spectrum. If that path is running at 1mbps due to congestion, that's as fast as you're going to get from Android central. (It's like a car - no matter how fast the 2 lane road from the Interstate to your house is moving, if there's a huge accident on the Interstate, and you're stuck behind ig, you're doing 0mph. Even in a Porsche. The internet is a network of networks. If one of those networks that you have to use to get something from a server is crawling, your download is crawling, even if your speed from Spectrum is 230mbps. (That's about my current speed with them, and from quora.com, I crawl. It's not me, it's not Spectrum, it's the internet.)

 

[Mr_Jumbles]

My wifi is set to WPA2-PSK and was before the speed drop.

 

[Mr_Jumbles]

Also, i don't really have other random wifi spots i can connect to.