Mediacom – Diagnosing Internet Speed Problems

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Summary

This page offers some suggestions for diagnosing internet speed problems. These instructions are written to be more specifically useful for typical Mediacom customers in the Iowa City area.

Diagnose the Path of Service

It’s helpful to write a diagram to map the path of service to your primary device. This is used for diagnosing problems. Here’s a typical example that is common for the Iowa City area with customers of Mediacom. You can start at the top or bottom of this list, either at the entry point of service or by testing the devices first. Either approach is revealing. It may be easiest for most people to test devices and home network equipment first.

1. OUTSIDE WIRING — A primary service cable comes from a wiring box in the street to the home from a suspended cable in the air or delivered underground to the home. Where the main service cable meets with the home, there may be a small protective cover to reduce corrosion and oxidation from the coupler that connects the incoming service cable to the home coaxial cable. The cable would usually enter the home through a small hole in the foundation going into the basement or a wiring closet on the main level. Sometimes the cable goes through the wall to a room designated as the office. The purpose of having a coupler on the side of the house is to make it easier to disconnect and replace a faulty outside cable. It also makes it possible to easily connect a tester outside the home to measure the strength and quality of the signal being delivered to the home. A poor signal reaching the home would suggest a problem with the incoming cable, connection in the street, or another service issue with the Mediacom equipment.
2. INSIDE WIRING — If there is a good quality signal reaching the home, the next possible point of failure would be the cable and/or splitters inside the home. A Mediacom technician would typically test the signal quality of the cable that is plugged into the cable modem.
3. CABLE MODEM — If the signal strength and quality are good entering the cable modem, then the next possible point of failure would be a failing cable modem. Simply restarting your existing modem is a quick easy task that sometimes fixes speed issues. Having it replaced helps ensure a more reliable service.
4. WIFI ROUTER — If the problem isn’t resolved with replacing the cable modem, the WiFi router may be having issues. Replacing the WiFi router would most likely resolve the speed issue.
5. COMPUTER OR DEVICE ISSUES — Sometimes a computer can perform slowly due to malware or not having the latest updates. Diagnosing speed issues from multiple devices can be helpful. A Google search for “speed test” (without quotes) should result in a Google speed test option. This test can be performed on various devices such as a computer, smartphone, tablet, etc. If the speed is very slow on one device, but not on others, that may narrow down the problem to the individual device that is running slow. If all devices report slow speed, that suggests the problem is with one or more of the above listed four items.

Erratic Speed

Sometimes a speed test will have widely varying results — showing fast speed then slow speed. This can suggest a signal issue from the service provider equipment in the street or nearby junction box. For cable internet service, typically the upload speed would be about 10% to 20% of the download speed. So, you might have 100 Mbps down and 10 or 20 Mbps upload speed. If the upload speed is 30 but the download speed is 0.5 Mbps (for example), that would indicate something is wrong with items #1 through #3 listed above, and possibly #4.

Weak Signal

Slowdowns and dropouts can happen if your device is far from the WiFi router or has a low signal for another reason such as an obstruction or interference. Moving closer to your WiFi router may help. If it doesn’t help, then the problem is probably not signal related.

Test an Ethernet Connection

If you have a computer with an Ethernet network cable port, you might try connecting to the cable modem or WiFi router directly to see if the slowness is WiFi related.

Old WiFi Router

If you have an old WiFi router, it could be failing or have security vulnerabilities. Newer routers can ensure that security updates are regularly installed. An inexpensive router can be purchased for about $30 [View Example] or a more full featured mesh network could be purchased such as an EERO system for about $300. [View]

DNS Server

Most equipment can have a manual entry for the DNS Server. The default automatic setting will rely on your router, modem, or Internet service provider. However, you can use the Google DNS (domain name server) settings of 8.8.8.8 for primary and 8.8.4.4 for secondary DNS. If the speed issues were the result of DNS server problem, using the Google servers may help.

If you are using a Google Chromebook computer, the DNS setting can be configured by following these steps:

1. In the lower right corner of the screen, click on the date/time area.
2. From the menu that pops up, click on the gear icon in the top row of icons or bottom row of icons. This will open the settings page.
3. Under Network, click on WiFi to the right of where it shows the name of your WiFi network.
4. Click your WiFi network name again in the list that shows up.
5. On the resulting page, scroll down to where you see Network and click to expand the Network options.
6. Scroll down and find Name servers. The default will probably show whatever your network service provider suggests.
7. Choose “Google name servers” to use the Google domain name servers of 8.8.8.8 for primary and 8.8.4.4 as secondary. This change is saved automatically.