Connection Speed FAQ

Most home users need enough bandwidth to support video streaming simultaneously with some other traffic such as Internet web browsing. Depending on the number of users in your home, this could be anywhere from our Standard plan up to the Elite or Ultimate plans.

As a general rule of thumb, we recommend our Standard plan for 1 to 2 simultaneous users. For each additional user, it is a good idea to increase your plan by one tier.

Please see our bandwidth comparison page for details.

Use one of the these websites to test your connection:

• fast.com
• speedtest.net
• nperf.com
• wifiman.com

Remember that the results of the test will always be lower if any other device is using bandwidth at the same time as the test.
Please make sure ALL other devices in the home are idle or turned off before running a speed test.

Speed tests download a test payload from a nearby test server in order to measure your connection speed. In reality, this test will not just test your connection, but also everything inbetween: the server's bandwidth, Internet backbones between the server and your ISP, your ISP's Internet bandwidth and internal infrastructure, your home's router and local wired/wireless network, and even the performance of the computer or device you're using to run the test.

There are many factors that can affect a speedtest but one of the most important is the distance (latency) from your location to the server. Since server proximity is a large factor when speed testing, it is important that the server is geographically located as close as possible to your location. Each speedtest site has many servers throughout the country to accommodate different locations. Most speedtest services will attempt to automatically find a nearby server or let you run a test to a server of your choice.

Since there are so many other factors that can affect a test besides just distance, it's a good idea to run multiple tests to different servers in order to get a good idea of what's going on. We recommend using at least two different speedtest sites and at least two different servers on each test site.

For connections speeds of 100mbit or lower, most speedtest servers will give accurate results.
A properly functioning 100mbit service plan should give test results in the low 90's or high 80's after accounting for protocol overhead.

Slow speed tests can occur for a variety of reasons. The following troubleshooting steps may improve your results:

1) Make sure the device performing the test is connected using an Ethernet cable.
WiFi devices often do not perform as well as wired. It is for this reason that speed tests performed by mobile phones, tablets, or laptops connected via Wi-Fi do not provide an accurate assessment of your actual connection speed. If possible, always perform a speed test using a device that's connected directly to your router with an Ethernet cable.

2) Try multiple speed test providers and compare the results.
fast.com
speedtest.net
nperf.com
wifiman.com

3) Perform the speed test on multiple devices in your home.
Test on more than one of your devices. It's surprisingly common to see a particular device give consistently slower results if that device has a faulty network interface or is very slow or old. Newer desktop computers connected directly to your router usually provide the best results.

4) Make sure no other devices are using the Internet connection when running a test.
Remember that sometimes devices may be using your Internet connection in non-obvious ways. For instance, desktop computers, tablets, phones, smart TVs, and video game consoles may be downloading software or operating system updates. These network activities will reduce your connection's performance on speed tests.

If you have followed the steps above and your connection still appears to be slow, please give us a call at (435) 668-6083 or send an email to [email protected].

It is NOT recommended to use WiFi to test your Internet connection speed.

Even under the best circumstances WiFi will produce slightly slower results compared to hardwired tests. If possible, please make sure you are hardwired to the router when running a test. If you do not have that option, please test on the newest/fastest device you have while being located in the same room as the WiFi router before running the test.

Your connection is provisioned according to your service plan's bandwidth rate, usually measured in megabits per second (Mbit/s). This is the maximum speed of transmission that is allowed to flow over our network to your home or business. The bandwidth of the connection is inclusive of all user data and associated Ethernet protocol overhead.

Protocol overhead is the extra data required for packets sent across Ethernet networks. This overhead cost results in a 6% to 7% difference between the user payload data and the total data sent across the network. Therefore, available payload bandwidth for a connection is typically about 93% - 94% of the total actual bandwidth used on the network.

Overhead costs include but are not limited to: source and destination addressing, crc checks, and other protocol state information. This overhead is part of the protocol layer of all Ethernet IP network devices and cannot be avoided. Therefore, expect your speeds on the connection to display at most 93% of the actual bandwidth used by the connection. i.e. a connection that is using 100mbit/s of bandwidth will display 93mbit/s on an accurate speedtest program (such as iperf3).

Gigabit Internet service is an Internet connection which is delivered over gigabit Ethernet technology.

All devices in your home and all network devices used to supply service (antenna, router, switches, cabling, etc) must be able to support gigabit ethernet in order to receive gigabit speeds. Our gigabit service allows your connection to run as fast as the gigabit Ethernet devices can support; bandwidth shaping is not required to provision gigabit connections since these connections are considered line-rate. This means that your speed is not capped by our network shaping but by the actual gigabit technology itself.

Gigabit connections are subject to the same Ethernet protocol overhead as regularly provisioned connections.

Gigabit connections will give you as much speed as is available over the gigabit interfaces between your router and our network. A gigabit connection should always provide speeds that are higher than the next highest Internet service plan we offer.