Why's My Internet Suck?!

So I just moved into a new place and have the fortune of being the only person here who uses a computer! I've god Comcasts 16 Mbps BLAST internet all to myself, and wouldn't you know it - it sucks! I've been doing download tests on www.testmy.net and I"ve NEVER gotten above 14 Mbps... So I called Comcast and they're like "Yeah, if we send the Tech out there and it's not our fault, then it's your $50 bill..." I'm about to update my LAN Drivers (Wired once again ;) ) but other than that, what else can I try?

Thanks guys!

14 is still pretty quick man -- generally internet providers will give about a 10% leway on either say of their advertised speeds and call that 'normal' -- 10% in your case is 14.6Mbps....

Other than your driver updates you can always perform a power cycle on the comcast modem itself (with pen hold down the reset button for ~10 seconds and all 60 seconds for a full reboot). Also if you have another computer it'd be helpful to see if the speeds are similiar with that.

I have had some problem with Charter in the past that I was paying for 5Mb service and getting 3Mb....they said they would "make some adjustments" on their end with me on the phone; shortly after told me to try it again and I was then at about 4.6Mb (which they said was normal). So MAYBE give them a call back and simply ask if they can make any adjustments on their end? I mean it'll save the company (1) labor for the tech going out (2) gas money to drive out there (3) a angry customer [you]

Food for thought anyway....

  Well, the place I used to be at had the BLAST Package as well, and there I was getting 15Mbps, as is my friend who just tried his PC. That's on a router with 10 different connects both wired and wireless.  Now, I'm going straight from the Modem with an ethernet cable! I noticed that my Motherboard for whatever reason is using some wierd driver... So I uninstalled that one and put in the most recent one. Now, I can't get above 7.8 Mbps.... Could the cord be limiting my speed? I tried a hard reboot of the modem too, and of my computer. Wtf...???? Could it be my motherboard? And if that's the case, how would I go about finding out?

Also, Windows tells me that my connection is only 100.00 Mbps, is that normal? I thought it was supposed to be higher. But anyway, the Drivers called  Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller which isn't what I downloaded but some how that's what was installed... Grr..........!

So I just did another speed test and this time got this:

I'm pretty sure that's a GREAT upload speed, but I'm not 100%... Any pointers?

lol... thats far and above what I get....

Well I called Comcast again and this time got a Tech who new what was up. It turned out that the first gut to turn on the internet service didn't give my Modem the right boot file for the downstream. That's why I said my upload was 2.7Mbps (And still is.). Anyway, I'm at 25.5 Mbps  now ;).

- Hell Yeah!

Iain:

I noticed that my Motherboard for whatever reason is using some wierd driver...

Because network cards have basically been standarized over the dozens of years they have been mainstream they all essentially use essentially the same driver -- chances are it was probably just a generic Windows driver that auto-installed. ...wireless however is a completely different issue. 

Iain:

Also, Windows tells me that my connection is only 100.00 Mbps, is that normal?

Yes this is a standard speed for a 10/100 NIC -- if you have gigabit NIC (a little more modern) then Windows would see it as  a 10/100/1000 NIC. However keep in mind that 100Mbps is your NETWORK speed and really has little to do with your INTERNET at all (you are only at 1/5 of the card's speed "capacity")

However good to hear you got your problem taken care of

Yeah consider yourself lucky that you got the issue solved so fast or at all. The only company that I have ever used that gets the bandwidth that you are advertized is Verizon's FIOS. I used to get about 12 on Comcast's 16mbps service. Really though at that point you are always going to be slowed by the server you are connecting to.

Try setting your NIC to use 100Mbps in Full Duplex mode. The auto negotiation will usually not be sufficient.