Can Your Modem Affect Internet Speed?

What’s the best way to have a bad day? Well, the answer to that broad question probably varies considerably depending on your circumstances. Still, there is at least one universal way to almost certainly turn a great day rotten.

You guessed it. Or maybe you didn’t. We’ll tell you—slow internet.

Think of all the things you do online every day. Or maybe think of all the things you don’t do. That would be a shorter list. Let’s start with work, play, education, shopping, entertainment, and more. When the signal starts to lag, and your progress starts to drag, you start looking for things to throw and kick.

But before you resort to violence, take a moment to ponder why your connection has suddenly slowed. There’s a reason. It might be that your modem needs to be changed out to maximize internet speed.

The bottom line is that your modem might be slowing down your internet. Let’s dig into this idea a bit more because it could be really easy to fix. First, you need to understand what makes a modem and an internet connection play well together.

Understanding Internet Speed

Internet speed is measured by monitoring how much data passes a given point within one second. The most typical standard you’ll come across is Mbps (megabits per second) or Gbps (gigabits per second). While internet speed can be expressed faster or slower than these two expressions, they aren’t nearly as common.

To give you an idea of what kind of speed you’ll run into out in the wild, blue yonder, the FCC defines broadband or high-speed internet as a connection that achieves at least 25 Mbps for download speed and 3 Mbps for upload speed.

By the time you get up close to 100 Mbps, your connection is pretty dang fast. At the top end of consumer speed packages are the newish fiber optic connections that can get up to 1 Gbps and even 2 Gbps.

The Importance of Internet Speed

Generally speaking, faster is better when it comes to your internet connection speed, especially given the streaming / high-bandwidth nature of today’s online environment. We’re talking about high-resolution graphics, video, and any of the dozens of popular streaming services.

So, internet speed is the most important aspect of going online and getting things done. Without speed, you’re doomed to a frustrating experience.

But we left one thing out. Reliability.

There’s not much use in having a speedy internet connection unless you have a high level of reliability to go along with it. By reliability, we mean that the signal doesn’t periodically drop out and has to restart. Speed alone doesn't mean much when it gets taken down to zero every time it kicks you offline and has to cycle back through the startup process.

So, we’ll stand by our initial declaration that speed is the most critical part of a good internet connection. Well…and reliability. Speed and reliability.

Things That Affect Internet Speed

There is a grab bag full of things that can negatively affect your ultimate internet speed. Depending on your particular setup and surroundings, one or more of the following might slow your connection down.

1. Location: The location of various parts of your wi-fi network can affect connection speed. For example, the physical location of your router can make a big difference in overall speed. It should be placed at about waist level and away from dense materials like concrete walls, blocks, and roof materials. If you’re experiencing a slow connection, moving your router to a new location following these suggestions could make a big difference.
2. Type of Connectivity: The internet you use has the most significant effect on speed. For example, a 56k dial-up connection won’t be fast, no matter how much you move the router around. Satellite internet is better than dial-up but considerably slower than DSL, cable, and fiber optic respectively. The speed difference between satellite at 25 Mbps and fiber optic at 1,000 Mbps is astounding.
3. Number of Users: It might help to think of your internet connection as a pipe carrying water. Try to push too much water through at once, and you’ll exceed the carrying capacity of the pipe. It’s the same situation with pushing too much data through a coaxial cable. In other words, too many people trying to use your internet connection simultaneously can slow the experience down for everyone. Keep in mind that this “overflow” problem doesn’t apply only to your local wi-fi network. Overuse in your neighborhood or city can create the same logjam problem.
4. To Wi-Fi or Not to Wi-Fi: Almost every home network is wireless now. No one blames you for going that route. It’s handy to pop online via your phone or laptop wherever you are in the house. The downside to a wireless connection is that it is slower than being plugged in by ethernet. Try comparing the data flow to a water hose for a visual. When you’re plugged into an ethernet cord, the data is compacted together (like at the point of the hose where the water comes out). Now move out from where the water exits, say ten feet from the end of the hose. At this point, the spray is scattered—the same thing with a wi-fi connection. Your data flow is scattered, bouncing off walls, and some of it is missing your device entirely.
5. Hardware Like Modem or Computer: A few pieces of hardware could be the weak link in the chain when troubleshooting a slow internet connection. Router speed vs. internet speed is an apples-to-oranges comparison since they are two different things, but changing a modem out could improve your overall speed. Here’s how. Router speed is the speed with which your router and computer communicate. Internet speed is how fast the signal arrives from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). While you have no control over the ISP signal speed, upgrading an outdated modem could remove a blockage that keeps your ISP from reaching its full potential.

Defining a Modem

To get technical, the word modem is created by contracting the words modulator-demodulator. In practice, it is hardware that serves as part of the home internet puzzle by converting a digital signal to analog and vice versa. Modems became necessary in the early days of the internet when connections were achieved through analog phone lines.

The tricky part about home networking is that the signal you get from your ISP is digital, but it has to be converted to analog to find itself in any usable format that the analog copper wires in your phone jack can understand. The modem reverses the process as signals return from your computer to the ISP server.

Types of Modems

There are three primary types of modems in conjunction with today’s internet, and one is almost a museum piece. The ones we still use are cable, DSL, and fiber. The one that is gone, for all practical purposes, is a dial-up modem. To be accurate, we should mention that around 2% of Americans who go online still use that antiquated technology.

• Cable Modem: Cable modems are used along with cable internet. This service is provided by cable television providers who already have a compatible infrastructure to deliver an internet signal. For internet, they use the same coaxial wires already in place.
• DSL Modem: A DSL modem was the next internet technology advancement after dial-up. The signal uses unused copper wires in your landline telephone jack.
• Fiber Modem: Strictly speaking, you don’t need a modem for fiber optic internet service. However, it has a modulator-demodulator component built into its router, which serves the same function. Technically, this is called an Optical Network Terminal (ONT). The idea is the same as what we previously called modems. The device takes the digital fiber signal and translates it into a form your devices can understand.

How a Modem Differs From a Router

We’ve been making references to modems and routers and have not taken the time to define them properly. Let’s do so. Both are charged with distributing internet signals, but each does so at a different point in the network.

Modem: A modem takes the ISP’s internet signal directly from the wall jack and converts it into a usable signal for any devices plugged into it.

Router: A router creates a local wireless network to which you can connect your devices without physically plugging into a modem.

The two devices are similar in that they take a signal and make it available for internet-enabled devices but differ in how they output the signal.

How a Modem Works

To understand how a modem might affect your internet speed (positively or negatively), it would help to understand precisely how it works. We’ve hit the highlights but let’s dig deeper.

A modem works on a simple premise that is much easier to understand than other examples of modern technology. The device had remained doggedly unchanged for over three decades until fiber optic internet came along in recent years and forced a bit of evolution.

Here’s how modems prior to fiber work.

• Connect to a telephone or coaxial wire to access an internet signal
• Operate through an IP provided by the ISP
• The modem takes digital signals from the ISP and converts them into analog data that can be read by your device - and vice versa
• Working through the Wide Area Network (WAN), a modem assigns IP addresses to computers on the network

In simple terms, a modem is a device that converts digital to analog and analog to digital to establish communication between two computers or other internet-enabled devices.

Can Your Modem Affect Internet Speed?

Typically, the discussion regarding a modem’s effect on internet speed results from an internet connection that is perceived to be too slow. The simple answer is yes, a modem can slow down your internet speed. But you should note that just because your internet is slow doesn’t mean it is the modem’s fault.

There are several possibilities when diagnosing slow internet. Also, remember that a malfunctioning modem won’t directly affect internet speed. It can only contribute to a slower speed. Here are the common ways that can happen.

• You have a godawful data plan speed
• ISP network is congested
• Wifi signals are weak
• There is a high network latency
• You blew past your data cap
• Slow or outdated device

That last item should be a concern if you suspect you have a slow or underpowered modem. Consider this. An underpowered modem whose top speed is less than your plan speed will leave you with a slower connection. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have a newish, fast modem.

Final Thoughts

While there are plenty of reasons your internet speed might be slower than expected, not all of them relate to the modem. As we mentioned in the previous section, the modem is quick to check. If it’s old, consider updating or replacing it. If its top speed is below your plan, consider replacing it.

An even better idea would be to check out the internet service provider tool to see if fiber optic service is available in your area. If it is, take the word of a friend and get it! That’s the best way to ensure that your old-fashioned modem isn’t part of the speed problem.