do multiple users slow wifi?
wdh777
Newbie

So unlike cable it sounds like fios won't slow down when your neighbors are online.  But will it slow down if a bunch of folks in your household are online.  For instance:

online gaming on PC via ethernet

online gaming on PC via wifi

3 people steaming netflix via wifi while also surfing the net

TV on and running

Would that scenario no slow individiual speeds at all or reduce them by 50%?  Trying to figure out a rule of thumb.  Thanks

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Re: do multiple users slow wifi?
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Yes it slows down.  Depends on you what your WiFI on your router supports and how much is going on.  If, e.g., multiple users are trying to stream video, the results will often be obvious.

Consider the size of the pipe for your wifi connection as one limit.  The ethernet connection speed supported.  Depending on your router you may have multiple seperate frequencies possible as well as ethernet speeds of 10, 100, or 1000mbps.  Haven't seen the specs on maximum total speed the various Verizon routers can handle on your internal (intranet) network(should definitely handle up to gpbs) but the next limit is your Internet connection.  The Verizon internet pipe (e.g. 100 mbps) you are using is usually the next limit.

Re: do multiple users slow wifi?
joe-nyc
Enthusiast - Level 3

assuming you have;

50:50 speed or better

fios tv service

a g1100 router

your use load won't be any problem because;

gaming uses very little bandwidth, it mostly benefits from latency.

streams download intermittently, so their average burden is low

"tv running" uses qam which is bandwidth in addition to your isp.

the only real isp killers are straight download or p2p clients,

but both of them can be download capped in the application.

i share my bandwidth with a family of 4, so i always cap my

down/p2p clients at half my total available bandwidth.

this is why i find it so amusing how many get 1gig fios service

as it's ridiculous overkill for any resident, and only offerred as

a way to upsell you into paying >70% more for your isp service.

as for the basic question "do multiple users slow wifi"

whether this "slow" is perceptable or not depends on

application, equipment, environment and isp speed,

all this op gave us to work with was application so there 

are too many missing variables to give you an answer.

Re: do multiple users slow wifi?
joe-nyc
Enthusiast - Level 3

a cable node (frequency channels actively amplified and re-transmitted) and fiber pon (passive wavelength light beam ONT pipes to a common NLT) are still a bunch of your neighbors sharing the same data pipe to the central office.  
 
fiber congestion is only less noticeable because it has a 10-15ms latency advantage over cable due to it's lower re-transmission rate.  for example my fios is brand new (built 2016) to a co under a mile away, yet my 2nd hop is 9ms - if it's really a passive light pon then it should be 1-2ms or 1ms from the ONT and NLT transceivers, so how can it be 9ms?  it's due to congestion from my neighbors sharing the same pon.  both cable and fiber work by the same lame rules - as long as your latency is low enough you won't complain about it - they'll just keep adding more neighbors to your segment or pon.  they may tell you they won't ever over provision your last mile by more than 50% of a prime time load - but that's an obvious lie to anyone who actually knows how to properly test his connection.
 
this is why people should be more aware on how to measure their last mile congestion and complain about it regularly, as it's the only way your local co will every re-provision your or pon more available bandwidth utilization.  when complaining don't ask for a premise visit - that's expensive and your isp will hate you for it.  simply contact chat support, give them whatever congestion test confirmation data you accumulate, they'll pretend to be embarrassed and ultimately your complaint will go ignored.  but if you do this often enough, eventually someone with half a brain and access to tier-3 and your local CO may notice and do something about it - but only if enough people in your last mile are also complaining.
 
online gaming demands on your network vary widely.  a mmorpg where 80 people killing a dragon keep updating their position in virtual space is bandwidth and cpu demanding.  a twitch game where 8 people keep killing each other need to move and react to each other within fractions of a second is latency and gpu demanding.  so i'll leave you to figure it out from there: all gamers benefit from lowest latency (wired+fiber better than wifi+coax) with twitch gamers feeling it more than others game types.
 
3 people streaming netflix will not notice each other or the surfers, because streams only effect bandwidth for one out of every six seconds they are refilling their local buffers, thus 3 netflix streams can avoid each other by simply staggering that one second they need a lot of download (which already happens automatically).  the people surfing the net while that's happening will notice intermittent lag depending on exactly when they refresh their screens - if it's at the same time one of the netflix streamers is refilling it's local video buffer than yeah, they'll feel it, but typically browsing people don't complain as they simply assume the websight itself is slow.
 
TV on and running does not effect anyone, because it's using a separate always being  broadcast 1gig QAM channel (even if you also have 50:50 isp service), so you could have 10 fios video boxes each showing 10 different channels 24/7 and your internet access (gaming streaming surfing) would not be noticeably effected.
 
so in your hypothetical family house where you are trying to decide between getting 50:50 or 900:900 service i would conclude the following;  if you wired your twitch gamers and your home wifi was not already congested by neighbors, the only people in your home that would noticeably but intermittently benefit from 20x more bandwidth are the browser surfers.  this is why people who get 1gig service at home are just falling for verizon's up-sell marketing and/or paying a premium just for the bragging rights.
 
how can i be so confident in my assertions here?  because that hypothetical house is real to me every day.  i often have 3-4 streaming boxes going, 2-3 people gaming, and 3-4 people surfing at the same time, and my 50:50 router+endpoint wifi manages just fine despite having a dozen neighbor wifi's nearby.  i don't have video(qam) service here, but i know enough about it's methods to reach my earlier conclusion.  sadly my pon is congested and i do complain about it to support every time my 2nd hop averages double digit ms latency, but i don't expect it to clear up till IPTV/GPON2 becomes available during 2018, and verizon upgrades all their local cellular towers to GPON2 - by then i expect verzion will have added a lot more capacity at my local co and may be feeling generous enough to let us lowly 50:50 subscribers enjoy some of it's far lower latency goodness.