INTE

RNET SPE

EDS

RO

M L

EW

I S 8

- 3

QUESTION

How much is your internet speed affected by how you are using it?

RESEARCH

I found that some people need faster internet because of the way they use it. If you do a lot of things on the internet, you will need a faster speed, so you can do multiple things at once without being slowed down. A lot of things use the home internet connection. One of them is the phone. The VOIP phone uses the internet to make phone calls instead of telephone wires. A Microcell uses the internet to route cell phone traffic so you can get a better signal at home. Any streaming video service plays movies over the internet. If you want to be able to watch a Netflix movie without buffering, you should get a faster speed.

The quality of your online experience is affected by your internet speed. If you want to watch a show in HD, you should get a faster speed, so you can watch more. Also, videos will buffer less if you have a faster speed. The voice quality will be better if you have a faster connection.

MATERIALS

• 1 Arris NVG589 RG (Residential Gateway/Modem-Router)

• 1 Cisco ISB7005 Wireless Cable Box

• 1 MacBook Air & USB Ethernet Adapter

• 1 Ooma Telo

• 1 Cordless Phone

• 1 AT&T 3G Microcell

• 1 Motorola VAP2500 Wireless Access Point

• I Smart Phone

• 1 Apple TV

• 1 Sony TV

MATERIALS CONTINUED

• 1 Cat 5e Ethernet cable

PROCEDURE

PROCEDURE

1. Unplug everything except the DSL and power cable from the NVG589 modem

2. Take the MacBook Air and plug in the Cat5e cable into one of the yellow ethernet ports on the NVG589 and the USB Adapter

3. Open Safari on the iMac and go to 192.168.1.254

4. Click on Home Network

5. Click Wireless

6. Enter Access Code

7. Turn Wireless off

8. Click Save

9. Reset Safari

PROCEDURE CONTINUED

10. Go to www.att.com/speedtest

11. Run a speedtest

12.Write down results

13. Plug Ooma back into the NVG589

14. Make a phone call on the house phone

15.Repeat steps 10-12 while still on the phone

16. Hang up the phone

17.Unplug the Ooma from the NVG589

18. Plug the AT&T 3G MicroCell into the NVG589

19.Use a Cell Phone to make a call

PROCEDURE CONTINUED

20. Repeat steps 10-12 while still on the phone

21. Unplug the MicroCell from the NVG589

22. Plug the VAP2500 into the NVG589

23.Turn on a Cable Box and watch something in HD

24. Repeat 10-12

25.Change channel to SD

26.Repeat 10-12

27.Unplug VAP2500 from NVG589

28. Turn the NVG589 Wireless on

29. Change Wi-Fi network name to ATTtest and password to attpassword

PROCEDURE CONTINUED

30. Go to Apple TV and change Wi-Fi network to ATTtest

31. Watch a Netflix movie

32. Repeat 10-12 while watching the movie

33. Change Wi-Fi network name and password on the NVG589 to the original

34. Plug the Coax and Ethernet cables into the NVG589

35. Repeat steps 10-12 with everything plugged into the NVG589

DATA

SPEED TEST 1 – ONLY COMPUTER CONNECTED

SPEED TEST 2 – OOMA

SPEED TEST 3 - MICROCELL

SPEED TEST 4 - HDTV

SPEED TEST 5 - SDTV

SPEED TEST 6 - NETFLIX

SPEED TEST 7 – ALL DEVICES CONNECTED

OBSERVATIONS

• When I was making the phone calls, the upload speed went down and the download speed went up.

• Netflix uses less bandwidth than SDTV

• HDTV uses the most bandwidth

• MicroCell calls use the least bandwidth

ANALYSIS

CHART

MacBook Ooma M-Cell HDTV SDTV Netflix All Connected0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

DownloadUpload

DATA TABLE

CONCLUSIO

N

CONCLUSION

My IV was the devices using the internet. The DV was the internet speed. The controls were: same computer, same speedtest server, same connection.

My data shows that the more devices using the internet, the less available bandwidth.

APPLICATIONS AND FURTHER EXPLORATIONS• When your internet speed is slow

and you want to determine the cause

• Diagnosing Issues with your connection

• It would be useful to test the speed in a variety of conditions