Wi-Fi Pod Speed Tests

[Aptic]

Up until recently I was getting between 300-600 mbps on my POD and Hub over wifi. (I don't have wired connections) However, I am at best getting around 150-200 mbps on my POD now (no change with the Hub, and there was no change to my set up).  I rebooted everything to see if it would make a difference, but it remains the same.    This has been going on for about a week, and measured at different times throughout the day.

When I run the Bell wifi checkup, it is showing a download speed of 1.8 gbps on the hub, and 1.5 gbps on the POD - with a strong signal to all my devices.  That said, I see no difference in the performance of any of my devices. I also note that the Bell wifi app is showing my devices are getting 2-3x the speed that I see when I run Speedtest or Fast. 

I am curious as to why the POD speed connectivitiy has dropped in half, and why Bell keeps sending me promotions to upgrade my speed, when I can't even come close to getting the speed I pay for now. 

[dks]

Thank you for your comments. Are you seeing any technical issues at those speeds? Are printers not printing? Video on connected devices showing glitches or pausing? Problems with video conferencing or gaming? Devices connected to the pod and not connected to the internet? If you can add information about any issues, we might be able to help. Otherwise what you are describing appears to be entirely within specifications of the wireless protocols involved, the Giga Hub and pods. If that is not working for you, there are other solutions, provided by other technologies, to try. 

[Symple_Syrup]

You keep missing the point. 

We had much better throughput from the pods. The speed that I achieve now is 1/3 to half of what it was. The POD that connects to the 6Ghz channel of the Gigahub was giving me approximately 1000 mbps when I use a wired connection from my POD to the windows 11 computer. If I use WIFI connection to that computer I get 188mbps speed. If I connect to the Gigahub ( disable that 6E POD) - I get 1200 mbps.

I use this computer as a media server and had great results with that setup. Now that it operates at maximum 250 mbps the throughput is unacceptable. 

 The second POD is further away and has always connected on the 5GHz band to the Gigahub. A wired connection from that POD used to give me 500mbps. That's not ideal but was good enough for my lame gaming (it is an older machine with older connectivity - so I wouldn't go much faster.) The speed of that computer is now at 250mbps which again is too slow. 

 Telling us what you see and telling others that yours is normal isn't helping here. You are saying that we are all dreaming about good performance. Are you from the technical team?  BTW I do not have an update this week. I left a message with the Bell executive office relations for an update last evening. So my ticket has been open for a week now.

[Vanadiel]

If the pods are using a wireless backbone rather than a wired connection to the Gigahub, the first thing to do in order to troubleshoot it is wire it up directly to the Gigahub to determine if the pod itself is causing you low wireless speeds.

[Neowaldrich]

My pod shows they are connected (wireless) at 6ghz speed with my Giga Hub. Signal is excellent. However, Speed won't go over 200mbs on any device connected to the pod, even when they are wired to it. Pod is closer to Giga Hub than my devices. When I test my devices connected to giga hub (further than where the pod is) I can get 500/600mbs on 5Ghz and 1200mbs on 6Ghz network. So the problem is with the pod that seems to be limited to 200mbs for down/up. I see nothing that could indicate any technical issue. The pod is around 5m from the GigaHub. No interference or lost signal. Ping doesn't miss a peckage.The problem is only limited speeds. The only reason I bought the pod was to wire my PS5 to it in a hope I would get better download speeds at 6ghz communication between pod and Giga Hub, but it's worse than when I connect directly to GigaHub. It doesn't make any sense to keep them, unless Bell somehow fix this issue (I believe it's a firmware or protocol matter).

[JD3]

I have been experiencing the same issue,

My Bell wifi pod 6E used to get speeds of 900-1000 mbps but ever since an update or something, i have been "capped" at 200mbps. The customer support is absolutely useless they say I have too many devices even though I've had the same amount of device while getting speeds of 1000. I hope they fix this soon I should be getting at least some-what of what I pay for. 

Plan: 3 Gigabit.

Device: Giga Hub

Firmware: 2.13

[Aptic]

I really don't know what is more frustrating at this point.  The issue that POD speed has been capped at 200mbps or people who keep posting that a POD can't achieve speeds over 300mbps and the problem must be my setup.

[Aptic]

There is another thread on Reddit where users are posting their complaints about a downgrade in POD speed.  One user posted his previous speed from November, and what he is getting now.  No change in his setup.

[PodsSlow]

I’m starting to give up on Bell here. Two separate support agents created two separate appointments for a technician to visit during the same call. The first one did not even confirm any dates or times before booking, and the second one sent the technician to an address in Barrie. I live in Toronto… missed both appointments and was asked to schedule a third. And what is BTS even supposed to do about a firmware issue? Crank out a laptop and start patching code on Bell servers from my home? I imagine this wastes more resources for Bell rather than just fixing the actual issue. I’m not sure what they are doing at this point.

The fact that so many people have now reported the same 200mbps cap issue on their existing setups rules out that this could be an isolated issue. Are there any avenues for a support ticket to reach a Bell engineer’s desk rather than the front facing customer service agents? I appreciate they are trying to help, but they do not have the tools or knowledge to investigate this issue.

[ekstasis]

yeah, i'm not sure what we can do at this point either 😕 hugely frustrating because the pods were great until this happened!

for what it's worth, i believe i have an older/different version of the pod compared to a couple of you, as well as, i believe, different homehub firmware. so it's notable that i'm experiencing the same issue. perhaps it has to do with some homehub protocol that calls the pod? idk, i'm far from a network expert, sadly.

here are my pod and home hub specs

Model name: Pod

Firmware: 3.2.2-73-g7047361-prod-ig

Model name: HH4000

Firmware: 3.2.4.0-110-gcfa787

[BellPatricia · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone! Thank you all for reaching out to the Bell Community and for the troubleshooting that you have tried. 

Our technical team is checking into this matter further and we will provide updates as soon as they are available.

Have a nice evening 🙂

@BellPatricia 

[PodsSlow]

If you check your Home Hub firmware version directly through the home hub by navigating to it through the browser (192.168.2.1) and then advanced > about what version do you see? 

Firmware: 2.13?

[ekstasis]

ahh yep, it's 2.13 there! i was referencing info from the app before, in my previous post.

is it possible to confirm pod firmware in this same dashboard?

[PodsSlow]

The app should be accurate. The firmware reported by the app and the modem will be different, I’m guessing the modem may have Plume firmware built in alongside its own.

Since you have an older version of the pods experiencing the same issue it narrows it down to the hh4k firmware or the plume firmware on the hh4k.

I’ve also got 3.2.4.0-110-gcfa787 reported for the hh4k in the app and 2.13 on the modem itself.

[dks]

You can see the pod details, including connection signal quality and the MAC in the Bell WiFi app, > View Network > touch the graphic for any pod or the Giga Hub > touch the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen > View Hardware Info. The firmware version, serial and the MAC of all connected devices are displayed. There are different firmware versions for the pods, depending on the pod type. I have 4 x Gen 1 and 1 x Gen 2. 

[dks]

If anyone is interested, the Plume support site gives the manufacturer's maximum speed specification and lab experience for the Bell pods (Bell's pods are made by Plume). Bell refers to their pods as Gen 1 or 2, I believe. They don't use the Plume brand or pod names. 

PowerPods have dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi radios. We have seen single-device WiFi speeds of up to 350 Mbps for devices connected to PowerPods in ideal lab situations. 

The SuperPod is tri-band, adding an additional 5GHz 4x4 MIMO WiFi radio to increase speeds and coverage throughout the home. For real-world single device maximum speeds on a SuperPod one hop away from the gateway pod, you can expect up to 400-450 Mbps.  We have seen raw single-device WiFi speeds of up to 850 Mbps on a SuperPod under ideal lab situations.

Maximum device WiFi speed is dependent on several factors such as:

• Internet connection speed
• Overall network traffic
• Number and type of hops to the gateway pod
• Type of network application
• Environmental radio interference and signal strength of the connections  
• WiFi capabilities of the client device and its distance from a pod

Link here.  

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