Internet Connection Issues

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stratospvm

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Dec 16, 2015
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So my internet plan allows 5-8 devices to be connected to the internet but I'm lucky if I can get 3 devices connected. It's my parents, sister, and brother sharing the internet and usually the only devices that we can get connected to the internet are my brothers Xbox and my computer. They had me call our internet provider (which is Midco) because I'm a little more tech savvy then them. They said our plan allows 5-8 devices depending on what the devices are doing. We get 150 mb/s with our plan and that if people are playing online games or streaming videos it will cut down on the amount of devices that are able to connect to the internet. That all sounded really fishy to me because next they started telling me that we needed a bigger and more expensive internet plan. I'm pretty sure a 150mb/s plan that supposedly supports 5-8 devices is plenty enough. I am just not sure what to do now. Drop the provider or is there an alternate solution to allow more devices to be connected. Most of the time I will be watching youtube/twitch livestream and playing an offline game and my brother will just be playing fortnite on his xbox.

Edit: Would getting a better router do anything for us? I could understand that because our router is around 5 years old.
 
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You were not given accurate information. The number of devices that can connect is not limited. The only thing that is limited is the amount of bandwidth you have available to all devices, in your case 150 Mbps. There may have been a misunderstanding in the way this was communicated to you. Depending on what all the devices using the internet at once are doing, it will reduce your speed (bandwidth) available to all devices. If you have five devices streaming video, it is a lot different than eight people surfing web pages. This is what they were trying to communicate to you. You will be able to connect as many devices as you like, but performance will be affected depending on what those devices are doing. Think of bandwidth like a...
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ikaz

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Dec 27, 2005
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I never heard of a home IPS limiting the number of devices however as more devices are added you would have to share the bandwidth. So the question is are all the devices connecting but the speed is slow when are all active ? Or the devices are actually failing to connect after a certain number ? Do you have access to the router can you look at the configuration/log files and see active connections ?. Either way it still maybe better to upgrade your router as newer one should better management tools than what your IPS probably provides.
 
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phobophobia

Oct 9, 2018
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You were not given accurate information. The number of devices that can connect is not limited. The only thing that is limited is the amount of bandwidth you have available to all devices, in your case 150 Mbps. There may have been a misunderstanding in the way this was communicated to you. Depending on what all the devices using the internet at once are doing, it will reduce your speed (bandwidth) available to all devices. If you have five devices streaming video, it is a lot different than eight people surfing web pages. This is what they were trying to communicate to you. You will be able to connect as many devices as you like, but performance will be affected depending on what those devices are doing. Think of bandwidth like a pizza. Every slice you take out of the pizza leaves less for everyone else. Same with bandwidth, Every chunk you take out to do something leaves less bandwidth for everyone else. This is why they would suggest upgrading bandwidth. If you are doing bandwidth heavy things on the internet (streaming), you may not have enough bandwidth for all devices. The ability to connect isn't affected, just the speed of the connection.

The router is responsible for assigning IP addresses to any device that wants to connect. Midco will assign a public IP address to the router and your router will assign a private IP address to any device requesting to connect to your network. If you have your own router separate from the modem, and other devices are connecting, then the problem is with your router (or at least settings in your router). If you have a modem/router combo from Midco, then get back in touch with them to have them troubleshoot the issue. I would suggest using their social support team as they do a really good job and you don't have to wait on the phone. You can link directly to social support at Midco.com/Contact.

Lastly, if the other devices that cannot connect are wireless, you may be dealing with interference or range issues. I would suggest getting a dual-band router with band steering. You could even go the route of one of the wireless mesh products that are available now.
 
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