How is broadband for residential communities and landlords in urban villages? After living in two buildings, I finally understood—the price of cheap prices is all during the evening rush hour

first year renting for convenience, I used the landlord's broadband directly, and 30 yuan a month was included in the rent. The first month was so good, but the second month started to question life. Later, after moving to another building, I realized that even with the same 'landlord broadband,' you could be a whole different Pacific. This article thoroughly covers the issue of broadband in residential communities and self-built networks in urban villages.

landlord's broadband and the service hall's broadband differ by how many households split the line by one line

first clarify how this kind of web came from. In urban villages or old residential communities, landlords connect a line from the carrier, or some prefer 500M or even 1000M telecom lines, then a router with a large number of devices is assigned to each floor, and each floor connects switches to various rooms. The 30 yuan "internet fee" you pay is essentially a line with a dozen or twenty stores in the entire building.

there's an even older trick: there's a secondary operator in the community who outsources all the wiring and sells you a few hundred yuan a year's package, and the installer isn't even with the carrier. A few years ago, Great Wall broadband experienced widespread network outages and customer service calls that made the news. Nowadays, many cities still have small agents working there—names you might never even hear.

how can you tell if you're dealing with a secondary carrier? I've summarized three major issues: First, payments can only be transferred via WeChat to individuals or a certain company, and invoices from carriers cannot be issued; Second, the repair phone number should be a mobile number, not an official number like 10000; Third, the so-called "500M" is priced more than half of the official price. Taking two of them is basically a subcontracted business—cheap it is, but after-sales service depends entirely on the owner's conscience.

and using China Telecom and China Mobile yourself, the difference is basically one thing: your cable is used by one person, while the line is used by a building. All the benefits and pitfalls stem from this point. By the way, if you're a landlord and want to set up a network for tenants, I've written a complete a rental home network setup. You can copy the speed-limited isolation plan.

two buildings I've lived in, one is really attractive, the other is a real scam

first building is in an urban village, and the landlord is quite knowledgeable: a 500M telecom line, the main route is enterprise-grade with QoS, and each floor has its own dedicated network segment. There are eighteen households living in the building. I tested my speed at 9 PM and still got around 180 Mbps, and I never had any trouble watching videos or playing games. Those 30 yuan were paid willingly.

the second building is outrageous. The slogan is "500M fiber for the whole house," but the main router is a 100Mbps port—I only saw this after dismantling the weak current box, with two layers of the cheapest five-port switches in between, and the WiFi in the whole building is named the same one. I installed a WiFi analysis tool on my phone and scanned, and Guanglou could find more than twenty SSIDs, with all 2.4G packed into channels 1 and 6, so the interference density was impressive. At 2 a.m., the speed test was 90 Mbps. Note, for a 500M cable, I only touched 90 Mbps, and the 100 Mbps port welded the ceiling shut. Testing again at 9 PM, the screen fluctuated around 20MB, ping spiked from 15 milliseconds to over 120 milliseconds, and the game graphics stuttered like slides.

Why is there such a big gap with both host broadband? The differences lie in equipment, wiring, and whether management is done. You can't see this before renting; you can only know once you move in. So here's the on-site judgment action below—you should use it on the day of viewing.

how to tell if this website works on the day of the house viewing, three steps

first step, ask the landlord three questions: how many Mbps broadband is available, how many units live in the building, and whether there is lag at night. The third sentence is the most honest; many landlords can't answer the first two sentences clearly—they only know how much they pay each year and don't know how many people share the line.

second action: live speed check. Get the landlord to connect to WiFi and you can test directly, but remember, the numbers measured during the day are all fake; you have to check the prime time at night. Since most viewings are during the day, a tougher approach is to ask the resident: if you meet a neighbor in the hallway, just ask, "Is this internet lagging at night?" which is more accurate than the landlord's ten sentences. How to spot the problem in speed test numbers? In my article about broadband speed failing standards, I provided a comparison table: around 90 Mbps is basically the maximum for 100 Mbps ports, 300 to 400 Mbps is normal WiFi loss, and if it's fluctuating, you need to check the line.

third step: check whether the cable port is inside or only WiFi. If there is a network cable port on the wall, it means the building has at least properly laid cables, and you can even plug in your own router for improvement; If it's just WiFi, your entire experience depends entirely on the host's router's mood.

No matter how fast this kind of internet is, there are still four things it can't handle

This is a painful account I made up for myself. Before renting, let's compare it first:

First, remote access to home devices is basically impossible. The host has multiple layers of broadband routers, your device is tied behind the third-layer NAT, let alone public IPv4, and there's nowhere to set up port forwarding—the outermost layer of optical modem is simply not in your hands. At that time, I wanted to remotely go back to my hometown NAS to get a file from my rented apartment. I tried various internal network penetration tools in rotation, but it worked but only moved at a few hundred kilometers—pure torture. If you want to remotely connect to a NAS from your rental apartment, first follow this public IP self-check . I gave up right after checking.

second, poor online gaming experience. Multi-layer NAT can push you down to NAT3, and even opening a multiplayer lobby on PS5 is a struggle. I wrote about the principles and repair ideas in the NAT type : you can still save your own broadband, but the landlord's broadband can't, and you won't even let the modem touch it.

third, don't even think about uploading heavy tasks. A 500MB online video is usually only 30-50MB, and during the evening rush hour, more than a dozen phones back up photos together. If you're streaming from home, the screen instantly turns into a PowerPoint slide.

fourth, the internet is cut off and no one cares. If you call your own broadband number 10,000, there will be after-sales service and work orders. If the landlord loses broadband and the router is off, they can only wait for the landlord to restart the router. If they go on a business trip, you won't be able to get online. The secondary carriers are even more exciting—if they run away, there's nowhere to file complaints.

is already like this, self-help should be done in this order

first of all, don't spend money: the house must have an Ethernet port for use, and don't compete with the whole building for WiFi. Then connect your router, set the working mode to wired relay (i.e., AP mode), and name the WiFi with a new one—don't share the same name as the whole landlord's building. Also, manually select one channel. In those chaos where dozens of SSIDs with the same name are crammed into the same channel, you can't even find yourself. How do you pick the channel? I wrote about it in the of WiFi channel—just glance and pick the emptiest one.

then the small cost: a high-data SIM plus a phone hotspot, or a portable WiFi device to use. I compared this in detail in my about rental online self-rescue. I know which is best for every situation—portable Mesh, portable router, and electric modem—so I won't repeat myself.

finally made up his mind: to install a dedicated broadband for himself. Most urban villages can be installed, and even China Telecom and Mobile are willing to go. Usually, landlords need approval, and some charge a few dozen yuan as an "entry fee." 99 yuan a month for 300 trillion, and it's not that expensive to compete with a roommate. If you really have to pick at this point, you can check the where I paid tuition for three companies—the latency data for evening rush hours is all there.

people can live wherever they want, and who don't settle for them

wrapping up the complete order: first ask three questions about the viewing, then borrow a speed check at night, plug in the network cable before entering the house, avoid connecting to WiFi, and if that doesn't work, have the data card on top. If you've lived for more than half a year, you'll have to cut the cable yourself. Cheap and worry-free, you can only choose one in this matter.