Sky- download speed

[Gleadly 11]

Given up trying to work out what's going on.

 

Currently getting 14.5 and was only getting 6.5 this morning.

Doubt if wifi is the problem as my near neighbours are not computer nerds.

 

Not that well up on routers, however I do have to reset once or twice a day (amber light & lost connection).

 

Haven't used a cable connection for quite a few years, and certainly don't intend to now.

[Alky 10]

Ale/probedb you are right that NOTHING beats a physical cable but some of us cant. If I log onto the SKY router I can see the limit for up and download from the router to the servers - so anything I see LESS than that is the WiFi or my pc limitations. So long as the router is plugged into the master then if the sky router says 10 meg and I am only getting 1 then I would start the hunt - i.e. change channels, reboot etc etc.

 

If in medusas case when someone uses a phone the internet stops - this points me straight to the filter as a first point of call?

 

I freely admit I may be taking bo**ocks but this is my perception and how I would aproach such issues.

 

BTW I have contacted sky since moving into the new house for the problem of slow speed - less than 1meg - the router however showed a 10 meg connection. Changed channel on the router to 13 and it was back up to 10 again - even on WiFi.

 

Oh and probedb - sky never mentioned using a cable - they went for the set up as is and sought to remedy the problem I had got - I assume that if this had not worked then yes - a cable would have been the next task.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Alky

[medusa 16]

No, I didn't say that when someone uses the phone the internet stops, I said that when someone downloaded anything then there was insufficient broadband speed for anybody else to use the internet at all. When we were on their standard unlimited broadband if either my partner or I was running an update the other had to stop using the internet to allow that to happen.

 

We've got brand new filter and cables on the new fibre router so there is no issue with filtering.

[Alky 10]

Gleadly - if you are having to reset the router every day then there is either a line fault of router faut - I would get onto sky ASAP.

 

---------- Post added 28-07-2014 at 16:09 ----------

 

Apologies medusa - I read the post wrongly. However when d/l updates etc - it will (unless you can throttle the d/l somehow) maximise the availalbe bandwidth? Anyone else trying to use the same network would only get anything in excess of that being used for your update??

[AlexAtkin 10]

Doubt if wifi is the problem as my near neighbours are not computer nerds.

 

Actually that makes it worse if they DO have WiFi, as they will just use the default settings which are often badly configured especially if Automatic channel is selected.

 

Due to the fact most routers seem to assume they are in the US the only practical channels to use are 1,6 and 11. I regularly see WiFi on other channels such as 5 which would interfere with 1 AND 6 due to the channel width.

 

Even worse, if someone is on channel 5 but using a forced 40Mhz channel width (again, its quite common with badly pre-configured routers), they will literally take up every single channel. If they are using their WiFi they will slow every other WiFi network in range down.

 

You can try changing your channel but its not always fixable as you can see above. Some days I am stuck with 1Mbit on any channel, its why I primarily use cables or 5Ghz WiFi when I can.

 

---------- Post added 28-07-2014 at 16:30 ----------

 

Gleadly - if you are having to reset the router every day then there is either a line fault of router faut - I would get onto sky ASAP.

 

Agreed, that isn't right at all and suggests a problem with the router itself as even if the line is unstable it should auto-reconnect.

 

Apologies medusa - I read the post wrongly. However when d/l updates etc - it will (unless you can throttle the d/l somehow) maximise the availalbe bandwidth? Anyone else trying to use the same network would only get anything in excess of that being used for your update??

 

It should be shared fairly equally, I haven't seen anything that extreme happen on broadband EVER. Even when I used to share dialup I could download while someone else was browsing the web, albeit very very slowly.

[Gleadly 11]

when someone uses a phone the internet stops - this points me straight to the filter as a first point of call?

 

Funny you should ay that as I have this problem in Turkey.

 

Network's OK until someone uses the phone.

 

I assume the filter you're referring to is the one you use between the incoming line and the router cable.

I have changed that with no joy.

Maybe I get one whilst in the UK and try that.

[medusa 16]

Well, on a bad day for service (when we were only getting 1-2 Mb anyway) when one person updated then all the other would get when trying to browse were a whole load of 'timed out' error messages, which made life rather frustrating. It made trying to run multiple tabs several of which were trying to load pages pretty much impossible.

 

It is only costing us a fiver a month more to have the fibre at 10 times the speed anyway, so that's us sorted

[slick rick73 10]

My sky broadband is always pretty stable. Over wifi on both the phone and the mac I'm getting 11mb.

[Alky 10]

[quote

It should be shared fairly equally, I haven't seen anything that extreme happen on broadband EVER. Even when I used to share dialup I could download while someone else was browsing the web, albeit very very slowly.

 

Not so in our experience. Having lived for many, many years with an absolute maximum d/l speed of 2.5mb (usualy between 1 to 1.5meg) if one pc was d/l large files at approaching the maximum d/l speed then anyone else trying to just browse the web has an aweful time.

 

Medusa - I am glad you have got sorted - sounds like you experienced what I am trying to describe above - unfortunatly we dont seem to have the option of fibre but if we maintain around 10meg through sky then I am more than happy.

[AlexAtkin 10]

Perhaps I have a short memory, but I suspect its just being more picky about which router I used.