BT broadband speed..help please

[RiffRaff 10]

If you go into the router settings and click disconnect, then turn it off you are fine as your router basically sends a message to the exchange to tell it it is being turned off now.

 

I do sometimes wonder why no-one has brought out a router with a button that does that for you.

 

That's handy to know - thanks.

It takes me 5 minutes plus to unplug everything electrical every night anyway, so a few more seconds to access the router won't hurt! Perhaps that's what BT meant, and assumed I'd know.

[walkerx 10]

If you go into the router settings and click disconnect, then turn it off you are fine as your router basically sends a message to the exchange to tell it it is being turned off now.

 

I do sometimes wonder why no-one has brought out a router with a button that does that for you.

 

it does not send a message telling the exchange you are turning of the router - it just sends a message to disconnect the PPPoE connection - your VDSL connection is still active as there is no way to tell it to automatically disconnect this.

 

i just wish they brought out a router that will let you apply settings without constantly wanting a reboot between changes.

[AlexAtkin 10]

But the main issue is not what speed is at the router,but what speed can I get over wireless when using either my lap top or I pad.

Is such a disparity of 47 Mbps to 3Mbps normal and why has it varied when checked wirelessly from 3Mbps to 40 Mbps.

I appreciate your comments

 

The reason is wireless is a shared medium. When you are struggling with 3Mbit its most likely your neighbours are using the same wireless channel and so you are all fighting for the same bandwidth.

 

I have this problem regularly when using my WiFi across the road as there is far more interference. You can try changing the channel on the router (generally between 1, 6 or 11) to see which one has the least interference, but there are no guarantees. Your router is probably on Auto which is why it improves after a reboot as it detected the interference and used a different channel, but this only happens during bootup so it will likely happen again.

 

This is why 5Ghz WiFi is recommended. It has a shorter range and so gets less interference.

Edited August 10, 2016 by AlexAtkin

[ez8004 10]

Let me clear up a few misconceptions here.

 

There is no problem in doing a speed test over wireless if it is on a sufficiently fast protocol. From my own experience, I can speed test wirelessly on 802.11ac and reach speeds of up to 210mbit on my Virgin 200mbit line. So going wireless need not be such a bottleneck.

 

The fact that you are getting fast speeds at night and very slow speeds during the day sounds like you are having a contention ratio issue. It could be that BT is doing some engineering work where capacity on your exchange is lowered and that the contention ratio is higher than normal. Since you called BT, you would have thought that they would tell you this if it was the case.

 

I would not use ookla for speed testing anymore. Try http://fast.com

Edited August 15, 2016 by ez8004

[AlexAtkin 10]

Let me clear up a few misconceptions here.

 

There is no problem in doing a speed test over wireless if it is on a sufficiently fast protocol. From my own experience, I can speed test wirelessly on 802.11ac and reach speeds of up to 210mbit on my Virgin 200mbit line. So going wireless need not be such a bottleneck.

 

The fact that you are getting fast speeds at night and very slow speeds during the day sounds like you are having a contention ratio issue. It could be that BT is doing some engineering work where capacity on your exchange is lowered and that the contention ratio is higher than normal. Since you called BT, you would have thought that they would tell you this if it was the case.

 

I would not use ookla for speed testing anymore. Try fast.com

 

Even on 5Ghz 802.11ac, its still no guarantee as what is between you and the router, the weather, your neighbours, can all make a difference from one moment to the next.

 

Also, as they did not mention which frequency they were using, its safe to guess its 2.4Ghz and in that case the contention is very likely on the WiFi rather than the broadband side. The only way to determine that for sure is to use wired.