BT BROADBAND (Wireless).

Border_Collie · Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:04 pm Post subject: BT BROADBAND (Wireless).

About a year ago I signed up to BT High Speed Broadband - up to 79Mbps. Using http://www.speedtest.net/ I was getting around 30 or so Mbps, quite fast and I was happy with this. However, as time went by I found I was getting a lot of 'drop-outs' and often, late at night, the speed would drop to around 16Mbps.

I complained and went round in circles until I e-mailed the CEO. Things got moving and I was given a 'personal' rep to deal with my problem.

He said to be able to get the fastest speed I would need an Ethernet cable, as there was always a 'loss' over wireless. He would send me a cable to see if there was an improvement. I said I would need one 15 metre long to reach from one end of the room to the other, taking into account interior walls. They don't have one this long so he suggested...

We do have another solution known as Power Line networking, which would route the network connection through your internal electrical wiring (avoiding any wireless interference).

Two 'plugs' duly arrived and I connected them to the mains, one end a cable from Modem to plug, the other the plug to the computer.

Now getting 58.44Mbps download and 9.44Mbps upload.

If anyone else using BT wireless and experiencing slow speeds I would suggest they ask for Power Line networking kit. After all, you are paying for higher speed and should be getting it.
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marksfish · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 8:40 pm Post subject:

You also need to make sure your laptop or wireless device is wireless N for the increased speeds. I had to upgrade drivers and buy dongles to make the most of my speed increase, it was stuck at 20mb before.

Also, off topic a bit. Try your mobile phone with sim in and see what speed you get. Then either take the sim out or put in flight mode and activate wireless and see the speed difference!!
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Border_Collie · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 10:00 pm Post subject:

Had all the correct gear for wireless but still had problems until the 'plugs' arrived.

Evidently you can lose around 50% of speed going wireless and 25% via the house mains. To get full advantage I would have to go wired but even if I could get one 15 metres long there would still be a loss and I'd never get the full 79Mbps that is reaching my house.

The only answer is to move the computer to the other end of the room and use maybe a metre long cable.

only 14% of National and 11% of Global have a faster connection, according to http://www.speedtest.net/

As for testing with the mobile phone. Mine is so old it works on North Sea Gas. Razz

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M8TJT · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:11 pm Post subject:

How have you established that you are getting "79Mbs to your house"? It is extremely unusual to get the "up to" speed.

You could try moving the computer temporarily and try the wired connection with a short network cable. If any increased speed is worth the effort, which I doubt, you could probably get your local computer shop to knock you up a 15M cable at a modest cost.

MaFt · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:55 am Post subject:

I was really upset with BT. I was told I could get up to 60MB. In reality I get 65-75MB 24 hours a day. I was also told I would get 17MB upload speed but it's frequently above 20MB. It's awful Wink

Seriously though, I didn't realise BT offered the powerline adapters. Might have to pester them for some of these for the PC in the attic - the WiFi reaches OK but they don't need to know that ;)

MaFt

Border_Collie · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:04 am Post subject:

GerryC · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:17 am Post subject:

The big test with power cable bridges is how is your data affected when you run a few "dirty" devices at the same time (spin cycle on washing machine, hoover, cheap fan etc). It was never designed for data.

As noted, buy or get a cable made up. You can do 100m from router to PC. Cat5 is rated upto 100Mb/s and Cat6 1,000Mb/s if your router and PC card can handle it. I'm surprised you haven't done structured cabling throughout the house MaFt. Laughing

Stuck on 8Mb but at least that's all I'm paying for. I have saved a result from the speedtest app showing 38Kb/s from when the line was faulty. Evil or Very Mad

Gerry

MaFt · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:52 am Post subject:

DennisN · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:00 pm Post subject:

My Virgin broadband is up to 60MB. I get consistently 62, but the upload is steadily around 2.85. Upload used to be a bit above 3 before I upgraded to 60MB. Should I be grumbling at them?
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Border_Collie · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:22 pm Post subject:

I would complain Dennis, upload should surely be faster than that. Mine's around the 9 Mbps.

I notice you say 60MB, as in megabytes, figures are usually in megabits. i.e 60Mbps.
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MaFt · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:00 pm Post subject:

DennisN · Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 11:10 pm Post subject:

Spot on MaFt. That Speedtest.net thing shows 62 thingies download and less than 3 upload. I don't know what they are, they start with either M or m.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

M8TJT · Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 7:48 am Post subject:

It's not the 'M' thingy that counts, it's the 'B' thingy. A B thingy is eight timed bigger than a 'b' thingy.

Border_Collie · Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 4:10 pm Post subject:

Andy_P · Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 5:02 pm Post subject:

So the question boils down to... Is Dennis a big "B" or a little "b"? Very Happy

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