WiFi Advice Please

[Doon frae Troon]

Here's one for the more technically minded!

We live in a rural location and our broadband is not great. BT is our broadband provider.
When I test my speed received I get 6.70Mb on the BT tester, and 5.3Mb on an independent one.
I presume the choice of provider does not alter the speeds as the service comes down the same routes?
We have the BT Home Hub 3 router.
My main problem is that the WiFi seems very slow. If I try and download a film etc. on my HD Skybox it takes so long I often leaving it downloading when we go to bed. Although I have a smart TV it is impossible to watch a film using Netflix as it keeps stopping.
I have been on to BT several times who have only offered me two 33ft ethernet cables so I can run then from the Home Hub 3 wired.
My question really is would I get a better Wifi service if I try another router. BT have the Home Hub 4 which they say I can buy for around £35. Looking on Amazon there are many, from that price to over £100.
The prospect of "super speed broadband" reaching our village is probably years away, the men laying it came within 5 miles of us then turned at right angles.

Thanks

 

[delc]

Here's one for the more technically minded!

We live in a rural location and our broadband is not great. BT is our broadband provider.
When I test my speed received I get 6.70Mb on the BT tester, and 5.3Mb on an independent one.
I presume the choice of provider does not alter the speeds as the service comes down the same routes?
We have the BT Home Hub 3 router.
My main problem is that the WiFi seems very slow. If I try and download a film etc. on my HD Skybox it takes so long I often leaving it downloading when we go to bed. Although I have a smart TV it is impossible to watch a film using Netflix as it keeps stopping.
I have been on to BT several times who have only offered me two 33ft ethernet cables so I can run then from the Home Hub 3 wired.
My question really is would I get a better Wifi service if I try another router. BT have the Home Hub 4 which they say I can buy for around £35. Looking on Amazon there are many, from that price to over £100.
The prospect of "super speed broadband" reaching our village is probably years away, the men laying it came within 5 miles of us then turned at right angles.

Thanks

The limiting factor is probably your phone line. I live in a village and have the same problem.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

if you are getting about 6 mbps thats a pretty good speed and should be able to do most of what you have stated

How far is the router from the PC and TV and how many walls/floors does it have to go through (do a line of sight test)

If you have a laptop, is performance improved if you move it nearer the router?

You might need a wifi extender, or as stated an ethernet connection

Come back with the above info and ill get my brain cell working on it

 

[Hacker Khan]

I'm very similar in that I live out in the sticks and have similar speeds, possibly even a bit slower. I upgraded recently to BT unlimited faster broadband and they replaced my Home Hub 3 with a Home Hub 5. I think it squeezed a couple more MB out of it, still not fast, but it only cost me an extra quid a month on top of what I was already paying.

Also I downloaded this http://www.inssider.com/ as it tells you the best channels to select on your router. I'd also look at getting those plugs that transmit broadband through your internal house wiring to connect up your sky plus/smart TV box (assuming your TV has an ethernet slot). They are quite cheap and I've found them a lot more reliable than using wifi, but then again my Sky box is a bit away from my router and I live in a barn with very thick walls.

 

[Ian_Bristol]

Another point ,when you connect direct to the hub is it all fine speed wise and just the wifi thats slow ,do you have the wifi locked or open as it don't take long for people to log in and drain you speed,

 

[Old Skier]

Although it might be a pain try with the cables.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Your speed dramatically won't improve with a change of router

Your speed will be determined by the distance from the exchange and where you have situated your router in comparison to where your Sky HD box etc are

If your router is syncing at about6 Meg then that could be your maximum - you could get BT to reload the line profile or that could be the maximum that is available in that area

If your router is syncing higher then possibly a wifi booster in your property could be worth a try

 

[Crazyface]

Move?

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Thanks for all your tips, looks like a busy weekend getting wired up!!

 

[Duckster]

Thanks for all your tips, looks like a busy weekend getting wired up!!

Is it just the wifi part that's slow or general broadband? If you hardwire in your Sky HD box is it a lot quicker to download?

Sometimes, simply changing the wifi channel on the router can help.

 

[Deleted member 18121]

Can you not switch your BT service to the BT infinity service? My broadband was awful before hand, I switched to infinity and can now download and watch all kinds of "videos" at around 70-80mb

 

[rosecott]

Can you all please stop:

1. Complaining about 6 mbps.

2. Gloating about 70-80 mbps.

I had to battle with BT for 6 months to get UP to my current speed of ZERO POINT SIX mbps.

 

[woody69]

If you have run a speed test on somewhere like http://speedtest.net and you are getting around 6Mb the issue is either the router signal to your device or the device (PC) itself. Is that what you mean when you say you have tested the speed received, i.e. not the speeds you "could get", but the actual speed you are getting on that device?

Are you able to get another device, such as a tablet / iPad and try to watch a movie on that from NetFlix perhaps? If you have and you get the same issue that would rule out the device and it's probably the router. If it's suddenly watchable it suggests there is an issue with your wireless card in the device that doesn't work particularly well. If all devices are the same the first thing I would try is simply changing the channel on the router within the config settings (have a read up on channels) but if you have it set to 6, try 11 for example. If that still doesn't resolve the issue then I would look at replacing the router as it may be the problem and you would probably see an improvement.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Can you not switch your BT service to the BT infinity service? My broadband was awful before hand, I switched to infinity and can now download and watch all kinds of "videos" at around 70-80mb

Oh if only it was that easy for those of us in the sticks. I think the UK has one of the poorest broadband speeds for rural areas in Europe. I did see something the other say that said the average in rural areas was around 14mbs or something like that. Which made me laugh as whilst I am out in the sticks I'm not that far away from the BT exchange and if I get 5 I am happy.

Perhaps they class rural as anything outside London.

 

[Old Skier]

Oh if only it was that easy for those of us in the sticks. I think the UK has one of the poorest broadband speeds for rural areas in Europe. I did see something the other say that said the average in rural areas was around 14mbs or something like that. Which made me laugh as whilst I am out in the sticks I'm not that far away from the BT exchange and if I get 5 I am happy.

Perhaps they class rural as anything outside London.

High speed broadband fibre goes just past the bottom of our street. Is it connected into the local exchange, is it buggery.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Before worrying about channels etc etc you need to check the speed the router is syncing at

 

[woody69]

Before worrying about channels etc etc you need to check the speed the router is syncing at

If he has done a speed test that infers a connection of up to 6Mb, I'm not sure what that will provide?

 

[Deleted member 15344]

If he has done a speed test that infers a connection of up to 6Mb, I'm not sure what that will provide?

Speed test on his laptop over the wifi

If he does a speedtest hard wired into the router he will then get an idea of what the router is syncing at

If it's a remarkable difference between the speed test wirelessly and connected to the router then it gives an idea that there is a wireless issue - if it's around the same then changing channels etc will make minimal to no difference

 

[woody69]

Speed test on his laptop over the wifi

If he does a speedtest hard wired into the router he will then get an idea of what the router is syncing at

If it's a remarkable difference between the speed test wirelessly and connected to the router then it gives an idea that there is a wireless issue - if it's around the same then changing channels etc will make minimal to no difference

I honestly don't understand what that will tell him. He should be getting 6Mb according to the speedtest. That is more than enough to watch a movie on Netflix or download a film. If he's not actually getting that speed there must be something happening to the WiFi signal whilst he is downloading that is causing the speed to decrease and that is more than likely caused by interference on the channel (unless it is the device).

Of course another factor may be the ISP is throttling his download speed for certain files, or perhaps even the router has some QoS that stops the files being downloaded at their maximum rate.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I honestly don't understand what that will tell him. He should be getting 6Mb according to the speedtest. That is more than enough to watch a movie on Netflix or download a film. If he's not actually getting that speed there must be something happening to the WiFi signal whilst he is downloading that is causing the speed to decrease and that is more than likely caused by interference on the channel (unless it is the device).

Of course another factor may be the ISP is throttling his download speed for certain files, or perhaps even the router has some QoS that stops the files being downloaded at their maximum rate.

The ISP won't be throttling anything

If he is getting 6 MB wireless via a speedtest then that's the speed of his internet connection via the wifi

Now there could be issues with the sky box connection to the wifi using that dongle of theirs

I get roughly 6 MB and it takes its time to download films or telly programs - because it's 6 MB