Wireless / internet speed problems

[Guest]

At home I have a Zyxel Prestige 600 wireless router connected upstairs to a BT extension socket and my PC is plugged into the router. The kids laptops etc connect wirelessly. My line speed is pathetic, usually averging around 2.2mb, sometimes under 1mb and occassionally 3.4mb.

I complain to Talk Talk after it's down at 1mb for too long and they get me to disconnect router, change cables etc and that never makes a difference. I tell them it is the line and, usually, by a miracle they do some sort of re-set and speed comes back up. I went through the process again today and told them I wasn't going to mess about. They said take the faceplate off the main socket and plug into the test socket which it reveals. It was too much drama to move the router and PC there to test, but I took the faceplate off just to see if there was a test socket - there was. There is a cable into the bottom on the socket but I can't actually see any cabling from that running to the extension socket upstairs - but am assuming it is the main one?

Talk Talk called me back and say that now that I have done that the line is running at 6.4mb. I say I havent done anything other than take the plate off and refix, but testing the speed I find it is as they say. So they say I need to connect the router direct to this socket and / or get a new router and then I will get 6.4mb all the time. Immediately after this I check speed and, again, it's back to 1mb.

So I want to get the faster speed and will try the existing router downstairs as suggested. My PC doesn't seem to have a wireless card though so rather than buy one and fit it all and maybe find it's not solved it, I was thinking of getting something like this instead ...

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Anyone a bit more techie got any thoughts on the whole issue and on these little dongles? Do you think my router is really at fault?

[NickA]

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If it works OK when plugged directly into the main socket, it implies your extension cable isn't up to scratch. I've seen thisfew times. Normally we would plug any router into the main socket and cable / wirelessly connect everything back to this point. I assume you've got adsl filters on both sockets?
USB Wireless adaptors are fine; I tend to buy a recognised brands but if it works it works.

[XFSTag]

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I had a new master socket fitted to mine as the old telephone system and extensions in the house dropped the speed by 2mb. You should always stick the router in the master socket it makes a difference!

Got o2 now and get 6mb compared to Bt which gave 1mb on a good day! They do the phone line now too £12 a month with unlimited calls great deal when you have kids

[Seaking]

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I lost 2mb in my internal wiring. fitted a broadband front plate and a broadband extension kit directly to router speed increased by 2 mb and very stable i have now been upgraded on bb and now get 17 1/4 mb on a 20 mb line. i do not live on top of the exchange i am about 3/4 to a mile away.

Also if you can disconect wire number 3 on front plate i.e go cordless on all phones then this will also help with speed bt do a front plate called broadband boost. hope this helps

[V Mad]

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There is something odd here. If you say sometimes the speed is goodthen how can the lineor router be toblame as they dont vary I am sorry but I thinkyour broadband supplier is dumping you when its busy.

[marshman]

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V Mad wrote:

There is something odd here. If you say sometimes the speed is goodthen how can the lineor router be toblame as they dont vary I am sorry but I thinkyour broadband supplier is dumping you when its busy.

I beg to differ. If the modem detects too many errors it will reduce the data rate in steps until the error rate becomes acceptable. It then periodically tries to up the data rate (speed) to a maximum with acceptable errors. As i understand it this is the modem at the exchange. The network operator (BT/talk talk etc) can reset the modem and tell it to work at a higher rate which is why sometimes a call to them temporarily increases the data rate. if you look at the modem/router control panel page you should be able to access the statistics and look at the sync speed as well as the connection speed together with error rates. Ideally the sync speed and connection speed should be similar. dodgy wiring often shows up in a "correct" sync speed - say 5mbit/s but low connection speed of say 1mbit/s.

Because adsl relies on a wide bandwidth to work effectivelythe capacitance of the copper wires to each other and to earth has a large effect on the speed achievable so for instance if the cable has a break in the insulation moisture ingress can change its electrical properties and affect the data rate - i.e. it can be affected by the weather!!. Its a bit like black magic in some respects as i have had instances where my broad band has worked fine and yet the land line phone is dead due to a break in the cable at the first pole- the broadband capacitively couples across the break and thus keeps working.

Roger

[grahamb]

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V Mad wrote:

There is something odd here. If you say sometimes the speed is good then how can the line or router be to blame as they dont vary   I am sorry but I think your broadband supplier is dumping you when its busy.    

This is both right and wrong.
Most phone lines have been in the ground a very long time. Some are good, others less so. Weather, post rain particularly, can affect lines and faults - people opening joints etc dont help. That said, lines are fairly predictable and plates and boosters can help.

The major variation comes mostly from usage profile of the people that share the exchange equipment with you. Whilst the ISP can control this with the contention ratio (no users and bandwidth available) at certain times of the day a lot of people will be logged-on and there will only be so much bandwidth to go around. That flows all the way back from the exchange to the carrier PoP's, to the Telehouses, peering points and finally, the internet transit, if it even needs to go down that route. A lot of your internet usage doesnt actually touch the internet and gets handled between ISP's

Sometimes sites are slow because of peering relationships. There is a function known as trace route and it shows you how your internet request is routed. The number of "hops" along the way can vary significantly and each "hop" has a time.

Good ISP's tend not have many hops as they let the requirement drive the route/speed and/or have good peering. Others preference traffic to control routing (and the associated costs) and some of their requests can bounce around all over the place to get to a given destination.

[Guest]

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I was going to bring my laptop home this weekend and put the router on the main socket to see what speed that gets - of course I forgot the laptop!

So instead I have just checked the speeed pretty consistently and in the last hour I have once lost the connection completely...had a 10 min period when the speed was 0.5MB....a few times (most consistently) somewhere between 1.2 and 1.9mb....a few 2.4's and then...wonder of wonders a 4.69mb. Not in that order of course!

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