Router Speed Issue

[Gadgetmac]

I wonder if anyone can help. I’m no IT geek so be gentle with me.

Had openreach come to my house this morning and confirm the speed to my router is 72mbs but they won’t come into my house due to the covid outbreak so couldn’t tell me whats wrong with my internal wifi speed being so slow according to the Okla speed test app.

So here’s both the 2.4 and 5ghz results obtained from Okla:

2.4ghz


5ghz


And here are the stats my sky router displays


I have 3 Alexa’s, 7 Wifi sockets for turning on lamps using Alexa, 2 Firesticks, 2 Apple TV’s, 2 External Security Cameras, 2 Mobile phones, 3 ipads, a Sky Booster and various other bits connected up but obviously not all of them are being used at the same time...usually just 2 mobiles or the 2 ipads.

In all about 26 or so devices are hooked up

Anybody got any idea if what the stats show above give a clue as to whats happening? Is the router overloaded with devices? Can’t see that as most family households have at least 15 devices hooked up nowadays...but I don’t know for sure.

Many thanks in advance, all advice greatly appreciated.

[Zirconia]

What can you hard wire?
My computer directly connected shows 63, which is my max.
I pretty much use wifi for stuff I cannot hardwire, I have 7 RJ45 sockets filled. Phillips hue bulbs and devices are running fine but no Alexa's or anything.

Try powering down wifi connected or disconnecting from wifi and see where the speed is freed up?

Our 2ghz often clogs up due to clashes with local 2g. 5g is usually the better bet for us. Though Ring is stuck on 2g.

[devnull]

What does your laptop / desktop say if you connect it with an ethernet cable directly to the router? Try both speedtest.net as you have above, as well as fast.com to compare.

If those speeds come out much higher than what you have posted, it's time to start diagnosing a wifi issue.

[CharlesElliott]

You modem is syncing at 70Mbit so that looks OK.

The WiFi speeds you are getting don't seem unreasonable based on the limits of WiFi. As mentioned, you will need to hardwire something to the router and do a speedtest to see if anything is wrong at all.

[mmm-five]

What's the speed from a computer directly to the Sky socket (i.e. not over wifi)?

If that's giving you 72mbps, then you're wifi is probably congested. Are you in an urban area with lots of neighbours using close/same wifi channels causing interference?

Is this a consistent issue, on a single device? Has your iPad gone into low power mode and reduced throughput?

My betting would be that either there's an interfering channel with neighbours, or there's interference/blockage due to walls and/or electronic equipment due to the siting of your router.

[Gadgetmac]

Ethernet connection via powerline adaptors to the PC in an upstairs room shows the following on speed test.net:



And on Fast.com it's:

[Zirconia]

Usually best test the router directly connected before it goes through any adapters (that may throttle).

Any lap top you can plug in?

[Gadgetmac]

Zirconia said:

Usually best test the router directly connected before it goes through any adapters (that may throttle).

Any lap top you can plug in?

Unfortunately there isn't.

[Zirconia]

No long cat5/6 you can access beg borrow or steal?

[Gadgetmac]

Zirconia said:

No long cat5/6 you can access beg borrow or steal?

Hmmm...I might be able to borrow my daughter's laptop at the weekend...

I'll try that if no other solutions present themselves. Cheers.

Update: Can borrow a laptop tomorrow...

Edited by Gadgetmac on Tuesday 21st April 17:28

[Zirconia]

I assume openreach will test as far as an appearance of socket or router that is owned and provided by openreach.

At least they did when we had faults in the field. We had to be very clear we had done the basic before calling them.

Any extensions that may be across it causing an issue?

[Gadgetmac]

Interesting. The main socket inside the house has a wire leading away from it which used to go to a socket upstairs. This wire has now been cut but remains connected to the main socket. As they won't come into the house they can't see it though.

[Zirconia]

Probably nothing. Keep it simple, test at the router first and the router is plugged in the first appearance at the correct filtered socket.

[megaphone]

Gadgetmac said:

Interesting. The main socket inside the house has a wire leading away from it which used to go to a socket upstairs. This wire has now been cut but remains connected to the main socket. As they won't come into the house they can't see it though.

Open the master socket up and disconnect the wire, it might have a short on it. The cable is usually punched down, so will just pull out. Take a picture first in case you need to put it back.

In an ideal situation you want the cable coming in from the street to go straight into the master socket, no joints or junctions, Then a filter straight into the router.

Edited by megaphone on Wednesday 22 April 08:35

[Zirconia]

If you are not used to it, yanking wires out can be problematic. I have the correct tool and used to it but re insertion can be done with a thin screwdriver and a finger or thumb end.

Can be doubly unfortunate if all the slack and spare has gone. Assume it is dead for now if you have something working and until the test unless you are really confident going in. Also be careful of any costs you may add due to BT having to repair (when the lockdown ends).

[OlonMusky]

This doesn't seem to me like a wifi or your local network issue but rather like some traffic shaping BS. Do you have VPN? Can you for example connect through work VPN and see what you get? I would also try connecting between 2 devices on your network and sending files between them, you can estimate speed based on that.

[Sheepshanks]

Gadgetmac said:

I have 3 Alexa’s, 7 Wifi sockets for turning on lamps using Alexa, 2 Firesticks, 2 Apple TV’s, 2 External Security Cameras, 2 Mobile phones, 3 ipads, a Sky Booster and various other bits connected up but obviously not all of them are being used at the same time...usually just 2 mobiles or the 2 ipads.

In all about 26 or so devices are hooked up

Anybody got any idea if what the stats show above give a clue as to whats happening? Is the router overloaded with devices? Can’t see that as most family households have at least 15 devices hooked up nowadays...but I don’t know for sure.

Many thanks in advance, all advice greatly appreciated.

That feels like a lot of devices to me! We have a couple of iPhones and iPads. TV, laptop when at desk, NAS, Printer are all hard wired to the router. Do have a wifi baby monitor but only use it when grandson stays. Wifi cameras are supposed to be heavy on network traffic.

Our BT router shows 80 down / 20 up. Just did the speednet.com test on one of the iPads - we only have 2.4g enabled on the router, but I'm only 1 metre from it. Got 47M down and 17M up. Turned the camera on and down was 43, up still 17 - I expected a bigger difference.

What practical effect is your lower speed having? I'm always amazed looking at the router log how active it is - if that activity is any way linked to the number of devices then yours must be going absolutely bonkers!

[Gadgetmac]

OlonMusky said:

This doesn't seem to me like a wifi or your local network issue but rather like some traffic shaping BS. Do you have VPN? Can you for example connect through work VPN and see what you get? I would also try connecting between 2 devices on your network and sending files between them, you can estimate speed based on that.

No VPN I’m afraid.

[Gadgetmac]

Sheepshanks said:

That feels like a lot of devices to me! We have a couple of iPhones and iPads. TV, laptop when at desk, NAS, Printer are all hard wired to the router. Do have a wifi baby monitor but only use it when grandson stays. Wifi cameras are supposed to be heavy on network traffic.

Our BT router shows 80 down / 20 up. Just did the speednet.com test on one of the iPads - we only have 2.4g enabled on the router, but I'm only 1 metre from it. Got 47M down and 17M up. Turned the camera on and down was 43, up still 17 - I expected a bigger difference.

What practical effect is your lower speed having? I'm always amazed looking at the router log how active it is - if that activity is any way linked to the number of devices then yours must be going absolutely bonkers!

None yet but I’m concerned that if I add say a security wifi camera at the front of the house I may start rubbing up against the limit I have to play with.

I’m borrowing a laptop this afternoon and will plug it into the spare ethernet port on the router (it only has 2) and see what speedtest.net says.

[Gadgetmac]

Question please.

When running this test should I unplug the other ethernet wire from the router, the one going to my PC upstairs? Should I also be turning off the wifi so that all the router has to do is communicate with the Laptop? Is turning off the wifi and not the ethernet even possible?

Cheers