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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Broadband erratic and very different in different rooms

Hello everyone,

 

I joined NowTV broadband about 3 weeks ago, with the super fibre package and a guarantee of minimum download speed of 58 mbs.

 

At my previous address I just had a basic package from Plusnet and so expected a huge improvement in performance. In fact, it's probably worse overall.

 

NowTV have sent an Openreach engineer and that confirmed the signal was good enough to provide the minimum requirement.

 

It does reach or beat this most of the time in the living room where the router is. But I work  in a room across the hall and speed there  varies between 10 and 40. On Zoom calls the audio often slurs and that's not acceptable for my work.

 

My partner, on another floor, also had poor response. So we bought a wi-fi booster system from TP-Link and this had made a huge improvement for her response times, although still not reaching the guaranteed minimum.

 

I'm just on the point of buying another wi-fi extender for my work room and am hoping this will solve my work problem.

 

It's been very disappointing and expensive when I'd thought everything would be fine with super fibre.

One of the technicians I spoke to suggested that NowTV and most broadband suppliers provide poor quality routers and the booster systems makes up for this. I was wondering if we should leave NowTV and try another provider but that comment put me off. The whole thing seems  a bit of a minefield which I was completely unaware of in the past.

 

I wonder if anyone has had similar experiences or can offer any advice or suggestions.

 

Any help you can give would be much appreciated. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom.

6 REPLIES 6
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

You could try switching and having dedicated channels for the Wi-fi 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/improve-broadband-speed

 

Your Hub Two is dual-band (2.4GHz and 5 GHz). Splitting these bands to create 2 different Wi-Fi networks can help to improve the speed to your devices. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Connect your Hub Two to your laptop or computer using an Ethernet cable.
  2. Open your web browser and enter "192.168.0.1” in the address bar.
  3. Select Maintenance and enter “admin” and “nowtv” as the username and password.
  4. Select Wireless and then 2.4 GHz Wireless Settings
  5. Scroll down to “Wireless Access Point” and uncheck Synchronise 2.4GHz and 5GHz Settings.
  6. In the ‘Name (SSID)’ box, Change the network name to distinguish it from the current network (e.g. add “_2.4G” to the current name). Select Apply.
  7. Check the network name has been updated, and then select 5GHz Wireless Settings.
  8. To be able to see easily which network is which on your devices, change the ‘Name (SSID)’ here too (e.g. add “_5G” to the current name). Select Apply.
  9. That’s it. Select Logout at the top of the screen to exit.
FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks very much for your reply, Gavs.

 

I made the changes you suggested. I set it to Channel 12 (Which magazine recommends that as one of the channels without interference) and stopped the sync and split the two wireless settings.

 

The 5ghz gives the best response. In the main room where the router is, the response was 64, better than guaranteed minimum of 58. In the room on the other floor, the response was about 58, which should be good enough. That's a big improvement.

 

In the room across the hall from the main room, the response remains poor at 39. When I switch to the network of the wi fi booster plugged into the wall in the same room, it goes up to 62. 

 

Maybe that's as good as it will get. It seems there is some interference getting in the way which only a booster can overcome.

 

Does that sound right?

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom.

gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

Ah perfect glad to hear it’s made an improvement on your Wi-fi! That’s what I’ve done with my BT router, in fact I went as far as to disable the 2.4 GHZ side, as your noticing the GHZ provide the faster of the speeds.

The fact your getting more speed with your Wi-fi boosters on for now I’d say it’s as good as you can get. 
Hopefully in due course NOW will follow suit with Sky and provide Fibre to the premise rather than cabinet. 

What you could do is give it a couple of days with the new settings as it might settle down more and become stronger thus giving you a better speed result?

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Thanks again for your help, Gavs, but I spoke too soon.

 

My partner uses an Apple Mac and I use a Windows laptop. Although my response times improved in some rooms away from the router with the changes I made in the Settings, this didn't happen with her Apple. The response remains poor and is still better with the booster. I can't understand how we get such different results running a speed test in more or less the same place at the same time.

 

In any case, I've now ordered an additional booster. The reality is that the NowTV broadband speed is only reliable in the room with the router. It remains too erratic in the other rooms. I just hope having two boosters will solve the problem.

 

Very disappointing and expensive and a poor reflection on NowTV. I wonder if it would be any better with another supplier, given the problem seems to be with interference within the flat?

 

Thanks for all your help on this.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom.

gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

It’s a bit of a long shot, have you tried to disconnect all the devices from the Wi-fi and then trying to reconnecting by inputting the Wi-fi password?

Most likely might not have much effect, but thinking a complete removal from the Wi-fi could “refresh” the connection.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Now routers are poor for WiFi. You can mess around with settings until the cows come home but you will have no luck.

 

The TT hub has antennas that point the WiFi into the property.

 

The Now Hub looks like a Sky set-top-box and points the WiFi to the ceiling (the PCB is is lying horizontal not vertical)

 

Invest in a mesh WiFi or switch ISPs (but not to Sky which has the same hardware)