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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Broadband speeds

Currently waiting on a phone call from the network department at nowtv but I figured it might be worth  posting to ask about this.
New customer to nowtv and have yet to achieve the speeds we have in our contract (60-70Mbs), was sitting at like 2Mbs before I split the bands and now I'm getting 20Mbs maximum on the 5Ghz connection but its very variable and is actually back down to like 5mbs. Weirdly though I am getting the promised upload speeds, just not download.
I feel like I've tried everything and I'm incredibly frustrated with all of this, I would really appreciate some help with troubleshooting.
29 REPLIES 29
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Would it be worth trying to run ethernet through powerline? I had that as my internet set up before I moved out and wasn't haveing any issues with speeds back then.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I also want to add the fact that I am getting vastly different speeds for seemingly no reason while my pc is staying in the same place.

redchiz1
Champion 2

Powerline adapters would be a good idea from what you have said. 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

Getting vastly different speeds over Ethernet strongly points to intermittent problems somewhere in the chain back to the cabinet; in the cable going back to the router, or in the router itself, or in the cable to the Master Socket, or in the Openreach cabling back to cabinet.

It’s very interesting that your WiFi indicator is strong, as this would tend to indicate that there is no problem with WiFi range, just with speed; and while all sorts of things can affect WiFi speed, the only thing that could affect wired speed from the router to the PC is the Ethernet cable itself.

Did you use the same one when you put the PC nearer the router? Can you try a different one where the PC is now, at all?

But you do need to wait to see what the Now Broadband team think, and maybe what Openreach have to say, as one thing I find very odd is the good upload speed with poor download speed, which suggests a possible misconfiguration somewhere, as the upload and download is over the same wires.

As regards PLAs, I like the TPLink one at Curry’s (and elsewhere) with WiFi at the far end. But this is a range increaser, and you seem to be having speed issues, not range issues, so you want to get the speed issues sorted first via Now’s Broadband Support, whether by Now, Openreach, new internal wiring, or replacement router, first.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

The different speeds were over wifi in different rooms and different times of day. When I tested wired and wireless right next to the router last night, I got 70Mbs as I should be getting per my contract. The upload speed on wifi is also variable, when I wrote the post i was getting 5/20 Mbs for each but later on in the night it was back down to 5/5Mbs in my room. It is confusing me a lot that the speed is dropping off so quickly further from the router and doesn't stay consistant either.

I don't have a long enough ethernet cable to reach my room from the router, hence I want to test PLA so I can be "directly" connected to the router. I have the device things that I can pick up when I'm home over the weekend so it wouldnt be a cost to me to try it out.

Hopefully having had this discussion means that when the broadband team get back to me I will be able to give them the information they need to help me best.

Jayach
Elite 3

@Anonymous User wrote:

The different speeds were over wifi in different rooms and different times of day. When I tested wired and wireless right next to the router last night, I got 70Mbs as I should be getting per my contract.


Which tends to say that the problem is the Wi-Fi signal from the Now router. Unfortunately, the Now routers are well known to be deficient in this manner.

 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

Ah, you are running the PC over WiFi…. 

The WiFi from the Now router is notorious for dropping off fast, but having the speed drop off without the strength dropping off is unusual.

If you have an Android phone or tablet, try downloading an app called WiFi Analyzer, and see if your 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi channels are congested; if so, move them to less congested ones.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

So I've been exploring other solutions outside of nowtv, one of which was to plug my wifi adaptor into a different usb port. I'm a little embarassed to admit that it has brought up the speeds to about 30Mbps which is better but still not ideal.

Having downloaded the app I can see that all the channels seem well rated. It says CH 36(42) at the top which I'm assuming is which channel I'm connected to which is one of the lower rated channels. I've gone to my router's IP thing to try change the channel to a better one but I'm only given the options of 80MHz (channel 36), 40MHz (channel 36) and 40MHz (channel 44), none of which are quite as well rated according to the app.

In reference to another of your replies, the PLA I have would be connected to my PC by ethernet. Honestly when I moved, my plan was to just have the same set up again but I've been so fixated on figuring out the wifi I hadn't got around to trying to set it up.

redchiz1
Champion 2

Ethernet connected PLAs is what i thought you had in mind, rather than wireless adapters. Get them in and let us know how you get on. 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Yup will do, thanks for the help so far 🙂