Slow speed

[Lollieplop]

Our speed is very slow and only reached one room...is that normal. Think we will swap providers as soon as our contract allows.

[gavs82008]

@Lollieplop 

The router provided by NOW is not good. 

Have you split the bands, which should improve speed? See link for how to split them
https://help.nowtv.com/article/improve-broadband-speed

For signal distance you are best to get your own router or extenders.

[RoyB]

@Lollieplop  @gavs82008 

Follow all the steps in that article, not just Step 3, if you want your broadband range to be as good as it can be.

Positioning the router, as central as you can make it in the property - on all the dimensions, height, length, breadth - and away from other electrical devices - lamps, TVs, etc - and reflective or absorptive surfaces - mirrors, glass, fish tanks - is key.

While splitting the bands isn’t exactly snake oil, it does tend to slither through the grass, hissing as it goes 😛

The two bands are 2.4GHz, slower but longer range, and 5GHz, faster but shorter range.

For all your devices that only run on 2.4GHz, the range is the range, and splitting the bands won’t change that.

For devices that run on 5GHz, and are marginally in range, and maybe keep dropping out, moving them to 2.4GHz may improve things. They might run a bit slower, but that is better than not running at all.

So, how does the router decide which band to use for a device in the situation where the bands aren’t split? It’s a thing called band steering, where the router and the device negotiate a band together. 2.4GHz only devices, no problem, that’s the only band they can go on. 5GHz devices, ideally on the 5GHz band, but put on 2.4GHz if the 5GHz band would be too weak out where the device is.

Only three ways this can go wrong;

(i) a 5GHz device put on 2.4 because the router thinks the signal would be too weak, but it actually wouldn’t;
(ii) a 5GHz device put on 5GHz because the router thinks that would be OK, but it isn’t;
(iii)  a mobile 5GHz device clinging on to 5GHz when it should have switched to 2.4GHz because it has moved out of range.

(i) is the one case where splitting the bands, and you manually assigning that device to the 5GHz band, would possibly allow that device to run faster.

(ii) and (iii)  are the two cases where you could get some extra range for a device. But with (iii), do you just teach it the 2.4GHz band, and lose some speed, or do you teach it both bands, and let it choose, hoping it can make better decisions for itself than it can when negotiating with the router?

You will notice that I said ‘teach’. Because once you split the bands,  if you are not going to let band assignment go back to the free for all it was before, you have to decide which band (i.e. which SSID) each 5GHz-capable device is going to be on. Which is straightforward enough, though a bit of a faff, with devices that are always in one place. But with mobile devices, like phones and tablets, that you roam from room to room with, there’s no right answer.

Oh, and if you decide that the router on Its own just isn’t satisfactory, and you get a mesh system, be sure to put the bands back together again. Mesh systems absolutely rely on doing their own band steering.