50MB Broadband!!! Too good to be true?!?! Your darn tootin'!

MegandNicsmum

We got 50 MB broadband installed on Saturday as OH and DS like playing online games and I do website design so we use the computers a lot! Because we use our laptops wireless we were told that the 50MB would drop off a bit but we would still get a good return!! No end to the problems we've experienced and when I phoned to complain tonight I was informed that our laptops weren't modern enough to cope with the 50MB!! That was news to us!!!

Lesson learnt....some things are too good to be true!!

Question: As we only got this installed on Saturday (although appointment was initially made weeks earlier but had to be re-scheduled because of snow!) are we covered under the 14 day cool off period to cancel the contract?! We were told tonight that unless we pay £30 ( x 3) per adapter to boost our connection (this on top of the £50 installation!!!) we wouldn't be able to downgrade!!!!!! Can anyone help!?!?!?

spike7451

Er...who's it with?...Virgin?

withabix

Which provider is this?

50MB broadband = 50MB/s = 400Mbps

So, they would be right in what they are saying - you need Gigabit wired Ethernet or 802.11n wireless to take better/full advantage of your broadband speed. In reality, a single laptop/pc can't currently utilise the full speed of your connection. Neither wire nor wireless connections are capable of running at full potential speed - usually around 50%

Why on earth do you need to use 400Mbps? You probably wouldn't get that anyway unless you are on 1:1 contention ratio.

<whoever> broadband provider are providing the service you ordered, are they not?

456789

She means Virgin Cable

It is not 50MB/s it is 50mbit/sec - no residential isp can offer 50MB/s

Any recent laptop (Definitely one which has a wireless card) should easly be handle the full amount via ethernet (100mbit) unless you have really slow hard drives or something

Probably the person on the other end of the phone has no idea what they are talking about and using the laptop reason as an excuse

penrhyn

Methinks OP has got their units mixed up, bits, Bytes there be a difference!!

withabix

456789 wrote: »

She means Virgin Cable

It is not 50MB/s it is 50mbit/sec - no residential isp can offer 50MB/s

Any recent laptop (Definitely one which has a wireless card) should easly be handle the full amount via ethernet (100mbit) unless you have really slow hard drives or something

Probably the person on the other end of the phone has no idea what they are talking about and using the laptop reason as an excuse

Quite right! Brain switched off!

802.11g is 54mbps, but you would be lucky to actually get 25mbps average speed.

802.11n is rated at 300mbps, but similarly 50-150 is typical.

50Mb = 50mbps, so if you actually receive that speed, a sustained throughput of that speed would not be possible via your wifi unless everything is 802.11n (inc router and ALL laptops).

If ONE or more laptops is at 802.11b or g, then even an 'n' router will autmatically downrate to 'b' (5mbps sustained) or 'g' (22-25mbps) unless you exclude them or force 802.11n on the router (in which case the slower laptops would get no connection).

This isn't Virgin's fault.

mongoose2009

try connecting with a ethernet cable directly to the wireless router and go to a speedtest site to check you speed
your laptop may only have "802.11G" wireless built in and not "802.11N" wireless which you need to connect wirelessly at 50meg
i'm not defending them but your connection is capable of 50megs but your laptop cant connect wirelessly at that speed as its older spec but could with a wire
add a usb "N" dongle and you will connect at that speed.

MegandNicsmum

HI...we have a 802.11G wireless built in but we were left a Wireless N adapter that I have now installed...however we have 2 laptops and a netbook...all of them are obviously too old and inadequate!! They're looking for £30 for each extra adapter!!!

I really appreciate the help and information you've given me so far...just wondering if any of you know whether or not the fact that we were not informed of any incompatibility issues with older systems are we within our rights to downgrade due to incorrect information being given at the time of purhase?!?!

withabix

Very few PCs have 802.11n, except very new ones.

Your PCs are compatible with Virgin's service. They just don't have the latest 802.11n hardware in them.

It's not Virgin's fault and hence you have no rights to cancel on that basis.

£30 each is a bit much for 802.11n adapters - buy your own on the internet for abour £10-£15 each.

As I said above, you need 802.11n adapters for all connected wifi equipment, otherwise your router wil automically slow down to the speed of your slowest one (802.11g it would appear).

jb66

Also your upload speed is still an advantage over other packages, most macs come with wireless n, You should be able to downgrade but I feel it is your responsibility to ensure your equipment is up to date.

mrJ_5

456789 wrote: »

She means Virgin Cable

It is not 50MB/s it is 50mbit/sec - no residential isp can offer 50MB/s
....
.... ethernet (100mbit)...
...

Not quite right there either - your mega's and milli's mixed up!

MB means megabytes (and is largest/fastest - megafast! but not in the UK!)
Mb means megabits (check every broadband provider's website!)
mb means millibits (and is the smallest/slowest - mega slow! give me dial-up!)

I hope no ISP offers 50mbps broadband either - as it would be much slower than dial-up. Virgin offer 50Mbps broadband.

As for ethernet, 100mbit would be incredibly slow and painful - 10Mbps, 100Mbps, and 1Gbps ethernet are quite common (more so 100Mbps, since the first is somewhat older and the last is somewhat newer).

802.11g is 54Mbps, not 54mbps ... 802.11n would be 108Mbps .... and so on