How can I increase broadband band width?

pogofish

If you are on TalkTalk and set-up using their installation disc/software then you could find there is a lot going-on in the background that eats-up your bandwdth.

Even before I changed my router to a faster dual-band to seperate the different devices, I found quite an improvement in speed and reliability by setting the router-up manually (all settings on TT's support forum) without whatever other garbage gets installed from the disc.

bod1467

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

I was wondering if a duel band/better router would improve things

If the problem is saturation of the wifi, then maybe. (You using the 5GHz spectrum and him using the2.4GHz spectrum might help). But if it's saturation of the upload bandwidth through the fibre modem then No, it won't help.

audigex

I doubt it - even a basic Wireless N router has 150Mbps bandwidth. If we assume a fairly high loss rate of 66%, that still gives you 50Mbps of wireless bandwidth: enough to entirely saturate your 40/2 fibre. And even living in a flat with 17 other networks directly adjacent, and in a large detached house with several big stone walls in the way, I've never seen WiFi N drop below a real-world 40Mbps throughput.

If you're noticing rates WITHIN the house (eg to a home server) drop, I'd suspect the wireless, but unless you're getting very poor WiFi signal, your internet connection is the weak link here. This really doesn't sound like a WiFi issue, it sounds like you're hitting your fibre Uplink, or possibly even Downlink, bandwidth limit

Unless you have reason to suspect your router is faulty, or you are running 80/20 fibre and 150Mbps WiFi N/54Mbps WiFi G, forget the router, it's almost certainly not your bottleneck.

You could easily test it, though - turn all the phones/tablets off, put the PC on a basic Homeplug kit (£30) and then test speeds from a single WiFi connected device. If you still have problems, it's not the WiFi.

Your issue is clearly related to the PC being turned on: check what he's doing with it, then reformat if if nothing seems to be the issue, as it may have malware leeching off your connection

GunJack

Fightsback wrote: »

PS GJ, thanks for the correction on upload, did remember it was pap though compared to a 40/10 or 80/20

must admit, even with both Mini-Guns gaming simultaneously I've not had a problem on 2meg up, but then I don't torrent/upload much anyway... still, it's better than the 1meg I had on ADSL2+

sparkiemalarkie

pogofish wrote: »

If you are on TalkTalk and set-up using their installation disc/software then you could find there is a lot going-on in the background that eats-up your bandwdth.

Even before I changed my router to a faster dual-band to seperate the different devices, I found quite an improvement in speed and reliability by setting the router-up manually (all settings on TT's support forum) without whatever other garbage gets installed from the disc.

Thanks I would like to look into this.
I just did 'plug and play' with the router and have never changed any settings except for the router channel.


Would you be kind enough to post a link to the settings page you mentioned please?


sparkie

I_have_spoken

Some routers have QoS (quality of service) settings so you could set the IP address(es) of his computers to have lowest priority when using the broadband