Am I expecting too much??

Janey1a

I am with Virgin Media for tv, broadband and calls, contracting running out next month. We moved from Sky a year ago, mainly due to the satellite dish moving every time we had slightly strong winds! I have been testing my broadband speed with different testing sites this morning - twice on my iPad which resulted in download speed of approx 10.5 Mbps and 3 times on my laptop which resulted in download speeds of between 28 and 46 Mbps. I expected a bit of fluctuation but these appear to be very different readings, how do I know which is accurate?

I don't use broadband at home for work so it doesn't have to be mega fast but what we do find frustrating is the time it takes for things like Netflix and YouTube (via the TiVo box) to open, together with some issues with films playing on Netflix but that may be a problem with them, not Virgin.

I'm annoyed at price rises which apparently provide us with extra channels and extra coverage when mobile etc, none of which we use. I expect some price increase occasionally but £4 extra a month is a bit steep in my opinion! We only need basic channels but my hubbie wants Eurosport and BT Sports purely for the Moto GP season.

Don't know whether to stay with Virgin, put up with the broadband as it is and just upgrade our package for the 6/7 months of moto gp then go back to our lower grade package? Think our only other option is to move to BT but that will involve going back to a line instead of cable which we've been told is an ancient copper wire and I know will need upgrading, on the other hand we will automatically have BT Sports year round.

If we leave Virgin do they leave their cable in case we change our minds in the future?

Decisions, decisions..... any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cycrow

How is the laptop connected, via wifi or a cable ?

If its wifi, then the reading will probably not be very accurate, as the speed of wifi itself can fluctuate alot.

for a proper test, you need to do it connected via a cable

Janey1a

Laptop was on wifi when I tested it but I didnt want to connect it to test as I wanted to know the speed as I actually use it. It could be 100 Mbps connected with a cable but doesn't mean much if it drops really low when I disconnect it. I'm not very techy but find it amazing how different the results can be when my laptop was 12 inches away from my modem!
Just cant decide whether to jump to BT or whether it's not worth the hassle now I've had cable put in.

JJ_Egan

Basics are that wifi signal will be the same .
But that also depends upon the router the distance the card in the laptop and channel interference .
All things being equal no test is accurate as many factors involved .Laptop not all laptops have fast wifi cards .You may be picking up interference from neighbours using the same channels for wifi .
BT Home Hub 5 is a decent wifi router .

HappyMJ

There are many different standards for wi-fi 802.11b, g, n and ac. You will only get the highest speed on 802.11ac. To get the highest speed the router cannot have any other devices also connecting at slower speeds such as a mobile phone on 802.11g or it will slow it down.

My laptop doesn't have an 802.11ac card it's only on 802.11n which is quite fast but the maximum speed with the laptop sitting right next to the router is a theoretical maximum of 72Mbps. In reality you'll never get that as there is interference on the channel and the further you are away from the router the slower it is. Your neighbours are also using the same channel which slows it down. The most I've ever had out of 802.11n is about 20-25Mbps despite the line speed being much higher. You can get higher throughput setting the channel to be 40Mhz wide but that's rarely done automatically it's normally only a 20Mhz wide channel so there is less interference.

If you've got mobile phones on 802.11g they'll slow it down to 54Mbps.