Slow broadband speeds over 2.4Ghz wifi...

newbieFTB

In my old house I had plusnet broadband, although I was using a BT homehub5 router - the wifi worked perfectly on both my Medion PC and my iPhone 7. The computer has a Realtek RTL8188CU Wireless LAN 802.11n network adapter.

I've recently moved and signed up with Sky broadband, the router is a Sky Hub router. The speeds over wifi were terrible, I left it a couple of weeks and rang Sky. They turned on the 5ghz wifi on the router which my iPhone now picks up and I get speeds of around 10Mbps.

The computer is only capable of receiving 2.4ghz wifi and the speeds are terrible - generally around 1Mbps. Sky are saying that there is no issue with the broadband as the iPhone is getting speeds of 10Mbps. From my perspective I had the same computer in my old house and despite it only being capable of receiving 2.4ghz wifi I still got good speeds so can't understand why the Sky router can't provide reasonable speeds on 2.4ghz (both Plusnet and Sky said my phone line in both the old/new house is capable of the same rough speeds). I asked Sky for the username and password for the broadband, in the hope I could go back to using the BT HomeHub but they claimed to not know what I was talking about and suggested the 'admin' and 'sky' combo!

Is there anything I can buy (other than a whole new computer!) to help the situation? Some kind of adapter to allow the computer to use 5ghz wifi or something else?

wongataa

You could invest in powerline network adaptors.

neilmcl

wongataa wrote: »

You could invest in powerline network adaptors.

Or get a wifi adapter capable of 5Ghz.

I recently purchased the following for my laptop because the wifi in my office at home is rubbish with the laptop docked and lid down and my powerline adapters had a habit of dropping connection.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072FJS5MT/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It works really well.

Also, have you tried changing the wifi channel on your router? I'd recommend downloading a copy of inSSIDer to find out which channels are being hit the most.

DoaM

Use inSSIDer or similar to see how busy the 2.4GHz network is. There's a good chance that your router is using the busiest WiFi channel - switch to a quiet channel and speeds may well improve.

GunJack

Yeah, sounds like a wifi interference issue, DoaM has posted the first (and cost-free) solution....

Carrot007

Indeed wifi is nothing to do with sky. It's your issue.

Maybe manually choose a better wifi channel. Auto selection can cause yours and your neighbours routers into a switching chaos battle.

Failing that get powerline adaptors. That's what I use.

Wifi is slow anyway, why use it unless you have to. For a fixed computer point it seems insanity!

Again sky do not have control of what the walls in your new house are made of and what items are in the way.

The reason I use powerline adaptors (beyond the fact I am too lazy to wire it up!) is because the boiler if right inbetween me and the router in this house and the wifi is poor because of it.

If you really insist on wifi get some repeaters.

Carrot007

newbieFTB wrote: »

(both Plusnet and Sky said my phone line in both the old/new house is capable of the same rough speeds)

To clarify you even further. You only get the line speed on a wired/powerline conenction. Wifi will not come close and it out of thier control. (Move to an old stone cottage and go to wifi hell!)

Gloomendoom

Carrot007 wrote: »

(Move to an old stone cottage and go to wifi hell!)

I live in a old stone cottage. 40 Mbps wifi, 50 wired.

Mind you, I do have three wireless routers at strategic points around the house.

The much vaunted BT Smarthub won't even reach into the next room.

newbieFTB

Thanks all, I forgot to mention that I tried switching between all the wifi channels with no success.

Also, the only network that my phone and computer 'see' is my own network, in my old house a few of the neighbours networks popped up but no others are visible here, it's quite a build up street but my house is positioned oddly so it's not that close to the other houses (next door is empty too).

The router is around 3 metres from the computer but it's in the hall so there is a brick wall between the two devices... that said I used to get wifi on my phone when sat outside my old house so that signal was having to go through a brick wall too.

neilmcl wrote: »

Or get a wifi adapter capable of 5Ghz.

I recently purchased the following for my laptop because the wifi in my office at home is rubbish with the laptop docked and lid down and my powerline adapters had a habit of dropping connection.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072FJS5MT/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It works really well.

Thanks, I was hoping there was some kind of dongle I could get but had no idea what it might be called - is this 'better' than powerline adapters?

neilmcl

newbieFTB wrote: »

Thanks all, I forgot to mention that I tried switching between all the wifi channels with no success.

Also, the only network that my phone and computer 'see' is my own network, in my old house a few of the neighbours networks popped up but no others are visible here, it's quite a build up street but my house is positioned oddly so it's not that close to the other houses (next door is empty too).

The router is around 3 metres from the computer but it's in the hall so there is a brick wall between the two devices... that said I used to get wifi on my phone when sat outside my old house so that signal was having to go through a brick wall too.

Thanks, I was hoping there was some kind of dongle I could get but had no idea what it might be called - is this 'better' than powerline adapters?

It works for me, not necessarily "better" just an alternative to the powerline solution and much cheaper.

Where your router is positioned in the hallway, presumably because this is where the main socket is, I don't suppose you have a cordless phone sitting next to it? If so I'd move this as far away as possible as this would also be a source of interference to your signal.

I still recommend you installing inSSIDer first to see exactly what's using the various channels before spending any money on this.

takman

newbieFTB wrote: »

The router is around 3 metres from the computer but it's in the hall so there is a brick wall between the two devices... that said I used to get wifi on my phone when sat outside my old house so that signal was having to go through a brick wall too.

Just drill a hole in the wall and run an Ethernet Cable from the Router to the Computer. That is by far the cheapest option and will offer the fastest connection between the two devices.