Broadband contract ending - should I shop elsewhere

Estelle77

Hello, I have been with Sky for three years. After two years my connection went weak and slow, at times frustratingly not working. I have had an engineer coming over here because they admitted the speed went down below the range agreed in the contract. He cancelled the other sockets in the house and rewired the master socket into one room to reduce interference. It was somewhere at 11-12 mb/s. He said that if further problems occur it is outside of the house and Openreach will have to be involved. I did contact him later on that the speed/connectio is still playing up but because it was not measured as below those 12, they don't bother. I have no further information about whether they do anything in the area or not.
My question is: because I often catch a network of my neighbours when mine plays up, is it worth to switch to a different provider to get maybe a better router? The one I am having now is the upright standing one and I was told by the engineer it is better for the in house signal than the new one they offer, which is flat and the antenna is short, hence not providing as good signal as the model I have (he also uses the one I have for testing and fixing problems). The new flat one was said to have a better management of various devices, but the signal strength suffers. This is just the background of my issue.

Is it worth to risk a frustration for another year with a different provider since the current one is not able/willing to sort it out? Neighbour's seem to have a better signal than we have, it says Talk Talk when mine is lost and the neighbours' is shows on the list of available networks. I am no expert on these things so if you reply bear that in mind. Thanks.

Takmon

Estelle77 wrote: »

Hello, I have been with Sky for three years. After two years my connection went weak and slow, at times frustratingly not working. I have had an engineer coming over here because they admitted the speed went down below the range agreed in the contract. He cancelled the other sockets in the house and rewired the master socket into one room to reduce interference. It was somewhere at 11-12 mb/s. He said that if further problems occur it is outside of the house and Openreach will have to be involved. I did contact him later on that the speed/connectio is still playing up but because it was not measured as below those 12, they don't bother. I have no further information about whether they do anything in the area or not.
My question is: because I often catch a network of my neighbours when mine plays up, is it worth to switch to a different provider to get maybe a better router? The one I am having now is the upright standing one and I was told by the engineer it is better for the in house signal than the new one they offer, which is flat and the antenna is short, hence not providing as good signal as the model I have (he also uses the one I have for testing and fixing problems). The new flat one was said to have a better management of various devices, but the signal strength suffers. This is just the background of my issue.

Is it worth to risk a frustration for another year with a different provider since the current one is not able/willing to sort it out? Neighbour's seem to have a better signal than we have, it says Talk Talk when mine is lost and the neighbours' is shows on the list of available networks. I am no expert on these things so if you reply bear that in mind. Thanks.

This sounds like it is a problem with your Wi-Fi signal and your broadband is working fine. Wi-Fi can be affected by many factors such as which channel it's on, location in the house, thickness of walls, interference etc. So they won't guarantee a good Wi-Fi signal and they won't do anything if your broadband if working correctly.

You don't need to switch providers to get a different router you can simply buy one yourself and use it with your existing provider. But if you can get a better deal then it will always be worth switching.

JJ_Egan

As above /
How are you connected ??
If you are seeing neighbours then its wifi and thats down to many factors under your control .
Your ISP provides a signal at the master socket and this is what they meaure not your own stuff.


Better router BT Home Hub 6 is probably the best .
Other with excellent wifi are available from circa £200 .


Wifi set channels to 1 6 or 11 .
Not the same channel as neighbours as they are probably flooding the same channel as you .

Estelle77

I am connected wirelessly within the house and by wires to the outside world.
I often restart the router when it plays up but it only lasts for a day or couple of days. I find myself restarting it a few times during the week. It worked quite fine for a year after we moved into the house and then it became funny, so initially there was little or no interference and suddenly there is a lot? The same house. The same room.

I am not quite clear how the other independent routers work with my provider? The coding system, etc. I have never done that.

JJ_Egan

Depends upon your ISP giving you the details .


Reboot router will not help wifi .
OK one year reads as neighbours interfering or are you using new equipment .
Your ISP should have a help page/ forum .




Wired to the outside world .
Speed can only be measured at the master socket direct connection to router and Ethernet cable to PC/ Laptop /
Phone or Tablet wifi test tool may help .


Can you log in to router and One find IP Profile and two in wireless change the channel .

Estelle77

I have been having the same equipment for those 3 years. One year in a different home and then we moved here.
I did contact the provider in the past and they directed me to change the channel remotely via online chat. I could go and fish the details to do that again. Will it be worth? Maybe neighbours have had something changed that influence my connection in the house.
I thought that rebooting the router will sort out the hiccups it has sometimes. It seems to work for a short period of time but it might be a coincidence.

JJ_Egan

Very slight posibility its the router at fault ..
If you have Android download Wifi Analyzer and measure signal next to router or use Speedtest.net /
Try moving the router around for a better signal .

AndyPK

If you need things sorting out, Sky are I think one of the better ones to deal with.

You wouldn't want to move to a cheaper one that was unwilling to get open reach involved.

If its out of spec now, maybe now is the time to get it sorted?

esuhl

Connect your PC to the router with an Ethernet cable instead of wifi and see if you still have the problem. That way you'll know whether it's your internet connection that's at fault.

Estelle77

esuhl wrote: »

Connect your PC to the router with an Ethernet cable instead of wifi and see if you still have the problem. That way you'll know whether it's your internet connection that's at fault.

That is easier said than done. I don't have that cable and the all in one PC is a bit fiddly to move around to the only room where the router can be placed (or so I think as I don't have any other longer cables to move the router to a different room and this was the only option available having the power socket next to the internet connection socket). I'll ask my other half to test it on his laptop when he comes home at the weekend. Thanks. The trouble is the problems are intermittent and very frustrating when they happen out of blue as it takes various times. Most of the time it is fine.

Estelle77

esuhl wrote: »

Connect your PC to the router with an Ethernet cable instead of wifi and see if you still have the problem. That way you'll know whether it's your internet connection that's at fault.

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Very slight posibility its the router at fault ..
If you have Android download Wifi Analyzer and measure signal next to router or use Speedtest.net /
Try moving the router around for a better signal .

Thanks, will try that, at least that is what I can do myself now.