Broadband speed

Janey1a

I appreciate a lot more people are online at the moment but I’m not getting the guaranteed broadband speed from Virgin at present. It’s a nightmare getting through to them and they want to increase my bill next month so I’m wondering whether to switch provider. 

I’ve used Ookla to test speeds throughout the day, with various devices being used throughout the house and seem to be averaging between 13-26mbps. I’m not connected with an Ethernet to test but my laptop doesn’t have a port for it. The guarantee is 54mbps.
I ran a test using my phone and my new iPad this morning, literally side by side - the phone’s result was 17.57 but the iPad was 2.97.
I’m puzzled why they’re so different? 

Would you suggest I switch providers based on the results I’ve explained? 

sweetgirl2015

Janey1a said:

I appreciate a lot more people are online at the moment but I’m not getting the guaranteed broadband speed from Virgin at present. It’s a nightmare getting through to them and they want to increase my bill next month so I’m wondering whether to switch provider. 

I’ve used Ookla to test speeds throughout the day, with various devices being used throughout the house and seem to be averaging between 13-26mbps. I’m not connected with an Ethernet to test but my laptop doesn’t have a port for it. The guarantee is 54mbps.
I ran a test using my phone and my new iPad this morning, literally side by side - the phone’s result was 17.57 but the iPad was 2.97.
I’m puzzled why they’re so different? 

Would you suggest I switch providers based on the results I’ve explained? 

Virgin have a duty to reduce your bills if you are not getting the speeds they claim to deliver. If you had a milk round and bought 10 bottles of milk but only got delivered 3 you would complain, so this is what you need to do with Virgin. 
If then they still short change you I would switch, but switch to Plusnet, but thats just my personal advice. 

mobileron

reboot the router weekly then test again.

JJ_Egan

Speed must be measured over Ethernet  ,that is part of the speed guarantee t&c.

Wifi does not measure speed at the router .

Log in to router should shown speed in to house .

fred246

I don't understand what people are wanting to do with all this speed. 2.97 should be fine for watching HD video. 13-26 should be absolutely fine. Maybe I am just too old.

Janey1a

mobileron said:

reboot the router weekly then test again.

Thanks, yes I’ve rebooted, done all the checks on their website but still no improvement. 

Janey1a

JJ_Egan said:

Speed must be measured over Ethernet  ,that is part of the speed guarantee t&c.

Wifi does not measure speed at the router .

Log in to router should shown speed in to house .

Thanks for that, do you know how I log into the router to check it? 

Janey1a

fred246 said:

I don't understand what people are wanting to do with all this speed. 2.97 should be fine for watching HD video. 13-26 should be absolutely fine. Maybe I am just too old.

It just becomes an issue when kids are schooling from home plus me using my phone. Also seems to be an issue when both kids are online gaming at the same time. 

fred246

Are you doing everything on wifi? I always find a second speed test straight after the first to be faster. Can't work that out myself.

JJ_Egan

Its more than likely wifi problem .

Change channels from whatever to 1 6 or 11 ,#Set network as 2.4 and 5ghz a separate channels .

Use 5ghz channel on phones etc indoors .

54 meg may be the speed at the router and what the ISP is contracted to supply .They are not giving a wifi guarantee .

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-no-wifi-connection

Heedtheadvice

^^^ Those that mention ethernet, looking at router log snd not relying on WiFi!

Speed test  should be done via ethernet as that then avoids wifi issues.

The router log should give details of your actual line connection speed not that complicated by source website issues or those wifi issues. You need to find the router ip address, put that in a web browser, login and possibly log in as admin. See router documentation or search online. You can do sll this via wifi as you are only reading the router's log record.

Wifi speed is a limiting factor - more so than a wired ethernet connection owing to extra overhead. Firstly performance is shared between devices, communication is on a limited number of channels so there might be "interference" if there are other routers etc. in the vicinity on the same channels and signsl quality (lack of strength and interference) causes errors and repeat transmissions slowing everything down. Ensure you have top quality signal strength (on all devices in use) and lack of interfering signals. Download something like WiFi Analyser to see a graph showing your and other chanels in use that might be conflicting(overlapping) or high signal strengths.

Bear in mind lots of internet use so many things are out of your control giving an apparent slow speed too that is not part of your contract!