Help with poor connection (latency?)

ArbitraryRandom

Hello. 

At the start of the month I came on here because my internet had completely stopped working and people kindly advised there was a general issue with the network, but I think there's also a different problem with my internet that I'm hoping people can help me fix? 

As before, I use an unlimited smarty sim in a TP link router (MR600) - I've done this for about 4 years without an issue, getting a new sim each 12 months when they do their black friday sale. 

In the last few months (perhaps even as far back as August) I have been having real trouble with the internet. Streaming buffers, Youtube periodically tells me I'm not connected, MSE pages (and others) take multiple minutes to load or end up posting double posts etc. My new sim hasn't fixed the problem. 

I've been doing speed tests and they report I should be able to stream etc, my router reports between 100-75% connection depending on the weather (with that not seeming to have an impact on the issues), and there's no reported network problems in my area according to three or smarty.

Googling, the two things I've come across are congestion and latency, with some others suggesting the issue is the dynamic IP (I'm not sure why that would be a problem now when never before?). But I also wonder that my router is several years old... do I need to get a new one? Or is there anything else I can do in the settings to try and improve/fix things? 

Mark_d

From your speedtest your connection does not look unreasonable.  I suspect that the problems you're experiencing might be down to issue on the local network inside your property.  Have you tried using your computer with a direct wired (ethernet) connection to your TP Link modem/router?

ArbitraryRandom

I (now) have an ethernet cable being delivered in the next couple of days