Broadband Speed Tests

[Redgun71]

Like a lot of people I have got various devices at home - (laptops, phones, tablets) and some are faster than others when downloading pages on the internet by fractions of a seconds, sometimes by a couple of seconds. This has always perplexed me, as of yesterday my VM broadband was "fixed", I had signal problems which was due to an old connection (attenuator) on the cables, so I opened both my laptops today to do a broadband speed test at the same time.

Wireless
Results for my 6 year old HP Pavillion laptop i5 8GB ram 802.11 b/g/n Results 3 year old Apple MacBook Air i5 8GB ram 802.11 ac
Ping 9ms Download 56.57Mbps Upload 10.05Mbps Ping 13ms Download 75.88Mbps Upload 3.43Mbps

Wired (30 seconds later after the Wireless test)
Ping 9ms Download 78.74Mbps Upload 10.17Mbps N/A no RJ45 port

I expected the Apple laptop to be a little faster as it is more modern and has the latest version of wireless standards, but can't see why the Apple upload speed was less than the HP. Also when wired, the HP laptop matched/bettered the wireless Apple laptop speeds.
I know you need to do more speed tests to get a better average results, but surely every speed test my Apple should be better or match the HP laptop download and upload speeds?

 

[dar1437]

I think the network adapter has a lot to do with it.

I remember testing an Android MX2/ M8? And i was getting twice the speed with it's wireless, than the LAN port.

 

[avid]

Also what other processes are running in the background as this may affect each device.

 

[Ferret]

What Virgin hub do you have ? Are you running it as is or in modem mode with a router attached ?

 

[jfish]

on VM but got a Tenda AC 15 as router running Tomato firmware

Using a i5 Laptop

Wired

Wireless

 

[copex]

wireless - VM350 hub3

 

[Redgun71]

Also what other processes are running in the background as this may affect each device.

Just the minimum, st

I think the network adapter has a lot to do with it.

I remember testing an Android MX2/ M8? And i was getting twice the speed with it's wireless, than the LAN port.

The network adapter on my HP laptop is Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller and the Wireless adapter is Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 bng.

 

[Redgun71]

Also what other processes are running in the background as this may affect each device.

Nothing was running in the network processes background apart Chrome to run the speed test.

 

[Redgun71]

What Virgin hub do you have ? Are you running it as is or in modem mode with a router attached ?

The Super Hub 3, just running it as it is.

 

[Redgun71]

Wireless

 

[Redgun71]

Wired - I pay for 100Mbps and have read that small print about their advertised speed (which is based on wired), and take the time of day into consideration.

 

[Ferret]

Im below par also around 160 on a 200 meg line

 

[darren221980]

This is mine via wireless at moment:



I usually get closer to 30Mbps download and 10Mbps upload. I can only dream of some of the speeds you guys are getting at the moment.

I'm on Vodafone Superfast 1 package as they claim my line can't support the next package up. But on a plus note, Openreach installed the fibre throughout my street 3 weeks ago for FTTP and upon asking them when they expect it to go live they gave an estimate of August. So fingers crossed faster speeds available here too, which would be handy with working from home (which i'm expecting work to say i can continue doing longterm if wanted).

 

[jfish]

using different speed test sites I get different results

test done with a 20 sec gap between the 2 tests using same laptop
nperf

'

speedtest.net

 

[Thinkster]

I don't know about VM equipment, but I always try to do setups with a Plain Jane Cable Modem (with Specs that match or exceed the speed the customer is paying for) with one single output AND a separate router. The Gateway or Modem/Router combos that service providers give are generally junk and have crippled firmware. I always do a speed test hard wired first from the modem to a computer that has a Gigabit Ethernet card, then I add the gigabit router and do a speedtest hardwired to it to make sure there is no or little throughput loss. Wireless speeds vary from device to device and just because a device is an apple doesn't mean it's going to perform better! Apple chooses what manufacturer they use for their wireless chipset and it may not be as good performing as what a particular PC manufacturer uses in their product.

 

[darren221980]

This is mine via wireless at moment:

View attachment 129311

I usually get closer to 30Mbps download and 10Mbps upload. I can only dream of some of the speeds you guys are getting at the moment.

I'm on Vodafone Superfast 1 package as they claim my line can't support the next package up. But on a plus note, Openreach installed the fibre throughout my street 3 weeks ago for FTTP and upon asking them when they expect it to go live they gave an estimate of August. So fingers crossed faster speeds available here too, which would be handy with working from home (which i'm expecting work to say i can continue doing longterm if wanted).

FTTP finally available to order yesterday, however only ISP who will provide it is BT. Managed to get the full fibre 100 for £29.99 and will hopefully go live no 15th September. Currently in a contract with Vodafone until March next year but BT will pay up my early termination fees to leave Vodafone too

 

[darren221980]

Well, BT Full Fibre 100 was installed on Tuesday afternoon and up and running around 3pm with speeds of around 150mb down when tested. I then went out for a meal and returned home around 7pm to find the fibre not working and it hasn't worked since. To top it off, my old FTTC from Vodafone was also cut off the same evening due to my phone number moving over from them to BT. As a result while i'm meant to be working from home i haven't been able to do much while tethered to my mobile for the last 2 days!

When i rang BT tech support yesterday they claimed that there was a major service outage yet none of my neighbours / estate were reporting any issues and there was no mention of it on there service status checker. They did promise they would text me with any updates to the service outage which they'd expect to be fixed within 24 - 48 hours.

I raised a complaint yesterday evening, and then when calling tech support again this morning they said the major service outage has been fixed, although not for me it appears. I mentioned i'd raised a complaint already and low and behold they agree to get an engineer out to me tomorrow morning to see why it's not working. Even more annoying they didn't send me any updates prior to me calling to advise the major service outage was fixed.

I didn't really want to go with BT for fibre but they are only provider here who can provide FTTP. Should have known it would be a shower of sh1t just like it was in the days of dial up in my late teens / early 20's.

The modem on my wall is basically constantly showing the following lights:

Power = Solid green light
LOS = PON light stops flashing once every few mins and the LOS light then flashes red once.
PON = Flashing green light
LAN = Solid green light

As the service worked intially i suspect that Openreach have either missed some config in the local exchange (after reading several forum posts of similar issues) or there is a fault with the fibre.

So far a poor start to a new service with BT.

 

[spud1966]

Virgin rock the rest of the providers suck m8 bottom line

 

[rawsy]

Virgin rock the rest of the providers suck m8 bottom line

I agree virgin do the best bb as long as it’s a virgin area. Their adsl offering is as shit as the others.

 

[Spectre]

Just don't do what I did. I think I alienated the whole of the VM UK support team in their forum.

I thought it was their system limiting me to 180Mb, rather than the usual 360+Mb.

If anyone reads, I'm sorry for accusing anyone of anything and threatening ombudsmen on people.

Turned out it was Cisco router that hadn't been rebooted in 1600 days that was the issue. Some counters had astronomical figures in them.