Internet intermittently slowing down to a crawl

I'm with Virgin and had multiple dropped connections also this morning for what's it's worth. Probably all the kids off school using the internet for studying streaming :mad::D
 
You can't test your connection on the Phone or using Wifi.

You need to test it using an wired ethernet connection and/or look at the signal quality on the modems own control panel.

That said I've have weird issues with the VM modem in the last few months where the wired connection slows to a crawl but the wifi is fine. Contacted VW but no satisfaction there. Has happened about 3 or 4 times in the last 6 months and after about 4 or 5 hours go back to normal.
 
Is it worth doing an anti-virus scan to see if there is anything running on your laptop that is slowing everything down?
 
I don't know if this gives you any useful information

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It was unusable today at around 9.30

And then was fine until the connection dropped a little while ago. I was having my lunch so I didn't notice it.

So 4 hours of fine service.

What does " wi-fi/ethernet ok" mean if I have no connection?

Brendan
 
Just checked the download speed and it's only 74

So it seems to take some time after an outage to get back up to speed.

Brendan
 
You can't test your connection on the Phone or using Wifi.

You need to test it using an wired ethernet connection and/or look at the signal quality on the modems own control panel.
I've compared wired and wireless speed tests multiple times with little variance in the results from one to the other. Obviously when testing over wifi, the device should be close to the router with nothing in between. It would be pretty rare in those circumstances for the WiFi connection to be the limiting factor.
 
fair enough i have rarely experienced a degradation in service on the provider side, its far more frequently been an issue with local wifi set up (in my own and my wider family experience where i am the default internet fixer :D)

My own line is FTTH so normally rock solid, i believed virgin was always pretty good as well but maybe not the case any more.
I've 500Mb FTTH and there is constsnt variation in the speeds obtained, with evening peak streaming times usually the worst affected. Once or twice speeds have dropped below 5Mbps.
 
I've compared wired and wireless speed tests multiple times with little variance in the results from one to the other. Obviously when testing over wifi, the device should be close to the router with nothing in between. It would be pretty rare in those circumstances for the WiFi connection to be the limiting factor.
i disagree, there can be all sorts of variability with wifi speeds but wired devices should give consistent speeds.
 
I've 500Mb FTTH and there is constsnt variation in the speeds obtained, with evening peak streaming times usually the worst affected. Once or twice speeds have dropped below 5Mbps.

i have never seen anything coming close to that, and my speeds are monitored by my router running periodic speed tests, have you experienced this with a wired connection? i know you will disagree with me but thats almost certainly an issue with your set up, there is no way FTTH should be dropping 90% if its speed at peak times.
 
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Hi Blackrock

But I have the problem on my mobile as well, so clearly there is a problem.

Wiring my laptop might or might not sort out the laptop, but it won't sort out my phone.

Brendan
 
Until you test the wired you're really just guessing.

if there is a problem with the wired. It could be something in the box outside in the road. Sometimes when they add more people in the area it effects your connection or if there is signal problem there. Like water getting in or such. I get more or less what I pay for all of the time.

But I had no end of problems on Wifi until I switched to using a MESH.
 
i disagree, there can be all sorts of variability with wifi speeds but wired devices should give consistent speeds.
But in an environment with limited to no variability it's entirely possible to get consistent results. You can disagre, but I'm just stating my experience and that is that I get the same results whether wired or wireless and close to the router. When testing I'll use my laptop wired and wireless and my phone on the desk in my office which is ~2.5m from the router. WiFi isn't nearly as flakey as you seem to be suggesting.

i have never seen anything coming close to that, and my speeds are monitored by my router running periodic speed tests, have you experienced this with a wired connection?
No provider in Ireland offers contention free connections without charging a premium, so you must be very lucky and be on a line where all connections are not in use, or have ludite neighbours who have low usage. Vodafone / Eir run 48:1 contention on their lines so you are guaranteed to see variability in download rates as those other users ramp up demand.

There's a very good reason that providers heavily caveat their speed claims and that most of their support forums have countless complaints about slowdowns.
 
I've got close to my Wired speeds on WiFi since I switched to a mesh. The response times are slower on Wifi though. Which effects something like gaming. But not video streaming as the latter buffers (caches). A video meeting where lots of people have video on can sometimes better on wired. Other than that I rarely need to be on the wired connection these days. Normal video calls are fine on Wifi.

Newer laptops have better Wifi than older ones. You'd wouldn't think it makes much of a difference but it does. If you're still rocking some old equipment.
 
Brendan that internet connection log software should be used with a ethernet connection to the device so you can establish whether it’s a provider issue or wifi interference issue. Please keep us posted regarding the engineers opinion.
 
The engineer is here now. The connection is an old UPC connection and he said it is probably faulty. He also did not like the wiring outside the house which goes at right angles which he says is easy to break.

So he is fixing all that now.

The problem is that as it was an intermittent fault, I am not sure how it can be tested. But I suppose, if the problem recurs, at least we will have eliminated the wiring and the UPC box.

Brendan
 
He is finished now.

He said the problem was definitely the old box and wiring. And it should be fixed now.

He also plugged the ethernet cable into my laptop saying it was much better than going over wifi. (I had tried to plug it in but thought it was too big. I didn't need an adapter.)

Brendan
 
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