The Search for Speed

Blackrock1 said:
What speed are you paying for? If its a 250mb connection and you are getting the full 250mb on your phone then its properly configured and you are close to the router, if its a 500mb or 1gb connection its a different story and the only way to test the actual speed being provided to you is test the wired speeds.
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As above, I get the same results from a speed test on my phone via wifi and on my laptop connected to my LAN. My wifi connection to the phone is running 1.2 Gbps but my LAN runs through a 1Gbps switch (I believe the LAN ports on the Vodafone Gigabox are 1 Gig anyway). So in my setup, my wired connection will become a limiting factor before my wireless will.
Blackrock1 said:
Who said people were using 13 year old phones that support 2.4ghz? you arent understanding my post, im talking about what the router is doing not the phone.
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The phone negotiates the frequency & channel with the router. If the phone isn't negotiating a 5GHz channel when available on the same SSID, then it's a very old phone or it's not using the default settings.
 
Leo said:
As above, I get the same results from a speed test on my phone via wifi and on my laptop connected to my LAN. My wifi connection to the phone is running 1.2 Gbps but my LAN runs through a 1Gbps switch (I believe the LAN ports on the Vodafone Gigabox are 1 Gig anyway). So in my setup, my wired connection will become a limiting factor before my wireless will.

The phone negotiates the frequency & channel with the router. If the phone isn't negotiating a 5GHz channel when available on the same SSID, then it's a very old phone or it's not using the default settings.
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what speed are you paying for? if its not more than 1gbps then the point you are making is irrelevant as the speed you can expect to get is the limiting factor, not the hardware. If you genuinely believe that testing over wifi is as representative as wired i disagree, there are far too many variables at play that you can remove by testing with a wired connection. which is the first thing someone will do if they are wondering about network speed issues.

Re mobile devices have seen it plenty of times with phones reporting sub optimal speeds because they move to 2.4ghz as you move away from the router and fail to move back to 5ghz as you get closer which is why i would always recommend splitting the channels, ensuring you have enough access points to provide 5ghz all around the house and connect to that exclusively.
 
Leo said:
As above, I get the same results from a speed test on my phone via wifi and on my laptop connected to my LAN. My wifi connection to the phone is running 1.2 Gbps but my LAN runs through a 1Gbps switch (I believe the LAN ports on the Vodafone Gigabox are 1 Gig anyway). So in my setup, my wired connection will become a limiting factor before my wireless will.
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Interference and signal attenuation could easily make a nominally 1.2Gbps WiFi 6/802.11ac connection slower in actual use than 1Gbps wired ethernet.
 
ClubMan said:
Interference and signal attenuation could easily make a nominally 1.2Gbps WiFi 6/802.11ac connection slower in actual use than 1Gbps wired ethernet.
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Yeah, in different areas of the house with walls between the access point and phone or with the TV streaming in 4k it takes a dive.
 
Blackrock1 said:
what speed are you paying for? if its not more than 1gbps then the point you are making is irrelevant as the speed you can expect to get is the limiting factor, not the hardware.
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Again, the speed I'm paying for has no bearing whatsoever on the wireless performance within my house. The incoming connection in no way affects the point to point connection speed.
 
Leo said:
Again, the speed I'm paying for has no bearing whatsoever on the wireless performance within my house. The incoming connection in no way affects the point to point connection speed.
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The speed you are paying for is your point of reference if you are paying for 250 and getting 250 then happy days, if you are paying for 500 and getting 250 then you have an issue.
 
Leo said:
Yeah, in different areas of the house with walls between the access point and phone or with the TV streaming in 4k it takes a dive.
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exactly so if you tested your wifi in that part of your house and you are seeing speeds that are 70% lower than what you get wired then you know your issue is your wifi set up not what your isp is providing to you.
 
Blackrock1 said:
The speed you are paying for is your point of reference if you are paying for 250 and getting 250 then happy days, if you are paying for 500 and getting 250 then you have an issue.
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The point I'm making is that for the most part, the local wireless network is not the limiting factor in assessing internet download speeds.
 
jpd said:
When you speed test your internet connection, the results depend on the limitations and speed of
1. the machine you use (PC, phone, laptop, tablet,...)
2. the type of connection to the router (wired, wifi, bluetooth)
3. the performance of the router
4. the performance of the line or wireless connection to your internet provider

Your provider is only responsable for the last of these - well, possibly for the router too
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But having taken that into account, there's nothing in the house that can make it variable, it must be the contention ratio of the supplier.
Mine is upto 37Gbps today, way above the 26 that I expected when it was installed and above the crazy minimum of 2 in my contract
 
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Leo said:
The point I'm making is that for the most part, the local wireless network is not the limiting factor in assessing internet download speeds.
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i disagree. you could test in 2 parts of the house and get 2 different answers, or you could be right beside the router and your phone hasnt gone back onto a 5ghz radio, or there could be interference. Which is why, if you have network speed issues you check wired first to see if you are getting what you expect to get, and if thats ok address any issues with your wifi set up.
 
Blackrock1 said:
i disagree. you could test in 2 parts of the house and get 2 different answers,
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Well, if you're foolish enough to think testing far away from the router makes sense.... When I see my wireless connection is running at 1.2 Gbps, it makes little sense to fire up the laptop running on the slower wired connection to test.
 
Leo said:
Well, if you're foolish enough to think testing far away from the router makes sense.... When I see my wireless connection is running at 1.2 Gbps, it makes little sense to fire up the laptop running on the slower wired connection to test.
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well, you have certainly convinced yourself you are right. ignoring the fact that if the speed you are paying for is less than 1gbps then your comment above is irrelevant in any case.
 
If you can get Virgin Media, or if you are able to connect to SIRO (check their website), then that's the way to go.

If neither of the above are available, and you want decent spend, and are prepared to pay for it, get Starlink. It's not cheap, but it's very good, for anyone needing decent reliable download speeds. It's a satellite based service, so you've to pay for the kit, and then there's a monthly sub.
 
MrEarl said:
If neither of the above are available, and you want decent spend, and are prepared to pay for it, get Starlink. It's not cheap, but it's very good, for anyone needing decent reliable download speeds. It's a satellite based service, so you've to pay for the kit, and then there's a monthly sub.
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€450 up front and €85 p.m. for 50-200Mbps and high latency (gamers won't like that)? Yikes! o_O
 
ClubMan said:
€450 up front and €85 p.m. for 50-200Mbps and high latency (gamers won't like that)? Yikes! o_O
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I did say that it wasn't cheap, but not everyone has the benefit of a decent cable based service.

Sometimes, you've just gotta pay for what you want, in this life....
 
Yes, but your advice was VM, SIRO, or Starlink in that order.
Why not others before going to Tesla priced options?
 
Blackrock1 said:
well, you have certainly convinced yourself you are right. ignoring the fact that if the speed you are paying for is less than 1gbps then your comment above is irrelevant in any case.
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OK, let's try an example with numbers to see if you get it.

Let's say I'm on a 500 Mbps FTTH connection. Using my phone, which is reporting a 1.2 Gbps connection to the access point, which it then wired to the router over a 1 gig LAN connection. I run a speedtest that reports 250 Mbps download speed.

Is it now clear that I can be confident that the wireless connection is not the limiting factor in that test?
 
Leo said:
OK, let's try an example with numbers to see if you get it.

Let's say I'm on a 500 Mbps FTTH connection. Using my phone, which is reporting a 1.2 Gbps connection to the access point, which it then wired to the router over a 1 gig LAN connection. I run a speedtest that reports 250 Mbps download speed.

Is it now clear that I can be confident that the wireless connection is not the limiting factor in that test?
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If you have a 500Mbps connection and you are getting a 250mb download speed then yes there is an issue with your wifi set up. Unless you have also verified that the wired connection is also only reporting 250mb down. If you are getting 500mb wired and 250mb over wifi the connection to the access point is moot, there is an issue with your wifi set up.

If both wired and wifi are reporting the same speed and its half the advertised speed then you more likely have an issue with the ISP.
 
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