I’m supposed to have 900mbs BB, it was fine but a few months ago it started dropping down, often to 10% of that. Resetting the router (hub and WiFi) temporarily fixes the issue
BT (GB based Telco) came in and said there’s nothing wrong up to and including the hub - there’s something on my side that’s affecting the speed to the hub
Is that possible or likely, even?
I have:
Fibre into the house (at entrance ground floor)
Cat7 to the hub (10m to first floor)
Hue, Smart and Hive hubs (all short Cat6/7 by the hub)
Cat7 to my Nucleus (10m back to ground floor, 90% following same route as inward Cat7)
2x WiFi repeaters (BT GF and 2F)
Some power lines that aren’t switched on often and certainly not coinciding with speed drops
I only switch the Nucleus on when required, but the fault is independent of that
I don’t know what happens in your network but there is no current networking standard that makes use of Cat7 cables. So I would try and setup a standard compliant network as a troubleshooting step.
Similar to what @BlackJack says, but I’d try and atleast simplify the network to rule out or to confirm if you network equipment is having an effect.
When I get similar issues I generally plug my PC directly into my router and do a simple speediest via the routers app and also via web browser. 9 times out of 10 it’s the ISPs box that needs a reboot.
Thankfully I haven’t had an issue lately, but that could just be because I’m having various bits of electrical work carried out at my house and the power is off at least once a week.
My ISP (Virgin Media) has a function on my accounts website to conduct tests from their end to my house. It always says their side is fine and it’s my side. Reboot their box and it’s fine.
I’m thinking of putting my ISP box (just in modem mode) on a timer plug/smart plug so it reboots once a week.
I have the discs on reboot plugs, but I remember BT specifically saying don’t reset the hub unless required as it can take a while for the speed to reset (maybe that was on copper?)
What I’m struggling with is whether/how downstream secondary and tertiary equipment can affect the upstream feed speed I.e. what can the feed side sense (or get feedback on) that causes it to throttle back by up to 90%
I feel the cause may be to the wireless meshing backhaul. If the furthest repeater is communicating with the closets to the router, you’ll notice a heavy drop in bandwidth.
Mesh is good but I always wire units for backhaul. Not sure if the ones you have can or if your home will accommodate extra ethernet. Rebooting just clears everything and starts afresh.
I have had BT whole Home wireless mesh discs before and they were bad, as you described.
When working, everything is fine
I can get 400mbs+ over WiFi in some places in the house and 150+ even in the weakest areas
I normally and historically had have no issue with laptop or tv, smart devices, chromecast etc. Hue has almost no lag, Hive is as clumsy as it ever was, other smart devices - no problems
Roon is hardwired to my main system - zero issues
I use WiFi to my KEF LS50W system, it’s about 4-5m from the hub to the master unit - no problems
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong or different on my side of the network - my issue is I’m paying for 900, guaranteed 700, but I’m below that 700 regularly in the past three months or so- thus morning BTs own app reported 95mbs again
I live on a small estate of 15 houses, I think I was first to go fibre over a year ago - then took a cheap ish option to go from 300mbs (ish) to 900 a few months ago. Initially all good, then I stated to notice some pixelation on YT, the occasional stutter - so I started doing speed tests
Problems seem to have started as my neighbours started to adopt fibre too…
Most likely some installation from the ISP (node, aggregation point) with a given, fixed bandwidth is shared between all the 15 houses. Depending on that shared bandwidth, users may notice reduced speeds during periods of high demand (typically in the evening when people come home from work and start consuming media).
Note: ISPs usually don’t care much as their advertisement and contracts often speak of “up to” speeds and only seldom guarantee a minimum speed.
They actually have a guarantee in this case (shock horror! I know)
When I contact them they do all the stuff, and send me a portable 4G hub to ensure courage etc.
they even discounted the bill by £20 one time
But, back to my question, is it possible or likely that anything my end can affect the upstream speed by 90% ish?
There are likely other fora to be found on the internet that specifically discuss issues (hardware, software, infrastructure, tweaks, success stories, complaint stories, help, …) with your and/or all available ISPs in your region/country. You are more likely to get/find an answer there than here.
As your issue seems to be a contract violation on your ISP’s behalf, keep pestering their support. Think about changing the ISP.
I have pretty much the same setup and recently got 900meg from BT.
There looks to be an issue on the line. Book in an engineer to check for faults. Again, we are one of the first in our small village in a culdesac. I’m just waiting for more to adopt it. I run roon nuc, hue, x2 nas’s, a Tailscale setup using two other nuc’s, and can stream 4K on Netflix and from my server with no impact.
There’s no way you should be getting 95meg…
Oh and run a diagnostic on the router to check for faults.
Yes, both I and BT have done all the diagnostics
Their engineer has been here, looked at everything mentioned above
They acknowledge the issue
She couldn’t find anything in person, was online to their help desk etc etc
Their conclusion: something on my system is causing the issue
My question is not contractual, that’s easily fixed; if 900mbs is not possible, I’ll just pay for less. To be honest, the jump to 900 made little if any appreciable difference (when it works )
Switching to another ISP isn’t really on my options list - I’m on BTs infrastructure, their ‘help’ is better than others (never ever consider TalkTalk , I was warned…) and all I’d be doing is changing the direct debit payment
Again, my question is (what seems to me to be) the technical implausibility of their conclusion
Having googled it, I haven’t found anything
Bearing in mind the often ‘technical’ comments/opinions on here regarding networks, I thought I’d ask…
I guess you could try switching everything off one by one to see if anything is impacting the network? Just run the router and Ethernet to a main computer and check.
This is my understanding of the matter: Your system has no control over the landline though. The BT router (and so BT’s tech, infrastructure and protocols) is what controls the landline.
Depending on how long it takes, it might be a viable test for you to disconnect your home network from the BT router. Given he can also provide WiFi you should be able to connect your phone only to that WiFi to monitor the speed with their app else use a single PC wired directly into their Router. If you end-up with the same result that you showed in the screenshot above, you’ve proven that it’s not your network causing this.
The answer to the question is no. The hub is connected via fibre. Its speed to the hub cannot be impacted by anything on the other side of the hub. My guess is they have too many customers connected and contention is high. It needs a major upgrade which takes time so you get dissuaded from seeing it as a reportable issue. It is. Continue to report it and it will prompt them to speed up the required upgrades.
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, I was warned…) and all I’d be doing is changing the direct debit payment