Erratic Speeds

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KatieKim

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I am with MWEB/Vumatel 100mbs fibre line and my setup is WIFI. In December the download speeds were bad and I started testing my speeds multiple times a day to see what was going on. Christmas week was the worst of it with between 1 to 3mbs download speeds been shown, my upload speed was also bad. Other times my upload speed has always remained what it should be.

I do the bulk of the testing on my pc. Generally speaking the download speed can widly fluxuate over the day. I have seen it below 10mbs but this doesn't seem to last long. The two favourite averages are between 17mb to 22mb range and 50mbs to 58mbs range. I have actually seen 90mbs, 77mbs is the most common of the top readings but not often.

I have tested the speeds from time to time with my smartphone the highest I've seen is 51mbs, that was during an upper range reading on the pc. I average about 40-45mbs on the phone but I have gotten readings as low as 8mbs. Except in December streaming on my TV ran alright.

I had been working on the assumption that it is a problem with the PC but all the tests recommended to be done are coming back alright. MWEB said the line is fine but it might be the router causing problems, which I am looking into to if I need to replace

But I got back to work and started testing there and the speed is also erratic. They are also on MWEB/Vumatel 50mb and WIFI setup. I've had high speeds but I've seen as low as 4mbs.

Before I go laying out for a new router and maybe cables. I would like mybroadband opinion if this type of erratic speeds are normal or not.
 
Most of the time and is def your line provider, but mweb as you might experienced it, not that what you expect.

Any other provider beside vuma? if not try different isp.

Try different router but I doubt it will make any difference.
 
Test with a cable first, otherwise your ISP needs to assist further.
 
KatieKim said:
I am with MWEB/Vumatel 100mbs fibre line and my setup is WIFI. In December the download speeds were bad and I started testing my speeds multiple times a day to see what was going on. Christmas week was the worst of it with between 1 to 3mbs download speeds been shown, my upload speed was also bad. Other times my upload speed has always remained what it should be.

I do the bulk of the testing on my pc. Generally speaking the download speed can widly fluxuate over the day. I have seen it below 10mbs but this doesn't seem to last long. The two favourite averages are between 17mb to 22mb range and 50mbs to 58mbs range. I have actually seen 90mbs, 77mbs is the most common of the top readings but not often.

I have tested the speeds from time to time with my smartphone the highest I've seen is 51mbs, that was during an upper range reading on the pc. I average about 40-45mbs on the phone but I have gotten readings as low as 8mbs. Except in December streaming on my TV ran alright.

I had been working on the assumption that it is a problem with the PC but all the tests recommended to be done are coming back alright. MWEB said the line is fine but it might be the router causing problems, which I am looking into to if I need to replace

But I got back to work and started testing there and the speed is also erratic. They are also on MWEB/Vumatel 50mb and WIFI setup. I've had high speeds but I've seen as low as 4mbs.

Before I go laying out for a new router and maybe cables. I would like mybroadband opinion if this type of erratic speeds are normal or not.
Click to expand...

Did they not supply the router? ... How long has it been?

I know my neighbour had the problem after the last speed increases that their supplied router couldn't handle the higher speed, but I take it with your speed they did supply the correct router?

Does their setup not allow for direct connect to CPE/ONT ? ... (bypass router)
 
Dimpie (COMPUTEK) said:
Did they not supply the router? ... How long has it been?

I know my neighbour had the problem after the last speed increases that their supplied router couldn't handle the higher speed, but I take it with your speed they did supply the correct router?

Does their setup not allow for direct connect to CPE/ONT ? ... (bypass router)
Click to expand...
I had that problem, but that was when upgraded speeds went past 100mbs. Do you get routers that cant do 100mbs?
 
Dimpie (COMPUTEK) said:
My 1st "supplied" router was limit to max 40Mbps :X3:
Click to expand...
On the box the router supplied by MWEB is supposed to handle a 100mbs. The guy I spoke to thought it was 50mbs. Could MWEB have manually set the limit to 50mbs and passed the router off as a 100mbs? The router is 4 years old going on 5 later in the year. I'm wondering if age is catching up to it or the whole setup.
 
Hi again @KatieKim , we've previously interacted in the DStv faults thread.

To give an indication of your router's connection speed over WiFi, go near to it with your phone and access the WiFi part of Settings in your phone.

Tap on your network's name (might need to do so twice), and it may then give you the "connection speed" of the router over WiFi.

My max is 433 Mbps, though the fibre line I pay for is a 60 / 30 Mbps.
(see screenshot).

The further away I go from the main router in the mesh system, the lower the connection speed it indicates (still 292 Mbps, until I get close to another hub, then it goes back to max.).

As suggested before, connect your PC / a laptop if practical to the ONT supplied by Vuma, then do a speedtest & see if you can get closer to 100 Mbps.



 

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Another place to check your connection speed is in "stats for nerds" while playing a You Tube video.

I usually test it while playing an almost 12 hour vid from Relaxing Nature, then switch between 1080p60 and 1440p60 ; run the vid, let it settle, then (on Android TV I use) you go to Settings and scroll to the bottom & click on that narration.

My figures are literally all over the place, sometimes way lower than my optimal speed, sometimes way higher, so I don't think my line is particularly stable (admittedly, over WiFi between the 2 mesh hubs).

It might indicate similarly for you, but if your speeds in the stats section are always way lower, then my guess is to replace the router ** (with mesh would be good - TP Link, Asus) and go from there.

** = also after testing speeds, latency directly to the ONT using the LAN cable.
 
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KatieKim said:
On the box the router supplied by MWEB is supposed to handle a 100mbs. The guy I spoke to thought it was 50mbs. Could MWEB have manually set the limit to 50mbs and passed the router off as a 100mbs? The router is 4 years old going on 5 later in the year. I'm wondering if age is catching up to it or the whole setup.
Click to expand...
So I asked Grok about my issue and it came to my attention that with the router being 802.11n and only 2.4ghz is most likely the culprit. I don't want to sink money into a router but I'm feeling like I'm going to have no choice to.

Do you guys concur with Grok?
I also usually prefer buying TP-Link but are there any other brands that you would recommend to get or to stay away from, I'm also thinking of getting dual band so I don't have to buy a wifi extender as well.
 
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