Broadband speed to devices

[Slowspeed1954]

I have sky broadband.

74mbps

Guaranteed 50 something

I have ran health checks for the last few days and showing 74-75mbps.

When running speed checks on my devices. I am lucky to see 15mbps.

Have ran it once via LAN where I have had 20.

Not ran at peak times.

On speaking to SKY they tell me this is normal and that my devices only require 10mbps.

Further explanation was given that the router was rationing bandwidth to devices if a few were connected.

When I explained it was still the case with one connected I again was told this was the case.

I was then told never to expect more than 10-15mbps to any single device.

Even asked if I upgraded to 154mbps would that make any difference and got told I still would only receive 10-15 Mbps to any device.

Before they hung up on me anyway.

Is this right?

It just doesn't sound right.

I have a picture of my router status but have to figure out how to make it smaller....

[Slowspeed1954]

 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Slowspeed1954 

Even asked if I upgraded to 154mbps would that make any difference and got told I still would only receive 10-15 Mbps to any device.

Thats wrong, so long as you have the correct ethernet cable cat 5e or above you should get 95% of your line speed

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Slowspeed1954 

Go back to router->support page and copy and paste your syslog and take a wee look at the ethernet just before the plug and tell me what category ethernet is on the sheath

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Slowspeed1954 

Had another look, you have a very old sr102 with only a 2.4ghz wifi band. How on earth does sky think that can handle up to 80Mbps is beyond me . It was designed for adsl up to 24Mbps. Need a new router either sky or 3rd party

[Slowspeed1954]

So if I am reading this right.

Sky should have picked up on this straight away and when I upgraded last year to faster internet should they have sent me a new one?

And I will struggle to get more than the speeds I am getting because it is pretty much a dinosaur.

Maybe they realised it was an old one when they hung up on me.

Does any of what they said ring true. That devices only use the speeds they require. And I would never get anywhere near my stated line speed.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Slowspeed1954 

In my opinion yes they should have picked up on it but despite its many drawbacks it is still regarded as a valid adsl vdsl modem. 

And no it doesn't ring true whats the point of 73Mbps at the router if its not all going thru to devices.

Correct ethernet cable 90-95% of 74Mbps

5ghz if it was available 70-90% 

2.4ghz a bit hit and miss when all devices are running off it . Contact sky tell them them we have told you you need at least er115. The sr203 is only available to those on broadband boost, internet calls or full fttp. Also check on your ethernet cables if as old as router they may only operate at 10Mbps

[simon194]

---

@cookiemonsteruk wrote:

@Slowspeed1954 

Had another look, you have a very old sr102 with only a 2.4ghz wifi band. How on earth does sky think that can handle up to 80Mbps is beyond me . It was designed for adsl up to 24Mbps. Need a new router either sky or 3rd party

---

Normally if the line can handle more then 40 Mbps Sky supply either an ER110 or ER115.

The SR102 was Sky's first VDSL router from back in the time when Openreach stopped suppying the old HG612 modem and Sky only offered the 40/2 option (later 40/10). The wifi would top out at around 27 Mbps.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Slowspeed1954 

That devices only use the speeds they require

Streaming services will use adaptive bit rate that will give the quality of picture that your line can handle ie 1080p will require max 12Mbps average 8Mbps . Mine uhd tv with hdr10 at 50hz will draw 45-55Mbps

[JPR007]

---

@Slowspeed1954 wrote:

So if I am reading this right.

Sky should have picked up on this straight away and when I upgraded last year to faster internet should they have sent me a new one?

And I will struggle to get more than the speeds I am getting because it is pretty much a dinosaur.

Maybe they realised it was an old one when they hung up on me.

Does any of what they said ring true. That devices only use the speeds they require. And I would never get anywhere near my stated line speed.

---

@Slowspeed1954 Devices only draw what they require that is true, this is why you don't need a blazing fast 900Mb full fibre (FTTP) connection for a bit of online shopping or casual web browsing. That is unless you are a complete tech nut and just want the latest and greatest, or have more money than sense...or both🤣

As the old SR102 can handle a VDSL2 connection because it has a VDSL2 modem in it, unless you have Sky Q they won't automatically send you one out. Sky Q requires a minimum of the ER 115 router to work (if using Sky for broadband as well).

The 2.4GHz band is notoriously slower than the 5GHz band, and in any case you will never achieve your broadbands true connection speed using WiFi, even on 5GHz. Without writing paragraphs, and as @cookiemonsteruk has already explained, speeds vary depending on the end devices connection type. 

It is also worth bearing in mind that the Sky checker reports your routers "sync" speed as per the router stats. The 3rd party checkers display your "throughput" speed at your end device, which if they are connected via WiFi,  reflects how poor the WiFi is performing, not necessarily your inbound internet connection itself. 

[Slowspeed1954]

Appreciate all the replies.

I know the WiFi speed tests are a little wishy washy. But it's the same via LAN.

So back to sky ask for a router as mentioned above and eventually get the speeds I have been paying for for 9 months.

I do understand that devices only use what they need. But my question to sky was 

" That if I had one device connected, surely it would show all the bandwidth available and not just 10-15 Mbps."

Turns out maybe that is all the bandwidth available....

[Slowspeed1954]

Last question, probably.

Is it normal for sky to try and contact you through this medium via a web chat type format.

Started on 15 mins ago and so far have got no further than verifying my details.

Seems the option is to speak to someone on the phone who has no idea or wait forever for a reply to a message.

[Highlinder]

@Slowspeed1954The format you are talking about is being used so that it keeps the phone lines free,  It does take time. But they will direct you just as much as if you had called Sky.

[Lisa-P1987 · Accepted solution]

Update - Spoken to the customer just now. The reason they do not have a new hub is because they were moved to Superfast as a free migration. Normally to get the new hub you need to recontract or take boost but given the poor speeds and customer journey we have logged a complaint and provided a new 3.0 hub to facilitate a better experience. 

[Slowspeed1954]

Lisa. Appreciate the answer and hub.

However not 100% accurate, the a new contract was taken out last September and the broadband was spoken about then and duly increased.

The hub I have at present is probably 5+years old.

So I did take out a new contract in September 2020. Took out the faster internet, but the hardware wasn't sent out or made available.

Until I raised an issue yesterday/today.

When I took out the new contract, surely it would be seen on the system that I would be unable to gain the speeds with the hardware I had?

Or if not it would show the hardware that I had present at my address/account.

Too sum up a new contract was started when the faster broadband was applied. But the hardware was not upgraded at that time.

If I am wrong in what i say, feel free to post back.

Thanks