@pudntwink wrote:
My SKY router says the same speed constantly and I'm saying is this right because it doesn't move....ever. Am I being '**bleep**' into what they reakon it is? I said I checked my speeds on various sites and it's below or around 44. If what you guys are saying is correct then that's fine but why are all the trusted speed tests telling me differen't ? It says India on my car tyres but it doesn't mean they are going there!
@pudntwink The connection can sometimes stay up for weeks at a time. Before my router updated its firmware two days ago, i had an uptime of nearly 500 hours, with no line drops, all connections showing near 500hrs uptime.
Every so often it can drop and collect a new IP address from the pool, but even then it can hold the same sync figures, or sometimes there can be variation by a few 100kb.
As for the speed differences, lets clear some confusion up here....as there are different speeds that you get from the same figures, and different tests show different things.
1) Line Sync Rate - This is the connection stats that you have posted already, from the router. This is the speed that your quoted download speed is from the ISP, in this case, Sky.
The "guaranteed minimum download" speed is the bottom limit that this sync rate can be.
If it is below this, you have to give Sky a reasonable chance to do something about it, usually involving Openreach, as the physical line to your address is there property, not Sky's.
You have already said that yours is 43Mb. Your connection is synced at just under 51Mb, so there is nothing wrong with your connection, and it is well within what Sky said they could deliver to you.
The speed in the MySky app is just a rounded figure of the router stats, so it will show 50Mb if the sync rate is between 50001-50999Kb. If your connection sync rate changed from 50888kb to 50243kb, it would still report 50Mb.
** Note - this is not the same speed that the "speed tests" report - that is known at "throughput".
2) So called "independent speed tests" - These are not so much "independent", they are a company that makes money from advertising on there websites, that you use to run a speedtest. Of course they won't say that there is actually nothing wrong with your connection, as they want you to keep coming back and using there sites....
What they do not tell you, is what they are actually measuring, which is the "throughput" speed to the end device you are running the test on, as i mentioned above.
Due to the way that computers and the associated networks operate, this is ALWAYS lower than the "Sync speed", with overheads that reduce it by between 6-8% of the sync rate, but only when using an ethernet cable, WiFi will always be slower again.
3) Effects of connection type: WiFi vs Ethernet - Here is the constant thorn in everyones lives these days, but it is a relality, that has really come home to roost since the events of the last 18 months.
To achieve the "throughput" speeds, with just the 6-8% reduction i mentioned above, you have to use an ethernet cable. Even in near perfect conditions, WiFi can't match the performance of a cable. This is due to physics, and the way the connections operate.
WiFi is affected by all sorts of things, and yes it sounds like the old "leaves on the line" syndrome, but sadly it is true. WiFi is simply RF signals transmitted by your router, that your device picks up. There are so many things, most commonly other networks on the same bit of airspace, that cause interference and cause disruption to the signal.
WiFi is also limited in its capacity, as the more devices you connect, the slower and slower it gets. Only one device can transmit and recieve at once, so all the others have to listen and wait for the airwaves to be clear. The only exception to this is the new WiFi 6 standard which will change this.
It is also referred to as a "half duplex" connection.
Ethernet cables on the other hand, are what is called a "duplex" connection, so multiple devices can transmit and recieve down the same cable at the same time, providing further stability and capacity. They are also impervious to all mish mash of data that happens over the airwaves, hence they are far more stable and reliable.
To add further, WiFi introduces the phenomenon known as "jitter", which is shown in the speedtests you've run. This is where the data all arrives at your device, but it is all out of order and jumbled up compared to when it left the router. The higher the jitter, the more a mess the data is in. This frequently causes dropouts, freezing, and pixelation among other things when using things such as gaming, video calling, or streaming services. An Ethernet connection does not suffer from this, helping to preserve the data throughput and reliability.
So to sum up, you have 3 different readings in anyones setup:
Sync rate - xxxxx kb
Ethernet/cabled throughput speed - 6-8% reduction of the sync rate figure
WiFi throughput speed - In optimum conditions, and a quiet network, usually between 10-20% loss vs the sync rate. Can drop down to next to useless speeds of Kb in the worst conditions. This correlates to the figures you are getting.
The figures you are getting on your speedtest results are about right, and show your WiFi is performing well. There is nothing wrong with your connection.
As I said in an earlier post, connect a device via ethernet, and run the ookla speedtest again, and you should see a speed of between 46-48Mb.
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Zen Superfast (FTTC), Fritzbox 7530, Sky Q 2TB UHD v3 (x1), Sky Q Mini (x2), Alienware Area 51-M, Panasonic TX-65HZ1000B, Denon AVR-X6300H, B&W CM8 S2, B&W CM1 S2 (x2), B&W CM Centre S2, REL S3 SHO (x2), Panasonic TX-P42G30B, Monitor Audio RS6, Marantz PM7001 KI, Denon HEOS 1 HS2 (x2), B&W P7, iPad Pro 12.9" (5th Gen), iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPad Mini 6 (work)
** No - I have nothing to do with Sky **
Internet is terrible
