Intermittent and wildly fluctuating broadband speed

[Goldwheels]

I think the problem is our wifi.

Our hub has to go in a cupboard with other electronic devices as that's where our open reach box is. 

Will a booster help do we think?

[jamesn123]

@Goldwheels 

Your issue is almost certainly WiFi. Putting the router in a cupboard is a really good way to kill your WiFi signal and a booster wont help the situation because it still relies on the signal coming from the hub. Ideally you need to move the hub out of the cupboard and into an open space

[Goldwheels]

I've posted my hub stats, does anyone have an idea of whether they look good?? 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Goldwheels 

With fttp the speed from the ont modem isn't carried over to the hub stats. But what we can see is the 2.4 and 5ghz radios packed up at the same time whilst your hub remained up and connected to the internet for longer. 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Goldwheels 

"Our hub has to go in a cupboard with other electronic devices"

What other electronic devices? 2.4ghz tends to be more prone to interference from other networks and household appliances. Can you get a longer length of gigabit ethernet to allow you to place the hub further away from whatever electronic devices are in there?

[Goldwheels]

The electric meter. 

The hub for our central heating, which needs to plug into the sky hub.

Our phone base station, which has to plug into the open reach box in the same cupboard.

We could move the sky hub out of the cupboard, but we then would have to run the ethernet cable from the open reach box in the said cupboard to the sky hub. This would mean drilling holes in walls and running the ethernet round all the architraves and through at least 2 door frames. My neighbour has exactly the same set up as us, he runs his in the cupboard but pays for more speed and doesn't seem to have any problem? Dunno what to do really. 

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Goldwheels 

"Our phone base station, which has to plug into the open reach box in the same cupboard."

Plugged into the ont or the back of the sky hub?

[Goldwheels]

I've turned the phone base station and the central heating hub both off, and the WiFi still fluctuates.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Goldwheels 

@jamesn123 

@Highlinder 

@JPR007 

Do you think an ont relocation would help and are ont relocations officially supported on skys booking system?

Vague memories of a CM stating that only Sogea and sogfast couldn't be relocated

[jamesn123]

@Goldwheels 

You can switch of the devices all you like, it likely wont help because your issue is the hub being in a cupboard where the WiFi signals will be disrupted.

@cookiemonsteruk 

I dont believe it is an option

[Highlinder]

@cookiemonsterukI don't think it is an option. My master socket is about to go as I am getting ultrafast 1 in on the 6th of June, having an ONT fitted. I am already on Sogea so no real change for me.

[mae-3]

@Goldwheels 

Even if you moved the ONT & wireless router one still needs to run ethernet cables back to the cupboard, so best to start drilling if you wish to improve the performance of wireless for the ethernet cables. You will need to run 2 ethernet cables one for the ONT to the router and one back to the cupboard, and I suggest you use the flat ethernet cables as these are tidy. And you need a twisted pair for the phone base station to run between the router and it.

[Goldwheels]

Thanks very much for all your patience and help everyone. 

[Dido9]

Hi,

Apologies for jumping in on this chat. I have recently upgraded to Superfast 35 and have noticed that on Internet speed tests my mbps fluctuates wildly from 37 down to 11 and anywhere in between. The thing is I run one test and it's high then the very next test ran straight after is always low, and it runs like that all the time. Is this normal or is it just for the reason that you have stated above ( running test on wifi)?..I've been running the tests on the Fing app.

Grateful for your help, thanks in advance and sorry, again to just jump in on this, it seemed to make more sense to just ask you after reading that. The fluctuations are extreme, are they not? Is it inaccurate?

[Chrisee]

@Dido9 if you run speed tests over wifi you are often in practice just testing thecwifi link which can often fluctuate. You can check the actual connection speed of the hub by running the connection test in the My Sky app.

Your wifi speeds can fluctuate for various reason firstly because another of your devices is using bandwidth so only run tests with one device connected. Many modern devices still use bandwidth when not in use to update etc. Second reason is wifi is subject to interference which can come from your neighbours' networks or your own electrical kit.

To get a reliable speed test it needs to be run with only one device connected by an ethernet cable which is always going to be faster than your external bandwidth.