Sky broadband slow wifi speeds

[Thermoape]

I've recently signed up to sky ultrafast plus broadband (my activation date was the 3rd October), however I seem to have an intermittent issue with the WiFi speed from the router.

I'm supposed to be getting 500mbps, but most of the time it's under 100. If I reset the router, or if I forget the WiFi network and rejoin it again my speeds shoot up to what I would expect to see at 400+

This is happening on all my WiFi devices, e.g my phone, my wife's phone laptop, etc. I could be getting 50mbps on a speed test while my wife's phone gets 400mpbs......

I've included a screenshot from speed tests just now. You can see how it shoots up after I forget the WiFi network and rejoin, but then minutes later when testing again it shoots up:

https://ibb.co/NKD3bQW 

Does anyone have any ideas what's causing this?

[Chrisee]

@Thermoape all wifi systems can only use a very limited number of frequency bands depending on where you live you can have anything from 4 to 16 neighbours' networks in range which can cause interference if they are on the same or adjacent channel. You can see this yourself if you have an Android phone or a laptop just install an app called Wifi Analyzer. Rebooting the Sky hubforces it to find the best chanhel to use but that can change frequently.

You can improve things a bit by making sure you have the best signal from your hub by placing it reasonably high up so above anything blocking the signal but there are limits to  what a single cheap wifi router can do. You may find the speed variations dont cause issues with the apps you use if so simply live with it. 95Mb/s is amply fast enough for video streaming etc.

However if it bothers you then consider investing in a whole home wifi system which use muktiple mesh wifi units. These are far more stable and need not cost a fortune unless you decide you require the latest bells and whistles.

[jamesn123]

@Thermoape 

Its pretty normal to happen due to band steering. When a device first joins the network it'll look for the fastest connection via the fastest frequency. Then, overtime, as you move the device around/during normal WiFi signal interference a device may drop back to the 2.4ghz band to favour range/stability over speed. When you reconnect the device it goes back to the fastest and its just a cycle.

There are two main ways you can solve this, 

1. Split the WiFi bands on your router and only connect devices to the 5ghz SSID

2. Buy a 3rd party router that has better band steering technology.