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Discussion topic: Unbelievably slow wifi

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This message was authored by: EB13966

Unbelievably slow wifi

I have just been connected to Sky broadband by a very nice engineer, it's supposed to be fibre 500 but it is so slow it can not even upload messages on my work outlook. It's shocking, I really hope Sky can contact me and do something about it

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This message was authored by: Waveman

Re: Unbelievably slow wifi

How well your WiFi performs is subject to many external factors. 

how close you are to the router is one of them, the 500 speed refers to a direct wired connection to the router, WiFi will never give you the best connection.

 

Check this:

 

https://www.sky.com/help/broadband/my-broadband-speed/no-connection-slow-wifi/articles/broadband-dia...

I remember the Internet starting!
This message was authored by: TimmyBGood

Re: Unbelievably slow wifi

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@EB13966 

 

You need to contact them: it won't happen the other way round.

 

500Mbs (400Mbs 'guaranteed') is the speed over optical fibre and ethernet cable as far as the Hub, not WiFi from it.

* * * * * * *

Sky Glass 55" (on ethernet) & two Stream Pucks (one ethernet / one WiFi)
BT Halo 3+ Ultrafast FTTP (500Mbs), BT Smart Hub 2
This message was authored by: aac74

Re: Unbelievably slow wifi

Wifi speed drops dramatically with signal strength as you move away from your router.

 

The 500 Mbps will only be achievable if you plug a lan cable into your router and connect it directly to your computer.

 

You can test your signal strength and wifi speed using a phone app like Network Analyser.

 

You should see about -20dBm close to your router and -80dBm when you have a few walls between you and the router.

This represents a large drop off in speed and this is before interference from neighbours wifi, microwaves etc...

Also as signal strength drops, your device will connect to the more penetrative 2.4 GHz frequency rather than the faster 5ghz (but less penetrating 5 GHz).

 

Network Analyser will also tell you the maximum speed you can get based on the wifi tech your router and phone supports:

wifi 4 - 802.11n

wifi 5 - 802.11ac

wifi 6 - 802.11ax

The higher the wifi number the higher the maximum speed.

Wifi 5 should give you up to 500Mbit/s (real world speed) but only if you are up close to your router and your phone/device supports wifi 5

 

You can also use it to see if you have interference from neighbour wifi and the channels it is using, you can then change the wifi channels on your router to avoid it.

 

 

This message was authored by: RSyed

Re: Unbelievably slow wifi

PErform a test with a laptop connected by ethernet cable directly to the Sky hub - and make sure its a relatively modern laptop with gigbit ethernet port - oh wait... modern laptops ditched ethernet ports.. but, you may still have one.

 

2nd best, connect your phone/laptop to the 5GHz wifi ID, sit right next to the Sky hub and do a test.

 

Remmeber... 2.4 Ghz provide lower bandwidth, but substantially longer range - 5 Ghz is much higher bandwidth, but, horrible range, specially if there are walls and air between you and the wifi router.

 

 

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