Wifi Very Slow

[ScottG88]

I moved from Virgin a couple of months ago and haven't had any major issues but the last 4 days my speed has been terrible. Tried the chat bot and calling but not much help. The online service checker is saying everything is great (saying 480mbps) but my Wifi speed on my computer is currently 40mbps or lower and I pay for 500. 
When I phoned I got told that there is "an issue with your in-home setup" and that I could track the issue online through https://www.sky.com/myorders but nothing shows.
I can get the speed up to around 130mbps by reseting the wifi through the https://192.168.0.1/ but I can't do that every day.

Anyone have a way of contacting a human in the broadband team or a fix for this?

[ScottG88]

UPDATE - Reseting the wifi doesn't improve the speed but changing the security level does.
I changed it to WPA3 which sped it up for a day and then when it slowed down I changed it back to WPA3-T which has sped it up again. But this seems temporary.

[JimM1]

@ScottG88 At the end is it a wireless wi-fi speed issue and not the speed delivered by Fibre to the hub?

[aac74]

First thing to do is use the service checker to make sure there isn't an issue with the broadband connection:

https://www.sky.com/servicechecker/broadband

You should see 30 days of speed tests. They should all be very similar and it should say the speed to your hub is good and the connection is stable.

You can also click the 'test my broadband' button to do a  current status check.

Then you can do a wifi check.

If everything is ok then you can check your wifi environment. So many things affect wifi performance: distance from the hub, interference from neighbours ' Wi-Fi, wireless phones and microwaves etc... Also the wifi standard supported by you devices: wifi 5,6, 6E, 7 etc... and how they implement these standards 2x2 MIMO versus 4X4 MIMO etc...

You can check your wifi environment with a phone app like Net Analyser. 

It will tell you the wifi standard of your phone e.g. 802.11ax (wifi 6) or 802.11ac (wifi 5).

It will give you the max upload and download speed of the connection, as well as your current speeds and signal strength.

e.g:

As you walk around your home you will see the signal strength change and the speed too as you move further away from the hub.

[JimM1]

@aac74 Have sent you a PM. Jim

[ScottG88]

Hi @JimM1 ,

Thank you for your response. The service checker says that the speed to the hub is fine so I am assuming it is the Wifi speed.
In regard to you other message I haven't received a PM.

[ScottG88]

Hi @aac74 ,

Thank you for your reply.

I've done the checker for both the hub and the wifi and both are showing as fine.

The Wifi environment should be fine too. It was fine for Virgin and has been fine for Sky since the 8th of September (switch date).

I used Net Analyser as suggested, when directly beside the wifi it showed 42dBm in green, when up the stairs (a very short distance away in sight of the router) it showed 44dBm in red and in the room with the issue it showed 68 dBm in red. Not sure if that's good or bad to be honest.

I can't stress enough that there hasn't been any material change to the distance or environment to result in the change to performance.

I live in a small house, so distance shouldn't be any issue for modern hub.

I'm aslso mainly concerned that the automatic process when I phoned Sky said there was an issue but it never materialised in the tracking portion of the website.

[JimM1]

@ScottG88 What channel are you seeing the wireless wi-fi transmitting on as displayed with your net analyser!

[ScottG88]

It's showing 2437MHz

[aac74]

Ok, so a signal strength of -20dBm is very good and you should be getting this with your phone next to your router.

If you go upstairs and put some walls between you and the router, it is normal for this to drop to -60 to -70dBM.

Lower signal strength means slower speeds as you move away from the router and you should see this in the speed (up/down) section.

The max speed (up/down) section shows you the maximum possible speed you can get with the wifi standards that both your phone and sky hub support.

Wifi standards is where things get complex:

If you have a black square sky hub that is a wifi 5 device, the white square hub is a WiFi 6 device.

Sky now also has a cylinder hub for customers on very fast connections and that is a WiFi 7 device.

I assume you are on the black hub. WiFi 5 (aka 802.11ac) will give you real-world speeds of 200 to 600Mbits/s.

However, both the hub and your devices must support WiFi5 to get these speeds (you can see the standard that the connection between your phone and hub is using in the 'standard' section, 802.11n = wifi 4, 802.11ac = WiFi5, 802.11ax = wifi 6). As I said the speed will reduce as you move away from the hub and it will be lower or higher based on the standard being used.

Moreover, these standards can operate on the faster but less penetrating 5Ghz frequency or the slower but more penetrating 2.4 ghz frequency. The sky hub supports both, however, older phones and devices might only support 2.4ghz.

The frequency being used is shown in brackets next to the channel number e.g. 48 (5240Mhz) = channel 48 on the 5ghz frequency.

In your sky hub wifi settings you can play around with using different channel numbers on both the 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz frequencys so your hub isn't interfered with by your neighbours wifi.

2.4 Ghz settings are here:

https://192.168.0.1/sky_wireless_band.cgi?band=2.4GHz

5 Ghz settings are here:

https://192.168.0.1/sky_wireless_band.cgi?band=5GHz

Just change the 'Desired Channel' and click apply.

You can use the net analyser app to see what channels any other wifi hubs are using by first turning off your hub.

Then in the net analyser main menu (top left) sellect 'wifi signal' , use the icons in the top right to move between 2.4 ,5 and 6ghz and to show the signals as a channel list.

e.g. if your neighbours are all using 5ghz channel 36, try switching your hub to 5ghz channel 44.

Same if they are using channel 6 on their 2.4ghz move your hub to channel 8.

[JimM1]

@ScottG88 So it would appear you are on the 2.4Ghz band with max speed single band control 2x2 of around 300Mb/s or maybe just a little faster.

Has been alleged that the 5Ghz likes to be way up on channel 155, so Frequency would be between 5745 to 5805Mhz and a speed off around 900Mb/s or that ilke!

As you also mention that you have a sky Max hub but only because you say that WPA3 or same-T then surprised you can do much with the web interface in the slightest!

You really should consider setting the sky Max to WPA2-PSK operation for way more stability on the hub!

[ScottG88]

Hi @aac74 ,

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. Firstly, sorry for not including my hub model, it's Sky Max Hub / SR213.

I followed your steps but I'm unable to change the network config settings on the hub, they are greyed out. I did however have a check of my PC settings and was able to change them to get on to 5GHZ.

When checking my settings I changed my Wi-fi adapter on my PC to 5GHZ (preferred band)  and it speed up to 190mbps (not what I'd like but better than 20). Then when it slowed down again I checked and it was set to 2.4GHz (6).

It seems like the hub is forcing it back to 2.4GHz and unfortunately I can't change the Hub settings to sort it.

[aac74]

Yep the  Sky Max Hub (white) is a wifi 6 router, but unlike the previous black wifi 5 router, you can't put the 2.4ghz and 5 ghz bands on separate SSID.

Thus with the Max Hub, it is the connecting device that picks the band to connect to automatically based on signal strength and you can have situations where sometimes it will connect to 2.4 and other 5 ghz and therefore the speed it gets will be very random.

The easiest solution is to buy a Sky Wifi Max Pod SE411-UK Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Wireless Extender Booster from ebay.

This will act as a wifi mesh node with the Sky Max Hub. It is just plug and play (though you might need to restart the router) and will boost the wifi signal by placing it halfway between the router and the device you want to connect to.

Sky will sometimes give these out with a wifi max subscription but only if you can show you are getting less than 30mbit/s connection speed in a room.

Best solution is to turn off wifi on the router and install a 3 node wifi 6 mesh system (in access point mode) like the  TP-Link Deco systems that are now around £100 on amazon. That way your wifi is separated from the router and every time you change ISP/router your wifi signal will not change.