Off Topic Broadband Speeds

Nice one. I'll try it. Any chance you could let me know your router model version or spec?

 

Just checked and it's this one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-R7...id=1501419165&sr=1-1&keywords=nighthawk r7800

 

Much appreciated. I'll look into it.

Cheers

 

I defend them a lot. I used to work for them and did my university dissertation on the UK broadband situation. I don't know many things but I do know about this. People have a totally misguided perception of the situation in Hull in particular.

An article like this pops up every couple of months. They're always incredibly vague and focus on one particular statistic with no info on there methodology, so it's hard to tell how they've actually arrived at these figures.

It seems this article is looking at the percentage of connections under 10Mbps in each constituency. We don't have the figures for the other local constituencies though. Its impossible to say much about this study since the article says so little about it, but I do know that the majority of KCOM's network now has access to a Fibre to the Premises service. Elsewhere in the country this kind of service is very rare, but it's the gold standard. You can't get the really good speeds on a copper phone line (which is what is used almost everywhere else) and over time, getting those really good speeds will be more and more important.

The fastest internet connections in the country are fitted in Hull as standard and before very long everywhere in Hull and East Yorkshire will have it. I guess there's a chance that the vast majority of streets in Hull which don't have lightstream yet are in the Eastern constituency.

 

I'd speak to an expert in store or at KCOM or whatever first. Sometimes an older router won't have the wireless technology to achieve certain speeds wirelessly, but more often it's something else limiting it.

 

ive never had a problem with Karoo , in approx 15 yrs or whatever . . . i would prefer the option to change if i feel fit though

 

My speeds before lightstream were terrible. I'd get 5mbps on average with less than 2 at peak times.

 

I guess I'll look into it then , they must have some strange pricing policies

 

I used to only get about that over wifi but Virgin have cabled my street recently and I now get 200.

 

I've never had a problem with KC but when I've spoken to their 'technical' people, they've not been that great nor have seemed that knowledgable.

What would you suggest I look at, in terms of a router, to determine what wifi speeds I should expect?

 

It's probably how I've set it up but you'd think that when I sit next to the router you'd get more than 70-80 mbps wifi when it's a 250 mbps package.

Plugged in, it's class. Can't argue with a solid 250 mbps, does everything I need, fast, and I don't recall it going off-line either.

 

You should do, I think mine's about 49.99 pcm. It was circa 44.99 pcm previously.

I think - in that range anyway.

Only drawback I guess is if they're not doing it in your area yet.

 

You mean like in the last few hours then. Bloody annoying.

 

I think that you only need to go over to other IP's chat rooms and you are confronted by much the same grumbles as people have with KCom, Talk Talk are just that to a lot of their customers, just talk. And whilst the main grumble in this area is lack of choice, those in other areas of the country that have choice are not always happy with their alternative choices so back to square one.

 

Nightmare. I take it that's not fibre optic though - I'm not that tech savvy with it, but I'm sure I heard/read that it was immune or more resistant to such problems.

 

Fibre optic is just cable, it can be chopped through by a shovel, a digger, or whatever. Also the cable connects into a box somewhere, the box is susceptible to being knocked down by traffic, flooded by rainwater, affected by other connections in the box, whatever. None of it's immune and it relies on electricity.

Where I live we often get power cuts during heavy rain. The problem usually is that the rain causes trees to come down bringing over-ground power lines down with them.

 

Thanks for pointing that out.

I worded that post badly, admittedly immune was too strong, but I still felt safe in the mutual assumption that the reader would understand that I knew the basic fallibility of electrically powered items and vice versa.

For instance, my toaster has been burning bread for over five years, 100% upon request in fact, but even someone like me would realise that if the cable became defunct or if the toaster became immersed in water - it would no longer work. Likewise, if there was a power cut, I also understand that my electrical items (that are dependent upon it to work) would no longer work.

 

I wouldn't recommend any kind of purchase until you're pretty certain that it will improve things. I don't know the exact cause of why your wireless speeds are nowhere near as good as your wired speeds, but I'd say it's unlikely to be the router unless it was a particularly old one, and KCOM aren't stupid enough to give you a 200Mbps service and then provide a router that can't carry those speeds wirelessly.

There are reasons to buy better quality routers, but for the vast majority of people a standard one is fine.

The reason for your issue could be a number of things which is why I think it's worth talking through the issue with an expert first. I know KCOM have some really smart people in their tech support and in the physical help desk in town.

 

Thanks for the advice. With the cost of an improved router being somewhat ‘costly’ I certainly intend to research all other avenues; including speaking with the KCOMs.

As stated in previous posts, I’ve put devices slap bang next to the router, and its yield has still been rather slim - so I can't imagine that the problem is positional.

Do you have any troubleshoot suggestions that would be prime to investigate? I did fanny about with the channels a while back, which didn't make a difference.