Today is the day our high speed broadband went live. I got 44Mbps earlier this morning, same for Wifey. Our son, though, struggles to get
3Mbps download - but 12Mbps upload, which seems odd.
We use homeplugs (yeah, I know) because solid, thick granite walls completely bollix wireless signals. Router is connected directly to BT main socket, and feeds a homeplug. There is another homeplug in the kitchen, to which our (self and wife) laptops connect, wirelessly.
Son is in another room, and his desktop is hard wired to another homeplug, yet our downloads are far faster than his.
My little Tosh netbook is W98, Wifey Tosh laptop W7 and son desktop W8.1
Why might son's download connection be so slow?
I suppose I could buy a long CAT5 cable and connect his desktop directly to router? We have swapped the homeplugs around, but son's connection remains poor.
First, I'd temporarily plug your machine, and your son's machine direct into the router with a cat5, unplig the powerline stuff then do a speedtest on each (not at same time, obv.) from there you have a better idea of the speed you're aiming for on each machine, and whether son's PC itself has a problem rather than the method of connection ...
Are the homeplugs on the same ring main? I tried a pair for my smart tv with one upstairs next to the router and one downstairs next to the tv and got such slow speeds that iPlayer and YouTube were continuously pausing. I think this is because the signals have to go through the consumer unit via 2 MCBs. I gave up and ran a network cable in with no further problems.
The home wiring does affect things. If some home plugs are on different circuits this might be why there is the problem. Short of rewiring then house, I think a bit of CAT5 is going to be the answer.
Is the right answer and for the feed to the AP in the kitchen. If that is a WiFi Homeplug bin it and get a cheap AP. Aldi have (had..) Miginon WLR-510 AP/Repeater/Client 2.4 and 5 GHz 802.11 a/bg/n "up to" 300 Mbps plug top device marked down to £14. Or Tesco have TP-Link TL-WR841N 2.4 GHz only AP/Router for £20. The TP-Link will probably do a little better for range as it has external (but non removeable) aerials but if you are in the same room as it that's unlikely to be noticeable.
Wouldn't be at all surprised if the crap being put onto the mains wiring and radiated from it is getting into the VDSL and stopping that running at it's best as well.
I can confirm that passing through a pair of CUs will seriously affect the homeplug signal. Mine just won't work like that, but will work fine if on the same CU. Similarly, some power extensions will block the signal, I believe it's to do with the surge protectors built in to some of them. Try plugging them directly into the socket in the wall. Then get rid of the homeplugs anyway!
Right Guys, you have all said the same thing. I do have more than enough CAT5 cable, but only in two pieces. Yes, I have a joiner but can I find it? Not a chance.
Plan B. Found a reel of phone cable, which enabled me to bring the router down to his desktop. A bit of a bodge, but it works. Son's speed immediately shot up to 44Mbps, hard wired to the router. Hard wired Wifey's laptop, and she almost had an orgasm. 74Mbps. My little Tosh shows 25Mbps, but that is probably because the other two are so excited they're trying YouTube, games and all sorts.
So, the answer is obviously some hard wiring, or at the least move the main BT socket downstairs, to be next to son's desktop. The good news is I now know exactly what the problem is, and how to fix it.
Interestingly, the homeplugs are now all unplugged, and I have just disconnected CAT5 from Wifey's laptop and my netbook, so we're both picking up wireless direct from the router (which is now closer than it used to be). My speed it 20, Wifey's is 36, but her laptop has always picked up a better signal than my netbook. Assuming I can properly wire the router where it is now, we may be able to live without the homeplugs.
Which is why I bought the Aldi WLR-510. It's probably wise to manually set the channel(s) used when you have more than one AP so they don't stomp on each other also bear in mind if one AP is wireless n it needs two channels to achieve the "300 Mbps". I'm not sure if the additional bandwidth has to be above the allocated channel or not. Only channels 3, 6 & 11 don't mutally intefer. I'd bung the main and wireless n cabable AP on ch 3 and secondary AP on ch 11.
Set the SSIDs and passwords to be the same on both and it should be transparent to the user that they change AP.
They work best, if they are on the same ring main, plus sometimes there can be equipment plugged in which interferes with the signal or even filters it out.
Home plugs are not very fast & the further away from the router plug the slower. CAT5 cable is very cheap and is a lot faster than either home plugs or wireless. CAT6 is not worth it for the home, unless you have a home cinema streaming off a NAS drive
Well spoted that man. B-) I think I was getting confused by band edges, one assumes that ch 1 center frequency is 10 MHz plus guard band above the lower band edge.
Thinking aloud here. There are various options. To summarise. BT main socket is upstairs, connected directly to cable coming in from roof. Router is plugged directly into BT main socket, and self and wife can pick up an acceptable wi-fi signal everywhere downstairs. Son's desktop needs a cable from router to PC.
Just buy a wireless dongle for son's desktop, and leave everything else alone.
Extend the CAT5 downstairs, and either hardwire son's desktop directly, or install a second access point.
Extend the CAT5 downstairs, and just move the original router downstairs, and hardwire son's desktop, with self and wifey picking up wi-fi.
Move the main (and only) BT socket downstairs, and move router with it.
Which is best - extending the BT socket, or extending the CAT5? Or does it make little practical difference to overall download speeds? I have sufficient BT and CAT5 cable to do either.
You can't (or at least may not) move the BT socket.
The best solution, as installed here, is to run a CAT5 cable from an output of the router to your son's room. It can, like mine, go outdoors if that makes an easier cable run
Router does not equate to Access Point. Though most domestic internet boxes are "all in ones" containing a modem, a router, a network switch and access point. Personally I don't like this, it's a single point of failure at a key point of the system. And more often than not the best place for he modem is not the best place for the Access Point. But anyway...
Not techinically legal and the [V|A]DSL signal is tiny and prone to interference. I'd avoid runing the phone line through a relatively electrically noisey place like a home. Keep modem on short as wire as possible (make one up) next to the BT socket and run CAT5/ethernet which is designed to work in noisey enviroments to a more convient location for a small switch into which all the LAN wiring conects.
May or may not ... depends on the immediate electrical enviroment. If you want to wring every last Mbps out of the connection one has to take care. 5 Mbps missing from 50 is not such a big deal as 0.5 Mbps from 3.
I think I would be inclined to leave it there, for a number of reasons:
a) to avoid frigging with the BT side of things (you're not supposed to touch the master socket apart from removing the lower half of the faceplate to disconnect extension wiring and using the test socket),
b) to keep the analogue side of things (the BT line) as short as possible and
c) the BT line and router are probably in a more interference-free environment in the loft, being physically distanced from things like the ring main, boiler, immersion, TV, electrical appliances, etc.
If you relocate it to within the house, you may introduce it to a more electrically noisy environment with a consequent drop in ADSL performance.
by 'downstairs', do you mean the floor immediately below the loft/router?
I'd do this. Hardwire it, but if you want to add more things in future (e.g. a game console or smart TV), you can simply add a switch or a wireless AP.
no, leave the BT stuff alone, then there's no comeback if a fault develops with the line in future and the "engineer" takes exception to your modifications
The Cat5.
You can use the Cat5 to extend the BT line if you want - its' spec exceeds that of BT (CW1308) cable considerably. Use the same pair colours (blue and blue/white) for consistency and avoid the temptation to use the unused pairs for anything else such as extensions to avoid crosstalk.
It would be best to keep the BT line as short as possible and avoid running it through an electrically noisy environment. That means your loft location is probably pretty much ideal. You can extend the Ethernet from the router in the loft using Cat5 as much as you like with no concerns about signal loss up to the maximum cable length of 100m.
Perhaps consider a Cat5 run from the router in the loft to a wireless AP on the floor below, and another to an AP on the floor below that. That should pretty much cover your needs.
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