internet connections - up/down speeds and are you happy with what you're paying for

[Cwrw666]

Pretty much the same here. In fact the speed is so bad I don’t even bother with a landline, I rely on on a 4G modem with EE, even then I’m lucky to get 20mbs down and 15mbs up. In the summer I’ll try raising and reorienting the antenna to see if I can improve things by a couple of mbs!

We considered doing that ourselves as our daughter and her husband had a caravan here for a year and had better internet doing that than we did in the house. We're 3 miles from the exchange down 60 odd year old copper so our speed is understandable. Luckily we're soon to have fibre installed.

 

[Kerby]

We considered doing that ourselves as our daughter and her husband had a caravan here for a year and had better internet doing that than we did in the house. We're 3 miles from the exchange down 60 odd year old copper so our speed is understandable. Luckily we're soon to have fibre installed.

You‘ll enjoy it when it arrives, I still miss the 150mbs virgin connection from my last house. Local homes and businesses are signing up to pledge the government voucher to openreach but we’re still along way off. I don’t even know if there are enough properties here for it to be possible to actually meet the sign up target

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Has for speed test sites do people really trust them they differ so much.

Take a look at the speed test results thread I opened yesterday.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you are getting lower speeds than promised you need to get into the router stats and see what speed the line is connected at when I recently moved to fine for some reason the router didn't recognise the change and I was getting the same speeds as I was before moving setting the router properly which took seconds sorted the problem.

 

[kelper]

setting the router properly which took seconds sorted the problem.

what did you change?

 

[lupinehorror]

changing your DNS server(s) can also make a difference with day to day browsing speed (not necessarily on speed tests though). those run by your ISP aren't always the best and are usually the default.
i use cloudflare which is
1.1.1.1
and
1.0.0.1
though others are available. google (not for me but 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) and openDNS 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
these settings can be changed in your router config.

 

[kelper]

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

 

[lupinehorror]

https://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm

Steve's site has been the source of many useful tools for an age.

 

[kelper]

I regularly use DNS Benchmark after changing provider or moving house. I always go back to the ISP ones.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

what did you change?

If i remember correctly the TT modem could be used with standard broadband and Fibre (i am sure i could find the right abbreviations but i am sure you will know what i mean) and for some reason even though it was set to auto it didn't change to Fibre when it went live, i changed it to the Fibre option (cannot remember what it was called) and that did the trick, TT later sent out the "TalkTalk Wi-Fi Hub" below which greatly improved the Wi-Fi signal to the back of the house (router is in front room)

 

[corny king]

The best thing anyone can do is throw away the free router given to you by your ISP there cheap and tac. And buy your own I am with EE I set up there free router and the Wifi speed was capped to 54 Mbps where as my netgear nighthawk modem/router on 5ghz runs at 1733 mbps and the 2.5 ghz at 800 mbps so while i dont have that as a connection speed I do get my 300 mbps down speed over the wifi. Also the way the routers work the free ones create bottle necks on the network ones with multi core CPU and deal with data requests so you get no bottle necks. You dont need the lastest newest router but investigate what the differences are.
Just remember cheap no good, good no cheap.
If your thinking of buy a new router dont forget you might need a modem/router. or just use the free POS as a modem and attach a better router and use its WIFI. Also the wifi booster work well but they do need good wifi connection to start or a hard wire from the router. Again I use netgear for that and the link speed is the same as the main router and it has the same name so unless you login to either of the router or booster you have know idea which you connecting too.
Wife works from home
2 kids always online
and then theres me the biggest drain the the network we get no lag or drop out on either hard wire or WiFi
But to answer the main question
EE
300 MBPS Down
50 MBPS UP
Birmingham
£43 per month well worth it

 

[kelper]

The best thing anyone can do is throw away the free router given to you by your ISP there cheap and tac. And buy your own I am with EE I set up there free router and the Wifi speed was capped to 54 Mbps where as my netgear nighthawk modem/router on 5ghz runs at 1733 mbps and the 2.5 ghz at 800 mbps so while i dont have that as a connection speed I do get my 300 mbps down speed over the wifi. Also the way the routers work the free ones create bottle necks on the network ones with multi core CPU and deal with data requests so you get no bottle necks. You dont need the lastest newest router but investigate what the differences are.
Just remember cheap no good, good no cheap.
If your thinking of buy a new router dont forget you might need a modem/router. or just use the free POS as a modem and attach a better router and use its WIFI. Also the wifi booster work well but they do need good wifi connection to start or a hard wire from the router. Again I use netgear for that and the link speed is the same as the main router and it has the same name so unless you login to either of the router or booster you have know idea which you connecting too.
Wife works from home
2 kids always online
and then theres me the biggest drain the the network we get no lag or drop out on either hard wire or WiFi
But to answer the main question
EE
300 MBPS Down
50 MBPS UP
Birmingham
£43 per month well worth it

So how did you get your Nighthawk modem/router to connect to your ISP? Normally you need the unit supplied by your ISP. Can you post pictures from ThinkBroadband's speed test? It would be great if you posted wired tests with your modem-router and comparison with the one provided by your ISP.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The best thing anyone can do is throw away the free router given to you by your ISP there cheap and tac

Sorry but I have to disagree as mentioned above I am using the new TT wi-fi hub and am getting close to the full speed from it, the wi-fi signal strength is a huge improvement over the previous one I for one wouldn't go out and pay over £100 on the off chance I may squeeze a few more Mbps from my connection.

 

[Leon103]

So how did you get your Nighthawk modem/router to connect to your ISP? Normally you need the unit supplied by your ISP. Can you post pictures from ThinkBroadband's speed test? It would be great if you posted wired tests with your modem-router and comparison with the one provided by your ISP.

No you don't. They usually come with instructions and a step through guide.

 

[corny king]

So how did you get your Nighthawk modem/router to connect to your ISP? Normally you need the unit supplied by your ISP. Can you post pictures from ThinkBroadband's speed test? It would be great if you posted wired tests with your modem-router and comparison with the one provided by your ISP.

No you just need the connection details from your ISP or google but your isp will give you the details but offer no support on your indepentant router.
You then entre the correct login details and password to your isp and your up and running. or you can use the isp's rmodem router as just a connection point and use the better router to do the hard work of wifi and hardwire.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1608827898526289655

 

[corny king]

Sorry but I have to disagree as mentioned above I am using the new TT wi-fi hub and am getting close to the full speed from it, the wi-fi signal strength is a huge improvement over the previous one I for one wouldn't go out and pay over £100 on the off chance I may squeeze a few more Mbps from my connection.

That depends on what speed your connecting at and then what speed you get over your wifi. I can get 280mbps over wifi to my ipad. is you on a 60mbps line then no it might not be worth it unless your family is hammering the network. then you might want to think about it All of this is free advise on how to get the best from your network. Me I am happy with the cost of the equipment and for the service I pay for

 

[Chippy_Tea]

All of this is free advise on how to get the best from your network.

Free advice is great misleading advice is not, in your earlier post you said "The best thing anyone can do is throw away the free router given to you by your ISP there cheap and tac" this is misleading as not every isp's router is crap and for most the router supplied will do the job fine i am not saying buying a different router will not improve speeds or signal strength but for most its not something they will need to do.

 

[kelper]

No you just need the connection details from your ISP or google but your isp will give you the details but offer no support on your indepentant router.
You then entre the correct login details and password to your isp and your up and running. or you can use the isp's rmodem router as just a connection point and use the better router to do the hard work of wifi and hardwire.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1608827898526289655

I can connect by own router to the BT hub but I don't think it is possible to connect your own modem to a BT ADSL line?

I have a router behind router setup so one network is in USA and allows me to use Pandora streaming service on my Sonos. I don't have FTTP so I don't know if you can connect any router to a ONT. If you connect your own modem-router to the ADSL socket you are breaching the T&Cs you signed up to.

 

[kelper]

No you just need the connection details from your ISP or google but your isp will give you the details but offer no support on your indepentant router.
You then entre the correct login details and password to your isp and your up and running. or you can use the isp's rmodem router as just a connection point and use the better router to do the hard work of wifi and hardwire.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/1608827898526289655

I am not about using your own router, I said modem.

 

[chopps]

I use my own DSL modem on BT. It’s not a router.

Technically BT don’t approve but it’s quite common. The only issue is getting tech support so I keep an ‘official’ modem and router on hand.