Improving broadband connection?

[amy56]

Hi all,

With three of us permanently at home - working, schooling and two teenagers gaming, watching YouTube and streaming movies etc, our brandband has been struggling.

A few days ago I was texting Virgin Media anyway as our package was coming to the end of a discount and I spoke to someone who upgraded our broadband from 100mbps to 200mbps.

Being the technophobe that I am, and not remotely understanding any of it, I assumed this would solve all of our problems! However, it doesn’t feel like anything has improved at all.

I remember reading a thread on here recently about boosters or routers or something else (as I say I REALLY know nothing! ) and of course I can’t now find it! Lol!

My son, if given instructions, would I’m sure be capable of understanding it all, and I was wondering if there was anyone on here who could direct me as to what to try to do to fix it please?

As a bit of background incase it helps - the broadband is set up in the living room and the boys are mainly using the internet on the first floor (between them they have two Xbox’s, a pc, and a PS4 & both seem to (try to!) Facetime friends whilst playing games, and one or other of them frequently gets upset as it seems only one is able to play at once. I’ve also got Netflix in our bedroom on the second floor and every night my connection is poor, despite at that time of night no one else is really using the internet for anything else, so I’ve been wondering if it’s location of the Virgin box which can’t unfortunately be moved.

Any ideas? I don’t mind ordering something to place on another floor if that’s what’s needed, I just don’t want to be paying for ‘upgraded’ broadband if it’s still not helping meet our needs.

Many thanks for any advice. 👍

[mickey house]

I had poor reception in my loft conversion using virgin internet, so I bought these (below) and the reception is now perfect. I can watch my cctv live via wifi with no issues and my netflix/you tube connection is perfect.

You plug one into the router and the other into the room you want to improve the wifi signal in and it sends the signal through the mains. You can also plug an Ethernet cable in it, but my signal is so good now via wifi I don't need the Ethernet.

[lizzie145]

there are simple things like making sure the router is away from the microwave and not surrounded by stuff.

[amy56]

Thank you both ever so much I really appreciate it 👍

[duchy]

Try this , (user name and pw are from memory , any Virgin users feel free to correct me)

In your internet browser address bar type 192.168.0.1 <then press enter >
You’ll be prompted to sign in. It’ll probably be username admin password changeme
Look for the channel your hub is set to it’ll probably be auto , change it to 11 or 5 and press apply underneath.

[amy56]

Originally Posted by duchy

Try this , (user name and pw are from memory , any Virgin users feel free to correct me)

In your internet browser address bar type 192.168.0.1 <then press enter >
You’ll be prompted to sign in. It’ll probably be username admin password changeme
Look for the channel your hub is set to it’ll probably be auto , change it to 11 or 5 and press apply underneath.

See more...

Thank you ever so much, I’ll get my son to try it 👍

[duchy]

That should get you a better signal over two floors at least. The top floor you may or may not need a booster . Good luck (I’m off to work now , will be getting quite a few customers to do similar as it definitely helps in many cases)

[wanye]

install wifi analyzer on your phone

play.google/store/apps/d...lyzer&hl=en_GB

use it to check for signal strength/deadspots, as well as other networks using the same channel as you nearby. move to a less congested network channel using the instructions above.

kettles, microwaves and other devices can affect signals, as can seemingly innocuous things like closing the door to the room the router is located. mine is in my office, and i started having issues around the time we got our cat. turns out it was me keeping the office door closed to keep the cat out! when the door was closed, the signal in the bedroom dropped to 20% and dropped out randomly.

in the end, i got a pair of TP link EAP mesh access points, and i now have 90% strength coverage throughout my whole house. cost me £130 for the two units, but solved the issues immediately after installation.

hth

*edit*
these are the access points i got: amazon/TP-Link-Gig...nguag e=en_GB

set them up using the same SSID and password as you have now, and disable the wifi on your router

[400ixl]

You really need to know what channels other user are on before just changing the channel as you can easily make it worse than better.

If I scan my current location then 11 and 5 are two of the most congested channels with BT, SKY and TalkTalk wifi networks all running on them. Those are also only the 2Ghz channels, many devices will be connected to the 5Ghz range.

First off, 100Mbit broadband is enough to support 4 people all streaming 4K at the same time. If it is gaming and netflix etc then you should have had enough before upgrading.

What actually is the issue you have as it may not be at your end, or may not be related to speed. Is it buffering of streaming content, slow responses with gaming?



I would first of all start by doing a speedtest. If you can plug a laptop into the router itself with a cable, then this would be step one as it will test the broadband speed without any wifi limitations. If you can connect a device by cable then do that and go to a browser and load speedtest and run the test. This should then give you a latency figure, a download speed and an upload speed. Latency should be below 15ms and the download speed in excess of 100Mb. Upload should be over 20Mb and higher as its Virgin. Provided these figures are OK you don't have an issue with the link to your property.

I would then repeat this test from each of the devices that you are using from their normal location and see what results you get there. This will help identify where the problem may be. If you can't do the first test on the router, at least run these and report back what you get.

[JanetteP]

I think Virgin used to do an app that you could go around your house and see where there is a good signal. I remember doing this, and getting a free booster, which I use in my kitchen/dining room. Not sure if this is still the case.