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pb34n0's avatar
pb34n0
Joining in
25 days ago
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Volatile Internet Speed

I’ve been experiencing extremely volatile internet speeds lately.  Timeline of events:

February: Renewed my VM contract with M250 internet.  No changes were made to the service.

March: I started experiencing extremely volatile internet speeds, ranging from 250mb (as expected) to 3mb. These fluctuations happen throughout the day. 

Last week: an engineer came out and gave me a new router (Hub5), which obviously worked while he was here, but inconsistent speeds have continued.

Today: an engineer came out to replace the cabling. While running a Sam Knows speed check, the package was noted as Community Fibre Ltd (I’ve never had or logged on to Community Fibre wifi) showing huge speeds that I’m not signed up to. Computer was connected to VM wifi.  This happened on three devices. Ran it again after the cabling had been changed and it said the package was Virgin Media, coinciding with good internet speeds. But obviously, internet speeds have returned to wild fluctuations - and when the speed is poor the Sam Knows speed check shows as Community Fibre Ltd.  I don’t know if this is coincidental, but it doesn’t seem to be.

FYI, Virgin Media speed check always shows high, Sam Knows shows weird results, Google speed check seems to be showing me more accurate results based on my first-hand experience of how the internet is running.

Does anyone have any idea what’s going on here? Is there anything else I can check to work out what the issue is?

  • pb34n0's avatar
    pb34n0
    23 days ago

    UPDATE: after some trial and error it appears that our TP Link extender has been the issue here, despite it not ever being a problem before.  I'm not really sure what's changed, but removing the TP Link does restore the internet to what I would expect, and gives proper readings on Sam Knows.

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  • carl_pearce's avatar
    carl_pearce
    Superstar
    25 days ago

    What do wired devices show?

    Try changing the SSID (network name) in the HUB settings to something else and test again.

    Is Community Fibre Ltd available in your area?

    I wonder if a neighbour with Community Fibre as somehow set the SSID on their kit to the same as your VM HUB and is causing your devices to connect to their services randomly! Technically this shouldn't be possible as the password will differ.

    • pb34n0's avatar
      pb34n0
      Joining in
      25 days ago

      I haven't tried a wired device - I need to get a USBC connector, so will try that next week. 

      Community Fibre is available in the area, I can see Community Fibre wifi names, but I've never connected to them, and they're password protected.  I'm definitely connected to my VM wifi.

      I did notice something strange when I look up the network settings on my Macbook, under DNS Search Domains it says communityfibre.co.uk but I can't change / delete it.  My iPhone (which also suffers from the same issues) doesn't have anything under DNS Search Domains.

      • Daniel_Et's avatar
        Daniel_Et
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
        21 days ago

        Hi pb34n0, thank you for the update. 

        We're glad to hear that your broadband service has been restored to what you'd expect.

        If you have any further issues or queries, please don't hesitate to contact us.

        Thank you for your support carl_pearce 👍

        Regards,
        Daniel

  • pb34n0's avatar
    pb34n0
    Joining in
    23 days ago

    UPDATE: after some trial and error it appears that our TP Link extender has been the issue here, despite it not ever being a problem before.  I'm not really sure what's changed, but removing the TP Link does restore the internet to what I would expect, and gives proper readings on Sam Knows.