Virgin Media Community

[GoGoCardigan]

Hi Everyone,

We had a new install of Virgin Media 350MB fibre broadband this Monday & have noticed erratic WiFi speeds throughout the last few days.  I undertand WiFi is possibly affected by a multitude of things but we seem to range from 2Mbs to 200+Mbs when running speed tests via speedtest.net.  The Hub 3 is located centrally in our house (dining room) as it was suggested this would be a good place to get an "even WiFi spread".  I'm not really sure if there is an issue or I am over estimating what WiFi speeds we should be getting, I am going to get a cat 6/7/8 cable and test via ethernet to see if we are getting 350Mb to the router although looking at the router status it shows a max traffic rate of 402500089.

Will the erratic WiFi improve over time or should it just work out of the box?  In terms of WiFi speeds I guess the 350MB is to the router?  WiFi itself would be lower?

Thanks in advance,

Richard

[jbrennand]

Do the ethernet test and see how stable that is. It should be stable although speed will vary a bit due to usage at peak times. Wifi can be "poor" from the Hub but before investigating solutions for that, first do a quick check that all of your coax cable connections have been put in nice and "finger" tight - at the Hub and wall box and also at any connectors etc. Ensure there are no “unterminated cable loose ends. Disconnect all the connections and reconnect to be sure. Also check that the internal wiring is ok with no dog chews, kinking or chaffing,

You should achieve ~350 on ethernet easily and the same on wifi if your devices are up to it and are connecting on the 5GHz band and not the 2.4 one and close t the Hub - less as you get further away

[GoGoCardigan]

Hi, thanks for coming back to me.  I've checked the connections and everything seems good.  The coax cable connections are very tight and there are no kinks etc. etc. in the cables.  I think some of my devices are fairly old so would expect some drop off in terms of Wifi capability - we have however got no where near 350mb via Wifi on any device including a brand new Mac Book Pro.

I guess there will also be a drop off room-to-room depending on the distance to the router.  I am looking into powerline adaptors for these rooms to hopefully improve the connection speeds.

I must remember that prior to Virgin I was getting approx. 5mb on my old broadband connection (standard telephone wire not fibre) so this is better; I maybe expected more due to it being sold as 350mb - not 350mb to the router and then random speeds via Wifi...😊

[jbrennand]

As an example, my Macbook Air and iPhone7 both get 220Mbps on my Vivid200 wifi connection (and 220 on ethernet of course). However, on wifi, they only get that when I put them onto the 5GHz network. Sat in the same spot if I then flick them over to the 2.4GHz network, they max out at 70-80Mbps (others on here get even lower [<50Mbps] on their set ups) - it's just the limitations of the wifi technology!

However, I do use my own better quality wireless equipment than that in the VM Hubs. However there are a couple of tweaks to try on a Hub3 first. Try this.....

____________________________________

Go into the Hub3 settings. Type in  http://192.168.0.1  into your web browser’s url box and login with settings password on the Hub's base sticker (or your own if you changed it). Then in Advanced>wireless>smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box and save settings.  Then, go to advanced>wireless>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - xxxxx_2 & xxxxx_5) -- use the same password for simplicity,  Then, apply settings and restart the Hub.  Your 2 wifi networks will now be clearly separated - and you can then select the network you want to connect to individually from the "available networks" list on each device. 

Note all your wifi devices will need re-connecting to the new SSID's and passwords.

5 GHz is usually better and subject to less interference (and is better for iDevices ) than the 2.4 one - although this one has the better "range" and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App to check which 2.4 channels are being heavily used around you and move yours to one of numbers 1,6,11 that is least so, but it wont help if there is other interference.

See if these changes help - you will lose any “seamless roaming” benefits but it may not matter and you can always change the settings back by doing a " pinhole factory reset " if you prefer the way it was - or it doesn’t help.

[GoGoCardigan]

Hi & thanks again for coming back to me.  I think you are correct in that I am seeing the limitations of wireless in some of the rooms in our house.  I have amended the Hub 3 as per your feedback and can see that my work laptop in my upstairs office is connecting to the 5 Ghz network but is maxing out on wifi at around 45-50 Mbs.  Downstairs we seem to be getting 150-250 Mbs depending on the time of day (again I am guessing there will be some network throttling going on Virgin's end during peak times) and the number of devices in use (there is myself and my 2 daughters at home working / home schooling every day).  I also guess that as there are many more people at home during the day this would also have an impact!?

I am (hopefully) going to run the ethernet connected tests today to see what speed we get plugged into the router directly & if this matches/surpasses the 350 Mbs we are supposed to get then I am happy.  I will then look to get a couple of powerline adaptors for my office and lounge ("smart" TV and PS4).

Again thanks for your help, it has been really useful as I know next to nothing about networking etc. and your pointers have given me insight into both the potential limitations of wifi and settings etc. in the Hub 3 😁

[jbrennand]

Report back.

If speeds on ethernet are good and stable your wifi woes can be cured by getting your own better quality wireless equipment (e.g a Mesh). Powerline adpaters will never get full speeds on wifi or ethernet. My lad only gets about 60-70 Mbps on our 200 package on ethernet connections from his high-quality pair uses for his gaming equipment. Again - limitations of the tech.

[GoGoCardigan]

OK, I have managed to run the speedtest via Ethernet connection.  I ran it several (5) times between 5pm & 6pm and averaged approx 378 Mbs.  I have then re-ran the speedtests between 7.45pm and 8.15pm and averaged 196.12 !?!?  This included two tests of 141.24 (!!) and 179.44 - both below Virgin's "guarenteed minimum speed"...

I really am at a loss now as the Ethernet speeds are also quite variable...just ran a test now (8.21pm) - 177.79 Mbs.  Does this point to an issue with the Hub or line or something...this is nowhere what I pay for (350 Mbs) for which Virgin have already billed me for a full month even though our service started 18/01...currently not impressed.

[jbrennand]

What does their speed guarantee say about this? What is the guarantee?

[TrueVerdict]

Heya from what I know the speed guarantee for 350mb is 181mb down so 179.44 is very close to this.

As the OP has an ethernet cable I would suggest running a speed test in modem mode to get a true reading this will turn off the majority of features on the router apart from port networking signing onto the network.

Access the router 192.168.0.1 > sign in > modem mode > Enable

With your pc/mac/laptop go to a speedtest site i.e speedtest.net and run a wired test

do this 3 different points of the day

if this is again below the  the 181mb, I would get in touch with virgin and log a speed complaint because something isnt right - if you have one too, try and swap out the ethernet cable for these tests to see if you get different results!

[TrueVerdict]

Useful info here on the speeds John

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/speeds