Fluctuating download speeds through pod

[Lobstrex]

Hi all, new VM customer here. Moved home and went with VM with the Gig1 service.

Speeds to router are superb - always above the 1000 minimum I should be getting. However, I'm consistently getting issues with my download speeds whilst connected to a black pod.

My Desktop PC is connected to a pod (the pod shows 'Great' connections strength on the app) via ethernet. I'm often finding that my download speeds fluctuate massively - between 90Mbps and 700Mbps.

Any advice or help with this? Seems to happen constantly, no matter if I'm alone in the house or my family is here.

[Lobstrex]

Here's a recent speed test - I ran one earlier today (which I didn't take a screenshot of...) showing speeds of 600Mbps+

However, just to add some more confusion to the mix, here's a speed test over wifi when sat at the same desktop PC as above;

Do the pods throttle ethernet connections at all? Both my PC and the ethernet cable are capable of Gigabit speeds, and I've already tried replacing the cable.

[Adduxi]

The Pod is connected to your Hub via Wifi I assume?  Depending on the distance from the Hub to the Pod, you will get a speed drop.  I'm not sure if the newer black Pods can use a cable for the backhaul?  That may be worth trying.

[Lobstrex]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, pod is connected to the router via Wi-Fi, however the fluctuating speed doesn't seem to be related to this. As above, when I run speed tests over Wi-Fi it confirms a much higher speed compared to ethernet.

[Adduxi]

Is the Ethernet NIC on the PC running at 10/100?

[Lobstrex]

Hi, yes ethernet port on my PC is gigabit. I ran a speed test early this morning;

This was at about 6am today. Re-ran the test just now, and it's back down to ~90Mbps

[Adduxi · Accepted solution]

Strange, could be a dodgy Pod?  I don't use any of the VM Wifi kit at all.  I've always had my own networking kit, so can't comment any further really.

[Beth_G]

Hi Lobstrex,

Thank you for your post and for all the information provided, that's really helpful. Welcome to the Community Forums.

I'm sorry to hear you're not receiving very good speeds when connected to your WiFi Pod. Is this the same equipment you had at your previous property or were you given new kit? If it's the same, did you have these issues with the WiFi Pod before?

Also, it looks like you have two WiFi Pods in your set up. Are you only experiencing an issue with the one? If so, we may need to arrange for a replacement WiFi Pod to be sent out to you to see if that resolves the issue.

[Lobstrex]

Thanks for getting back to me. As @Adduxi mentioned, looks like it's a dodgy pod. Swapped it with the second pod in my house, and it seems to have resolved the issue. I'm not too worried about wired speeds downstairs, so I'm happy to leave this as is.