Need some advice

[maniqwils]

Hi guys, I've recently upgraded my Virgin Media broadband from M100 to M350; the average 356mb/s download speed was too tempting for me.

However, I've done numerous speed tests on my phone and laptop and my speeds seem to max out at around 250mb/s. Whilst this is still quite high, it's not the ~350 that I'm paying for.

I've checked the specs of my phone and laptop and they are able to run at max speeds of around 900mb/s - so my devices certainly aren't the issue.

Would there be anything obvious that I'm missing which is prohibiting my devices from getting to the ~350 mark?

Sub-question; a forward path attenuator also came with the house I moved into. I can't find an article online that explains the purpose of this in plain English, so I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me out on this too.

[Adduxi]

Please post your power levels, Pre and PostRS errors and Network log.  Also setup a BQM here www.thinkbroadband.com/ping

Once done we can comment.

In simple terms the attenuator is for reducing the Downstream power levels if they are too high.

[legacy1]

---

@maniqwils wrote:

However, I've done numerous speed tests on my phone and laptop and my speeds seem to max out at around 250mb/s.

By wireless thats good

[jpeg1]

Yes. 250Mb is a reasonable speed for WiFi.  If you want to check what broadband speed you are getting you'll have to do it over ethernet. 

[carl_pearce]

---

@maniqwils wrote:

Hi guys, I've recently upgraded my Virgin Media broadband from M100 to M350; the average 356mb/s download speed was too tempting for me.

However, I've done numerous speed tests on my phone and laptop and my speeds seem to max out at around 250mb/s. Whilst this is still quite high, it's not the ~350 that I'm paying for.

I've checked the specs of my phone and laptop and they are able to run at max speeds of around 900mb/s - so my devices certainly aren't the issue.

Would there be anything obvious that I'm missing which is prohibiting my devices from getting to the ~350 mark?

Sub-question; a forward path attenuator also came with the house I moved into. I can't find an article online that explains the purpose of this in plain English, so I would greatly appreciate if someone could help me out on this too.

---

Sorry to be pedantic, however mb/s is not the same as Mbps, which is how speed test sites generally display speed results.

Wireless devices connect at a Mbps rate which is not strictly how fast you will be able to download data. I've found it's roughly 50 - 75% of the connected rate that equates to the download speed. An example my mobile connects at 433Mbps and I get around 300Mbps (I'm on 1Gbps).

A forward path attenuator reduces the power delivered to your HUB on the downstream channels. The power levels must be in spec (-6dB to +10dB, 0dB being optimal) to allow a stable connection.

You need to check what speed your devices are connected to the HUB to determine, roughly, the speed you should expect. Keep in mind this can change based on several variables including:

• Distance from the HUB.
• Walls and other obstacles.
• Other wireless networks in the local area causing interference.

[Andrew-G]

Whilst the "low" speed could be the device, it may be that if you're using a Hub 3 that the channel width is not wide enough.  You'll need to go into the hub's advanced settings, somewhere you'll find a drop down menu for channel width, leave the 2.4 GHz alone, but set the 5 GHz to 20/40/80 and see if that helps.  You may need to turn off "intelligent wifi" and any automatic optimisation to get access to that setting.