Paying for M200 but speeds no faster than previous M100

[IanSR]

Hi, we recently upgraded to M200 from M100.

The package has been applied because when I do a speed test, our upload speed is now 20Mbps whereas before it was only 10Mbps.

However the download speed has remained at between 60 and 80Mbps, this is even lower than the 90Mbs we used to average on the M100 service.

So, does it take time for the speed to settle or does our equipment need changing?  We have a Superhub2.  All testing has been completed on CAT5 wired machines running Windows 10, WiFi is disabled in the router as we do not use it.

Any ideas, or should I just request we go back to M100?

[jem101]

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@IanSR wrote:

Hi, we recently upgraded to M200 from M100.

The package has been applied because when I do a speed test, our upload speed is now 20Mbps whereas before it was only 10Mbps.

However the download speed has remained at between 60 and 80Mbps, this is even lower than the 90Mbs we used to average on the M100 service.

So, does it take time for the speed to settle or does our equipment need changing?  We have a Superhub2.  All testing has been completed on CAT5 wired machines running Windows 10, WiFi is disabled in the router as we do not use it.

Any ideas, or should I just request we go back to M100?

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Cat 5 or cat5e? If cat 5 then there is the issue as 100 Mb/s is the max it will support! And are you sure that the network cards in the PCs support gigabit connections and aren’t just 10/100 Meg?

[jbrennand]

Do you get the sub-100 speeds on an ethernet cable connected device and on a wifi connection? Or just one?

On ethernet - change the Cable to a new Cat6a one and make sure the device drivers are up to date and the in the Network Settings - the connection speed is set to 1GB and not defaulted to 100Mbps

On wifi are you connecting on the 2.4 or 5 GHz band? For example, my Macbook Air and iPhone7 both get 220mbps on my Vivid200 wifi connection package (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 50-60mbps (others on here get even lower [<50] on their set ups) - it's just the limitations of the technology!

[IanSR]

ohh thank you, I'm pretty sure they're CAT6 cables actually, only bought them last yeae, the computers I was doing the tests have gigabit cards in yes.

I will order a CAT7 cable from Amazon and test that to be sure.

[IanSR]

I get it on both, I will do more testing, thanks.

[IanSR]

OK so just did some testing, I found a brand new CAT6 Gigabit cable in the junk box so tried that:

CAT6 on Windows10 - no change in speed (80Mbps down, 20Mbps up).

I also switched on the 5Ghz in the hub and tried a speed test on two devices with that:

iPad Air 2 - 24Mbps down / 20Mbps up

iPhone 6s - 30Mbps down / 20Mbps up

So I suspect the problem is with the line, hopefully someone can sort an engineer visit or boost the speed remotely as I work during the day so won't be able to call CS tomorrow (making personal calls while at work  = instant dismissal).

Thanks

[legacy1]

On the PC run CMD
ping -t 194.168.4.100
run a speed test on downloading does the ping spike or show packet loss

also run in CMD

netsh interface tcp show global

Check Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level  is normal

[jbrennand]

Re the ethernet connection - can you test it this way...
____________________________________________
Connect a 1GB enabled computer/laptop, with up to date drivers, via a NEW and working Cat5e/6a ethernet cable, directly to the Hub which you have put into “modem mode” (https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-hub-modem-mode ).
This ensures that NO other devices are connected

Test speeds at https://speedtest.samknows.com/ - try on 2 different browsers.

If they are still low – boot your device into Windows safe+networking mode - to disable any potentially interfering software - and try again.

There are many posts on here (I have a list of ~30!) where QoS software, unknown/flaky software, old network card drivers, corrupted browsers, bad cables or other connected devices are limiting speeds on tests.

Report back what that gets.

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

Then, re. the wifi - you switched the 5GHz on in the Hub.. but how do you know what band its connecting to if there is only 1 SSID?

You need to do this...
_________________

Go into the Hub’s 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 signal >smart wifi - tick the disable “channel optimisation” box or “Smart Wifi” box and save settings.  May be different pathways and wording on the 3 Hub types
Then, go to advanced>wireless signal>security, rename the 2.4 & 5 GHz network ssid's.  Just type over to change 'em to whatever you like and something that will differentiate them (e.g - Billybob2 & Billybob5) Try to avoid spaces and periods in the SSID names as they can cause issues with certain devices. 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.
All things being equal, 5 GHz is always better/faster and subject to less congestion/interference (and is better for iDevice speeds than the 2.4 one - although the 2.4 one has the better "range" and will be needed when the 5 GHz drops out of range and some older/cheaper/dumber devices can only use this one. 

You should also use a wifi analyser App (or Airport Utility on iOS) 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.

[IanSR]

Welp, all sorted.

Long story shirt, we have a lot of devices, all wired in, we have so many that about 3 years ago I bought a network hub to manage stuff, I completely forgot this was connected to the VM router, and the PC's I was doing the testing on, was connected to it.

So shortly before becoming completely bald, I remembered that I had purchased the hub, traced some cables, and eventually plugged the test PC directly into the hub, boom, 220Mbs down 20Mbps up straight away.

GRRRRRR, thanks for pointing me in the right direction (talk about the CAT5/6/7 cabled jogged the old memory), moral or story - remember what is connected to what LOL.

[IanSR]

I plugged directly into the Virgin hub, if I wasn't clear, sorry.