Dodgy wifi or dodgy ISP?

[Freddyfruitba...]

I quite often find that my home wifi and/or fixed-connection internet speed goes really slow or intermittent. Sometimes helped by turning everything off-and-on-again, sometimes not; and I suspect the main cause may be the actual signal which is coming into the house as opposed to problems inside the house.

This is probably a really numpty question, but how can I quickly and easily assess the ISP's signal and determine whether it's that or something else, under my control? It's particularly a PITA because the signal on my devices very rarely stops, it just slows down, which makes it harder to pinpoint.

FWIW I'm on Virgin, with a BT Whole Home mesh wifi network hooked up the Virgin modem.
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KC100->CB100N->CB250RS--------->DL650AL2->R1200RS->R1250RS

[bugeye_bob]

[duhawkz]

first step would be to conduct a speed test, with the a computer connected via cable directly to the router. To see if you're getting the advertised speed for you line.

use speedtest.net or https://speedtest.btwholesale.com

then try it again when its slowing down to see if your line speed has dropped.
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[xX-Alex-Xx]

If you want to rule out WiFi, connect your laptop to the router with a network cable.

My wife’s parents are on Virgin, and after seeing their performance I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. Yes they advertise the fastest speeds, but from what I’ve seen their internet drops for a least a few minutes a few times every day.

My VDSL with plusnet is “only” 70Mb/s but I’ve had literally zero downtime (that I’ve noticed) and that’s impressive considering I work from home and rely on it all day.
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DILLIGAF

[P.]

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Plenty of shitty routers used by ISPs.

Buggy wifi, old firmware, causing slow speeds or dropped connections. Changing for the same model sometimes helps, other times mithering them to push for a better router does it.
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'81 CG125, '97 FZS600 : '99 CBR600F4, '09 KTM RC8

[Polarbear]

If we are talking about providers, at the moment I am on BT with about 40mbps.

Vodafone have installed fibre in our street and are advertising much faster and cheaper. Does anyone actually know if they are any good bearing in mind I've never had any problems with BT other than the price.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[xX-Alex-Xx]

[panrider_uk]

I use Vodafone for home (business) broadband) and it's fine.

I have the ocasional dropout from the router (had that with BT and Talktalk before them so they're all crap in that respect) but have my own good router to install when I find my round tuit.

Speeds are good and price is good.

Our leased line at work is provided by NTE and runs over Vodafone's network.

Good speeds on that too (as you'd expect on a leased line), very reliable and several thousand £ a year cheaper than BT.
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Current bike: Honda ST1100

[duhawkz]

I've had vodafone fibre for a couple of years now, I haven't had issues with it.

I think I'm paying around £33 a month for 76mb fibre and evening and weekend calls
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[McHattrick]