Wireless Internet speeds (Sky Broadband)

[Abhik262]

Hi, i have sky broadband (16mb) and have noticed that over the past few weeks that my internet download speed has dropped dramatically. Just a few weeks ago, i was downloading files at around 360kBps whereas now, i am lucky if the speed is able to exceed 100kBps. Also, my ping has increased from about 61 ms to over 100ms all the time. I ran these tests both at the same time (~17:00) and am curious as to how my speed and ping dropped so low? For all of these tests, i have used www.speedtest.net and my latest result is as follows:



I am using an Edimax EW-7728In which is a draft n 2.0 PCI card and the netgear router which came with the sky broadband package on a vista machine.

Thanks in advance for any help, this issue is really annoying me and prohibiting me from downloading files over 100mb.

PS i tried with the laptop and am experiencing download speeds of around 200-250kBps, though the laptop has never been able to exceed speeds of 300kBps. Thanks again.

[Abhik262]

I have just noticed something:

On some tests, such as the above, the speed is slow and i have a certain Ip address and on others, i have had speeds of 3mbps. I switched my router off and then on, in the hope it would give me a new IP address and look at my speed now:



Its appears to have jumped considerably. Is there any way with which i can force the router/my computer to use this IP address solely? Thanks.

[Splash]

...out of interest what speeds do you get when connected using a network cable?

[Abhik262]

...out of interest what speeds do you get when connected using a network cable?

I am unable to connect my Pc to the router with a network cable as it is too far and i dont have any cables which are long enough, but, if it helps, the speeds are about the same on the laptop (though a tad faster and a bit more consistent)

[matty-hodgson]

could you connect the laptop up through a cable and do a speed test?

[Will404]

You can move the laptop closer and use a RJ45 (eathernet) cable.

[matty-hodgson]

You can move the laptop closer and use a RJ45 (eathernet) cable.

precisely my point.

[moogle]

precisely my point.

but using an ethernet cable
I got ping increases of 5-10ms while on wireless. Best way would be to test on a cabled connection to the router.

[Will404]

precisely my point.

Sorry, about double post - internet went down, as i clicked send, and by time it was back up again, you had done it, aswell as firefox resending the data :O

God, I hate Tiscali. They are a load of **** sorry should really not be in a strop

[Abhik262]

Ok on the laptop, wireless (about 2m away), i recieve 2516kbps and with a 2m ethernet cable, i recieve 2602kbps, so not a huge difference in download speed. also, ping improved from 66 (wireless) to 61 ms (wired).

Also, just to clarify, the issue only exists on the desktop as far as my knowledge goes, the laptop speed stays pretty consistent, its just the desktop which tends to vary from 3mbps to 400kbps.

[Abhik262]

Something which i think may solve the problem is if i can force the router to give me the same IP address. How would i do this?

[moogle]

Something which i think may solve the problem is if i can force the router to give me the same IP address. How would i do this?

Pay Sky? AFAIK most ADSL ISP's give Dynamic IP's unless you pay for a static one or they allow you to have one for free.

[Splash]

That rather depends on if you mean the LAN ip address of your PC or the WAN ip off the router. If the former you need to set up a DHCP reservation in the DHCP server on your router, but I honestly think that's going to make no difference, I'm putting that one down to coincidence (unless your router has some sort of QoS setup which restricts bandwidth to specific LAN addresses, but I think you'd know if that were the case as you'd have likely set it up yourself)

[Abhik262]

That rather depends on if you mean the LAN ip address of your PC or the WAN ip off the router. If the former you need to set up a DHCP reservation in the DHCP server on your router, but I honestly think that's going to make no difference, I'm putting that one down to coincidence (unless your router has some sort of QoS setup which restricts bandwidth to specific LAN addresses, but I think you'd know if that were the case as you'd have likely set it up yourself)

So you are saying that the speed boost is more of a case of me switching the router on an off as opposed to it providing me with a new IP? I myself did not think that the IP address would change speed but only functioned as identification, but at the time, it was the only obvious variable (to me anyway)

[Splash]

That's precisely what I'm saying (assuming you were talking about LAN ip (ie the 192.168.x.x address) of the PC as opposed to you WAN ip (which you can get by going to a site like www.ipchicken.com). If that's what you meant you could easily test the theory by assigning a DHCP reserved address for your PC and rebooting your router a few times, running a speed test each time. If the speed is the same each time then it seems you have some kind of odd setup where certain LAN addresses are getting faster speeds than others, and if the speed varies each reboot it's a coincidence. You could also try assigning the laptop the address that the PC is currently being assigned and see what speed you get then.

[Abhik262]

Ok, after rebooting my router a few times i have been able to confirm that the speed results remain consistent. However, the issue i am concerned about is why is it that sometimes, the speed drops so drastically that i have to reboot the router every few hours. Its not a serious problem as the quick fix is to reboot the router, though it is rather annoying.

Thanks for all of the help so far, it has been much appreciated.