Learning WiFi

[trout39843]

Here's one for you all.
I got zero knowlege of Wifi but am learning fastish.
Got my PC hooked up to the infonet by Wifi from BT from the house. My PC has 5G wifi. I put a booster in the kitchen (from amazon) and when I check the speeds on this site I'm gettong around 25mbs. I use a VPN on. How can I get faster speeds as BT is on 74MBS? Does the VPN affect it? Also, many moons ago I had a speed checker from Oxford I think that was a download and ran seperate on my desktop. I can't seem to find it. Anyone know?

[Loulou]

Have you tried turning it off then back on again?

[TheTakerofCare]

Here's one for you all.
I got zero knowlege of Wifi but am learning fastish.
Got my PC hooked up to the infonet by Wifi from BT from the house. My PC has 5G wifi. I put a booster in the kitchen (from amazon) and when I check the speeds on this site I'm gettong around 25mbs. I use a VPN on. How can I get faster speeds as BT is on 74MBS? Does the VPN affect it? Also, many moons ago I had a speed checker from Oxford I think that was a download and ran seperate on my desktop. I can't seem to find it. Anyone know?

Yes a VPN will slow your internet but not by a great amount. The reason you are getting slow Wi-Fi is it is that Wi-Fi, what the router comes in at will be X, by the time its gone through walls, the fridge and ceilings it will be y. Also 5g WIFI is separate to a Wi-Fi network, 5g comes from the mast or router (if you have one) the BT router is your domestic not cellular Wi-Fi. Try BT speed test or Speed test by Ookla on a mobile, walk around testing it. Also look into disc Wi-Fi extras from BT they can boost a signal.

It sounds like you are getting interference from line of sight, Amazon booster doesn't help, speak to BT for 2 of theirs, usually free. Use the app for best place, Forget 5g as that is a cellular network, use only your BT Wi-Fi unless that goes down then switch to 5g.

[thecaretaker]

Depending on the VPN, it can slow it down if it has a long distance to travel e.g. using servers in the US from the UK.

It also depends on the device you are connecting it to. Have you got your phone connected to it? Most phones will tell you the link rate it is connected at. This will adjust depending on the quality of the wi-fi signal and distance from it. It will always be lower than the maximum the wi-fi signal can offer.

My 5G wi-fi is 1300Mbps from the router but my phone shows it is connected at various speeds between 585-866. On an Adroid phone, check under Settings/Connections tap on the wi-fi you are connected to and click on the settings flower.

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[thecaretaker]

How can I get faster speeds as BT is on 74MBS?

Just read this bit. Unless you have the green street box outside your house, you are likely to get much slower line rates than 74Mbs with FTTC. I'm a long way fron the green box and although I pay for 74Mbs, I only actually get 45Mbs. It is still just slightly better than the 38Mbs the cheaper package I could have chosen.

It doesn't matter how fast your wi-fi is, you will only get at best the maximum FTTC line speed.

Check out the speed on your PC and also your phone using this page https://www.thecaretakers.co.uk/speedtest.html. The speed on your phone will most likely be a little slower than your PC. If your PC has a LAN cable that you can plug into the router, that will give you the best most accurate speed you are achieving.

Your ISP should have a control panel that tells you what your current sync rate is to the green street box.

[inspector]

Very posh here, FTTP but I haven't gone for that as I don't do a lot of streaming (but the wife downloads a lot of films, mostly without any problems) so don't really need super fast.

[Dragonrider]

I'm with Vodafone and a very nice young man offered me a very nice discount when my previous contract (with VF) was getting close to renewal and I now pay less than I did on the old package, and now get 70+ Mbps download speeds and 20Mbps as a download speed and all for £19 per month.

[EBJ]

Some people make the mistake of putting the router near a window thinking the wifi will travel faster through it, unfortunately it does not and trvels faster through the brick walls, so Trout m8 if it is in front of a double-glazed window move it.

[trout39843]

Mucho thanks brothers.
I took your advice and moved some things, got an extender and now getting around 20 - 30mbps. It's going through two brick walls.
Took a while but it's where I can live with. I still use a VPN as some news (fox being one) sites I surf in the states don't like foreigners apperantly.

[Vera]

Have you tried turning it off then back on again?

High level IT support right here..