(BT) FTTP woes
Discussion
Hoping someone can help or give me a little sanity ....
6 weeks ago BT turned up and fitted FTTP (900mb Package), everything seemed to talk to it and the engineer left.
Over that day and evening i connected up the majority of devices including 1X Hard wired PC and several wifi devices (phones, ps/5, skyQ etc)
Initally having moved from a 4g router, we were quite happy with such speed, but over the last cpl of weeks i started to take note of what was being seen in terms of speed. Mainly be running speed tests via speedtest.net
I noticed that my wired connection never peaks above 500mb - yet it is using cat5e and the netcard albeit quite old supports 1gb...
the wfi is truly shocking , my work laptop that sits next to it is peaking at around 280mb and according to the hub admin screen is on 5g. however thats a peak, normally it was along the lines of 40mb.
BT sent out an in house engineer today who said it wasn't recommended to change the hub name - could reproduce the issue with the wifi and couldn't say why. he replaced the hub but not much improvement was seen and still peaking at 280/300mb on the wifi test. Apparently my house is a black spot for wifi but he couldn't offer a solution other than to try the new hub. His last shot was to arrange an open reach engineer to come and check the line - even though they tested it remotely and it seems to be ok and delivering 900 at the house.
Am i right to expect higher Wifi speeds ?
Am i right to expect higher hard line speeds / apparently my pc being 'old' is a reason for it not to be fast ?
6 weeks ago BT turned up and fitted FTTP (900mb Package), everything seemed to talk to it and the engineer left.
Over that day and evening i connected up the majority of devices including 1X Hard wired PC and several wifi devices (phones, ps/5, skyQ etc)
Initally having moved from a 4g router, we were quite happy with such speed, but over the last cpl of weeks i started to take note of what was being seen in terms of speed. Mainly be running speed tests via speedtest.net
I noticed that my wired connection never peaks above 500mb - yet it is using cat5e and the netcard albeit quite old supports 1gb...
the wfi is truly shocking , my work laptop that sits next to it is peaking at around 280mb and according to the hub admin screen is on 5g. however thats a peak, normally it was along the lines of 40mb.
BT sent out an in house engineer today who said it wasn't recommended to change the hub name - could reproduce the issue with the wifi and couldn't say why. he replaced the hub but not much improvement was seen and still peaking at 280/300mb on the wifi test. Apparently my house is a black spot for wifi but he couldn't offer a solution other than to try the new hub. His last shot was to arrange an open reach engineer to come and check the line - even though they tested it remotely and it seems to be ok and delivering 900 at the house.
Am i right to expect higher Wifi speeds ?
Am i right to expect higher hard line speeds / apparently my pc being 'old' is a reason for it not to be fast ?
oldskoolgent said:
Hoping someone can help or give me a little sanity ....
6 weeks ago BT turned up and fitted FTTP (900mb Package), everything seemed to talk to it and the engineer left.
Over that day and evening i connected up the majority of devices including 1X Hard wired PC and several wifi devices (phones, ps/5, skyQ etc)
Initally having moved from a 4g router, we were quite happy with such speed, but over the last cpl of weeks i started to take note of what was being seen in terms of speed. Mainly be running speed tests via speedtest.net
I noticed that my wired connection never peaks above 500mb - yet it is using cat5e and the netcard albeit quite old supports 1gb...
the wfi is truly shocking , my work laptop that sits next to it is peaking at around 280mb and according to the hub admin screen is on 5g. however thats a peak, normally it was along the lines of 40mb.
BT sent out an in house engineer today who said it wasn't recommended to change the hub name - could reproduce the issue with the wifi and couldn't say why. he replaced the hub but not much improvement was seen and still peaking at 280/300mb on the wifi test. Apparently my house is a black spot for wifi but he couldn't offer a solution other than to try the new hub. His last shot was to arrange an open reach engineer to come and check the line - even though they tested it remotely and it seems to be ok and delivering 900 at the house.
Am i right to expect higher Wifi speeds ?
Am i right to expect higher hard line speeds / apparently my pc being 'old' is a reason for it not to be fast ?
I'm on BT.6 weeks ago BT turned up and fitted FTTP (900mb Package), everything seemed to talk to it and the engineer left.
Over that day and evening i connected up the majority of devices including 1X Hard wired PC and several wifi devices (phones, ps/5, skyQ etc)
Initally having moved from a 4g router, we were quite happy with such speed, but over the last cpl of weeks i started to take note of what was being seen in terms of speed. Mainly be running speed tests via speedtest.net
I noticed that my wired connection never peaks above 500mb - yet it is using cat5e and the netcard albeit quite old supports 1gb...
the wfi is truly shocking , my work laptop that sits next to it is peaking at around 280mb and according to the hub admin screen is on 5g. however thats a peak, normally it was along the lines of 40mb.
BT sent out an in house engineer today who said it wasn't recommended to change the hub name - could reproduce the issue with the wifi and couldn't say why. he replaced the hub but not much improvement was seen and still peaking at 280/300mb on the wifi test. Apparently my house is a black spot for wifi but he couldn't offer a solution other than to try the new hub. His last shot was to arrange an open reach engineer to come and check the line - even though they tested it remotely and it seems to be ok and delivering 900 at the house.
Am i right to expect higher Wifi speeds ?
Am i right to expect higher hard line speeds / apparently my pc being 'old' is a reason for it not to be fast ?
I had one issue with BT TV. Engineer came promptly and spent the morning failing to sort the problem. He was in conversation for 15 mins on the phone, but without improvement. I phoned BT when there was no improvement and I was put through to 'an IT engineer'. In 5 mins he came up with three possible causes, two of which were easily tested by me. It seemed I had water in the lead from aerial to the box. They sent out a team to check the next day. They put in a new cable and even replaced a connector in the house which was 'probably all right but it might be best to change in' and I awaited their bill as it was not installed by them. (Circs was some time ago and precise facts somewhat blurred, but it was more or less as I say.)
It seems the people they send out are 'by the numbers' and anything that does not fit their system puts them into a loop. If those attending can't fix it first time, demand to speak to someone 'in IT'.
I’ve recently had BT FTTP swapped for TalkTalk but was on their 900mb package, I regularly saw full speeds on my cables iMac and very high Wi-Fi speeds on iPads and iPhones etc. (using fast.com).
I would expect higher than what you are getting and I think you’ll be below the stay fast guarantee too.
You may as well be on their 500mb service for those speeds.
In fairness the only reason I left was cost - I dropped to a 500mb service but the best price they could do at renewal was £46/mth and talktalk offered me the same speed in a fibre take over for £26/mth with their Eero mesh system.
I would expect higher than what you are getting and I think you’ll be below the stay fast guarantee too.
You may as well be on their 500mb service for those speeds.
In fairness the only reason I left was cost - I dropped to a 500mb service but the best price they could do at renewal was £46/mth and talktalk offered me the same speed in a fibre take over for £26/mth with their Eero mesh system.
When you say hub name, did you mean changing the WiFi SSID?
I’m also on the same package BT FTTC and recently got the new hub. Just a bit annoyed that it’s now not possible to create separate band SSIDs.
Anyway I digress…
You’ll never get close to 900Mbps over WIFi as BT equipment does not support that speed. I get around 400ish in my iPhone 11.
I did some research on this and you need some serious gear to get over 500mbps speeds over WiFi.
The acid test is connection over Ethernet. I’d plug your PC/laptop directly into a port on the hub and run Speedtest. I get around 800 to 900 depending on time of the day. I get slower speed with my NUC but that’s down to hardware.
Do you have whole WiFi (or whatever it’s called) on your package? You should get up to 2 mesh discs which I find help boost WiFi strength.
I’m also on the same package BT FTTC and recently got the new hub. Just a bit annoyed that it’s now not possible to create separate band SSIDs.
Anyway I digress…
You’ll never get close to 900Mbps over WIFi as BT equipment does not support that speed. I get around 400ish in my iPhone 11.
I did some research on this and you need some serious gear to get over 500mbps speeds over WiFi.
The acid test is connection over Ethernet. I’d plug your PC/laptop directly into a port on the hub and run Speedtest. I get around 800 to 900 depending on time of the day. I get slower speed with my NUC but that’s down to hardware.
Do you have whole WiFi (or whatever it’s called) on your package? You should get up to 2 mesh discs which I find help boost WiFi strength.
Your connection speed is only as good as the weakest link in the chain, including your router and the wifi cards in your devices.
Look up the specs of each and do an analysis.
I did this and determined that until I got wifi 6 enabled devices, the best I could expect with a 2x2 router was a wifi connection speed of 866mbps on my macbook pro (el cheapo windows laptop half that) and the max data throughput is about half of 866mbps = 433mbps.
So I settled on a 500mbps connection. There aren’t enough people in my house to make 1gbps worthwhile with the sort of networking equipment in my devices.
With a decent wifi 6 device, I’ll be theoretically (local interference allowing) able to connect to my wifi 6 router at over 2gbps, making a 1gbps connection worth paying for. My ISP, Hyperoptic hand out really s
tty routers so I brought a mid range wifi 6 model for about £170. It is much faster and much more stable.
Look up the specs of each and do an analysis.
I did this and determined that until I got wifi 6 enabled devices, the best I could expect with a 2x2 router was a wifi connection speed of 866mbps on my macbook pro (el cheapo windows laptop half that) and the max data throughput is about half of 866mbps = 433mbps.
So I settled on a 500mbps connection. There aren’t enough people in my house to make 1gbps worthwhile with the sort of networking equipment in my devices.
With a decent wifi 6 device, I’ll be theoretically (local interference allowing) able to connect to my wifi 6 router at over 2gbps, making a 1gbps connection worth paying for. My ISP, Hyperoptic hand out really s
tty routers so I brought a mid range wifi 6 model for about £170. It is much faster and much more stable.Edited by wyson on Friday 29th April 18:16
Do you actually need 900mbit speeds at all devices?
If you do I’d be buying a better router and then running appropriate networking to devices.
If not I’d just downgrade to 300/500 range which is more in line with decent ish wifi5/ac performance… but still really decently fast for wfh/streaming or whatever other stuff you might be doing.
If you do I’d be buying a better router and then running appropriate networking to devices.
If not I’d just downgrade to 300/500 range which is more in line with decent ish wifi5/ac performance… but still really decently fast for wfh/streaming or whatever other stuff you might be doing.
Great suggestion as well. Just downgrade the connection to the speeds you are seeing if you don’t have the inclination to analyse your devices, buy new routers etc. What you are seeing is within reason.
Getting 900mbps throughput isn’t a trivial task on wifi.
Getting 900mbps throughput isn’t a trivial task on wifi.
Edited by wyson on Friday 29th April 19:13
oldskoolgent said:
I'm not expecting 900 on wifi ... just more than 30mb. what really wiles me is the inconstancy of it all. i'd be quite happy with 300 across all the devices.
the PC IS hard wired direct to the router and I'm only seeing 400mb - am i wrong to expect more ?
Its hard to tell without understanding the whole chain, what your house is like, potential interference conditions etc.the PC IS hard wired direct to the router and I'm only seeing 400mb - am i wrong to expect more ?
Someone posting here before was getting crappy wifi speeds in a larger house and spent £800 getting a Netgear Orbi 852 mesh network, which sorted him/her out.
So it looks like BT don’t offer anything better than an Wifi 5 Router.
https://www.bt.com/help/broadband/learn-about-broa...
If you get a decent wifi 6 router or mesh network depending on the size of your house, you should see a decent speed bump.
Its not unusual to see the sort of ethernet speeds you are getting either.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabit-ether...
Then again, all this might be fine and BT might just be providing you with crappy service.
Good luck OP. Welcome to the world of fast broadband! I remember trying 1gbps for the first time, I had to read for weeks to understand why I wasn’t getting those speeds. With the 100mbps I had with Virgin before, all my devices were perfectly capable of saturating that bandwidth, it was never even a consideration apart from buying a good router because their hubs are so flakey.
Edited by wyson on Saturday 30th April 08:06
A lot of good info on here already especially about why network performance might not be as expected.
Firstly you need to treat this as two issues Line speed / wired performance & wifi performance.
To test the Line speed / wired performance I’d suggest:
Now the fw/router/access point box (HUB) that BT provide will not be anything special performance wise being a mass market device built down to a price, it should however be able to manage wired gig speeds, the fact they have changed the router would suggest that the issue is either down or up stream from the ‘hub’
To test the Line speed / wired performance I’d suggest:
Getting a second computer with a Ethernet connection and downloading some software called iperf3, this is like a speed test for your local network
Connect both the computers to the ‘hub’ and then run the tests and see what speed you get if its around 900Mbits/s then you have a gig capable lan
If not then it could be either or both of the pc’s or less likely the ‘hub’ to test this directly connect the pc’s with one Ethernet cable and manually set the ip addresses so they are on the same lan and re test, if its still below 900Mbits/s you have a pc or pc’s that are not gig capable. If it is above then it’s the router.
Iperf3 overview:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/Ho...
PC 2 PC connection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9injRCwRQ
If you get ~900Mbits/s via the router then its time to test the incoming line.
You need to connect the BT ont box directly to your PC with an Ethernet cable and then set up a pppoe connection and run some speed tests, note not all speed tests are equal so try a few, BT Wholesale, google, Okla, thinkbroardband, etc
Presumably you will get less than 900Mbits/s and will have to report this to BT along with the testing you’ve done.
If you get ~900Mbits/s then it is the ‘hub’ and you have to decide if you report to BT or just buy a better ‘hub’ to help with the wifi issue.
Overview of a chap with a similar speed issue testing with a direct pppoe connection:
https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/Eth...
How to setup a pppoe connection on windows:
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/921/
Wifi in a separate post
Firstly you need to treat this as two issues Line speed / wired performance & wifi performance.
To test the Line speed / wired performance I’d suggest:
Now the fw/router/access point box (HUB) that BT provide will not be anything special performance wise being a mass market device built down to a price, it should however be able to manage wired gig speeds, the fact they have changed the router would suggest that the issue is either down or up stream from the ‘hub’
To test the Line speed / wired performance I’d suggest:
Getting a second computer with a Ethernet connection and downloading some software called iperf3, this is like a speed test for your local network
Connect both the computers to the ‘hub’ and then run the tests and see what speed you get if its around 900Mbits/s then you have a gig capable lan
If not then it could be either or both of the pc’s or less likely the ‘hub’ to test this directly connect the pc’s with one Ethernet cable and manually set the ip addresses so they are on the same lan and re test, if its still below 900Mbits/s you have a pc or pc’s that are not gig capable. If it is above then it’s the router.
Iperf3 overview:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetworking/tip/Ho...
PC 2 PC connection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9injRCwRQ
If you get ~900Mbits/s via the router then its time to test the incoming line.
You need to connect the BT ont box directly to your PC with an Ethernet cable and then set up a pppoe connection and run some speed tests, note not all speed tests are equal so try a few, BT Wholesale, google, Okla, thinkbroardband, etc
Presumably you will get less than 900Mbits/s and will have to report this to BT along with the testing you’ve done.
If you get ~900Mbits/s then it is the ‘hub’ and you have to decide if you report to BT or just buy a better ‘hub’ to help with the wifi issue.
Overview of a chap with a similar speed issue testing with a direct pppoe connection:
https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/Eth...
How to setup a pppoe connection on windows:
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/921/
Wifi in a separate post
I’m on well regarded Zen at 300mbit/s
At busy times it’s only half that at 150 ish… just enough to not dip under the tolerance for cancelling and getting your money back.
No doubt at 900 I’d get 450 at busy times.
And this is a rural village in a rural area, 10 miles from the big nearby town.
I imagine in a high subscriber area you’re unlikely to get peak speeds these days except at 3am or something.
I’d just downgrade. Do you need 900mbit?
Do you need the upload? (Main benefit imo of the faster connections and usually more reliable than download)
At busy times it’s only half that at 150 ish… just enough to not dip under the tolerance for cancelling and getting your money back.
No doubt at 900 I’d get 450 at busy times.
And this is a rural village in a rural area, 10 miles from the big nearby town.
I imagine in a high subscriber area you’re unlikely to get peak speeds these days except at 3am or something.
I’d just downgrade. Do you need 900mbit?
Do you need the upload? (Main benefit imo of the faster connections and usually more reliable than download)
WIFI:
Not all wifi is equal the speed you get will depend on the client device, ‘hub’, where the hub is, how many walls, ceilings are between the ‘hub’ & client & what these are made of.
First this is to confirm if your test client has 2.4Ghz or 2.4 & 5Ghz capability, ideally you’ll test on the 5Ghz frequency.
You’ll want to use iperf3 again to test the wireless connection to your wired PC.
You’ll want to be a couple of meters form the ‘hub’ with no walls between you.
As a example on a old 2.4Ghz capable ipad with a single ceiling between it and my access point I get ~140Mbits/s, if I use a newer ipad with 5Ghz capability I get ~500Mbits/s.
If you don’t get these kind of numbers then its possible you have a faulty ‘hub’, time to decide if its press BT for another hub or buy something better.
If you do get those kind of numbers its time to start testing in other locations to see how much the signal drops off and decide if its time to get a better solution. I believe BT offer a whole home promise you might want to look into the details re speed/coverage.
Iperf3 for ios:
https://blog.fosketts.net/2020/07/09/test-your-wi-...
As to recommendations on what to replace the ‘hub’ with if that’s the route you want to take, then we’d need more information about the home (layout, construction, renovations/extensions & state of the electrical wiring), where the fibre is presented, where you have dead zones now, if you have any appetite to install some wired access points, budget, etc.
Not all wifi is equal the speed you get will depend on the client device, ‘hub’, where the hub is, how many walls, ceilings are between the ‘hub’ & client & what these are made of.
First this is to confirm if your test client has 2.4Ghz or 2.4 & 5Ghz capability, ideally you’ll test on the 5Ghz frequency.
You’ll want to use iperf3 again to test the wireless connection to your wired PC.
You’ll want to be a couple of meters form the ‘hub’ with no walls between you.
As a example on a old 2.4Ghz capable ipad with a single ceiling between it and my access point I get ~140Mbits/s, if I use a newer ipad with 5Ghz capability I get ~500Mbits/s.
If you don’t get these kind of numbers then its possible you have a faulty ‘hub’, time to decide if its press BT for another hub or buy something better.
If you do get those kind of numbers its time to start testing in other locations to see how much the signal drops off and decide if its time to get a better solution. I believe BT offer a whole home promise you might want to look into the details re speed/coverage.
Iperf3 for ios:
https://blog.fosketts.net/2020/07/09/test-your-wi-...
As to recommendations on what to replace the ‘hub’ with if that’s the route you want to take, then we’d need more information about the home (layout, construction, renovations/extensions & state of the electrical wiring), where the fibre is presented, where you have dead zones now, if you have any appetite to install some wired access points, budget, etc.
You'll need to spend some money to get 500mbs plus around the house on a 1gbs connection.
I went from c100mbs on my old tenda mesh network to c600mbs using an Orbi wifi 6 Mesh. Cost about 600 quid. Worth it? Not really for day to day browsing.
Just done a speed test. 934mbs down / 334 up on wired. 523 and 331 on 5g wifi sitting 12ft from the Orbi router.
I went from c100mbs on my old tenda mesh network to c600mbs using an Orbi wifi 6 Mesh. Cost about 600 quid. Worth it? Not really for day to day browsing.
Just done a speed test. 934mbs down / 334 up on wired. 523 and 331 on 5g wifi sitting 12ft from the Orbi router.
I know this post is a couple weeks old but i'm not here very often
I have BT Smart Hub 2 and 900 FTTP
I had an issue back at the start where i was only getting 3-400
I found out you can not use the router, which means you can narrow dow where the problem is
You can connect your PC directly to the ONT (Optical Network Termination) and use the windows dialer to connect directly (no router, so removes as many possible issues as possible)
Run your ethernet cable direct from you're PC / Laptop to the ONT Port (it should temporarily replace the cable that runs to the WAN port on your router)
Create a PPPoE Dial Up Connection on Windows 10 (is possible on other versions this is just how its done on 10)
Click the Start button.
Click the Control Panel.
Go to Network and Sharing Center.
Select Set up a new connection or network.
In the Set Up a Connection or Network wizard, choose Connect to the Internet and click Next.
Click Set up a new connection anyway.
Select Broadband (PPPoE).
Username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com
Password: bt
When you do a speedtest from your wired laptop use the speedtest CLI
https://www.speedtest.net/apps/cli
If you get don't get full speed like this, first of all try another laptop or PC (as some software "manages your connection", this was my issue)
If you do get full speed like this add the router back in and try again - Still use the speedtest CLI, i've found it to be the most reliable tester of all
Now i have my issue sorted (which was a MSI Motherboard software issue) i consistently get >900 down and >100 up using the smart hub and even at busy times.
I have BT Smart Hub 2 and 900 FTTP
I had an issue back at the start where i was only getting 3-400
I found out you can not use the router, which means you can narrow dow where the problem is
You can connect your PC directly to the ONT (Optical Network Termination) and use the windows dialer to connect directly (no router, so removes as many possible issues as possible)
Run your ethernet cable direct from you're PC / Laptop to the ONT Port (it should temporarily replace the cable that runs to the WAN port on your router)
Create a PPPoE Dial Up Connection on Windows 10 (is possible on other versions this is just how its done on 10)
Click the Start button.
Click the Control Panel.
Go to Network and Sharing Center.
Select Set up a new connection or network.
In the Set Up a Connection or Network wizard, choose Connect to the Internet and click Next.
Click Set up a new connection anyway.
Select Broadband (PPPoE).
Username: bthomehub@btbroadband.com
Password: bt
When you do a speedtest from your wired laptop use the speedtest CLI
https://www.speedtest.net/apps/cli
If you get don't get full speed like this, first of all try another laptop or PC (as some software "manages your connection", this was my issue)
If you do get full speed like this add the router back in and try again - Still use the speedtest CLI, i've found it to be the most reliable tester of all
Now i have my issue sorted (which was a MSI Motherboard software issue) i consistently get >900 down and >100 up using the smart hub and even at busy times.
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