Wireless Speed Boosting?

Spuz

Spuz

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Anyone who plays with me knows how slow my game is. I'm currently saving for a desktop (but bought a better laptop for the mean time). I'm currently setting that up and ready to play but i figured while I'm doing all the installs I would look into my connection and speeds (on my current). I've done a bit of research but i'm still not 100% sure exactly what I should be doing/buying. So I have here what i have looked into.

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Yeah, pretty bad. I did have to both new and old laptop running and syncing so I did another run just now.
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Upload improved but overall still pretty bad. I guess some stuff is syncing still right now on GoogleDrive (3k files so about 20GB), don't know if that should really effect it.
  • The UK average download speed was around 22.8Mbps last year.
Here is the server speed.net tested it on:
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Which according to google maps isn't that far: 37-40m (61-65km). I Guess that's why my ping is decent.

My router location is pretty cluttered:
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This connects to this: (Dirty yuck, I'll f'in clean this...)
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Which connects to the Phone: (Yes donald duck phone)
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Location of my laptop:
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(left corner of room in this picture is the same corner wall you see the Donald Phone by, a floor up from one another [technically the next room also, but its the connecting corner])

For those incapable to visualising:
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Based on looks it was hard to tell whether it's a BT home hub 4 or 5, but due to this list of differences it lists them with 1 antenna difference (which I am assuming is the yellow Ethernet ports??). So by that I am assuming It's the homehub 4. So I guess I can upgrade to BT home hub 5 or Smart Hub.

Infact while typing this post I just downloaded WifinfoView Which lists all the wifi signals in the area and their information and allows me to save to text file, pretty neat(not sure what any of it really means but hopefully some of you do.

Heres my wifis details in full:
SSID : BTHub4-SXR6
MAC Address : 44-E9-DD-66-1C-9E
PHY Type : 802.11g/n
RSSI : -57
Signal Quality : 86
Average Signal Quality: 84.1
Frequency : 2.462
Channel : 11
Information Size : 385
Elements Count : 17
Company : Sagemcom Broadband SAS
Router Model : Hub 4
Router Name : BT Home Hub 4.0A
Security : WPA-PSK + WPA2-PSK
Cipher : TKIP+CCMP
Maximum Speed : 144 Mbps
Channel Width : 20 MHz
Channels Range : 9 - 13
BSS Type : Infrastructure
WPS Support : Configured
First Detection : 07/08/2017 20:59:59
Last Detection : 07/08/2017 21:05:30
Detection Count : 326
Start Time : 27/07/2017 20:55:14
Minimum Signal Quality: 80
Maximum Signal Quality: 92
802.11 Standards : 802.11d/h/i
Connected : Yes
Stations Count :
Channel Utilization:

Is there any sort of speed boosters or devices I can buy to plug into my USB ports?

Things to do:
  • Phone ISP, find what exactly is being payed for. (because ripping me mum off)
  • Cluttered router: Move the router to the space by the phone so that it's open. (Download HeatMapper for windows to locate best placing)
  • No antennas on router: Buy 2-4 antenna's and add DIY WIFI antenna reception boosters
  • Clean socket area.
These last few things, I have been told also may help from sites I have been reading just now but I am just curious what other have to say about them.
  • Change cluttered channel?
  • Limit frequency band?
  • Update firmware?
  • Check Router power savings?
  • Set up daily router reboots via pc?
Is there anything else I can do and/or buy?
 
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Changing channels might help, download a wi fi analyzer on your phone and see how many wi fi signals are in your area and what channels they're on. You could buy a wi fi extender or power line adapters (best option unless you live in an ancient house) if you're not going to move closer to your router. Changing to a different frequency like 5GHz will also help if you're in a cluttered area and your router + NIC support it. Only drawback is you'll have to be closer to the router.
 
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Do you know how much you're paying for? 7-10MB/s is common where I live, depends on the area.
 
conenubi701 said:
Changing channels might help, download a wi fi analyzer on your phone and see how many wi fi signals are in your area and what channels they're on. You could buy a wi fi extender or power line adapters (best option unless you live in an ancient house) if you're not going to move closer to your router. Changing to a different frequency like 5GHz will also help if you're in a cluttered area and your router + NIC support it. Only drawback is you'll have to be closer to the router.
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There is 2-3 others using channel 11 (what I'm using). And it ranges from 9-13 which have no one on so I'll probably do that.

Just Google power line adaptor and WiFi extender. Thats pretty neat, but yeah this house is pretty old. Doesn't even have proper insulation. Got mould growing all around my room... Ill try it though, seems pretty neat.

Right, frequency, I'm on 2.4, but the router is dual so I should be able to change to 5. I'll Google how to and give thst a try also! If Im unable to get closer and change to 5, could I not just buy a signal booster for my laptop to compensate?

anime said:
Do you know how much you're paying for? 7-10MB/s is common where I live, depends on the area.
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My mum is paying £40, she had to argue to get it down from £60 a few months back... Which is line rental (phone) and unlimited internet. She doesn't know speed but we'll phone them tomorrow or day after. I checked the deals locally and, there is 52-78mb for the pricing. It could be were on 17mb or 32mb but that shouldn't be this expensive. So until we speak to the ISP to get confirmed ''speed'' it's conjecture. But they are most likely ripping my ma off. But i want to clear all other possibilities as well to ensure I can get the best possible outcome
 
if its a house with shit wiring you might not wanna use power lines
how about you get some proper ethernet cabling done?
and after you figure out stuff with isp, consider getting a decent router because the rental ones are awful
 
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Chances are, your mom is getting a terrible deal. Call them yourself and get them to tell you your plan that you're paying for. Correct me if I'm wrong but from your photos it looks like you have DSL right now.. You should really switch to cable as you get a better speed per $ with cable. It would help us if you could also tell us what your router make/model # is, and what router you're using. Can you hook you computer up to your internet directly and see if that helps your ping and download/upload speed? For instance, hooking your computer up by ethernet to the modem. Given my experience with canadian ISPs though, the majority of people are paying too much for shitty internet because they are simply misinformed or not aware of their options.
 
you need to determine what is causing garbage first before looking into most of these options (especially if you don't want to just spend wildly)

blue burst really doesn't use much for data. the only time you will see your download/upload being a problem is during the login phase and changing ships. but doing anything else that's even remotely upload-heavy will cause problems if you're routinely dipping down to 0.19Mbps. so the first thing i would personally look into buying is a better connection. line quality sounds like an issue too.

with regards to your router. well, i've seen some really shitty routers. now if you don't torrent, shitty routers generally won't cause a problem. you lose a lot but you generally don't miss these things if you've never had them - but if your signal is routinely dropping and it isn't building materials blocking you, that would be the second thing to look at. if you torrent then having a shit router will routinely cause problems for everything because most low tier routers can't handle the amount of connections being made.

powerline and 5ghz. honestly with only 2-3 overlapping signals, it's almost a non-issue. never hurts to try if signal is a problem though. if signal is a problem, channel flipping is the first thing to try. 5ghz is less populated but it's also got less range, and the range unfortunately matters more than one might think. some houses simply will not play nice with wifi outside of one room though, and that's where powerline usually comes in. even the oldest most shittiest wiring will usually help if wifi routinely drops, but you will still see drops if the wiring is really bad.

wifi boosters ... well im useless on that one. in my case extending shit will result in extended shit, so i just went with powerline;)
agree with just trying to run ethernet where you can tbh. restarting your router daily can help a bit with stability.
 
Have you tested using ethernet to confirm that wireless is at fault?

Psobb works best on connections with less than 15 hops. Any more and you'll see issues. So tracert to the server to see how many hops it takes.

Regarding your internet connection. Use the bt infinity checker to see if you can get fttc and if you can enquire with your ISP to upgrade (usually free).
 
conenubi701 said:
Changing to a different frequency like 5GHz will also help if you're in a cluttered area and your router + NIC support it. Only drawback is you'll have to be closer to the router.
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I'm literally right beside my router and 5.0 Ghz has like 5x-10x more packet loss, FYI. Something's really fucky with that shit.
 
Thanks for the advise/help everyone.
I'm waiting for ethernet cable on delivery (I don't own one). So I'll check that once I have. And I need to wait for ma to phone BT as it's in her name.
 
It's impossible for me to be constantly wired. The only port in the house for the router is downstairs and there is no room for me in the lounge. I could set myself up there at night but it's effort to do that everynight. The house is old and it'd probably cost a ton to get a port & wires installed up here, not to mention it's not my house to just do something like that. Wireless is pretty much my only option.
 
Spuz said:
It's impossible for me to be constantly wired. The only port in the house for the router is downstairs and there is no room for me in the lounge. I could set myself up there at night but it's effort to do that everynight. The house is old and it'd probably cost a ton to get a port & wires installed up here, not to mention it's not my house to just do something like that. Wireless is pretty much my only option.
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Convince em to let you drill a couple holes in the wall.

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(seriously tho that sucks)
 
Consider getting a 200 foot or 250 ethernet cord or something and just stapling/adhering it along the walls, drilling a hole to where you are, or hiding it under the nooks in molding.

When was your house built? My parents' home started construction in 2003, and the builders used CAT5e for all of the phone lines (using only 4 of the 8 wires). From Googling, I believe that, at least in the USA, using CAT5 or CAT5e in place of 4wire phone lines has been commonplace since since the 90s. I asked my parents if they specifically requested the builders to use CAT5e and they said no.

It was very simple for me to buy an RJ45 crimp, a couple ethernet wall-plates, and RJ45 end-caps to retrofit the existing lines. Total cost was under $25, and now every room in my parents' home has an ethernet jack.

The most annoying part was determining which cables corresponded to which room. I had to have my dad upstairs trying out each room one at a time so we could label the cords.

If you have anything that looks like this for your phone lines, you can probably retrofit everything to RJ45
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It's like 100+ years old. And the electric lines are pretty badly done so I'm lucky I have electricity upstairs tbh. I'd love a long cable like that but it'd literally have to go behind everything and is work that I'd have to ask my stepdad to do/help with. It's something that won't happen, I'm sure.
 
You're seriously reminding me of the days I ran a wire outside the lower bedroom window to feed it through the upstairs.

Outside that, your pictures suggest you have DSL? If your network has a lot of users, especially if you're on during busy hours, it's quite possible that you'll see speeds like that. One of the advantages of cable internet is that you generally get higher speeds and consistency.

Still, you should see speeds a little better than that. I would most definitely call and ask what plan they've got you on.
I admit I don't know prices overseas but it still sounds like a lot. I won't say it's 56k level bad, but I'd be complaining for sure.
 
I still use my phone hotspot for internet.. 1mb download... much less upload. For 120 a month it it should do at least this!
 
First off: cute kid in the photos by the router.

When you get the Ethernet cable run your speed test again, that will help you diagnose whether it's the wireless signal. If the speed is significantly higher when plugged in, but you can't move the router, there are a couple things you can try:
1. get a signal extender, they plug into an electric outlet and help out in weak signal areas.
2. check stuff around the area of the router, general items won't cause a lot of interference unless they have lead in them, but things like water pipes in the wall can totally mess with the signal. Is that a heater/radiator next to it? Could be a culprit
3. check the number of devices connected to the router, too many devices fighting for signal can slow things down a lot
4. check the age of the router, because it may just be too old

Now, if the speed is the same plugged in or wireless, then you want to bitch out your ISP. Actually, do that regardless, every time I grumble at my provider I can usually get a little upgrade or price reduction.
 
Well Ethernet cable came. And my laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port lmao. I guess I'll have to fond some USB to Ethernet cable or somthing?
 
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