Problem with wireless broadband

seligehgit

Hi there,
Hoping somebody out there can advise me.I currently have a landline/broadband package with BT or now Vodafone at home.However on a consistent basis I have found the connection to be poor.I constantly need an ethernet cable as the wireless connection alone does not seem to work.I live in an estate in Castlebar and have been advised that there may only be a single poor line going into the estate.However I have used my parents Eircom broadband in a different part of town on a different laptop to my mine with few problems.In both cases I am unsure what speed the connections are,I cannot recall.Is the problem with my laptop,my operating system Vista I believe is poor for broadband functioning?Is laptop funtion,ak slow functioning,viruses,spyware,large capacity programs etc a factor?The broadband is very poor at streaming from rte player and football streaming websites.I intend to check with my neighbours how they find their broadband quality.Obviously in a large estate there is a large demand on the broadband,my sis's techno boyfriend has advised me I might be best to cancel my landline/broadband package and get a USB connection from one of the mobile companies ak 3,O2,Meteor or Vodafone.How best can I test th e line qualityand interpret if I am achieving the speeds I should be getting?Eircom workers are hardly likely to be in a rush out to me to correct any fault for me as a BT customer,if such a fault exists.
Please help as I am growing frustated and exasperated,
Selig

Captain Slow IRL

I'm no expert on this, so apologies if any mistakes!

If you're noticing a better connection with the ethernet cable, you may have a problem with your router or wireless card on your computer. Try running a test with the cable connected and disconnected to get a more accurate picture of what is happening at www.speedtest.net
Have you a secure wireless connection set up? If not, there may be a neighbour sponging off your broadband!
A spyware/malware problem could also be what's causing a lot of your trouble - try running an antivirus software program (AVG can supply you with a free download, decent software) to see if that helps.