Strange issue with Thomson wifi?

Anan1

A while back I upgraded from UPC 30Mb to 50, got the new Thomson router. I was very happy with its performance, consistently 49.xx down, 4.9x up. I recently upgraded to 100Mb, got 105/9.5Mb wired but only 6x/9.5Mb over wifi. I called customer support, they were very helpful but couldn't improve matters so they sent someone out to have a look. He said that there was nothing UPC could do, 60-70Mb downstream was just the best that modem could manage in my area. UPC have since put me back on 50Mb with no charge. It just strikes me as odd that the Thomson could manage 50Mb wifi with almost no loss over wifi, and yet was losing 30-40% of the 100Mb. Can anybody explain why this might be? Would bridge mode and a different router have done better?

roast

Could be a number of things. Interference in your area (from other Wifi access points, baby monitors, cordless phones, microwaves etc) can negatively affect wifi strength. You can change the channel on the modem to one that's not conflicting with other devices (to scan channels and see which are congested, use InSSIDer)
Other possibilities is that your own hardware might not be able to handle the higher speeds. Were you using a Wireless N connection? Or Wireless G?

Anan1

I tried with a laptop and a workstation, both with wireless N - neither could break 70Mb on the 100Mb package. UPC said that they tried different channels and whatever they could think of (including replacing the modem), none of which made a difference. The bit I find surprising is that the wifi works so well on 50Mb.

roast

Anan1 wrote: »

I tried with a laptop and a workstation, both with wireless N - neither could break 70Mb on the 100Mb package. UPC said that they tried different channels and whatever they could think of (including replacing the modem), none of which made a difference. The bit I find surprising is that the wifi works so well on 50Mb.

Try InSSIDER just to be on the safe side.

Anan1

Well i'm back on the 50Mb package since yesterday - I just did a UPC speed test now and i'm getting 49.32 down and 4.99 up over wifi - so I assume whatever channel i'm on is fine?

roast

Anan1 wrote: »

Well i'm back on the 50Mb package since yesterday - I just did a UPC speed test now and i'm getting 49.32 down and 4.99 up over wifi - so I assume whatever channel i'm on is fine?

Ah righty, sorry.

Aye, if it is a channel issue, it might only be affecting your router to a certain extent. For your speed, it might be fine, but that's always subject to changing interference anyway. If you have wifi issues in the future, it's a safe bet that it's a channel issue.

Anan1

I probably should have asked before giving up on the 100Mb - could have tried InSSIDER yesterday. Thanks for the advice, anyway.