Guide - Getting the most out of your high speed Virgin Media (UPC) 240mb/s service

mass_debater

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Oh yeah, I really trust Google to not spy on me ...... right! :rolleyes:

They already know it, no avoiding it really. Very decent hardware for the price.

The Bouncer

Hi All,

I recently upgraded to 240MB and have the EPC3925, I am lucky enough to be in the samknows.com test so I have really meaningful data that I can use, what I have noticed is that when I had 30MB the data was pretty consistant, in that I was seeing 30 MB downstream pretty consistantly, since the upgrade the results vary wildly and vary from sub 20-~120. UPC's solution when I shared the data was to send me a new router! (had technicolor) I suspect this will be as useful as a chocolate teapot but hey I prefer the cisco anyway.
I have the white box installed on this now and will let you know how it goes

Current data is attached as xlsx (csv not supported?) and image

ED E

A first guess would be the cable quality is low, allowing it to maintain a 30Mb sync ok but struggling heavily with the higher profile applied.



This is what you should be seeing. UPC may need to send a tech out.

The Bouncer

Yeah this is what the were originally planning on doing but then decided to replace modem instead, I told them that I doubted the modem was at fault but I guess sending a tech is a lot more expensive ....

The Bouncer

I upgraded July 30th and my results are all over the place



Prior to upgrade

mcgovern

I have UPC Horizon, and I'm looking to improve my Wifi signal. If I buy the Archer C8, is it just a matter of plugging the horizon box in to it, and disabling dhcp and wireless on the Horizon box?
There would be a few consoles and a NAS connected by wired connection, and then a Win 10 PC and phones / tablets connected wirelessly.
I'd also be hoping to stream from the Xbox One to the PC, but at the moment the signal in the room where the PC is, is quite poor.

TheDoc

mcgovern wrote: »

I have UPC Horizon, and I'm looking to improve my Wifi signal. If I buy the Archer C8, is it just a matter of plugging the horizon box in to it, and disabling dhcp and wireless on the Horizon box?
There would be a few consoles and a NAS connected by wired connection, and then a Win 10 PC and phones / tablets connected wirelessly.
I'd also be hoping to stream from the Xbox One to the PC, but at the moment the signal in the room where the PC is, is quite poor.

Was just troubleshooting a friends wifi problems. He has the Horizon box. Pretty much could only come to the root cause that the Horizon box is terrible. UPC have been helpful with him, he's not overly technical, but really getting a disgraceful signal and stability.

Going back up tonight to take him through getting a dedicated modem/router from them, and ensuring they don't charge him for it.

That is three horizon boxes I've had hands on with, all three of them being utterly terrible for wifi

dinky earnshaw

TheDoc wrote: »

Was just troubleshooting a friends wifi problems. He has the Horizon box. Pretty much could only come to the root cause that the Horizon box is terrible. UPC have been helpful with him, he's not overly technical, but really getting a disgraceful signal and stability.

Going back up tonight to take him through getting a dedicated modem/router from them, and ensuring they don't charge him for it.

That is three horizon boxes I've had hands on with, all three of them being utterly terrible for wifi

I'm getting 50mb over WiFi with horizon box on 240mb package. Is this the average or should I expect more ?

TheDoc

dinky earnshaw wrote: »

I'm getting 50mb over WiFi with horizon box on 240mb package. Is this the average or should I expect more ?

Problem with wifi, you can't really set expectations. It's literraly the luck of the draw in terms of your home layout, interference levels, and the stte of the box.

I ended up getting him to ring UPc and insist on a router to be sent out, which they agreed with no charge. Although during troubleshooting his speeds wouldn't break 20mbps via Ethernet, so clearly problem with the box.

Myself, wifi isn't the best. Tested a laptop the other night and it was getting between 40-50mbps, about 5 feet away from the router.

That's why I'm so humminh and haughing against buying the router mentioned above and a NIC for my PC. I hate WIFI, I think its a terribly unreliable technology that has allowed become a defacto, providing poor performance and cutting corners in terms of router provisions by ISP's.

As I read this thread more and more, and as I speedtest my PC upstairs more and more, I just know the only worthwhile solution is to run an Ethernet cable to the PC upstairs from the router downstairs.

either run the cable out and in, or through the ceiling.

beauf

My Wifi with my own router is very poor. Just too much interference with other networks, and other devices and parts of the building.

Simplest solution for me was a Power-line Ethernet adapter. I connect that when I need better speed.

Dave..M

http://m.thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/

ED E

Ordered a cheapo 20i for a short term use role, will post a review later on for people on a budget.

Fingleberries

beauf wrote: »

My Wifi with my own router is very poor. Just too much interference with other networks, and other devices and parts of the building.

Simplest solution for me was a Power-line Ethernet adapter. I connect that when I need better speed.

I have a few quick questions:
- Which Power Line adapter did you go with?
- What sort of speeds are you getting?
- How far from the Router is your second HomePlug?
- When (roughly) was your house built.

I've been looking into HomePlugs for a while but have heard that you would expect to get only a little over 100Mbps with most models. (Even the ones with a Gigiabit NIC).

The Bouncer

Ok nowhere near as cheap as the archer but it looks pretty cool Netgear R8000

beauf

Probably hit your wifi from spain with that.

The Bouncer

beauf wrote: »

Probably hit your wifi from spain with that.

k123456

The Bouncer wrote: »

Ok nowhere near as cheap as the archer but it looks pretty cool Netgear R8000

Excellent spec
Fastest combined WiFi speed—Up to 3.2Gbps 600+1300+1300 Mbps speeds

I wonder are we reaching a point where wifi , is coming close to wired speeds, assuming of course ;
hi spec router
hi spec wifi NIC
and reasonably near the router

beauf

Not in the real world.

moonboy52

My Asus RT-N16 died (crowned capacitor) so i bought the Archer c8 v1 as per BK's recommendation.

I would have bought another Asus as i did not consider TP-Link a solid brand

Bridged with the 3925

Boy is it some improvement over the 4 year old Asus.

Solid 240Mb wired (was 240Mb :P)
Solid 240Mb (was 80Mb) on my AC Chromebook
170Mb on my LG G2 phone (was 30Mb)

Wifi Analyzer reads a solid -40dBm in my bedroom with 1 wall in-between (was -60dBm)


Only downside is no DD-WRT or Tomato or the like but not too pushed.

Fingleberries

Fingleberries wrote: »

I have a few quick questions:
- Which Power Line adapter did you go with?
- What sort of speeds are you getting?
- How far from the Router is your second HomePlug?
- When (roughly) was your house built.

I've been looking into HomePlugs for a while but have heard that you would expect to get only a little over 100Mbps with most models. (Even the ones with a Gigiabit NIC).

Just a quick update on this, hopefully may help someone looking into these in future.

I bit the bullet and bought the Solwise AV2 1200 HomePlug with pass-through, so you don't lose the use of the socket - the best price I could find was £78 for a pair of HomePlugs (about €115 when delivery is calculated).

I have only just installed them and tested them quickly this morning using the Network Stats tool on the Xbox One (as rough an approximation as you can possibly get as it seems to test Ping, upload and download speeds to the main Xbox Live servers in the US).

Before installing the HomePlugs, on a 2.4GHz wireless network to the UPC Ubee EVW3226 modem.

• Download: 19.33 Mbps
• Upload: 15.83 Mbps
• Latency: 159ms
• Wireless Strength: 82%

After installing the HomePlugs, using default settings

• Download: 133.13Mbps
• Upload: 15.84 Mbps
• Latency: 158ms

The UPC modem is in the hallway, with the Xbox in the sitting room on the same floor with two (paper-thin early 2000's construction) walls and a doorway between them.

(Note: I Couldn't use the 5GHz on the modem because some older wireless devices didn't support it and the modem is an either / or solution not dual band radio for wireless)

So far, I'm happy with almost 7x improvement in download speeds and will see what I can do to bring down the ping response times.

mass_debater

Fingleberries wrote: »

Just a quick update on this, hopefully may help someone looking into these in future.

I bit the bullet and bought the Solwise AV2 1200 HomePlug with pass-through, so you don't lose the use of the socket - the best price I could find was £78 (about €115 when delivery is calculated).

I have only just installed them and tested them quickly this morning using the Network Stats tool on the Xbox One (as rough an approximation as you can possibly get as it seems to test Ping, upload and download speeds to the main Xbox Live servers in the US).

Before installing the HomePlugs, on a 2.4GHz wireless network to the UPC Ubee EVW3226 modem.

• Download: 19.33 Mbps
• Upload: 15.83 Mbps
• Latency: 159ms
• Wireless Strength: 82%

After installing the HomePlugs, using default settings

• Download: 133.13Mbps
• Upload: 15.84 Mbps
• Latency: 158ms

The UPC modem is in the hallway, with the Xbox in the sitting room on the same floor with two (paper-thin early 2000's construction) walls and a doorway between them.

(Note: I Couldn't use the 5GHz on the modem because some older wireless devices didn't support it and the modem is an either / or solution not dual band radio for wireless)

So far, I'm happy with almost 7x improvement in download speeds and will see what I can do to bring down the ping response times.

Where are you testing to, ~160 milliseconds means you're testing the other side of the world

Fingleberries

mass_debater wrote: »

Where are you testing to, ~160 milliseconds means you're testing the other side of the world

I believe the Xbox One network testing tool pings to Seattle, so that would be about right, then.

JoseAmnesia

Can someone help with my UPC speed - I just moved into a new house and got the 200mb/s package. I tested the speed after it was setup and it was grand. But since yesterday my download has been only scraping 2mb/s (!) but the upload is remaining what it was initially.

I'm using a wired connection.

These are the results from the UPC speed test:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 1734 kbps (216.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 21518 kbps (2689.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 14 ms
9/9/2015, 10:57:03 AM

Are they throttling the service? If there was a problem I would've thought it'd be solved overnight.

Edit: Just tested the wifi on my phone as well... it's barely reaching 0.5 Mbps download (upload is fine like the wired connection). Feels like I'm living in 2002

ED E

Cisco modem?

JoseAmnesia

ED E wrote: »

Cisco modem?

Not sure to be honest I just have the horizon box. Do you mean the small white box mounted on the wall where the cables are connected?

Fingleberries

JoseAmnesia wrote: »

Not sure to be honest I just have the horizon box. Do you mean the small white box mounted on the wall where the cables are connected?

I think he's talking about the device you are connecting your laptop to. As you have the Horizon box, this is probably also working as your router. I have not heard many positive things about the Horizon box for this purpose.

Backstreet Moyes

Lads can anybody give me advice on how to improve my Wifi. I have the router in the kitchen by the house computer, but the wifi on the laptop is pretty bad.

Also i have an Anroid box in the next room which is great but it keeps knocking off programs because the internet goes off for a minute and then goes back on.

I have an ethernet cable which goes into the back of the box but i have nothing to connect it too in the next room. Is their anyway i can get anything herei can get off UPC to put in the room with the Android box to connect with the Ethernet cable.

If not could anyone else recommend anything else i could do?

JoseAmnesia

Fingleberries wrote: »

I think he's talking about the device you are connecting your laptop to. As you have the Horizon box, this is probably also working as your router. I have not heard many positive things about the Horizon box for this purpose.

I had the horizon back at home and it was grand. Also I just restarted the box and my speeds went back to normal for about 3 minutes then they went back to 2 Mbps again...

Fingleberries

Nuts102 wrote: »

Lads can anybody give me advice on how to improve my Wifi. I have the router in the kitchen by the house computer, but the wifi on the laptop is pretty bad.

Also i have an Anroid box in the next room which is great but it keeps knocking off programs because the internet goes off for a minute and then goes back on.

I have an ethernet cable which goes into the back of the box but i have nothing to connect it too in the next room. Is their anyway i can get anything herei can get off UPC to put in the room with the Android box to connect with the Ethernet cable.

If not could anyone else recommend anything else i could do?

I'm in the process of testing these HomePlugs. You plug it into the socket where you have your router plugged in at the moment and run an Ethernet cable (included in the box) from your router to the homeplug. Then in your other room, you plug the second homeplug into the mains there and run the Ethernet cable from it to the Android box.

It uses the electrical wiring in your house to bring the network signal. Depending on your Router and the Network adaptor in the Android box you should see a decent improvement.

If you check a couple of posts back my initial tests with the Xbox One went from 19Mbps down (Wireless) to 133 Mbps down (Wired, homeplug) - although the Xbox has a Gigabit Network card which the Android Box probably doesn't. Most likely only has a 10/100 Network card. Depending on your broadband package you are likely to get 50-80Mbps (best case scenario).

Any thoughts on Asus RTN66U V TPlink Archer c8

Have no major budget restrictions but don't want to waste money either.

Have 240 UPC, using their modem instead of horizon.

Have this stuck in the back of my PC http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/asus-usbn53-dual-band-usb-wireless-adapter-n600/315672/402.0.5

Can upgrade this as well if needs be. Appreciate any advice.