Rate your isp

[Violent]

Ive been with Sky Fibre for years now. I always seem to have a good connection until recently, but that was due to an external fault which was fixed within 3 days.
Most of these companies rent their lines from BT anyway with the exception to Virgin as they are direct fibre lines.

Most of your connection speed and health will down to the lines and switches in your area, not the ISP you go with.

Something I did find helpful with Sky is that they have a diagnostic tool which can tell if any issues you are having are in your home (From your master socket) or they are on external lines out of you control.

 

[Netskee]

Few questions.. What should I look out for when buying a router (any recommendations?)
And what's the benefits of having a static ip?

 

[Martyn]

Few questions.. What should I look out for when buying a router (any recommendations?)
And what's the benefits of having a static ip?

depends if you want a router, or a modem aswell, netgear do some good ones, and the same with Asus,

 

[Netskee]

depends if you want a router, or a modem aswell, netgear do some good ones, and the same with Asus,

Just something to be reliable and maybe offer a better range. The std virgin one struggles to rech the back bedroom so I've had to use network repeaters

 

[Martyn]

Just something to be reliable and maybe offer a better range. The std virgin one struggles to rech the back bedroom so I've had to use network repeaters

tried putting the hub higher up? and whats your budget? you could always stick a better router more centeral in the house that does all the wifi

 

[Sovereign]

BT doing some great offers at the moment, I went with them and got. £100 MasterCard voucher, can’t fault it but only been with them a month

Just had a look and at mo they give you a free Fitbit aswell as £80 voucher

 

[Netskee]

tried putting the hub higher up? and whats your budget? you could always stick a better router more centeral in the house that does all the wifi

Can't put it higher as its connected to everyrhing around the TV . Idk really, don't really want to spend too much. Don't need it to be all singing.. Just want it to better than what you isp provides u with

 

[Martyn]

Can't put it higher as its connected to everyrhing around the TV . Idk really, don't really want to spend too much. Don't need it to be all singing.. Just want it to better than what you isp provides u with

any router will be better :P Nighthawk R7000 is on offer at £100 an will last you your life time (unless we actually get proper internet one day)
just search amamzon and buy whats is good in review

try putting switches around, so less things on the wifi?

have switches near the PC,TV,Loft PC one does both the PC's TV one does TV/Sky/PS4, loft does TV in the bedroom and cctv, so only few things on my wifi. ethernet cables are cheap, switches are cheap too

 

[Skyline]

If you can manage to hide the cabling, buy a WiFi router and place it central in the house - That's my next plan as my router is in the corner at the front room of the house so not so good towards the back garden which is a pain in the summer!

I'll just buy a decent Router and use the Virgin box as a Modem. That way you'll just need to hide the network cable that comes from the modem into the router.

 

[Netskee]

any router will be better :P Nighthawk R7000 is on offer at £100 an will last you your life time (unless we actually get proper internet one day)
just search amamzon and buy whats is good in review

try putting switches around, so less things on the wifi?

have switches near the PC,TV,Loft PC one does both the PC's TV one does TV/Sky/PS4, loft does TV in the bedroom and cctv, so only few things on my wifi. ethernet cables are cheap, switches are cheap too

By switches do u mean those plugs that use your electric circuit to any outlet? If so I heard those can create alot interference?

If you can manage to hide the cabling, buy a WiFi router and place it central in the house - That's my next plan as my router is in the corner at the front room of the house so not so good towards the back garden which is a pain in the summer!

I'll just buy a decent Router and use the Virgin box as a Modem. That way you'll just need to hide the network cable that comes from the modem into the router.

Yeh that's not a bad idea

 

[Martyn]

No i mean something like this

I'm lucky enough to be able to hide my cables under my skiriting boards

 

[Violent]

You might also want to keep the router as close to the master socket as possible if you are not using a fibre to router setup. This is because the copper cables in standard telephone connection cables tend to pick up noise if you have a long cable running around the house.

I recently moved my router and used shielded network cables to the PC. Don't get any interference now.

If you are mostly Wi-Fi and some of your rooms are getting "blackspots" where the Wi-Fi can't reach then concider putting some boosters around the house. Sometimes you can get them for free from your ISP if you tell them you struggle with Wi-Fi connections.
Wi-Fi is also affected by electronic motors such as washing machines and driers. Also concider changing the channel that your Wi-Fi is on. Most people leave it on the default channel which means it is ver likely that your neighbor is using the same channel. This can also affect your Wi-Fi.

There quite a lot you can do to improve connection. I would guess that around 90% of connection issues are nothing to do with the ISP you are with.

 

[Netskee]

I've started a quality test of my line:



Those 0% spikes are what's causing me to cut out right?

 

[Violent]

I've started a quality test of my line:



Those 0% spikes are what's causing me to cut out right?

The 0% is the packet loss which should be indicated in red. Can't see any red lines so that suggests you are not geting any packet loss.

The yellow lines indicate your latency (ping). These spikes do look like you have an issue. It looks like line noise. Is this test done over the Wi-Fi or a cable connection?

 

[Netskee]

It's tested to my ip so I assume it's direct to my router?

 

[Chriz]

I have started a trace on my Virgin line as a reference:

Will follow up with a Sky trace later on.. Intrested to see any difference lol

 

[XloverBoy7X]

I had EE and it went to **** after two years, and was dropping like that. Once contact ends all service providers give little or no **** about you knowing that can lose you anytime.

Later moved to talktalk for 18 months, never dropped always max speed, now with BT as at my new home there was nothing else available, so far good no drops always full speed.

When you buy power adapters as you don't want cabling make sure they are not too noisy. Mine were making weird static noise that was barely heard, but bothered my brain, so thrown them out the window the next day.

Good luck.

 

[Chriz]

Sky Trace:

 

[Koriban]

Sky Trace:

It's so good it doesn't exist. Well, barely.

 

[Chriz]

It's so good it doesn't exist. Well, barely.

Haha, I wish that was it... It's a live trace only just started (so no data yet) :P