Wi-Fi speeds? any1 explain pls

[Heavenswake]

Hi all, ive opened a thread on this forum which was resolved.

I recently got my broadband from vodafone and went with the giga fibre 900mbps package which i am extreamly happy with, im getting 920-930mbps d/l and around 930-940mbps upload via wired connection to router, nothing to complain about but im just curious about my mobile and laptop devices, i have a samsung a71 4g mobile phone which can obviously connect to my VF wifi router on 5g, my mobile says it has a max connnection of upto 603mbps on 5g so why am i only getting 240mbps? its the same for the laptop i have which also says it supports 802.11n/ac yet on my laptop its only getting 220mbps. when doing the speed test its in the same room, right next to the router just connected to 5g.

dont get me wrong, im happy with the service, couldnt be happier, i just dont know why my devices are running slower than they really should be.

any advice?

[Amanda]

Thanks for reaching out @Heavenswake 👋 it's great to hear you're happy with us!

Are you noticing any issues with your service on these devices - with those speeds you shouldn't really see any difference on the performance. 

Have you tried running the speed tests over a wired connection, to see what happens? 

[Heavenswake]

with a wired connection from my main pc to router, connected directly via ethernet cable i get 910-930mbps download and upload, if i try my mobile phone or laptop via Wi-Fi i only get around 240-260mbps on both devices, my question was is this normal even though the mobile phone says it can support upto 603mbps max via wifi and the same with the laptop, both support the 802.11n/ac standard which on net means it should support upto max 866mbps, im just trying to understand why when i do a speed test on the laptop or mobile phone that it only shows max 240mbps download. 

General use there is no problems with usage, everything works perfectly, youtube, games, im just curious to know why my wifi seems to only use 240mbps out of the max possible 866mbps which both devices say they support, and the vodafone wifi router also says it supports. so why isnt it using its best choice instead of limiting/lowering its output?

I was honestly just asking if someone knowledgable and has the time could tell me why this happens

[CrimsonLiar]

If you were still connecting on 2.4GHz then I'd understand those speeds.

I would say that some of the WiFi adapters here connect at 866Mbps, but as they are connected over a USB2 bus the maximum actual throughput on them is around 300Mbps.

[Heavenswake]

laptop and mobile(s) connected to 5ghz. but that thing about usb2 i can understand abit now ty.

so even if i thought about buying and using a different router i would prob get the same results if i didnt buy like one of those 200-300 pound routers cus hopefuly the more expensive ones would maybe use usb3 and the cheaper ones would more than likely use usb2? am i thinking correctly here?

[Jayach · Accepted solution]

---

@Heavenswake wrote:

laptop and mobile(s) connected to 5ghz. but that thing about usb2 i can understand abit now ty.

so even if i thought about buying and using a different router i would prob get the same results if i didnt buy like one of those 200-300 pound routers cus hopefuly the more expensive ones would maybe use usb3 and the cheaper ones would more than likely use usb2? am i thinking correctly here?

---

Not really, USB will only relate to adapters connected your your device(s), the Wifi in the router won't be working over USB at all.

I can't explain why your WiFi doesn't seem to be performing as well as it could, but it is probably some combination of chipsets and drivers, that are not working optimally.

[CrimsonLiar]

A couple of the laptops here while having decent overall specs had appalling WiFi and hence they now have AC1300 micro USB WiFi adapters plugged in.  The current adapters are USB2 devices, we've had USB3 devices in the past which almost doubled the throughput, but also cooked themselves and any fingers that touched them!  

[Gerry_Atric]

My MacBook Pro reports it has a good wifi connection to the router at 1.3gb on 5Ghz. 

Speedtests show expected upload speeds of almost 900mb, but downloads are 300-400mb! Seems like an issue reported by others, either the upload speed is half the expected speed (often reported as 300mb) or it's the download speed having that issue. I wonder what's going on. 

[Jayach]

Is it only on the MacBook? Do you have any other devices that get a higher download?

[Gerry_Atric]

No, my ethernet connected Raspberry Pi 4 (gig ethernet port) reports the same! I was surprised to see little difference between both devices!

[ConsoleKing]

I just joined Vodafone FTTP (500mb) and have the exact same issue. Its clearly a fault, limitation (imposed) or issue with their router. Looking to swap out for a different router in the near future and will test again. It cannot be a coincidence that the speeds you describe are exactly same as mine on WiFi. 

Whats worse is knowing the speeds were much faster with VM and the only thing which changed was swapping the router out for Vodafone so I'm fully aware that the WiFi speed is capable of much much faster.

[Heavenswake]

Im starting to think that same as you Consoleking, I had Virgin before this, and wifi speeds with their router was so much faster, seems like a limitation on the VF router, on VM my wifi devices (mobiles and laptops hit the 500mbps download as that was the package i had b4, so i know that both my mobile and laptop should be getting more than  240mbps that i seem to only be able to get with this VF router

[Evie]

Hey there @Heavenswake and @ConsoleKing - I understand how important it is to have a stable connection, especially now. If you are on our Pro Broadband packages, our Wi-Fi Xperts will be able to assist with your slow speeds.

If you are on Gigafast, you can get in touch with the dedicated team on 08080 034 515.

If you are on any of our other broadband packages, please get in touch with us on social media so that we can run some tests on your line. Make sure to include your landline/account number, your forum username and a link back to this forum post to save you repeating yourself.

[Gerry_Atric]

I eventually had my issue resolved, in case it helps you I will outline what happened - 

I phoned the wifi xperts team (rather than use the chat box facility). They identified a configuration issue with the router which required re-doing followed by a hard reset.

The ONT also required a hard reset.

I found that wifi speeds from the router improved with the VF wifi boosters turned off. It seemed as if wifi bandwidth was either being managed or interfered with. 

Now I get full speeds as per expectations, but sadly at the cost of poor wifi signal strength but I may look at deploying an alternative method to improve wifi which doesn't cause performance to drop from the main router.

Do speak to the wifi xperts team via phone, they were very helpful!