Broadband Tips and Tricks.

[terrym]

If you are a long way from the exchange then that will significantly reduce the available speed. I am only about 1.3 miles from my exchange by road and my achievable speed is halved.
However there are a few things you can do to possibly improve matters, especially if you are on ADSL like you and me.
First listen to your phone line. If you have a lot of crackling this will reduce the connection speed as your router tries to cope. If it's really bad you will get disconnects. I had this happen once and BT found a fault in the line which solved the problem
Next test the router in the incoming BT socket. If there is an internal test socket use that. If there is a significant improvement then you have a possible fault in your internal system especially if you are working off filters off hard wired extensions. And if you try an old type phone in the test socket and you get crackling there's a fault on the BT line.
Then look at the incoming BT box. The latest type splits internet and phone signals at the box, and have separate sockets for internet and phone and are best.
If you are working off an old filter to your router it might be faulty so try another one they are cheap enough.
And don't rely on the router given to you by your ISP. Most are cheap and cheerful and can be unreliable. I bought my own having had problems and now have improved speed and no longer get disconnects.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have copied Terrys post here from another thread as i thought it would make a useful thread on its own so if you have some tips and tricks feel free to share them here.



Older routers work on 2.4GHz newer ones work on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies and as it says in the quote below one may be faster than the other, the problem is they may share the same SSID so when looking on your device you will only see the one SSID if you would like to see which is fastest you need to rename the 5GHz SSID so you can see both when searching Wi-fi on your device.

The primary differences between the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies are range and bandwidth. 5GHz provides faster data rates at a shorter distance, whereas 2.4GHz offers coverage for farther distances, but may perform at slower speeds.

Log into your router and search for Wi-fi settings you are looking for something similar to the picrure below change one of the SSID's to something you will recognise and save, now you should be able to see both and run speed tests.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Another tip is to choose a different wi-fi channel if you feel you are not getting a good speed as the one you are using may be congested, to find out if this is the case install Wi-fi analyser this shows which channel you are using and if it is congested if it is you can change to a less congested channel in the router settings. - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en_GB

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD49ggpQGGg[/ame]

 

[terrym]

Another tip is to choose a different wi-fi channel if you feel you are not getting a good speed as the one you are using may be congested, to find out if this is the case install Wi-fi analyser this shows which channel you are using and if it is congested if it is you can change to a less congested channel in the router settings. - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en_GB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD49ggpQGGg

I've got inSSider 3 on my laptop.
If you live near or reasonably close to other houses, you will pick up their signals, and this will vary depending on where you are in the house, just like yours does relative to your own router.
So if you do decide change the wifi channel on your router its best to select one that gives the best signal for where you and other users normally access wifi.

Another small tip I have found for squeezing a bit more out of ADSL broadband is to switch on the router in the middle of the day preferably with the sun shining, and then leave it on. You may possibly connect at a higher speed than if you do the same at night, something to do with atmospheric conditions. However if there's a lot of internet traffic later on especially early evening and the connection has become a bit flaky, the exchange will reconnect you at a lower more stable speed, but then that's that, it won't reconnect at the higher speed when things improve, say the following day.