I think this is something Grim might know about - Virgin are sending me a new superhub for broadband as it's been a bit slow on wi-fi. Any idea if it'll be much better? I'm meant to be on 152mb broadband but it's never close to that with the current modem.
Your new hub will be capable of Wireless 802.11ac but only if you have devices that are capable of receiving a 802.11ac signal. I would guess that the majority of stuff you own will be 802.11n so it probably won't make much of a difference if they are using the same 802.11n parts inside the router itself. A good way to test it is to download a WiFi signal analyser on your phone, look for your network name and see if there are many other networks on the same band. You can use 1, 6 or 11 (you don't use ones in-between as they overlap 3 channels either side and cause collisions for both you and your neighbors). If you see your network is on 1 and you have lots of other signals also on 1 then try changing it to 11, the less traffic you can get on a channel the better your signal will be. Also then look for WiFi darkspots in your house, the signal is only so strong and it doesn't like walls. Look at the signal strength, the closer the dBm to 0 the better. The router is capable of two different types of signal (wavelength), 2.4GHz and 5GHz. 5GHz is where the 802.11ac signal will be and as it is a higher frequency can carry more channels and thus attain more speed as there is less noise on a channel. The downside is this higher frequency is more affected by obstacles so you will get less range from it. If I were you I would set the 2 different wireless signals up as separate networks (SSIDs). Set all the wireless devices in the same room as the router to use the 5GHz channel even if they are not capable of 802.11ac, this way they are receiving the signal which in theory will give the best performance. Any devices you use to wander around the house with such as phones or tablets or anything that is far away put on the 2.4GHz network due to its longer working range. For simplicities sake when you set them up give them the same SSID but simply add a 5 or a 24 to the end of the name to differentiate. If you have the original superhub remember that this is already capable of 5GHz but I would guess you have it setup as default so it is running 1 SSID and offering both signal types to it. I suspect as you move around the house things are stuggling to work out which is best for them and so you may be attached the 5GHz network at a point where the signal is so weak you would be better off on 2.4GHz. It could be possible that VM have increased the speed of the parts in the new router by giving them more power but at a guess I would say that have just added 802.11ac capability and kept everything else the same to keep the price down. Do you get 152Mb when using a wired connection? Remember the headline speed is the up to speed. VMs own website says that the average speed achieved by someone on the 152Mb package is 113Mb so you have to take the numbers with a pinch of salt. If everyone on your road is attached to the same UBR as you on the VM network then at peak times you have to expect it to slow down.
Thanks for all the info. What apps would be good for analysing my wifi signal? The box should turn up soon, maybe today or tomorrow. I don't think I've got anything that uses AC; I'm just hoping for better wi-fi signal for the phones and streaming boxes. I don't think I see anywhere near 112mb on my PS4 - that's the only thing I have wired. Apparently the network in our area has spare capacity so that shouldn't be a problem.
You use an iPhone so I have no idea, just look it up on the store and take the free one with the most downloads. On the plus side your internet is much better than it used to be, now it is Chi who causes us all the problems. I can't even remember the last time your internet caused lag and that is saying something considering how bad it used to be.
Yeah you'll want to make a wired connection to the router and test that speed. If the broadband connection is slow you're just wasting your time playing with the all the wi-fi stuff. Over the years I've had all kinds of slowness problems with Comcast. I've had a bad cable running to the house, ancient modem, modem that wouldn't update, and wrong setting on the Comcast side. I haven't had any modem issues since I bought my own.
On Virgin Media's cable network in the UK (the only cable network) it is against the terms of service to attach any equipment not provided by VM to the network. On the upside it means that if your cable box (TiVo) or modem/router go wrong you always get a free replacement. Just make sure you send it back when you leave otherwise they send you a big bill! On the ADSL and VDSL (fibre to cabinet) networks you get a free router but you can use your own*. After the first years warranty if it breaks you have to buy another anyway. *Sky try to demand that you can only use their own one and won't give out the username or password but you can use sniffer software to get it. It probably breaks OFCOM rules but they still try it. Funny also when you consider they provide the crapiest router, still only 2.4GHz and the power is so down you can lose a bar of signal in the same room! BT care so little they make the username something like BTBroadband or BTFibre and you don't even need a password to connect once your line is enabled.
I have a crappy sky one Its so damn slow.. do you know if there are any guides around to get a new router installed?
https://youtu.be/MYk5Zq_45jY I haven't tried this myself, I just put up with the crappy Sky one as I intend to switch to BT when my one year contract is up on fibre to get free BT sport. I don't have a problem with speed in the same room but I lose sooo much signal in different rooms in my house, it really is the worst wireless router ever. Note that when I had my big rows with Sky over it, they told me a new one was being worked on but that was October/November last year and still no sign. I managed to get a 12 month contract deal for £10/month instead of £20/month for 18 months so I can put up. I have 3 of the crappy black routers too as they kept sending them to me to try to prove they weren't crap.