Help with speed estimate

Trying to help a friend out and need help myself with a speed estimate. I was in his house last night and connected my phone to his WiFi , ran a speedtest and a got download speed of 2.59Mbps - he is having difficulty streaming Youtube onto his TV. I have initially looked into PN and their speed estimate (not Fibre) is 8Mb - is that 8Mb on the same scale as the 2.59Mbps or what would 8Mb equate to (approximately) - or does he need to move onto Fibre?

Thanks

And a speed test over the Ethernet? And what speed is the modem saying it is connected at?

8Mb from the Plusnet site means 8 Mbps as in 8 Mega bits per second.

Wireless is a very variable medium, so entirely possible the broadband connection is find and the issue is a local Wi-Fi one.

I'm very much at an early stage, he has a very old ADSL wireless (B or G) router, I have loaned and connected (via ethernet) a basic wireless N fibre router to get some decent WiFi - maybe we need to go back to the drawing board - I'm just wondering of there is any mileage in pursuing ADSL or should we move to Fibre.

For some reason (and I need to look into this) the routers are in an upstairs bedroom and the quality of the wiring is questionable.

I have seen quoted "upto 17Mb" so I am guessing that his estimate of 8Mb is actually achievable - using wired connections if necessary - I think that would be sufficient.

He is currently with another ISP and I'm not sure that that is part of the problem - but he could always move if he got a good enough offer!

Thanks

In reply to a post by tallseabird:

is that 8Mb on the same scale as the 2.59Mbps or what would 8Mb equate to (approximately)

No, the 8 Meg is the connection (sync) speed from exchange to router, the 2.59 Meg is the throughput over wireless.

8 Meg Sync = about 6.6 Meg throughput over Ethernet = 'how long is a piece of string' over wireless.

What are his router stats?

Sorry, haven't even tried to log into his router - I know that is something I should do but I don't have access to it right now and trying to work out what are the best options, if I could get his speed up to near 6 Meg I would think that would work - Thanks

First step is to determine what speed the modem is connecting at and using tools like http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc whether that is below or above what is expected for the line statistics.

Upgrading to fibre might fix things, but then again there may be no need and its just wireless issues slowing them down. NOTE: WiFi interference can often just as easily interfere with 802.11n especially if the wireless router is trying to use 40 MHz channels.

That's very helpful, Thanks

Don't forget to look into things like the ring wire, and check my Miscellaneous Nasties page as well.