how does WIFI

I have just been told by my ISP who provides me with a 100Mbs that I will never see that becasue the wifi router will step down what an individual wifi receiver can see by dividing the 100 by the number of logged on receivers. Surely this is untrue
Now, I could believe that if they were all competing flat out but what I actually have at this moment is a basic kindle not in use; a TV not in use, a laptop connected but asleep and a desktop (this) being used only for a web-browser = Speedtest under this set up shows d/l 18-21 MBs on this desktop--

Comments very much appreciated - especially if it is necessary to teach me some fundamentals of physics

JohnB

In reply to a post by bonnyjars:

I have just been told by my ISP who provides me with a 100Mbs that I will never see that becasue the wifi router will step down what an individual wifi receiver can see by dividing the 100 by the number of logged on receivers. Surely this is untrue
Now, I could believe that if they were all competing flat out but what I actually have at this moment is a basic kindle not in use; a TV not in use, a laptop connected but asleep and a desktop (this) being used only for a web-browser = Speedtest under this set up shows d/l 18-21 MBs on this desktop--

Comments very much appreciated - especially if it is necessary to teach me some fundamentals of physics

JohnB

Rubbish ... it will spread the available bandwidth between devices that are actually using the connection for traffic at any particular point in time.


As you have already commented your desktop PC is already seeing speeds of 140-170 Mbps.

Which unless he is on VM200 or FTTP is surprising.

Possibly a call centre agent is just trying to warn that connecting using an Ethernet cable will often get the best results.

i.e. Wi-Fi is a very variable beast, just their explanation is suspect.

I suspect the OP has mixed up MB and Mb.

I think they're saying they're only getting 18-21mbps which would kind of back up what the agent has said and the OP is wanting this debunked?

OP, what service do you have and what speedtest did you use?

In reply to a post by lee111s:

I think they're saying they're only getting 18-21mbps which would kind of back up what the agent has said and the OP is wanting this debunked?

And earlier in the post they stated the ISP is providing a 100 Mbps product, so 21 MBps is not possible.

Wi-Fi is a very variable beast, just their explanation is suspect.

Agreed.

And what router and what network card. If the network card is connecting on 802.11g then it will never get more than about 21Mb/s anyway. Or if the PC is a little distance away then it will connect at a lower wifi rate.

I pay for 100Mps from Virginmedia and when I connect to the router via cable I can see 100 and in fact even more according to speedtest.net. - it is inconvenient to connect by cable but I have temporarily moved both the lap-top and desktop and connected them by cable and can see the 100 cable connection speeds

When (as normal practice) the machines are connected via wifi to the router I can see around 22-24 on speedtest and 16-32 on thinkbroadband and that when only 1 machine is in use.

The initial "solution" from virginmedia was that my wifi hardware in the machines was limited and out-of-date so for both machines I purchased 300mps access - a USB for the laptop - and yes, I have disabled the internal driver so it is only using the USB. For the desktop I purchased a 300 card and replaced the existing card. In fact these hardware changes made no difference whatever to what speeds I was seeing

The really annoying thing is that when I was paying for 40 Mps I was seeing very nearly 38 on both machines even when I tested them both at the same time - I am paying for more and getting less - even with hardware upgrades -- virgin upgraded the router at that change from 40 to 100

FYI:
Laptop is a Dell Vostro running Win 7 Pro - 32 bit
Desktop is HP Pro 4300 half-height running Win 10 Pro - 32 bit
(32 bit because I have a lot of legacy software - and it makes hard-disk go much further)

Thank-you, bonnyjars

Nice to see that my physics isn't completely out of date
thanks, bonnyjars

When you say 300 Mbps, do you mean 802.11n standard with a theoretical speed of 300 Mbps. In practice this is likely to mean in a perfect scenario something in the 100 to 15 Mbps region, and if the area has lots of other wi-fi networks then they may be interfering.

To get the best from Wi-Fi these days 802.11ac hardware and using the 5GHz band is recommended.

In reply to a post by bonnyjars:

The initial "solution" from virginmedia was that my wifi hardware in the machines was limited and out-of-date so for both machines I purchased 300mps access - a USB for the laptop - and yes, I have disabled the internal driver so it is only using the USB. For the desktop I purchased a 300 card and replaced the existing card. In fact these hardware changes made no difference whatever to what speeds I was seeing

What speeds do these 300mps devices say they are connected at?

Upgraded hardware (router) by virgin media - which will conect at 100 via cable

machines are about 3.5m from router and not more than one wall in between

both machines have upgraded wifi receivers specified at 300ms

whne virginmedia were supplying 40mps I was getting in excess of 30 on each machine with the old receivers
now they are supplying 100mps and I have upgraded the receivers I am getting on average 21 on either machine

bonnyjars

forgetting the units - I probably did mis-spell not knowing any better, I am not a hardware person -

basically:
I was paying for 40 and seeing 30+ on each machine

I upgraded to 100 and virgin upgraded the router
while cable to the router will show me 100, wifi shows just over 20 on either machine

as per advice from virgin both machines have upgraded wifi receivers to 300 = these hardware upgrades do not affect the wifi speeds

I am paying for more and seeing less

Thanks, bonnyjars

If you're using windows try this command in a cmd window

Netsh WLAN show interfaces

I am paying for more and seeing less

That's not strictly true as you have said you are seeing "100" when connected via Ethernet. Your problem isn't with your ISP and what they are providing but rather with your Wi-Fi, either the environment and local conditions or hardware. You've discounted your Wi-Fi receivers but that still leaves the environment which might be improved by changing channel and perhaps your router's Wi-Fi hardware (I don't recall whether you have tried changing this).

Answer --- (i have removed a couple of lines becasue I am not sure what is personal)

There is 1 interface on the system:

Name : Wi-Fi
Description : Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter
GUID : removed
Physical address : a4:2b:b0:fa:17:a3
State : connected
SSID : STROUD
BSSID : removed
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : 802.11n
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : CCMP
Connection mode : Auto Connect
Channel : 11
Receive rate (Mbps) : 54
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 54
Signal : 60%
Profile : NetworkProfile 2

Hosted network status : Not available

In reply to a post by bonnyjars:

Answer --- (i have removed a couple of lines becasue I am not sure what is personal)

There is 1 interface on the system:

Name : Wi-Fi
Description : Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter
GUID : removed
Physical address : a4:2b:b0:fa:17:a3
State : connected
SSID : STROUD
BSSID : removed
Network type : Infrastructure
Radio type : 802.11n
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Cipher : CCMP
Connection mode : Auto Connect
Channel : 11
Receive rate (Mbps) : 54
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 54
Signal : 60%
Profile : NetworkProfile 2

Hosted network status : Not available

Maybe, just maybe, that's your problem.

I do not know where to find that

in Windows... WIFI status shows
IPv4 connectivity :internet
IPV6 connectivity:No network access
...
...
Speed 144.4Mbps

Receive rate (Mbps) : 54
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 54

This is your issue, the wireless devices are only connecting at 54 Mbps. What actual make and model have you purchased? Compatibility with the various wireless standards can be variable and you may find your wireless dongles/card are less than optimal.

Also could be that something is connecting to the router on 802.11g and that may drop the router down to that standard as the maximum (seem to remember that happens on some routers).

Need to check the wireless device fairly close to the router to check max speed - if still 54Mbps then also need to check all setting on router and network cards to ensure everything is set for the maximum speeds (turning off support for 802.11b/g may help force it to a better standard).

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Receive rate (Mbps) : 54
Transmit rate (Mbps) : 54

This is your issue, the wireless devices are only connecting at 54 Mbps. What actual make and model have you purchased? Compatibility with the various wireless standards can be variable and you may find your wireless dongles/card are less than optimal.

I'll add a reminder for the OP that, where the properties show a link rate of 54Mbps each direction, the actual throughput that can likely be achieved is only around 22Mbps.

And that only happens when no neighbouring networks are actively consuming some of the time for their throughput.

In reply to a post by bonnyjars:

I do not know where to find that

in Windows... WIFI status shows
IPv4 connectivity :internet
IPV6 connectivity:No network access
...
...
Speed 144.4Mbps

According to this Q/A, a link rate of 144.4Mbps means that your 802.11n hardware is properly connecting in MIMO mode (2 transmitters/2 receivers). However, you are only using a channel width of 20MHz - which is the standard width of a WiFi channel.

Even so, you ought to be able to achieve throughput speeds of around 50-60Mbps on this setup - less, as you move further away, or get interference.

If you want to get a link rate of 300Mbps out of the system, you will need to make sure that the access point (your VM router?) has a wifi configuration that enables 40MHz operation.

Unfortunately, 40MHz operation comes with its own problems - including an increased likelihood of interference with neighbours at 2.4GHz - so is perhaps best left for 5GHz radios.