Worth of BT Speedcheck

When I test using my BT it is always above 70Mbs. When I test with Think Broadband and others it is usually 27 to 30 Mbs. The BT test is exchange to Hub. I conclude that my realistic speed is 30 thereabouts which is not a problem.
Clearly whilst BT are meeting their contract it seems to be rather a con,
Views please?

The HomeHub will show the actual VDSL2 connection speed information, which is the best guide to the speeds.

If you are actually connected at 70 Mbps, and get speed test results in the 27 to 30 Mbps that is poor, unless of course the speed tests are across Wi-Fi in which case all bets are off.

The graphs from our test also give some clues as to whether you are nailing the speeds or there are some issues, e.g. if quality score is not A or B then something is amiss if you are connected via Ethernet

The best approach is to provide the following
- line stats reported by the hub
- links to speedtest graphs
- your IP profile
- results of www.dslchecker.bt.com for your premise.

If you are speed testing over wifi, there are ways to improve your speeds from the hub.

To clarify Al my testing is on my iPad linked wirelessly to my router in an upstairs bedroom. Therefore they should be comparable. I suspect the slowing down is what happens between the BT exchange and where the measuring tales place?

Occasionally all tests give approx 70 but not very often..
So what is happening?

So you are testing across Wi-Fi and this is likely to be the big slow down.

If the tests are sometimes giving good speeds it could be the Wi-Fi is behaving better, e.g. now on 5GHz band rather than slower 2.4 Ghz band

In reply to a post by Bracken2:

When I test using my BT it is always above 70Mbs. When I test with Think Broadband and others it is usually 27 to 30 Mbs. The BT test is exchange to Hub. I conclude that my realistic speed is 30 thereabouts which is not a problem.
Clearly whilst BT are meeting their contract it seems to be rather a con,
Views please?

If you reboot the homehub, do the speeds go back up? There was a bug discussed where 5ghz would appear crippled around 30Mbps after a few days uptime (HH5A). Worth doing a test standing next to the homehub, if it comes out around 30, reboot the hub, retest once back online - improved?

It could also be 5ghz vs 2.4ghz in the mix.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 23-Nov-17 00:05:05)

Taking the 2.4 GHz WiFi, it has a WaveLength of about 12 cms (about 5 inches).

Because of Standing Waves and Reflections etc, moving your iPad around a Quarter WL, ie 3 cms - just over 1 inch, can move it to a radically different Field Strength etc, apart from a slightly different route through the intervening ceiling.

Even the orientation of the iPad in three dimensions at "the same location/spot" can cause different signal levels.

And that is without taking in to account other WiFi and interfering sources close to your location.

You should really carry out such tests using a device preferably connected by Ethernet Cable directly to the Router; or, not as good, with the iPad in very close proximity to the Router.

This is due to the physics of radio transmission and reception, particularly at the Frequencies therefore Wavelengths implied by them.

You may have noted similar with mobile/cell phones, where you may have had to move a more distinct distance to get a usable signal, due to the lower Frequency thus longer WaveLength involved.

That is all true but I can see where the user is coming from - if the BT speedtest can get full speeds then it suggests the WiFi is performing ok - if a speedtest to somewhere else just before or after the test is much slower then it is unlikely to be the WiFi that is the bottleneck.

How caan it be a con?

It demonstrates that Openreach, on behalf of your chosen supplier, has provided a connection from the exchange to cabinet and then from cabinet to your house that carries data at speeds in excess of 70Mbps.

There can be a myriad of reasons why traffic is being throttled/slowed/delayed at some point on the connection.

IMPORTANT

The BT speed test in the home is NOT using the Wi-Fi connection even if you are looking at the page on a Wi-Fi device. The test is taking place to JUST the hub and no further

In response to Why is it a con,
What I haven�t said is that when other test are giving approx 30 the BT Test fails to complete.This has been on at least 3 occassions.
On every reported Bt test it is always approx 70.

One could suggest that if the BT test is going to give a lower value it conveniently defaults close to the end of the test.

What I do not understand is why on most occassions think Broadband test generally give me around 30 when test via BT immediately before and after give me around 70.
Only on one occasion last week did think Broadband returned over 70.
I cannot believe such major repeatable differences are due WiFi and how I hold my iPad or frequency used by the modem. Surely this doesn�t change and change back again.

I can believe the differences are down to the Wi-Fi, since any test that is running at a link that is in the home hub is NOT testing the Wi-Fi element at all. If not sure then paste a copy of the URL for the webpage you are testing at.

You need to split the names of the wireless bands into say BBHomeHub24 and BBHomeHub5 to reflect the two frequency bands and then teach the ipad about JUST the 5GHz one, and odds are that speeds will be better.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

IMPORTANT

The BT speed test in the home is NOT using the Wi-Fi connection even if you are looking at the page on a Wi-Fi device. The test is taking place to JUST the hub and no further

This implies that you are talking about a speedtest initiated by the hub.

I assume the new Smart hub has this ability? I'm not sure any other Homehubs do.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

IMPORTANT

The BT speed test in the home is NOT using the Wi-Fi connection even if you are looking at the page on a Wi-Fi device. The test is taking place to JUST the hub and no further

Are you sure? If I run BTs tester and monitor it using Task Manager's Networking Tab, I see data being downloaded to my PC at the appropriate rate - 70+ Mbps for wired and under 50Mbps wireless.

I have just checked the home hub site.
As I am sure you know it lists all the devices on line. This is interesting. It shows my smart Tv being on 2.4 Frequency and both iPads we use as being on 5.

Out of all this I am not complaining about the end performance
, it is fast enough to watch the I player and a u tube video at the same time. I fact I have carried out speed tests at the same time and demonstrated various reductions typically 30.1 reduces to 29 and down to 16 when both on.
For me I am beginning to conclude that what you actually measure is what it is at that time, be thankful , but don�t look for an explanation.

How though can anyone claim that the isp is not delivering what they have paid for!,
,

It is initiated by using "My BT". Did you just connect to the BTWholesale speedtest URL?

This just proves that the reason for your speed reduction is due to wifi problems, not your broadband connection.

I wasn't aware of that - I assume it worked like other testers and it ran on the device rather than the router.

What HomeHub do you have?

Well the suggestion to reboot and the bug defaulting to around 30 seems to have cracked it.
All tests now delivering 69- 72 and I have repeatability. Coincidently about 10 days ago my Bt home hub 5 crashed and reset itself. After this for a couple of days all were around the 70 mark and then reverted to 30( except BT). So this has happened at least twice now. The question is where is this bug coming from or even is something in the testing regime.

Thanks for the person who gave me this advice. I regularly monitor my speeds and will keep this forum advised.

I have also dispelled the various theories and explanations about the use of WiFi, the need for an Ethernet cable and position and movements of my iPad and the effects of wavelength. Although the latter did influence my laptop picture when I was using Sky go not fully compatible in Microsoft.

For me a lot of these are excuses and explanations used by ISPS to respond to customer complaints.

If you have smart wifi enabled, the wifi channel changes when the hub reboots. To stop this you should set it to a channel you get good speed on.

Of course, if you use ethernet your speedtest wouldn't be affected by a bad wifi channel.

Edited by deleted (Thu 23-Nov-17 21:01:40)

So the old turn off and turn on fixed it

Homehub 6 fixed this entirely for me by the way & most of the guys who previously complained about it.
I had fixed wireless channel and split SSID so isn�t the channel changing etc with reboots.

Well complained about bug on the BT forums, weirdly a lot of the posts related to it get deleted!

Check with BT if you can recontract for a free homehub 6 or pick one up on eBay.

When you get the new one split the bands as 2.4ghz almost never delivers full speeds.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 23-Nov-17 22:06:49)

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/bt/4479323-homehub-...

I posted on the issue in 2016, a few guys had same issue and then I had a thread on BT forums which got around 20 pages of responses before the thread disappeared. Ridiculous really.

The 5A caps around 25 to 30Mbps on 5ghz, the 5B is around 10Mbps on 5ghz. Both devices perform incredibly well on 2.4Ghz, I often could get 50+ on 2.4Ghz and only 27ish on 5Ghz, odd really as 5Ghz should perform much better. Reboots always solved it, even on fixed wireless channels. I tried everything, I mean everything, then switched to a talktalk router I had, followed by the hub 6. Used the Hub 6 around a year without a problem, now on Sky.

Best of luck, as I say HH6 was a great hub in my experience.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 23-Nov-17 22:23:16)