Our wifi signal strength is pretty strong around the house but woefully slow. There’s no point attempting to use wifi on a tablet or phone unless we’re sitting next to the router. We’re currently with Sky and according to the comparison sites I’ve looked at, that seems to be our fastest option. Fibre optic isn’t available on our street yet. Does anyone have any idea how we could improve things? I want to join this century and get Netflix!
Have you tested what speed you get if you connect a computer directly to the router via a network cable?
I had a similar issue recently where I was getting a fraction of the connection speed I was expecting - but it turned out to be the wifi router that was throttling the speed rather the the broadband line itself.
It appears that this was because the router was failing down to an older connection protocol to support a wifi attatched printer we have (802.11g @ 2.4GHz rather than 802.11n @ 5GHz). So I ended up setting up a second network, one at 2.4GHz for the printer, and one at 5GHz for our phones & tablets. These now regularly clock ~50Mb each on a 70mb line rather than a max 5Mb on a good day, 200k on a bad one.
It may be your router that’s the problem rathe then your broadband speed. Have you done a speed test hard wired into the router via Ethernet and compared it with your wifi speed?
We’ve had lots of issues with routers supplied by providers over the years and usually replace them with our own.
@armadillo We seem to have cross posted!
After a frustrating journey through bad (but not cheap) routers from Netgear, D-link and Linksys I tried Apple’s wifi routers and found them to be really decent.
Currently using the Airport Extreme and find I get good reception across the house and no problems with degradation over time.
Before upgrading to the Extreme, I used a (cheaper) Airport Express, which I now use to extend the wifi network into the garden.
I usually get a solid 70Mbps with low ping from BT Infinity 2 (over wifi). It does occasionally dip and was less reliable back in June (see post below), although has improved since then.
All - for reference, we have another couple of topics on broadband in SE23:
I agree about Apple’s routers. Pretty solid speeds, no drop outs and friendly to all our devices. We had terrible performance from our BT router. Devices kept disconnecting and I was restarting it at least once a day to keep everyone online.
Another +1 for Apple routers here as well. In fact our setup is (now) pretty similar to Chris’s but on 5yr old gear - so I can vouch for the reliability and durability of their stuff!
Never had an issue with Sky routers - most routers are all based around the same chip sets and protocols and of course wireless speeds are much faster than most peoples internet connection these days anyway - having 1gb wireless doesn’t do much if your internet is only 17mb unless you have tons of devices on at the same time. Having said that - not all routers are equal of course.
If you signal strength is high and your speeds slow then it sounds like there is something wrong, something interfering or something using the available range.
Before blowing cash on Apple stuff or any new kit I would reset your router (just power off and on) and do some speed tests both wired and wireless - www.speedtest.net is the usual site and you can get apps for tablets/phones . Your wired speed should be around 10-15mb as long as nothing else is accessing your internet. Your wireless speeds should be similar esp in the same room as the router. As you get further away from the router speeds may dip off a bit esp if you have concrete\thick walls. Also worth trying to reposition the router in certain cases - raise it up off the floor and try not to put it right in the corner of a room.
So assuming that your wireless speed is much less than your wired speed then try another device - another phone or tablet just to make sure that isn’t the culprit.
If it is still slow everywhere get on to Sky in the first instance. Their support isn’t actually that bad.
If you have devices that have Ethernet (network ports) like a lot of TVs these days you may want to consider Ethernet over power. - really simple to plug them in and you have nothing to configure. I use them in my loft extension which for my Smart TV.
I can’t believe you cant get fiber to the cabinet in Honor Oak
Thank you so much for the tips. According to www.speedtest.com our download speed is 12.66 mbps and upload speed is 1.00 mbps. That doesn’t sound particuarly good - and I’m sitting at my desk right next to the wifi router. 
That is expected - 13 mb down is about ok on the grounds that is about max for our local ADSL (mine occasionally goes higher) and the 1 mb up I am afraid is standard (which is why I am going fibre soon!!)… As most people don’t upload so much it often isn’t an issue.
I expect you would get the same if you plugged directly into your router.
The issue is - how far away from your router do you get before it fails or speed drops off to less than say 5mb.
Try the speed test from other areas of the house.
What speed do you get if you plug a laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable? Does that give you the speed you’re paying for from Sky?
We get maximum 9mb/s download and less that 1mb/s upload, which is ridiculous for us as my partner works from home and upload speed is crucial. Spoke to BT and there is nothing they can do. No space on the server box or whatever you call it to get fibre. We just have to sit and wait. Also, the download speed is not so slow that we qualify for some of the government funding being dished out.
Thanks everyone. I work from home too, which is partly why this is so annoying!
some of Honor Oak has the 300mb fibre to the premises BT Infinity I believe? Strange how the internet potential varies so much across one postcode.
Live along HOP and also get about 16mb with Sky. Absolute killer when missus is on Netflix and I’m on the PS4. Lagging all night.