Unplan Entertainment Fibre Max 12 months

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Unplan Entertainment Fibre Max 12 months - Speed Issues

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#249396 9-May-2019 00:05

Hi all,

I have changed my plan to fibre max (which by the way took a week I don't know why). I did it online. So yesterday I finally got my email notification that my plan's been changed. I was so looking forward to go home and speedtest the new plan. On my phone connected to wifi ranged 30-60mbps which is something I've already had when I was 100mbps plan. Upload has gone up though as I used to only have 20mbps. Now I can get 30-60mbps.

Steps I have done:

1. Restart modem and ONT (even waited 30minutes). Did this twice.

2. Checked my wired devices (TV, laptop, etc) and all my wireless devices. Still the same. Never received a result over 60mbps.

I really want to single out the problem by using wired connection, use only one device and shut down everything. However, this is not how I intend to use this so maybe not. I expect to at least go over 100-200mpbs.. but nowhere close.

Can anyone please help me figure out what I am doing wrong or what has Spark not done?

Thanks!

Rudi

Handle9

3607 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2233415 9-May-2019 00:14

You won't get gigabit speed over wifi. It's close to physically impossible.

The bottleneck could be the router, the network or wifi. You should test on wired first, ideally plugged directly into the router.

Use the Windows app rather than speedtest.net as that is quite unreliable.

What router are you using?

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#2233417 9-May-2019 00:25

Hi mate. Thanks for your reply. I get that. However, 30-60mbps on wifi is just no where close to my expectation. Worse, this was the same speed I've had on Plan 100.

My TV which is connected via wired ethernet is also getting 30+mbps only..

Handle9

3607 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2233418 9-May-2019 00:27

What is it all connected to? What router? Is there a switch in the middle etc?

surfisup1000

4642 posts

Uber Geek

#2233419 9-May-2019 00:31

You need to rn a speed test using a 1000mbps gigabit wired connection to a reasonably modern PC.

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#2233420 9-May-2019 00:34

I have a spark modem - h659b. I've just been with chat support and the agent said I need to hard reset. If it is still slow, they'll get Chorus to check on it.

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#2233421 9-May-2019 00:35

I will be doing that.. do I need to shut down everything else?

michaelmurfy

/dev/null
9309 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2233427 9-May-2019 01:24

Rktcabuay:

I have a spark modem - h659b. I've just been with chat support and the agent said I need to hard reset. If it is still slow, they'll get Chorus to check on it.

The problem won't be on Chorus's end. The agent is misinformed.

1) You need to be testing to a modern computer via Ethernet. Not WiFi.
2) WiFi won't give you the speeds you expect.
3) Your TV likely has a slow processor in it meaning it still won't be able to utilise this. 40Mbit is plenty fast enough for even 4K streaming for the TV.

Please test directly with Ethernet on a modern computer to the Spark Auckland testing server via https://speedtest.net - anything else you do is a waste of time. WiFi is a shared spectrum and thus you won't get a guaranteed speed. 40Mbit sounds like you're testing with 2.4GHz WiFi or the device is rather far away from the router.

Furthermore, if you've got wireless extenders then unplug them - each one halves your wireless speeds and causes problems.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#2233428 9-May-2019 02:19

Rktcabuay:
Hi mate. Thanks for your reply. I get that. However, 30-60mbps on wifi is just no where close to my expectation. Worse, this was the same speed I've had on Plan 100.

My TV which is connected via wired ethernet is also getting 30+mbps only..

Since you were not getting the full speed over wifi on your old plan. Upgrading the plan wont make a difference.

Imagine that you have a cheap 1KW electric heater, plugged into a 10A rated power socket. That heater will draw around 4.6A of current. If you plug it into a 32A rated power socket. That heater will still draw the same 4.6A, and still put out the same amount of heat.

You have done the equivalent with your Wifi.

Guessing that you are using an older phone that only supports N band wifi and / or connecting on 2.4GHZ. Or simply too far away from the router, interference etc.

I spent almost $600 on upgrading my wifi. (just to buy 2 commercial grade access points) And even then, I still only get around 180mbit on a speedtest over wifi. And that is using my gaming laptop, when it is only approx 2m away from my wifi access point. Plug that same laptop into Ethernet, and I get over 900mbit speed tests on it. And those access points are not even the best models for highest possible top speed over Wifi. As I instead chose them as they have excellent coverage (I have a large property, which also helps as less interference from the neighbors wifi)

Definitely far cheaper, and far better results to just use Ethernet cables whenever possible. Especially as using Ethernet reduces the load on your wifi. Which in turn helps to make the wifi faster on devices like phones that need to be portable.

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#2233973 9-May-2019 20:04

Hi all,

Sorry, just got the chance to do this test. So I brought my old laptop next to my Spark H659B Modem and got:

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/16b9939e-c88f-4c1b-9448-fc353dfd0e5b

Ping: 20ms

D: 839.46

U: 322.33

This is without switching my wifi extender off and 3 other Ethernet cable still plugged.

From my old iphone I get this over wifi from main modem (not from extender):

Ping: 21ms

D: 37.8

U: 38.5

Over 5G

Ping: 20ms

D: 70.8

U: 73.3

1. Is this normal speed difference between ethernet vs wifi?

2. Will a factory reset improve this wifi speed?

3. Would you recommend changing the DNS to Cloudfare or Google?

Thanks everyone for all your advice.

Rudi

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
12159 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark

Subscriber

#2233991 9-May-2019 20:37

1. Totally normal. Wifi is a shared medium.

2. No.

3. No. Not at all.

As far as i can see your issue appears to be your speeds on wifi.

the older iphones are 1x1 so 70mbit on what's probably a 144mbit maximum physical link isnt bad.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

NPCtom

295 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2234164 9-May-2019 22:37

I get 160Mbps on WiFi. MacBook Pro mid 2012

Handle9

3607 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2234167 9-May-2019 22:53

OK, so we’ve established that your connection has no problems (your Ethernet results show this). Spark will not be able to help you any further - the bottleneck is wifi.

If you want better wifi you need to use better wifi gear. Given that you have wifi extenders then I’d consider using a mesh wifi system. This would let you get rid of the wifi extenders while maintaining coverage for you whole house,.

You also need to consider what you are connecting to the wifi. As @hio77 has said your old iPhone has fairly limited wifi ability. This is a hardware limitation, you can’t get around it.

If you don’t want to invest in better gear just roll back to a slower speed - you’re wasting your money by paying for speed you can’t use.

Rktcabuay

38 posts

Geek

#2234183 10-May-2019 07:07

Thanks everyone! I will keep the plan for at least for a month. I have the whole house wired when we built, so I will have some devices connected via ethernet. It was also good to know that TV has a slow processor and won't be able to maximise the speed upgrade. But I think my game console and shield will.

I will consider the mesh as wifi connection in my room is terrible. In saying that, I may use the wifi extender as an access point. I have a 4k firestick that connects to the wifi extender. But that's another thing I need to read into as I'm not familiar with it yet and probably another topic I will have to start.

Again, many thanks for all your responses. Have a great Friday!!!

Rudi