Broadband Speed Help
BROADBAND SPEED (Bandwidth)
The following statement is given to you by a real Telephone and Broadband Engineer.....Me..
. ISPs (internet service providers) are looking into new ways of delivering faster broadband speeds all the time, as the telecoms industry progresses towards a UK-wide fibre-optic broadband network they are also offering you All the cutting-edge technology and studies into UK broadband speeds to help you find the provider with the best and fastest service for your needs. But they All Lack one very important Element, “The Speed itself”
We as humans love the ease of access to make things simple, wireless networked around our homes and offices all at a touch of a button, HOWEVER... your Broadband speed is reduced on average to start with by 30% when using wireless rather than a hard wire connection via a Data socket or Ethernet cable -remember this before you start adding other factors into the equation. That being said, your (QOE) quality of experience may not necessarily affect or be notable when simply browsing the web or using e-mails. As the throughput decreases you will see an increase in jitter and latency compared to a hard wire connection when using online gaming or (VoIP) voice over IP, whilst wireless connectivity is increasingly becoming more popular and more and more wireless networks are being added like additional laptops - computers and devices, mobile phones, gaming ... then more people will begin to experience the impact of saturation within your own network as less bandwidth is available for each devise. To understand the impact of this you could run a simple wireless check, to see how many wireless network devices are showing as available or in range. So be careful when trading speed for mobility.
If like me, you’re very happy just to do e-mailing and general web surfing, then you will see little difference between a 60MB service and a 10MB service.
Apart from the above there are also many other factors to take into consideration when opting for wireless or Wi-Fi networks. You may choose to get an additional wireless router, this will not increase your speed from your ISP but will stretch out and extend your wireless signal, but remember the additional router has to draw it’s bandwidth from somewhere! You may also be living in a busy urban area and are more likely to be transmitting over the same channels as other routers close to your locality. Check with your ISP on how to change channels as this may help reduce inference and you may be able to improve your Wi-Fi speeds. There are some service providers who claim that there wireless ‘N’ routers offer 10 times more broadband speed than traditional routers, yes this would be true in more connectivity signal strength, but not in the broadband speed your receiving from your ISP. Do you have a mirror hanging on the wall! This may be deflecting the signal. Do you know what materials where used to construct your home! Some act as blockers. Do you lose connection when the micro wave is switched on! Is your router positioned to close to other electrical appliances? And so forth......
By now you should be beginning to understand some of the variables involved in reducing your broadband speed and signal connectivity strength. But all of these variables are only perpendicular to the strength and broadband speed you’re receiving from your ISP to your router.
In the past there was only 1 service provider, British Telecom or post office if you can remember that far back. There task was simple, provide you with a telephone service only, as the telephony became more popular so did additional phone sockets, it did not matter how these where wired up as such, you could spur off, T-in cables and wires, spread the service around with inappropriate wiring configurations, purely because you was receiving a plan old analogy telephone service. As telephony began to advance so did the techniques to provide the service and what was already in place worked fine and could even be added to. Then broadband came along. But still your existing wiring configurations held up to pass the test for broadband use. Now we are at the stage where faster broadband speeds and connectivity demands are far higher and will continue to grow. There is only two ways to insure and guarantee you are receiving the maximum broadband speed from your service provider at your property. This is to have a brand new lead from your service provider’s network into your property connected straight through with no interruptions to your master telephone socket and plug your router into it, you may say this wont effect me as I live in a newly built property and all my cables are newish. They may be new or newish but the wiring has more than likely been star wired in all the sockets so they are all connected together, ops there goes some more broadband connectivity speed. The only other way to guarantee you are receiving the maximum broadband speed your service provider is presenting to your property is, to have a professional telephone engineer configure your wiring correctly to optimise your broadband service and speed to your router. Then and only then can you start to look into what you’re actually receiving to what you may need for your wireless networks or data extensions. Allot of homes do not even have a suitable master phone socket with detachable extension plate let alone correctly configured. You must remember your internal wiring may have been supplied by British telecom at some stage or been installed via someone else, but your internal wiring is your responsibility and not your service providers. So without the correct demarcation point to be able to test and distinguish between what is your service providers wiring and yours you have no chance but to rely on what your service providers remote call canter tells you. And they will ask for an average of £130.08 just to send an engineer out to you. If you only have the one phone socket then there may be a great chance your be fine, but if you have had no extra phone sockets put in or taken out, was there any be for you moved in.
Also remember when you do your online broadband speed test that is not indicating your wireless speed, the result you get back displayed on your wireless laptop or computer is the answer to the question of how much broadband speed am I getting from the telephone exchange to my router........
I hope that what you have read above has gone some way towards explaining and helped in understanding of how your broadband connectivity works and how you will improve your service at your property
Many Thanks Steve