This topic

Conflicting broadband speed

wtally — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 09:35:54 GMT

Since I had full fibre I have been periodically checking broadband speed.

BT speed checker consistently shows fantastic speeds which are always above their advertised guaranteed speed! If only my laptop knew that!!

So, I decided this morning to use other speed checkers.

At 1015h I used Which? and got 34.6 down and 12.4 up.

At 1017h today I used BroadbandSpeedTest.org and got 27.49 down and 17.90 up.

AT 1020h I used BT checker which I had to log into my account for and got a whopping 147.7mb down and 30.8 up.

Why the vast difference?

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

matekaneve — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 10:59:03 GMT

Try using https://www.nperf.com/en/ The ones you tried are very unreliable... On the Which? speed test I get 89Mbps on my 900Mbps connection...

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

wtally — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 18:52:13 GMT

That is an extremely bold and courageous statement that Which? is unreliable. Where's your evidence?

Which? reported 34.6 down and 12.4 up.

Your recommended tester reported 19.10 down and 4.806 up. This is so unrealistic! My upload speed DEFINITELY CANNOT be 4.806 mps. I know what that speed is like.

But it still begs my original question who is reliable?

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

pippincp — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:18:58 GMT

I take it your speed tests are via a wireless connection which are totally meaningless.

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

matekaneve — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 21:18:19 GMT

Oh well... I just tried to help and share my own, personal experience with the "almighty" Which? speedtest. However, just keep trying to test your connection there if you want. And by the way, do the test with a wired connection not wireless. And switch off "smart setup" in your hub settings if you're using the smarthub.

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

Les-Gibson — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 21:32:23 GMT

The BT speed test tests to the router whilst any other test will test to the device you are using (e.g. laptop) to conduct the test. That is to say that if the link between your hub and your PC is slow, it won't affect the result of the BT test but it will affect the test results of other speed checkers.

Are you measuring over Wi-Fi? if so try connecting your measuring device to the hub via an ethernet cable and make sure that the network adapter on that device is gigabit not 10/100Mb/s

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

matekaneve — Sat, 01 May 2021 08:35:53 GMT

Just for the record and to show how unreliable and rubbish the which? test is, here are 2 screenshot of speed tests done on Nperf and Which?. This is the best I managed to get on Which?, all other tests were even worse...

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

wtally — Sat, 01 May 2021 10:19:59 GMT

@pippincp

You'll need to expand on that.

Whether I test by ethernet cable/or wireless and get the above results, it still begs the question. Why BT consistently report excellent results and others don't. I have since, your reply, tested using four other services. None agrees with BT.

My question remains unanswered.

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

wtally — Sat, 01 May 2021 10:26:27 GMT

@Les-Gibson

Thanks for the explanation which seems to make sense and also means that BT is being deceptive if it measures only to the Hub. My hub does not have a keyboard, screen and mouse. My laptop does. So it is what is delivered to my laptop that matters most to me. What I believed that I was paying extra for was faster speeds delivered to my laptop, not terminating at their hub. Other marketing material suggests that their hub speed is delivered through the house wirelessly.

BT marketing has been undoubtedly misleading. It misled me into believing that I would get faster internet speeds at my laptop when that is not the case - and they have charged me more money for the 'privilege' of their marketing deception.

I am going to raise this formally as a complaint and escalate it to the Ombudsman if necessary.

Thank you for your assistance.

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

garybs29 — Sat, 01 May 2021 11:23:26 GMT

Good luck with that complaint, I'd love to know where you were told you'd get that speed on your laptop. Nobody can promise you speed to your device due to the sheer amount of external factors that can affect it

The statement relating to speed on the website also states the hub -

We constantly check and optimise your speeds, but you can also test the download speed to your hub in My BT. If it’s slower than it should be, we’ll run checks to fix the problem and send out an engineer if needed.

If we can’t get your Stay Fast speed back to where it should be within 90 days of a problem being reported, you can claim £20."

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

Les-Gibson — Sat, 01 May 2021 12:21:57 GMT

@wtally

Not really no.

BT can't be expected to know the details of your home equipment or the environment that it operates in (e.g. bigger or older houses, the siting of the hub, distance between the hub and your device etc can all lead to propagation delays and Wi-Fi signal losses on your home network) all they can promise is that they will deliver a certain speed to your hub which is why their speed tester works as it does.

By all means complain if you feel strongly enough to do so but in all honesty I don't think you'll find it a very productive use of your time.

Re: Conflicting broadband speed

gg30340 — Sat, 01 May 2021 12:44:06 GMT

See link about the "Stay Fast Speed Guarantee"

What is BT's Stay Fast Guarantee for Full Fibre | BT Help

BT will only recognise any problems with the speed if it is being measured using the BT speed tester. This is for no other reason than it tests the line speed/throughput speed within the BT network to your hub.

Other speed testers test the speed from the hub to your device. BT have no control over this due the vast amounts of available devices that you could be using and factors within your home and home network network which can drastically affect speeds.

If you are testing on a laptop I would suggest that if it has an Ethernet connection that you carry out a speed test using that rather than using a wireless connection which can be affected by many external factors.

You should also ensure that your laptop has the latest drivers for your network card. You should check on the laptop and card manufacturer's websites rather than using Windows update.

If possible for comparison reasons you should also carry out tests on a number of different devices to see if they are all reporting the same.