Broadband Speed

[gg30340]

@ncartwr 

You are paying for 900mbps so that is what you should get from BT regardless of whether not you need or use it.

There will be some overheads which will mean you may get less than 900mbps but those overheads will be nowhere near the speeds that you are presently getting which is well below your guaranteed speed.

The speed test which I posted is the one that Openreach engineers have been told to use so it should be fairly accurate.

As I previously stated you need to call BT 0330.1234.150 and report a fault. They should run tests and take the appropriate action.  Make sure to tell them the speeds that you are getting and that you will be invoking the "speed guarantee". That will start the clock running which gives BT 30 days to get the speeds back to what they should be.

 What is BT's Stay Fast Guarantee? | BT Help

[Kodikid]

The speeds you're experiencing is what is expected from the SH2, some might say anything over 300mbps over wifi is a bonus.

So you'll just go round in circles if you think BT can improve it given your current router set up.

To really take advantage of the 900mbps you're paying for you need a third party router. 

[gg30340]

It's up to you if you want to believe @Kodikid but this is what I get on a BT 500mbps package using wifi on a mobile phone on my home BT Broadband using a Smarthub2.

 

[licquorice]

@Kodikid spreading his usual fud despite multiple evidence to the contrary.

[ncartwr]

What router would you recommend 

[Kimberlin]

@ncartwr  Firstly, you may not need to change your ISP router at all, there may be underlying issues causing your download speed issues, so it might be worth giving BT the chance to investigate and rectify.

From a personal perspective, I stopped using ISP routers around 7 years ago mostly because I have a degree of control over my router that I don’t have using an ISP router. I have around 30 WiFi devices connected, everything from IP security cameras, dishwasher, washing machine, a whole host of clients connected, many at the same time.

There are plenty of very good 3rd party routers out there, but of course it all comes down to how much you want to spend. I own a TP-Link GX90. It’s a WiFi 6 router which has served me very well for the past 3.5 years. I’ve had zero issues with it on both BT and Plusnet and my 500mbps package is rock solid at the package speed. I’ve optimised my router settings to suit our home setup. The cost of the router isn’t cheap though at £300, but in my view, it’s been money well spent.

[Kodikid]

I personally bought the EE wifi 6 router off Ebay for around £25. You could even splash out on a EE wifi 7 router for a bit extra. Both plug and play with BT/plusnet broadband. 

I've nothing against the SH2 but it was released in 2019 and is wifi 5 enabled making BT the only isp not to improve it's router in the last six years.

With the 900mbps BT are selling a Ferrari with a Fiesta engine 

[gg30340]

@ncartwr 

If you are only getting 380Mbps when using Ethernet I fail to see how @Kodikid  can say it as a problem with the wifi on the Smarthub 2, other than he doesn't know what he is talking about.

You need to get the underlying  problem of your Ethernet speed not delivering 900Mbps resolved before you even consider what you would get using wifi. Wifi is a by product of the the speed delivered to your router. If the router is not receiving the full speed how can it possibly give the full speed by wifi.

The BT Smarthub 2 can deliver 900Mbps. 

As I said and others have also previously stated they get the speeds that they are paying for on their 900Mbps package so what @Kodikid  has said is only his opinion and an incorrect one and not a fact. 

If you were to follow his "advice" and buy a new router without getting your Ethernet speed  resolved you will be wasting your money.

[pddco]

Don’t want to state the obvious, but I will in any case, can I take it that the Ethernet cable from the ONT to the hub has been changed and ruled out as being at fault? Does the hub stats show the link speed ( to/from the ONT ) as 1000Mbps?

[gg30340]

Out of interest I dug out my laptop which only uses 2.4Ghz and I did a speed test using wifi on my BT 500Mbps package and I got the following result which again knocks the opinion that you will be lucky to get 300 mbps on wifi using a Smarthub 2.