Full Fibre 900 with BT Halo 3+

[AnnS52]

Yesterday, we had a BT engineer visit us regarding our full fibre connection as the speeds keep dropping in various locations in the house. This has been ongoing since before  last October, when we decided to go full fibre. After various discussions with customer services and various Openreach and BT engineers, we decided to upgrade again to BT Halo 3+. The Hybrid Connect box arrived today and my question is. Do we still need to use the two mini connectors ? These are being used for my son’s PS4, which is in the lounge about 5 feet away from the router. He gets bad upload and download speeds, which causes the PS4 to lag, we have also tried hard wiring it to a disc. Any assistance would be appreciated as I cannot see how the Hybrid Connect will help with this. Also the router has run out of available Ethernet sockets.

[imjolly]

the hybrid connect is only for use when you have a total loss of your FTTP connection

[pippincp]

You can increase the number of ports available with an unmanaged ethernet switch such as shown below. Average price about £15-£20. You may get a better price from Ebay or Amazon.

[AnnS52]

Thanks for confirming what I thought.

[Liam2349]

Wifi discs will choke when gaming, at least through ethernet.

A while ago, the FTTP team told me that the ethernet port on them is not intended for regular usage.

If your speeds are dropping at various points in your house, you describe a wifi problem. Step 1 is to get a computer connected to the router via ethernet and run a speed test with other devices idling.

Regarding the PS4, ethernet it to the router using a switch if required, as the other poster suggested.

[AnnS52]

Thanks for your reply. The speed was checked yesterday in all parts of the house by BT and they were very good. As to your suggestion of wiring the PS4 directly to the router, this is not possible as they are in different rooms and there are too many wires as it is. 

[Liam2349]

If you want to resolve this issue, you need to know if it's a wifi issue or if your connection is actually underperforming. To do this, you will need to connect a computer via ethernet into the router and perform speed tests that way.

Wifi performance in particular will vary with usage. Latency spikes are expected on a congested wifi network, such as when gaming. More expensive mesh setups may help, but I have no experience with them.

Still, the first step is to determine where the problem lies.

[JamesBand5]

Just a suggestion. From what I understand, you mention that you have excellent speed into the house (so reliable FTTP) and it's a case of trying to get as much speed as possible to different parts of the house. 

If wiring is not possible, then probably best to opt for a Wifi 6 Triband Mesh system. Something like the ASUS Zen XT8, or Netgear Orbi for instance. You'd plug the first unit via ethernet cable into the back of your BT Hub, and have the second satellite unit in the other room. You can then turn off the Wifi on your BT Hub.  

You'd set up the Mesh system in "Access point mode". 

Effectively you are creating a new Wifi network in the home using your BT FTTP connection. The advantage being with the Triband system that there is a dedicated band for communication between the satellites and the main hub. 

You can then either connect your devices via Wifi to this Mesh network, or alternatively plug in the games console by ethernet into the Mesh system Satellite. 

Might help. Just a suggestion.