Full fibre 900

[pauld2110]

Excellent point, it hadn't occurred to me that fibre speeds are now just too good for WiFi. Thanks for all the insight.

[JonUK]

BT has never guaranteed WiFi speed as there are too many variables/interference.

They will only guarantee connection speed.

Download speed is different to connection speed and depends on the server you are connected to. Plus you could be sharing the connection with a multitude of others.

Hub2 Maxes out at about 600Mbps on WiFi.

Best to use a hard wired network, then you'd get the maximum out of your connection.

[c64z86]

You're welcome, happy surfing! 🛜

[pippincp]

No ISP in the world offers guaranteed speeds over WiFi it is an impossibility. All speeds sold are based on wired connections.

There are too many variables that can effect WiFi speed outside of an ISP's control.

[ptrduffy]

That thread made for an interesting read and is exactly where I'm at. Our usage would be fairly heavy, kids can watch Netflix and tiktok at the same time!! That said I'm sure the speeds I'm getting will be fine I just think it's a bit disingenuous of BT (or any isp) to guarantee a speed they know you're never going to achieve over wifi. I mean practically all household devices are connected over wifi due to the simplicity of it.

I wonder how BT would react if I were to send them £80 per month but they could only get £30 of it....

Except it's not really disingenuous at all.  You might not be able to use the full 900 Mbps on one device connected via WiFi, but as you mention above you have multiple users on the link at the same time, so your aggregate speed will be above what any single device is doing.

In my flat we have two TVs potentially streaming UHD simultaneously, three kids with laptops watching YouTube/Netflix/TikTok and gaming at the same time, video calls happening regularly, and various game/OS updates happening.

Each individual device might not be using the full 900 Mbps (except wired devices when doing downloads), but the aggregate demand regularly hits that and the system delivers it.

[gosforth]

From my own experience, BT Smart Hub 2 fairy failing on WiFi end, but it's more than capable of full FF900 on LAN...

As previously mentioned by others, WiFi speed is NOT guaranteed, nor at BT, nor at Sky, nor at Virgin, nowhere, simply because it's impossible...

Why?

1/ Wifi penetration over the space (walls, distance, etc etc) will be absolutely different in buildings, with different types of walls.

More sturdy walls, more walls between, bigger distance from BT SH2? Less speed considerably...

2/ Interference

Living at the apartment building, with 76 neighbors at one, and 68 at the second building, with constant interference from at least 10 neighbors to the left, right, up and down... 

BT SH2 uses ONLY 3 different channels on the 5 GHz band, and guess what? Every time, I changed the channel to the better, and within a few days another router was changed by neighbors to the exact channel, and quite a strong interference... Nowadays, some providers have routers with "smart" channels, but guess what? again same 3 channels...

The only solution was to use a third-party router and "runaway" from those 3 channels away to less crowded parts of the 5 GHz band... 

3/ WiF5 only...

BT  Smart Hub 2 is a WiFi5 (or 802.11 ac) device, with a maximum of 80 MHz channel.

That limits your maximum speed, IN THEORY to a maximum of 433, 866, or 1200 Mbps, but You will unlikely see such a speed.

The maximum, I was able to get with a third-party router was in terms of 750 Mbps download, on "link" with a theoretical 866 Mbps...

On top of it, WiFi 5 is prone to lean towards "slower device serviced to slow down all...", e.g. if you have more devices connected to WiFi, and some of them will be capable of significantly lower speeds due to hardware limitations, inevitably, even your best device, will be affected, in terms of the overall performance of WiFi, while it will try to cater for all, but WiFi5 don't do a great job here... That's changing a lot with WiFi6, and better client management...

all in one, on cable, you will be able to get full FF900, but on wifi, it will fluctuate a lot, and You will be nowhere close to 900 Mbps with an official BT SH2 router...

[lee280269]

Bear in mind the speed your device has to also be 1 gig capable as it sounds like this is your limiting factor

You will ONLY see anywhere near 900mbps if you connect to the router with a 1 gig ethernet cable or a pair of 1 gig powerline ethernet plugs which also use direct connection via ethernet cable directly to your device NOT wifi.

Over wifi you will be very limited by the speed of the mobile phone or tablet or laptop and most current laptops and phones you will be hard pressed to see even 50% of that speed due to the chip limitations inside those devices.
My own BT 900mb fibre is due to be fitted next friday 12th April luckily i already have a direct 1 gig ethernet connection setup waiting to go, so i should see between 700mb - 900mb consistently.
They actually guarantee at least 700mb via ethernet no mater what.

[Monkey73]

Hopefully this will help someone

lee280269 is correct, you'll never see anywhere near 900 mbps with the BT hub unless you use the wired method he described, unless you upgrade your router or mesh system to at least WiFi 6.

I have the 900 package with all the BT kit.  I immediately threw the BT kit into a cupboard and got an Asus XT8 mesh system with two nodes, I added a third.  This supports WiFi 6, which is the minimum standard you need to get anywhere near GB speeds.  Also bear in mind that your equipment that is accessing the router must support WiFi 6.  I have the first two nodes linked wirelessly on a separate 5GHZ band (its a triband mesh system 2 x 5GHZ and one 2.4) and the third by ethernet backhaul (wired via a 2.5 Gbps link).  At the furthest point of my house, where the third node is I achieve at least 870 mbps and sometimes 900.  The ASUS kit is very expensive but there are other routers and mesh systems that will do the job nicely.  TPLink, Tenda and Mercusys offer budget options and there are loads of others with a mid range price point, see the big online store beginning with A.  Perhaps at this stage it would be better to go WiFi 6E but support for this is minimal on anything bar the latest mobile phones.  Wifi 7 is also an option but you need a mortgage at the moment to get this.

Cheers!

[Crimliar]

That maximum speed quoted for most routers is based on the 4x4, 3x3 or similar capability of the router.  in order to achieve it you need the same or better capability on your other network devices.  It's often not the capability of the router that's preventing high speeds, but the capability of the connected devices!
*The way WiFi 4 and beyond work, that extra capability of the router isn't totally wasted, it's used to allow multiple devices to actively access the router via WiFi in parallel!
My Allegedly AX6000 (4804Mbps on 5GHz and 1148Mbps on 2.4GHz and the currently connected clients.

[JE23]

-edited- cba