Virgin Media Broadband

[JAC]

@phenomlab

Via a speed test on TV with VPN off speeds of just over 40mbps.

With VPN on speeds of almost 90mbps.

I wonder if this is even possible

[phenomlab]

@jac That makes no sense whatsoever to me. Because of the way a VPN works, the traffic is encapsulated (an encrypted “wrapper”) so the data and associated payload needs to be continuously decrypted and encrypted to be understood at the same time as being protected in transit.

This inevitably produces overhead and will usually always slow the connection - not speed it up. I’m certainly interested to hear the findings.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac That makes no sense whatsoever to me. Because of the way a VPN works, the traffic is encapsulated (an encrypted “wrapper”) so the data and associated payload needs to be continuously decrypted and encrypted to be understood at the same time as being protected in transit.

This inevitably produces overhead and will usually always slow the connection - not speed it up. I’m certainly interested to hear the findings.

Me neither mate, even the staff at Virgin have no clue, and I know they aren’t trained on it but they can’t find anything wrong, obviously there is and I suspect they’ll just change the box and booster and it’ll all be ok again, although I’m at work so I’m hoping the wife is able to explain properly and get it fixed

The issue with varied faster speeds when connected to VPN isn’t always the case but it’s certainly strange that especially when running a test via the shield box they were other double the speed. .

[JAC]

Not at home so unable to confirm if everything is ok. Apparently plugging the booster into an extension wire is a no no as it effects the signal boosting massively!

The engineer phoned me with a few other issues he’d fixed and ran a test and said everything is working fine now as it should and the speeds are good.

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

The real issue is I don’t want a booster in the bedroom that’s why it’s in a different room what I would have thought would be close enough.

That solely depends on what’s in between those rooms in terms of obstacles

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

The real issue is I don’t want a booster in the bedroom that’s why it’s in a different room what I would have thought would be close enough.

That solely depends on what’s in between those rooms in terms of obstacles

It’s a tough one isn’t it, the hub is Downstairs next to the TV, but ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you? I know it sounds silly.

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you?

Not necessarily. Much of this depends on the actual range of the WiFi. In most cases, 5Ghz will be faster but has less of a range. 2 5Ghz is slightly slower, but can stretch further. It may be a good test to see if the device you are connecting with can switch between these two frequencies.

Failing that, you can force the frequency on the hub itself.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you?

Not necessarily. Much of this depends on the actual range of the WiFi. In most cases, 5Ghz will be faster but has less of a range. 2 5Ghz is slightly slower, but can stretch further. It may be a good test to see if the device you are connecting with can switch between these two frequencies.

Failing that, you can force the frequency on the hub itself.

Hmmm, I wonder if a Nvidia Shield can do this?

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

Undoubtedly, but then you have associated cost- have you tried WIFI extenders ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

Undoubtedly, but then you have associated cost- have you tried WIFI extenders ?

No mate, just a booster.

[phenomlab]

@jac a booster is an extender

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac a booster is an extender
Ah I see, no mate just 1 booster as shown earlier in the thread.

[phenomlab]

@jac Have you considered powerline adapters ? I have a couple of these connected to my CCTV system at home because I didn’t want cabling everywhere and the Wifi connection wasn’t that great.

https://weakwifisolutions.com/how-does-a-powerline-adapter-work/

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac Have you considered powerline adapters ? I have a couple of these connected to my CCTV system at home because I didn’t want cabling everywhere and the Wifi connection wasn’t that great.

https://weakwifisolutions.com/how-does-a-powerline-adapter-work/

That is what we have with the booster I think mate?
It’s just a plug-in adapter that is synced up with the box downstairs.

[phenomlab]

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

Sure mate.

[JAC]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

Sure mate.

Apologies should have took a picture last night.

Here’s the setup anyway mate…

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/images/Powerline_home.jpg

[phenomlab]

@jac Ok, so they are powerline. Back to the drawing board then, although I don’t understand why the Wifi signal is so poor when you have a booster in place. What is the speed when testing in close proximity to that booster ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac Ok, so they are powerline. Back to the drawing board then, although I don’t understand why the Wifi signal is so poor when you have a booster in place. What is the speed when testing in close proximity to that booster ?

If I stand next to the booster and run a speed test it’s 200mbps at least mate.

[JAC]

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/intelligent-wifi-pods-new