Widely varying speed test results, Monitoring signal strength/quality and download speeds

[MymsMan]

This evening I have been running the ThinkBroadband speedtest and getting widely varying results!

At best 367Mbs - excellent,  at worst 10Mbs - awful,  more common 35-50Mbs OK

Are such variations to be expected using a 5G outdoor hub?  I would like a more predictable speed.

I presume this is related to fluctuations in 5G signal strength but I can find no way to access that information

I am  looking for a way to monitor internet download speed, 5G signal strength and quality from a pc or mobile phone app.

On my hub the signal quality display is turned off when the hub is connected to the eero so cannot be used even if the hub is mounted in a visible place

Ideally I would like to be able to download speed, signal strength and quality data on a regular basis so that I can plot variations over time.

I would have thought that such information would be very useful for technical customer support so surprised that it doesn't appear to be readily available.

[MymsMan]

I have been monitoring my download and upload speed and they have improved since I mounted my hub on an external pole but they are still very inconsistent

I am still looking for a way to monitor my signal strength on a regular basis.

I can see current 5G signal strength on the hub web page https://192.168.0.1/#/home and it seem to range between 75 and 85.  But I still haven't found a way to collect that data on a regular basis so that I can try to correlate it with the speed test results

[MymsMan]

After moving all my wired connections from my old PlusNet routers to gigabit  switches I was able to start trying speed tests over a wired connection and this clearly show that I am able to get a consistently excellent speeds of 300-600Mbs, median 436Mbps, throughout the day and my concerns about signal strength are unfounded 😁

But I am still getting very inconsistent speed using wireless connections, why?

All of my testing is done with a laptop (Win11 pro) in the same room as eero with power connected so the variations are not due to signal strength or power settings, there is negligible other wireless activity (.1MBs) on the PC so the problems are local to my PC,  turning wifi off and on produced a short term increase in speed.

Resetting the wireless adapter by disabling/re-enabling it seems to have had a more positive affect, touch wood whether the improvement lasts

I will continue monitoring

[MymsMan · Accepted solution]

After several false leads I found pages on Google suggesting disabllng TCP IPV6 in my WiFi adapter - I tried that and have had 24hours of consistently high speed test results since then.

Disabling TCP IPV6 is OK as a workaround but is not recommended as a long term solution.

Since it is way off topic from my OP I have opened a new thread to discuss this problem

[MymsMan]

Alas, the effect of disabling/enabling the adapter didn't last much more than 12 hours 😢

And worse repeating the disable/enable adapter idea hasn't restored full speed! 😭

Obviously this is not a problem with the Three network or equipment but it does affect my usage of the internet and I would appreciate any thoughts as to what I should try next

[PeteG]

Hello there. 

There isn't a tool within the Hub that would do that kind of tracking, and I'm not aware of anything else that would do that. 

It's worth keeping in mind however that speeds on the network are directly impacted by what other users are doing around you. For example, when someone does a speed test or downloads a file, they directly reduce the amount of bandwidth available to other users.
Unlike normal broadband, there are no speed tiers, so the system could give you everything it has that your device can manage. That's why sometimes you'll occasionally see users posting speed tests that show them going into the Gbps. It's the systems job to manage that, and when other users start connecting and using their devices, that speed is reduced to something less than that. That's why the average speed target for the network is 150mbps.

Pete.

[MymsMan]

---

@PeteG wrote:

Hello there. 

There isn't a tool within the Hub that would do that kind of tracking, and I'm not aware of anything else that would do that. 

It's worth keeping in mind however that speeds on the network are directly impacted by what other users are doing around you. For example, when someone does a speed test or downloads a file, they directly reduce the amount of bandwidth available to other users.
Unlike normal broadband, there are no speed tiers, so the system could give you everything it has that your device can manage. That's why sometimes you'll occasionally see users posting speed tests that show them going into the Gbps. It's the systems job to manage that, and when other users start connecting and using their devices, that speed is reduced to something less than that. That's why the average speed target for the network is 150mbps.

Pete.

---

@PeteGwhen you say "other users" are you referring to users connected to my home network or to other customers connecting to the same 5G mast?

At the moment when I am still testing and setting up there are no other users connected to my home network,  if it is other customers I am worried whether the mast has sufficient bandwidth and whether I might see speed dropping significantly at busy times and as Three sells more 5G internet packages.

Speed and stability have improved now that I have installed the hub on a roof mounted pole -  I hope that will continue into the future

BTW the Eero hub is reporting speeds of 781Mbps download, 56Mbs upload which is far in excess of what I  am seeing  at my PC but I haven't yet tried a wired connection to the Eero or the hub.

[JonathanB]

Hi @MymsMan,

Sorry for the lack of clarity there. Yes speeds over the Three network will vary according to the activities of other customers in your local area to some extent. We do heavily invest in 5G infrastructure though, so we're working hard to maintain our reputation as the fastest 5G network in the UK.

Hopefully you're seeing more highs than lows with the speeds, and I read your other topic about installing your Outdoor Hub, so I also hope that's helping you get the best possible reception.

Based on your posts, it sounds like you've just recently taken the plan. All our Broadband plans can be returned within 30 days, so please trial things out, and I hope that the service is overall satisfactory, but if not the team will be able to help you make a return on request if this isn't the Broadband for you.

Thanks,
Jonathan