Lack of internet speed on box

[grog68]

A friend of mine mentioned when he uses IPTV (various sources) on his zgemma h2s it keeps freezing etc. I suggested he ran a speed test which he did on his computer and got 38mbits download. After rebooting box, router and whatever else I could think of I suggested he install the E2speedtest plugin on his box and run a speed test directly on the box which he has done and he only got a download speed of 0.40mbits. He has replaced his ethernet cable and that's made no difference. He also says he has turned off Homesafe (parental control)

His broadband provider is TalkTalk.

Has anyone else had a similar problem? or does anyone know what may be causing the issue.

I had his box here last week and had no issues at all which makes me think the issue must be talktalk related.

Thanks

Grog68

 

[adrilang]

I would have thought if he was getting decent speed through PC speedtest then its unlikely a Talk Talk issue...

could be a bug in the build being used on the box or maybe something has changed somewhere down the line since you had it last week?, could be full cache or could be a bad plugin installed?

maybe flash the box with a new image and start fresh, see what happens there?

could always try again and plug the box in to someone else house again and see what happens?

failing everything else, the box could be faulty?

 

[grog68]

Thanks for the response, he is going to try it at a neighbours house and see what speed he gets.

It's an odd one to me. If the box/build then why would there be no issue when I had it. I know he hasn't reflashed it with another image since I had although I didn't do a speed test I had no trouble with watching IPTV on it which he is having.

Will see what he says once it's been tested at neighbours house

 

[adrilang]

I wondered if he could have installed or remove any plugins etc or changed settings somewhere that may have an adverse effect especially as it was working when you had it?

If he has trouble at someone else's house then it could be a box issue so I'd start by reflashing and going from there, it's probably the quickest way to resolve the issue rather than going down the route of trying to find whatever is causing it?!

I hope you figure it out

 

[grog68]

He has tried it at his neighbours house and it works perfectly which suggests it's something either on his network or router.

He has said he's arranged for talk talk engineer to come out. Not sure that's a wise moving telling a talk talk engineer he can't get network speed from his dodgy sat/iptv box lol

 

[adrilang]

He needs to make sure the box and all cabling to it are out the way lol certainly wouldn't risk things.

Has he tried turning his router off for a few mins along with the zgemma and go from there?

Could be something as simple as that? Maybe it could be an issue with the particular ethernet port on the router, if there's multiple ones try a different one? If there's still a problem and if he has a USB wifi adapter try connecting using that, if it works it could be the ethernet on the router?

There's only so many things it may be if the box doesn't have an issue elsewhere...

 

[grog68]

He has tried the shutdown box / router etc with no difference

I've suggested he plugs the ethernet cable into his computer and check the speed test on the computer. He says he replaced the cat cable but if the speed is slow on the computer it could indicate its something on the router/ethernet port. Also means he can hide his box and just say the pc is not getting good speed when the engineer arrives.

 

[bronco36]

He has tried the shutdown box / router etc with no difference

I've suggested he plugs the ethernet cable into his computer and check the speed test on the computer. He says he replaced the cat cable but if the speed is slow on the computer it could indicate its something on the router/ethernet port. Also means he can hide his box and just say the pc is not getting good speed when the engineer arrives.

Hi I'm having problems with my Zgemma star 2 freezing (only for a few seconds) but it's bloody frustrating when sport is on, I'm with Virgin and have 150mb with the new Super Hub 3, ironically I never had freezing or any other problem before my free upgrade and this new hub.
I've read a few forums and many Virgin users who have the new hub are having similar problems but as adrilang says I cant tell them my Zgemma is freezing or my IPTV is buffering even with the network cable directly connected, so any suggestions how I get round this situation, I've made the hub into the modem and used my old router for WIFI but still the same problem, do I need to change ISP, many on these forums are suggesting although the speeds are very fast they are not consistent ?? help :(:(.

 

[adrilang]

It seems strange that the freezing happens with the new super hub, I don't experience this myself and I have the hub too.

The signal levels will have either remained the same coming into the house or vm have ramped up the signal so you get a better range around the house with the superhub. However by them increasing the signal a little this wouldn't normally have such an adverse affect on another device.

Remember if you change isp you will lose your vm service as you need a vm line in the house to watch the channels, if you have a basic vm tv package too and that's unaffected it's unlikely to be the superhub causing your issue.

I trust your zgemma is near the hub? If they have boost the signal and it is affecting you then I've mentioned before a quick easy and cheap way to find out is 5-10 metres of additional cable as this will dumb down the signal. Use premade sat cable as it's low quality and will further lower the signal. If this works then you know what the issue is and for that you could then swap the long cable and use attenuators instead as vm use these to lower the signal or so to speak.

If the long cable doesn't make a difference then it's not a signal issue it must be something else and from there id start with your line supplier... they could be getting overrun with people changing from Sky to VM and their servers expericing high demand.

 

[grog68]

In the situation I mentioned above it appears it was a faulty line (telecoms line)

 

[Speedygonzal]

One way to spot wifi problem, is to use the free-to-download inSSIDer utility on a laptop or Wifi Analyzer on a smartphone. They will show you any channel congestion issue with neighbours' signals, and plot the signal strength of your router(s) in real time. Any significant jitter, if shown up in more than one laptop/phone at the same time, will prove that it is either due to issue(s) with the router(s) or the line further upstream.

Within the router, you need router statistics (including up/down streaming speed) to give you real time router performance (at source, not just wifi broadcast, so to speak). There is a free program called routerstats (or routerstats lite) that will do the job, but unfortunately the latest routers are often not supported until they get round to include them in the program configuration. However some routers do have firmware within that will provide you with such real time performance info (by just entering the router's IP address in your browser), e.g. Luci is the GUI for most if not all DD-WRT routers that will give you that.