IT Travails

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I've a new computer as my old one was getting a bit grey around the gills (seven years old).

It was custom built, but instead of taking 15-20 days to come it arrived in under a week.

Foolishly I started setting it up ahead of the next MEW going to press (Friday).

Yes I ended up having a long session with MTM IT support to get everything working – access to their server and getting my email working.

Unfortunately the Virgin wifi router seems to have some 'dead spots' so when it was ready to replace my old computer, the wifi became hideously unreliable. I was up past midnight trying every one of a huge range of options to regain reliable wifi, but instead it just got more and more unreliable.

In the end I got a 10-meter cat6 cable from Screwfix, drilled a hole in the floorboards behind a wardrobe and treaded it downstairs through a prexisting hole for an electric cable.

There is a point to this beyond it being much more reliable… the broadband speed has leapt from around 27 Mb/s to 109.5 Mb/s. I'm finally in the 21st century!

It's amazing to see archive issues load in six seconds, instead of two or three minutes! A combination of better computer and better connection. Great for CAD, as well as the GIS programs I use.

A shame I'm not into computer games!

Moral of this story is that the extra for Cat6 over Cat5e (about £12 instead of £3.50) is worth it as Cat5e maxes out at 100Mb/s.

No doubt at some point in the future I will need to upgrade to Cat 7 or Cat 8

Neil

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

SWMBO laptop is less than 20 Mb on wifi. Double that speed hard wired to the router.

And we are supposed to be on fibre (but fibre to box up the road, then Copper to the house. )

Footpaths have just been dug up to install conduit for fibre optic cable. Wonder when we shall get fibre to the house?

Howard

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

And we used to be so thrilled to get 3.5Mbps.

You must be on the 100Meg service from VM (they set it to 110 to stop people whining that they are only getting 99 but are paying for 100). If you are having problems with wifi try moving the router a little, never have it near the TV or other stuff, make sure the fish tank thermostat isn't creating bursts of noise, and if upstairs or downstairs from the router try tilting it slightly as they are mostly optimised to transmitt sideways. Don't stuff the router out of sight behind the TV cabinet.
If you are on a service > 100 Mbps be aware that 2.4GHz maxes out at 110 so you need to move to 5GHz to get better service, unless you are at long range and avoid bandwidth congeastion with the doorbell and stuff. Make sure your 2.4 and 5 both use the same network name and password so your devices can seemlessly switch between them, You can downlad a phone app from VM to test the signal in different rooms. Also wifi does NOT go through glass doors just 'cos you can see through them It actually is reflected by glass.
VM now supply over-mains wifi extenders that work very well and a new whole house pod system but pandemic restrictions are preventing the installation of that.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 05/05/2021 19:50:23:

Moral of this story is that the extra for Cat6 over Cat5e (about £12 instead of £3.50) is worth it as Cat5e maxes out at 100Mb/s.

No doubt at some point in the future I will need to upgrade to Cat 7 or Cat 8

Neil

 

Sorry Neil, that just isn't so. Cat 5e will carry 100MHz (frequency), not 100Mb/s (bit rate). It will carry 1gb/s ethernet over a distance of 100m.

I should know, I ran thousands of lengths of the stuff while I still got paid for working,

As for the Virgin WiFi access point + router having dead spots, If you want better coverage throughout the demesne, you need to wire access points to multiple locations to allow for better coverage, eg. upstairs, downstairs, workshop etc. Running a cable will always give you more potential bandwidth than using WiFi. WiFi is a godsend for portable devices and factories/workshops, but it doesn't make sense for a long term fixed location. Yeah, spent my last nine years looking after wireless networking on 65 sites.

 

 

Bah! Humbug! Computers:- Work of the devil I say!

 

PS:- Not "Appeal to Authority" on networking, Just bemoaning the fact that I started doing the computer and later, network stuff because no-one else in the department was prepared to and it ended up taking my life over until I almost didn't do any "proper work" until I left the company 32 year later…

Edited By Mark Rand on 05/05/2021 21:16:51

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

My P.C specialist branded Computer was always slow. 2 yrs old. I bought larger aerials for it & now it is much better.

Steve.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

WiFi at 2.4GHz and 5GHz DOES NOT reflect off normal glass as used in domestic premises. It will be reduced by wirer glass or infrared reflective glass. Thisi s why some car windscreens stop GPS working.

The over mains network extenders can cause significant radio interference.

Robert G8RPI

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