BT Infinity/home plug/switch box query

DSLee

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Hello,

I've had BT infinity installed last week, and am very happy with the results so far.

The one thing i have noticed though is that downloading from xbox, streaming to my TV from the PC and watching BBC iplayer & Lovefilm (from the bluray player) are slow and in the bbc iplayer case very laggy where it takes time to buffer every few mins.

This wasn't the case when i was with SKY and only getting 4meg download, now with BT i'm getting 36/37meg and its slow....

I'm using bt homehub to a 85mbps homeplugs which goes to a 100/10 switch to the relevant AV (xbox, bluray player, TV)

Is there something creating a bottleneck (i.e. the homeplugs or switch) which would create the difference in downloading?

any help would be appreciated

Lee
 
The homeplugs will be the slowest part of that link, and in the real world slower than your broadband link. Did you have the same chain of devices when on Sky?
 
yea all was the same. only difference is the homehub.

So it might be a case of upgrading my plugs then?
 
Can anyone else offer any other ideas/advice?

I dont mind buying some faster homeplugs if it works, but likewise I dont want to waste money if it has no added benifit to my problem :)

Thanks
 
Get a long patch lead to replace the homeplugs for a test and see if the problem is fixed. Saying that, if it worked before then I'd expect it to work now. Maybe the new homehub's psu is causing enough interference to stop the homeplugs working as well.
 
Good idea, i'll have a nose around work to see if i can borrow a long enough cable.....

I'll try it direct to the bluray player, and then via the switch box.

Simple eh, should have though of that myself doh! :)
 
When I had BT inifinity I had shocking lag / latency so much so I had to change provider (this seems to be a very geographical issue). Make sure you basic BT connection is good by using speedtest or something and check for latency issues.
 
One thing I noticed when moving from one ISP to another ( I'm an IT Engineer) is it can take up to 1\2 weeks for the line to settle while they test the best speed for the line, so expect drop outs. I'm using homplugs devolo ones 200mps AV mini and they work fine upstairs on my ATV1 quite surprised really !

Like the chap siad buy a cat 6e cable and see if this resolves the issue otherwise run a ping test or use a sniffer on your network to view dropped packets.

Hope this helps ! :)
 
Bet you never realised IT was so cool :D

Packets - data in the sort of IT network we concern ourselves with here is transported around in discreet little using called packets. Like letters in the post.

Ping - sends special packet from one machine to another and listens for an "echo" coming back and tells you how long it took. Like sonar in submarine movies, hence the name and the slightly lame joke.

Sniffer - bit of software that will listed to every packet passing by the computer running the "sniffer" program and captures a copy of them for you to gaze at. Not for the feint hearted. Seriously tekkie to read, but really useful if you know what you're looking at.

Glad you asked...? :devil:
 
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i suppose what i could also do, is connect my laptop to the cable coming from the switch box and do a speed check from there to see if there is a massive drop in speed between that and my computer..
I'm getting a ping of around 16/17 ms when not downloading, and 37ish download etc... so i would note a big difference in that way i suppose.
 
well it looks like its the homeplug, i get 37 from the hub, 17 wireless on the laptop, and 4 from the homeplug.

Im surprised its so low though could there be anything causing the low speed, or is it to be expected?

checked the homeplugs from the kitchen and i get 6 meg there, but the upload is poo..... weird
 
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I'll summarize this in one sentence:-
"The UK domestic ring main is NOT a high speed data circuit".

Home plugs, BT power line adaters, etc are just a waste of time. On the same spur i.e. same room you may get a decent speed but never as fast as ethernet cabling.
The same ring will be faster than a home plug working across two different rings. If you consider data at 1Mbps then 1 data bit is a mere 1us in duration.
Compare that to say switching on a kettle and and you may get 20 or 50ms spike not to mention sags, surges, other switching devices and noise that all occur on a ringmain anyway.
An aweful lot of packets will be lost and resent which is why you see the slowdown in throughput.

You're lucky to get 4Mbps out of them, faster home plugs wont make any difference because its a noisy ring main.

Get rid and use ethernet, you wont regret it.
 
Thank you,

So the only other option then is to run a cable?

Quite how i would do that with my layout I don't know, but just to be clear?

:)
 
Yes, I would always run CAT5 cables. Wires may be old fashioned but they're cheap, reliable and dependable.

Describe your layout e.g. router in downstairs lounge and rooms where other equipment is required.

There's always more than one way to run cables, so may be able to suggest something.
 
Yes, I would always run CAT5 cables. Wires may be old fashioned but they're cheap, reliable and dependable.

Describe your layout e.g. router in downstairs lounge and rooms where other equipment is required.

There's always more than one way to run cables, so may be able to suggest something.

Hello again :)

Right I took the advise and bought an ethernet cable which arrived today.

I bought FLAT GREY Ethernet Network LAN Patch Cable LSOH LSZH Low Smoke 15m - RJFLAT-15 - kenable for HDMI Optical TOS Network Ethernet RJ45 Scart Audio Phono Jack USB Firewire 800 ADSL Cable Leads

I ran it where i need to from my router to a 10/100 switch box. (down the side of the carpet its that thin!)

Before connecting it to the switch box i plugged it into my laptop (dell inspiron 1545) and the laptop wouldn't recognise it. i tried a different ethernet cable from the router which the laptop found and connected to the internet as expected.

I plugged the new cable into the switch and found that the xbox and bluray player both have a connection to the internet and i can play HD content off the BBC Iplayer pefectly.

Is there any particular reason why the laptop wouldnt recognise it, i have tried connecting the laptop to a different cable from the switch box and it still won't connect to the net, so there is something about the new cable it doesn't like.

any help with this to understand why its not playing would be appreciated. It's not a big problem as I am not going to be connecting the laptop to it in the future, but to understand why would help!

Thanks!!
 
Correct me if I have this wrong. You have
router - switch -laptop

The laptop wont work via the network switch?
What OS is the laptop XP, Vista, Win7?

In any case from a command prompt post the output of
ipconfig

route print

I am also assuming that you are using DHCP throughout your home network.
Often a reboot will cure no connectivity.

Also if you know your network LAN range post that also, it may be 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.253 or similar but varies depending on
make/model of router or if you have configured anything manually.
 
I knew i would confuse people.... really sorry :)

today i bought an ethernet cable as suggested, and as per the link above.

New cable runs from router.

Connecting new cable direct from router to laptop won't give a connection.
Connecting new cable direct from router to xbox and bluray place does give a connection.
plugging new cable from router and to switch and then a cable from switch to laptop won't give a connection
plugging new cable from router and to switch and then a cable from switch to xbox and bluray does give a connection

Connecting different cable from router to laptop does gives a connection.

so there is something odd about the cable and its relationship to the laptop.

I hope thats a little clearer :)
 
There's two types of ethernet cable: straight and crossover.
I can only think that the cable you've bought is a crossover and that Xbox and Blueray dont care about the type of ethernet cable.

Youve proved your laptop works with a different cable and that you can use the new cable on your xbox or Blue Ray player so all is not lost.
 
Hmmm... It's possible, and I've checked the website and it doesn't say either.

I'll call em tomorrow and see what they say

I've got onlive console coming, I hope it likes it.
 
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