Sponsored Links

BT Disc Speed Capped at 450mbts

Fastlane254

Regular Member
Hey! Since November, I got 900mbts BT FTTP package and stupidly signed up to get 'complete wifi' tying myself into the ISP hardware (big big mistake). I thought it would be just as reliable as my netgear nighthawk. Well I was wrong.

My home is a faraday cage so in December I laid 4 ethernet cables so I could feed some devices and the BT discs off them, meaning by the time I reached the end of my house I wouldn't have to deal with 40mbps.

So, I've noticed with the discs wired in I can only achieve a max speed of 450mbps when aggregated over 2+ devices. Is there a technical explanation for this and has anyone else observed this?
 
This is not a cap. It is simply the limitation of the Wifi technology outputted by the discs. They use Wifi 5, which has a maximum real-world download speed of 450mbps [if the device supports it], and you will not get any faster over this version of Wifi. Higher speeds are possible with Wifi 6, but the highest you would likely see in the real-world is 700mbps unless you stand right next to the router.

A 450mbps download speed is more than sufficient for the vast majority of wifi-enabled devices anyway: if you needed to get the full 900mbps speed, the only way to do so is via hard-wired Cat 5e [or Cat 6] ethernet connections to the router.
 
I did
This is not a cap. It is simply the limitation of the Wifi technology outputted by the discs. They use Wifi 5, which has a maximum real-world download speed of 450mbps [if the device supports it], and you will not get any faster over this version of Wifi. Higher speeds are possible with Wifi 6, but the highest you would likely see in the real-world is 700mbps unless you stand right next to the router.

A 450mbps download speed is more than sufficient for the vast majority of wifi-enabled devices anyway: if you needed to get the full 900mbps speed, the only way to do so is via hard-wired Cat 5e [or Cat 6] ethernet connections to the router.
I did originally think this but I was able to get over 450 (aggregated) from the primary hub itself. Are they using different modules?
 
Sponsored Links
The point of mesh networks (including ethernet-fed) is to provide coverage, not performance. Your results are well above BT's own "wifi guarantee". As stated, the equipment BT supplies is wifi 5 (as opposed to under their "new" EE brand which launched with wifi 6 and now has a wifi 7 option).

As said, the obvious solution would be to plug a switch into one of those cables, run the disc off of that as well as whatever it is you're trying to get 900Mbps to. You should do that whether you use the BT equipment or not, as you can never beat wires.

What model is this "nighthawk" - are you even comparing like for like here? What devices are you testing with, as this could also impact overall performance?
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6024)
  2. BT (3638)
  3. Politics (2720)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2143)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1899)
  10. 4G (1813)
  11. Virgin Media (1762)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1404)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules