Internet Speeds

Hi folks, just looking for some information here.

I have been a long-time Virgin Media customer and never really had cause to complain before. When we moved house back in May they had to do a fresh installation as they couldn't find the cable that came into the property despite at least four previous owners being VM customers. I have their 200Mbps Internet service and at the last house (a whole 3 miles away) regularly obtained full, or even a bit over, speed. In fact I never saw much below 195Mbps when checking on speedtest.net - connected via Ethernet cable.

Since moving to the new house I have been seeing speeds of 75-90Mbps - never more than 100, no matter what time of day I checked it. The computers are the same (1xdesktop PC, 2xlaptop PCs all running W10 plus 2xAndroid tablets and 1xAndroid phone and 1xiPhone). Today is the first time I have been at home with some time to investigate this issue so I called VM and their tech support did some tests before pronouncing the system healthy. They are firmly of the opinion that the computers aren't compatible with 200Mbps even though they were working fine before the move.

In addition to installing a new access cable VM provided a new set top box and modem when we moved in. The modem re-boots itself randomly and I have used that as an excuse to get a technician to visit and check the whole system out. They are supposedly sending an Internet specialist ... whatever one of those is.

Sorry, for the pre-amble but I thought it would save questions. So, here is my question to you guys: when I look at the network connection details I see a box titled "local area connection status" and under the heading "Connection" parameter "speed" with a value of 100Mbps. Is that the speed of the connection that I have or the maximum speed that the computer is capable of? The user manual for the mobo says the LAN is a Phy Gigabit LAN, which I assume means it is capable to I000Mbps.

Any help would be appreciated :)

Assuming your network card is a gig and the router is also a gig then it's negotiating the wrong speed with the router. Is your network cable cat5e if it's an old cable that can only do 100 met that would do it. If you have any wireless devices what speed do they get?

dencal said:

Try SamKnows Speed Test, its more accurate.....Google for it.

Failing that do a Powershell (Admin).....copy paste the following, then press enter and restart computer.

netsh winsock reset

Hi dencal,

I tried the samknows speed test and the results are pretty much the same:
Desktop PC - Download / Upload / Latency:
Test 1: 65 / 12 / 15
Test 2: 71 / 12 / 16
Laptop PC (Ethernet):
Test 1: 69 / 12 / 17
Test 2: 76 / 11 / 15
Laptop PC (WiFi):
Test 1: 45 / 12 / 28
Test 2: 29 / 12 / 28
iPhone 5s (WiFi):
Test 1: 80 / 12 / 16
Test 2: 65 / 12 / 17
Android Tablet (WiFi):
Test 1: 37 / 12 /21
Test 2: 45 / 12 / 16

Gonna try the Powershell trick in a minute ... I'll be back :)

Samuria said:

Assuming your network card is a gig and the router is also a gig then it's negotiating the wrong speed with the router. Is your network cable cat5e if it's an old cable that can only do 100 met that would do it. If you have any wireless devices what speed do they get?

Hi Samuria,

Yes, all the cables are Cat5e - they're the same ones from the old house.

What could make the network card (it's on the mobo rather than a plug-in card) and the router get it wrong?

Tried the Powershell trick ... no difference

If your network card is set to full duples this can cause it as that send data both ways at the same time and a lot cant keep up with that so it drops speed down. The sonnected speed is between you and the router not you and the net

dencal said:

I think you should ring Virgin Media.....151 deal with tech details and will check your line speed.

Spent the best part of an hour on the phone with them just before starting this thread. They are adamant that there's nothing wrong at their end but are sending an engineer on Monday.