Advice needed.

Rockred

Rockred

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I'm not all that tech savvy, so any advice for my problem would be grateful. I have a router supplied by the internet provider, it does not come through a cable to the house, and it is supposed to be
with unlimited usage to my house in Spain, I run a Ethernet cable to my TV to watch UK programmes using iptv through a Mag box 254, I have Express VPN on my PC, ipad and iphone, but not on my router. I think that the service is being throttled at certain times. I have run a speed test using Ookla at diffrent times of the day and get speeds of any thing from 5 mpbs to 10 mpbs, it is Spain, so speeds not good.

The question is can anyone recommend any thing that I could do to improve the quality of the TV which freezers at different times of the day ? I dont mind upgrading the router or any thing else that may help.

Many thanks in advance for you help.
 
For someone saying they are not tech savvy I think you are doing pretty well.

I'm guessing that the modem provided is and ADSL Modem / Router combined. Is that branded with the \internet \providers logo, or seem a generic off the shelf unit?

It is possible the throttling would happen what ever your set up, it is possible you are throttled at particular times, or possible you are throttled after reaching a certain download limit. If you are thinking you are being slowed because you have the VPN, you could try testing your download speed with that VPN enabled, and with it off to seee if there is a an apparent difference by your provider. I'm sure Express VPN are a decent sized provider, but is it possible that particular node you are connected to is the bottleneck? I appreciate you say your TV is on box, and you don't mention that using the VPN, but for your computer etc, it's s possibility.

If you have an ADSL Modem, it might be possible to change that for a 'better' adsl modem, a number such as some ASUS ones allow you to set the VPN on the router, so all devices connected to that are automatically routed through the VPN. That might improve your situation.

Do you have any friends / neighbours on the same provider? Do they have a similar issue?

An updated modem might help, but perhaps someone with experience of what you have done in a similar situation will be along soon.

Let us know what your current modem is with a photo if possible brand/model, it may help.

Good luck though, and remember it could be worse, your name could be Att, and the top of a mountain without any internet:D
 
If it is anything like the uk then you contation ratio issue to deal with as well, roughly that means (very rough) there is 100meg delivered to an area, now if there are 20 households connected to that line the ratio is 20:1 in the uk it often used to be 50:1, so when you are the only person accessing the net you can utilize all 100 meg, however if 5 are on the net you get to utilize only 20% of that 100, if 20 are all on line at the same time it can slow down to a crawl, and general happens at fairly regular times.
Be worth checking what the ration is on your connection.
 
Thanks all for your replies..:thumb2. My router is a Movistar brand which is owned by Spain’s Telephonica and is the basic router that everyone gets given.

I will disconnect my VPN tomorrow and compare the down load speeds with and without the VPN connected.

Thanks all.
 
I have just tried a speed test with the VPN connected and without the VPN and there is no real difference in the speed. What was notable was the slowness this morning, it was showing only about 3 to 4 mbps. the TV kept freezing so virtually unwatchable, the same as yesterday morning, which prompted me to start this thread. Last night it was watchable with only the occasional freeze. Looking at the Asus routers, they look really good, the model recommended by Techradar for best buy was the Asus RT-AC86U I wont be using it for Gaming ect, I just want to inprove my TV viewing.
 
"it does not come through a cable to the house"

Does this mean you are receiving your internet via the mobile phone 4g network? If so then placing your router in different parts of the house and identifying where your nearest cell tower is and pointing it in that direction can make a big difference to signal strength and therefore download speeds.

If you are getting it through your phone line then ignore the above.
 
I wanted to watch TV downstairs over wifi connected to my router which is cabled to the outside line at around 38mb and is upstairs in an office. I wanted to watch some iptv and couldn't get a stable connection, so I tried a vpn. That killed my speed whether watching IPTV or surfing the net downstairs on a laptop. Binned the VPN. At this point I found out that Sky had managed to prevent the IPTV channels working. So I bought a VR archer 400 router for £130. All tickety boo for 6 months. Then no internet. It turns out the new all powerful router had failed so I swapped it for my original sky router and all worked fine. Go figure. Then it started lagging again. I bought a firestick which connects wirelessly to my sky router upstairs, I then run Smarters 2 app through it and get a very stable FHD connection to all my sky et al channels now. So in summary:
Your error could be a slow router, a IP provider that throttles certain content type in conjunction with the VPN. It's probably a case of try 1 thing at a time. PS I had a mag box but found that harder to get a stale connection as well. HTH
 
If your on ADSL you can tweak some settings within your router with some some software

let me go see if i can find a copy and i'll let you know whats its called --


and it's not one of those apps which changes MTU to give the impression of better speed / downloads
 
adventuredon said:
they need to be plugged into the same circuit though
Click to expand...

Mine are certainly not on the same "ring". The router is on the 1950's bungalow downstairs 13amp ring. The iMac I use is on a different ring in a 1990's upstairs loft conversion and the tv is in a 2012 downstairs extension. The only connection between these three different circuits is the consumer unit.

tom
 
Thanks everyone for all your helpful replies. The TV and PC are in my Spanish place, and the wiring in Spain is not a ring main system I’v been told.

I’m going to buy a better router and go from there using the tips and good advice given.

Again many thanks to you all.....:beerjug:
 
Hi
Who is your provider and what bandwidth are you paying for. Where exactly are you. I assume you are using a wifi internet setup which connects your home via wifi from a repeater. These repeaters are normally 4g based and depending the amount of traffic, many users, you can slow down considerably. As for the TV pausing this is called buffering and is a symptom on a slow internet connection. I use Express VPN and they have no speed difference with the VPN on or off.
Another issue, can you access the router? Many companies of this type restrict access to the router and if you want to make any changes you must talk with the teco at your service provider.
To sum up, I feel the problem is with your service provider so you should get onto them for a solution.
Take Care
 
First thing I'd do is change the password see if it improves performance. If other people are accessing your wifi the bandwith could be being hammered. Unlikely i know but still worth a try.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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