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Original poster

If you’ve been working from home how has your internet coped?

27 replies

Internetathome · 27/07/2020 13:53

I’m on Virgin for landline, internet and TV. My partner works in a techy field and has been able to work from home. I’m not in employment at the moment. We’ve got 2 teenagers who have IPhones, tablets and a Nintendo Switch.

While the WFH has been relatively glitch-free - other internet devices have been crap. We’ve checked our speeds on the Virgin site but it says we’re on super fast with good capacity. However all 3 of us who aren’t working have had lots of interruptions of service - not been able to log onto websites, check Instagram, zoom calls etc. It’s so intermittent, hours of it being fine then hours of it not.

How has your internet been behaving during Lockdown, especially if you or someone in the house has been working from home?

OP posts:
Youngatheart00 · 27/07/2020 13:56

Not well enough, when both of us are on Zoom or Teams calls it often freezes / buffers. V frustrating especially when this is the new normal for working life. Have attempted to upgrade broadband with Sky but when I last checked they weren’t accepting orders

AriettyHomily · 27/07/2020 13:56

Both working from home and two kids home schooling / on internet as well. No issues at all.

Fatted · 27/07/2020 13:58

Ours has coped just fine. We're with sky. It was dire the first week, kept dying but then we got upgraded to Fibre after a phone call to sky every day, keyworker working from home blah blah blah.

We can control ours so that certain devices get priority, so my work laptop is the priority. We currently have laptop, two Nintendos, Xbox and two phones running on it with no problems. Also had the DC doing homework on devices before the holidays.

ekidmxcl · 27/07/2020 13:58

BT internet. It’s been a bit crap. We got the best possible package but it can’t cope with everything (4 people). At times it buggers up when only dh is on a teams call. DD has been ditched out of online lessons.

midgebabe · 27/07/2020 14:06

Usually if you are on fast broadband, the problem is that the WiFi around the house is not as fast as the broadband connection ( even if coverage is good, Wi fi isn't that fast)

We have one device plugged into an Ethernet cable running from the home router , leaves WiFi fire for other things. Worth a shot. If you have coverage problems as well run the cable to the part of the house that is most difficult to reach.

A second problem can be if you are trying to do lots of upload ( eg lots of Skype calls with video going out of the house) . That's because up bandwidth is almost always less than down bandwidth. Some providers may be able to tweak that for you,,,but do the WiFi /Ethernet check first!

bashcrashfall · 27/07/2020 14:11

Fine. We usually have 4 of us on devices on the internet. We were very lucky as we upgraded from glitchy Talktalk that needed the modem turned off repeatedly about once a week to Virgin just a few weeks before lockdown. Otherwise DH could never have worked from home and we would have been completely screwed financially.

GinAndTonicNeeded · 27/07/2020 14:25

Ours was patchy, initially...crashing during video conferences etc

With Virgin, 2 adults wfh, 3 primary school age kids.

We then discovered it was the upload speeds that was the issue, so whilst the kids could watch Netflix, YouTube, etc and not cause an issue, interactive stuff like PS4 (Minecraft), and the school website (Confused) made it go squiffy.

So we just made sure that we "scheduled" conferences and limited the use of the more interactive things.

Sounds more complicated than it is....in reality I shove She-ra on Netflix and say no games until I have finished my meeting and toss a load of snacks at them to stay quiet!Grin

Mistlewoeandwhine · 27/07/2020 14:31

I do online tutoring from home. DH works in IT so our internet is fine but I’ve had a lot of issues with my customers Wi-Fi being shit. Virgin has definitely been the worst . Sky seems to be the best. We are with Plusnet which is v cheap and fine for us.

MsEllany · 27/07/2020 16:12

One computer wfh
Phone
Personal phone
3 x personal phones for everyone else
3 x Xbox
Smart tv

We’re on virgin, on the bog standard pack and we’ve been fine. Normally at least two Xbox playing Fortnite plus all other stuff - could do with a booster for the back room but it’s not often an issue.

bathorshower · 27/07/2020 16:19

We're on Virgin, and have had up to 4 devices on Zoom calls at once. It's been mostly OK. Worth noting that we have two rooms with ethernet, each of which can take 3 devices, which has helped significantly.

Cruddles · 27/07/2020 16:20

Virgin internet. Had to buy a router when this all started as couldn't get reliable WiFi on our top floor (i live in a townhouse, Virgin box on ground floor, PC two floors up). Our house has thick walls as we can't get mobile reception, so it's patchy but functional. Router confirms that we're getting the 200mbs into the house but the Wifi is letting us down. If i had money would get it hard wired throughout the house

Original poster
Internetathome · 27/07/2020 18:31

Thanks all. Will double check our connections. Am sure the work Mac is plugged directly in (seem to remember my DP drilling a hole through the skirting board from one room to another so he could run a cable through from the Virgin box. We’ve also purchased some sort of booster for the wi-if signal. It is at its worst at the top of the house (our third bedroom is in the attic) so it might just be the wi-if signal. I find that Instagram on my IPhone is the most temperamental it just says no signal/connection even when I can get onto other sites just fine.

Anyway the main thing is that it’s been good enough to enable my DP to work from home and continue earning. Just wish we could have it more functional for me to be doing stuff on my lap top and the kids to be doing school work.

Thanks for all the feedback.

OP posts:
chomalungma · 27/07/2020 19:03

Very well.
But I live in a gigabit city and we have a wired household with Cat 6 cables so we are very very lucky.

Chuly · 27/07/2020 19:06

Ours was crap, but we went from everyone out the house all day to three adults WFH and one child on the x box home schooling, overnight.

We switched providers, who also replaced an old socket and some cable etc, and now we have ultra speedy WiFi for a lower monthly cost

SoVeryLost · 27/07/2020 19:20

It’s been really good. Biggest issue has been the wireless has been ropey at times but I work the furthest away from the router and the only thing affected was the video content I put on in the background. We’ve had 5 or six devices minimum connected at a time and it’s been fine.
I’ve never had a good experience with Virgin and stick with BT.

Purpleartichoke · 27/07/2020 19:23

Excellent, but our neighborhood was a test area for google fiber and our home is new enough that it is networked. We regularly have 3 separate video chats, 2 very active vpns, and google classroom going simultaneously and there are no problems

pinkrocker · 27/07/2020 19:26

Absolutely crap, I'm a teacher and was WFH, as were my 2 DC. Rarely did a day go by without the WiFi falling over and flashing red lights. I had to use my mobile data as a hotspot for us all.
Plusnet don't want to know. Awful customer service. Don't ring back when they say they will. Truly crap, I should have paid the £5 extra a month and stuck with Sky. Sad

rottiemum88 · 27/07/2020 19:38

No issues at all. We have FttP (Fibre to the Property) through BT

lljkk · 27/07/2020 20:16

5-6 of us.
Plusnet, all good apart from some rare blips with work's VPN (not a local problem). My work poota is here in the house on the Ethernet cable, I reckon WiFi for work poota would be bad connection, though.

EasilyDelighted · 27/07/2020 20:21

BT. Ours drops out for 30s now and then (maybe once every couple of days that we notice) but it has coped with three simultaneous zoom calls and three of us being online all day long, no slowness or buffering. We have three of the BT discs around the house (the router is at the bottom of the stairs, one in the from room, one upstairs and one by the back door) and we get good connection through the entire house and garden.

PaperMonster · 27/07/2020 20:25

We’re on BT and it’s been fine - just been me and my 9 year old at home all day. We’re out in the sticks and I was really surprised to have better internet than some of my town-based students.

Aragog · 27/07/2020 20:36

We have by infinity 2 Business via dh's work. It's been really good actually.

Aragog · 27/07/2020 20:38

Ours as had me and Dh working ft, Dh doing video calls plus 18y dd streaming movies it FT friends.

Ghostlyglow · 27/07/2020 21:12

Plusnet. It's just about holding up if DP (who is retired) doesn't try to do much when I'm working. I'm using the app on my phone for Microsoft teams meetings as I find it works better than using pc/webcam.

DominaShantotto · 27/07/2020 21:17

Badly. It was erratic anyway despite numerous engineer visits but has been tolerable with just dh on calls on it. Since I’m going to be doing online working from September too, we’ve got a slot this week to switch over onto fibre which will hopefully improve things.

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