Broadband (not wifi) dropping out

[KatyMac]

OK we are with NowTV and have their best package

There is a computer with an ethernet cable to the router

The signal keeps dropping several times late morning and then again in the evening

Now say there isn't an issue - we have got a Deco system, spilt the signal, changed the wifi channel to 13 (it's been suggested we change it to 5 - is it worth it?), we cleared the cache in the black screen/white characters bit

So what else can we do? change provider? Help me please?

Anyone?

Sorry, bit confused so bear with me. Does the broadband signal drop so you can't get the internet on any device or is it just the TV signal?Changing wi-fi channels may help if you're getting interference from other devices but you said . I'm guessing that when you were told to change to 5 you're referring to changing Bands as Now provide a dual band router. Changing bands may well help in this case.
Do you actually have a TV (as opposed to watching on on the laptop)?
Is the TV fed wirelessly from the Now box - if so are you able to try running a cable from the box to the TV (bypassing the wifi signal)
If you are getting intermittent broadband, then I would borrow another router temporarily to see if that fixes the problem.
Hope I'm making sense here .

The tv has a USB stick and is generally fine it occasionally 'circles' for 30-45 seconds then settles down (could it download slightly in advance of what we are watching?)

We logged into the router and changed the password last night then added the devises one by one and we think DD's laptop either uses loads of broadband or causes a problem

After each additional devise the speed was still around 30-32 then the laptop came online and it dropped to 10

I have remembered that the black & white bit I was talking about was the command prompt!! Doh!!

Not sure if I have answered what you asked

From that it is clear that your broadband link doesn't have enough capacity for everything you are trying to do. There are two things you should consider:

• figuring out why your daughter's laptop is using so much bandwidth

• moving to faster broadband

Looking at your daughter's laptop, is she watching HD or Ultra HD videos on it all the time? If so that would account for the bandwidth usage so, unless you want to stop her from doing so, you need to get a faster broadband connection.

If she isn't watching videos her laptop shouldn't use anything like that much bandwidth so you need to figure out what is going on. Assuming it is a Windows laptop, hold down the Windows key and press S. In the search box, type Resource. It should find the Resource Monitor app. Run it and click on the Network tab. That will tell you what is using the network on that laptop and how much bandwidth it is using.

I'll have ago at that

Also hers could be the devise that overloads the system (ie devise 7/8 or whatever) so we might pre-order them (forgetting and reconnecting)

We are on their top offering the only other option is a second line/subscription

Sigh lockdown/working and playing at home

so when the (wireless) laptop switches on (actually any of the 3 we have) the (wired) computer loses speed

So too many devises

we can turn the printer off at the wall, and the TV when we are working

But at least 3 of us need to work at the same time so laptop & phone

Bugger

I have uninstalled skype/zoom/whatsapp and it hasn't made a difference to the speed

Disconnectinng the switch made some difference

What else could we lose

This is phone

Computer

Is that difference normal?

Skype, Zoom and Whatsapp will only affect the speed when you are actually using them. Not sure what else you could lose.

I'm surprised you are only getting 30-32 on your ISP's top package but it does depend on where you are and how far you are from the exchange. However, if the laptop isn't doing anything, simply turning it on shouldn't result in a loss of speed. The kind of speed loss you report in your first post is what you would expect if, say, someone was watching a movie on Netflix.

Have you tried looking at Resource Monitor on the laptop? If it is using lots of bandwidth that should tell you.

Based on what you are saying, it could be that all your laptops have been infected with malware. However, if your laptops genuinely aren't doing anything my guess would be that your router is faulty.

Well the computer browser is open (one Firefox one chrome) and fb/ig/mn are open but not being actively used

Malware bytes is installed on each (only playing with 2 atm )

Sorry - a couple more questions. Does your your broadband dropout times (late morning and evening) sync with anything else happening?

We have quite a few devices too and don't suffer such drops and that is with only standard broadband (you have fibre judging by your speeds).
A.What switch did you disconnect?
B. In your original post you mentioned splitting the signal. What do you mean by that?Are you using the 5Ghz band for some devices - this is recommended for things like streaming TV

When the big computer was on wifi we split it to 2 sections on the router but amalgamated them when the computer went onto the Ethernet
(should we swop it back and maybe split stuff again (TV & printer together and maybe laptops/phones together?)

It is fibre I think

Switch is a nintendo switch - which doesn't need to be on when people are working & there is an Xbox too but that is off most of the day

we cant see/find anything happening at the same time but we are exploring that possibility

Can you speak to your ISP, might not be you utilising all the bandwidth. If it's morning and evening sounds like they are struggling with peak times. Do your neighbours have the same issue?

The neighbours have different providers so I haven't asked

I have phoned the provider SO many times

I would be a bit wary of the phone speed test reading as it's not always that accurate, but having said that you're showing the sort of speeds I would expect to see from a normal fibre connection (though if you have Now's top package you should have Superfast Broadband)
The computer download speed however, is very poor and - more like a DSL rate. It should read more like the phone figure. Upload speeds on both devices are about half of what I would expect.
I'm with prh47bridge on this one, unless you have a dodgy connection/malware I would try a different Router,

A quick check does show many Now TV customers with similar problems but Now support seems very poor unfortunately.

I may be able to dig out a spare router if you need one.

That's kind of you

I will try and find a one off malware I can run in addition to the malware bytes (paid for) we have

& I will ask Now for a new router if the malware doesn't help

MalwareBytes should be sufficient but an alternative good free one is
SuperAntispyware available www.superantispyware.com/

Best of luck

Apologies - make sure you download the free edition.

Thanks - it didn't find much of anything and I deleted it after so I don't get caught accidentally buying it

SO maybe a router is the next thing to try - let me speak to my brother

Your router should have a page in its administration section which tells you the upload and download speed.

We have a broadband connection on the old copper wire ( back to the exchange ) and the router shows 20mb download 1.5mb upload. BT engineer said that was the fastest download speed available for copper wire.

In our case when the line was overloaded we got hanging connections, if the demand stayed in ‘overload’ , the router would reboot.

We are getting occasional drops of speed to our smart TV, to our Now box, and to our Chromecast. Other devices on the same network don't suffer any drops; and the timing doesn't coincide with heavy usage on other devices. It might be happening all the time but is only noticeable when we are trying to stream ...

It's annoying and frustrating but only because it was better after an engineer visit and then it got worse!!