What can I expect D/L wise with my equipment?

ScouseMouse

Hiya all.

Finishing up shortly with landland broadband and moving to UPC 50 meg cable.

I have two laptops and a desktop in the house, all with b/g wireless.

Will I be able to get my fullish speed with them, or do you think, will I need to get some N USB dongles to connect up.

I have read elsewhere that someone only gets 20 ish meg D/L due to not having the N standard.

If so, can anyone recommend some or will any ebay ones do fine.

Thanks in advance.

Qwikpix

I am in Navan and have had the 50Mbps service from UPC since last Friday. It is very stable - it has not dropped so far.

I am using an elderly Dell computer running XP. Using a wired connection this delivers download speeds of around 20Mbps and upload speeds varying from 4.6Mbps to 4.95Mbps.

Last month I acquired a USB "Wireless N" dongle from Amazon.co.uk and when using that the download speeds fluctuate between about 30Mbps and 51Mbps. The upload speeds remain in the same range as when using the wired connection.

I also have a more modern Dell laptop but it does not have Wireless N. So again the speeds are on a par with the wired connection to my Dell desktop computer. I have ordered another generic "Wireless N" dongle from Amazon. These dongles are the cheapest that Amazon supply and the one I have cost about £12 including delivery. The price has come down a bit and the one on order is costing £9.31. The description is: Wireless Internet USB Adaptor WiFi Dongle 150Mbps For Windows 7 / XP / Vista

I presume that the fluctuating download speeds are attributable to contention. I used INSSIDER 2.0 to identify other wireless networks close to me. The default channel on the Thomson router is 7. I changed my channel to 5 and that has kept my speeds within the range quoted above.

Previously I had BT/Vodafone's 24Mbps service and I was very happy with it apart from the price. It was costing €67 a month. I used to get download speeds consistently of 18Mbps-21.5Mbps (I am close to the exchange!) and upload speeds of 0.84. The UPC service is faster and cheaper and provides better value on international phone calls. It costs €52 a month so I am saving €15 every month plus a bit of a saving on international calls (nothing really significant).

I could opt for UPC's 100Mbps service and still pay less than what I was paying to Vodafone. However because of the age of my computers I would not expect to get better speeds to justify the cost.

My phone number will not be ported over to UPC for about another week. In the meantime they have supplied a temporary number. My existing wireless DECT phone base is plugged into the Thomson router and works perfectly, as does my fax machine.

When my phone number has been ported over the existing phone sockets around the house will be dead. However I have been assured that if I connect a wire from the router to the nearest socket, they will all become live again. So I will not have to change my existing phone/socket layout.

So I am very happy with the new service.

ScouseMouse

Qwikpix wrote: »

I am in Navan and have had the 50Mbps service from UPC since last Friday. It is very stable - it has not dropped so far.

I am using an elderly Dell computer running XP. Using a wired connection this delivers download speeds of around 20Mbps and upload speeds varying from 4.6Mbps to 4.95Mbps.

Last month I acquired a USB "Wireless N" dongle from Amazon.co.uk and when using that the download speeds fluctuate between about 30Mbps and 51Mbps. The upload speeds remain in the same range as when using the wired connection.

I also have a more modern Dell laptop but it does not have Wireless N. So again the speeds are on a par with the wired connection to my Dell desktop computer. I have ordered another generic "Wireless N" dongle from Amazon. These dongles are the cheapest that Amazon supply and the one I have cost about £12 including delivery. The price has come down a bit and the one on order is costing £9.31. The description is: Wireless Internet USB Adaptor WiFi Dongle 150Mbps For Windows 7 / XP / Vista

I presume that the fluctuating download speeds are attributable to contention. I used INSSIDER 2.0 to identify other wireless networks close to me. The default channel on the Thomson router is 7. I changed my channel to 5 and that has kept my speeds within the range quoted above.

Previously I had BT/Vodafone's 24Mbps service and I was very happy with it apart from the price. It was costing €67 a month. I used to get download speeds consistently of 18Mbps-21.5Mbps (I am close to the exchange!) and upload speeds of 0.84. The UPC service is faster and cheaper and provides better value on international phone calls. It costs €52 a month so I am saving €15 every month plus a bit of a saving on international calls (nothing really significant).

I could opt for UPC's 100Mbps service and still pay less than what I was paying to Vodafone. However because of the age of my computers I would not expect to get better speeds to justify the cost.

My phone number will not be ported over to UPC for about another week. In the meantime they have supplied a temporary number. My existing wireless DECT phone base is plugged into the Thomson router and works perfectly, as does my fax machine.

When my phone number has been ported over the existing phone sockets around the house will be dead. However I have been assured that if I connect a wire from the router to the nearest socket, they will all become live again. So I will not have to change my existing phone/socket layout.

So I am very happy with the new service.

Thats a great answer. Thanks for taking the time to do that. I think I will go up to max burns in tallaght and get the N adapters. I like to keep my business local.

Thanks again.:D

Qwikpix

superscouse wrote: »

Thats a great answer. Thanks for taking the time to do that. I think I will go up to max burns in tallaght and get the N adapters. I like to keep my business local.

Thanks again.:D

The only problem I had with the adapter (and it may have been my error) was in loading the drivers from the mini-CD that came with it. Eventually I downloaded the latest driver which worked.

ScouseMouse

Qwikpix wrote: »

The only problem I had with the adapter (and it may have been my error) was in loading the drivers from the mini-CD that came with it. Eventually I downloaded the latest driver which worked.

I WANT THAT SPEED TEST RESULT.

Better than 3.8 down and .4 up

Qwikpix

superscouse wrote: »

I WANT THAT SPEED TEST RESULT.

Better than 3.8 down and .4 up

Oh OK, here's another one to whet your appetite