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Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

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AlaricAdair
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Registered: ‎21-03-2011

Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

I'm beginning to wonder if PN is throttling Firestick films in the evening. Our TV room has thick stone walls so we cannot use our main suppler WiFi (zen) for the Firestick, instead we have our standby PN unlimited  broadband Wifi mounted in the cellar below the room.  All WiFi connected devices work fine in the room except for the Firestick which at certain times of the day seems to misbehave.

I'm going to shift some cables around so I can pipe Zen based WiFi into the room and then run some comparisons.

Now Zen, but a +Net residue.
7 REPLIES 7
shutter
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

Depending on how much cable you want... ( He does various lengths) 

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25m-WHITE-2-Pair-Internal-Telephone-Cable-Extension-Kit-/262470773129?hash...

 

And move your router into the room you need the best wifi ...

 

I`m running my router on 15mtr self installed extension, and it causes no problems... ( maybe a "slight" loss of speed, but it is not "that" much to worry about.. I am on up to 8mb and get about 7.65 on speed tests)..

 

 

 

twocvbloke
Seasoned Hero
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Registered: ‎06-11-2014

Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

Running a telephone extension wouldn't do much good, a Cat5E or Cat6 ethernet cable from the main router with a wifi access point on the end where the wifi is needed would work better, plus the seller linked above has Cat5e kits for sale so have a look about in their items for sale...

 

There's also the powerline ethernet option if absolutely desperate, but like I say, that's for utter desperation where no other solution can be achieved...  Smiley

AlaricAdair
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Registered: ‎21-03-2011

Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

Thanks guys, the cabling required for testing is almost all there already, just a couple of temporary patch cables will do it and I have loads of spare cat 5/6 stuff. I just need to find a convenient moment to change the static IP on the WiFi router to match my Zen range of IP's.  I'll try and do it to give a side by side comparison with Zen vs PN 

Now Zen, but a +Net residue.
AlaricAdair
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Registered: ‎21-03-2011

Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

So far I've found some nearby WiFi routers all clustered on channel 11.  I've switched to channel 9 which is not used by the others and this has improved things a bit.

Less disconnects to Amazon now, but still a lot of buffering and pixelation.

I've also discovered with my unlimited Business Broadband the download is around 17 mbps (as expected) but the upload has been reduced to 1 mbps from the 2 mbps it used to be and I'm paying for. Time for a call to business support, I suspect someone in Sheffield has been careless with my settings.

I would have noticed the bandwidth issue before but this is only a backup line ADSL to my main fibre connection. I rarely monitor the Plusnet line.

 

Now Zen, but a +Net residue.
ejs
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Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

But channel 9 partly overlaps with channel 11, so in theory it's not a good choice.

AlaricAdair
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Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

It turns out the choice of channel was not relevant. I'd chosen channel 9 because nothing else locally was directly using it. I was aware of the spectrum overlap. However when I ran a trial yesterday services using the Amazon Firestick with PlusNet broadband were still unstable, in effect unusable.  I've been using this set up since September last year and it used to be good, but it has markedly deteriorated recently.

The Wifi signal is produced by a wireless router hardwired (CAT6) to the PN router. The PN router has a No-NAT passthrough setup. The local WiFi router (mine) has its own static IP address. When I speed test the PN service it is running at 17/1 mpbs download/upload, which at the time of the test is dedicated wholly to the local Wifi and hence "Amazon TV"  The Firestick is mounted about 4 metres from the WiFi router.

I've started running a comparison with Wifi provided through my Zen broadband. I shifted the powerline Wifi plug/ into the room with the Firestick (normally this is not accessible because of the thick stone walls). with that setup the Amazon Firestick works flawlessly.  Incidentally the Powerline uses Channel 11 Wifi.

Investigations continue...., but my suspicions are that PN has done something to alter the service.

Now Zen, but a +Net residue.
AlaricAdair
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Registered: ‎21-03-2011

Re: Is PN choking Jeff Bezos?

Fix

By a process of elimination I've found the cause of the problem. The Wifi router TP-Link is for some reason dropping packets, causing interruption of the Amazon service. I've re-routed the PN broadband through my main firewall to the Devolo powerline WiFi. With the change I'm getting a good Firestick movies.

 

The TP-Link Wifi unit was new last November, though the firmware could do with an upgrade, initially it worked fine. I'll tinker some more, but you could say PN is off the hook. 

Now Zen, but a +Net residue.