In this guide, we help you identify whether it worth upgrading to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (or 10 GbE for short) and the best way of doing so. Currently, Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) is the most widely deployed Ethernet standard in modern electronic devices currently on sale. However, 10 GbE offers the prospect of increasing transmission speeds by a factor of ten. We show how, by being clear on exactly what capabilities you need for 10 GbE, you can minimise costs, power consumption and noise. We show […] . Click here to read the full article.
Tips and techniques
The 2020 Guide to Setting the Best and Fastest DNS Servers for PS4
If you want to make the broadband connection to your PS4 quicker and more reliable, here’s how to manually change the DNS server settings to the best and fastest DNS servers available in your location. Amazingly, there can be 10,000 or more DNS look-ups taking place on a home network every day and each one creates a delay. Changing DNS settings on the PS4 is really easy to do and can make a huge difference if your broadband provider’s DNS servers […] . Click here to read the full article.
How to Disable Wi-Fi with Sky Q and Use Ethernet Instead
Despite Sky Q boxes being equipped with Ethernet ports many Sky engineers set boxes up to use Wi-Fi even when Ethernet is available. Using Wi-Fi to transport bandwidth-intensive media to fixed devices makes absolutely no sense and wastes valuable 5 GHz spectrum. Here is how to disable Wi-Fi on Sky Q boxes to use Ethernet instead. It’s more reliable and can potentially free up four 20 MHz Wi-Fi channels for your own Wi-Fi network to improve speeds and performance. How […] . Click here to read the full article.
Online Speed Tests: The Best and Worst and How to Use Them
Updated May 2020: We’ve lost count of the number of people that have told us that their broadband connection is not working properly because an online speed test has reported low or highly variable speeds. We identify the best and worst online speed tests. You need to be very cautious with online speed tests. In most cases, because of the many factors involved, they may indicate that your broadband connection is performing much worse than it really is. It’s not […] . Click here to read the full article.
How To Speed Up DNS Look-ups for Faster Performance
Updated July 2020: DNS or Domain Name System look-ups play a huge role in defining how fast your broadband connection really is with ‘real world’ applications such as browsing. In this article, we’ll be show you how to speed up DNS look-ups easily and for free by choosing the best and fastest DNS server(s) for your particular broadband connection. For more tips and guides in improving your broadband, visit our Increase Broadband Speed Guide. What is the Domain Name System […] . Click here to read the full article.
Chart of Fibre Broadband (FTTC) Speed Versus Distance From the Cabinet
‘Fibre broadband’, or Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) as it is more formally known, is the technology that delivers the vast majority of superfast broadband connections in the UK currently. Often, the term ‘VDSL2’ is also used. The technology has two major weaknesses – by using the copper wires between you and the street cabinet, speeds diminish the further you are located from the street cabinet and the the technology is sensitive to a certain type of interference called ‘crosstalk’. This means that the […] . Click here to read the full article.
Bufferbloat: Why it is Harming Your Broadband and How to Easily Fix It
In this article, we tackle one of the biggest issues facing broadband users today, known as ‘bufferbloat’. The good news is that you can fix it, and we’ll show you how. While this term will be rather meaningless to most people, its devastating effects are very widely noticeable. With bufferfloat, other devices or applications running on your network can disproportionately wreak havoc with delay-sensitive applications you may be using, such as online gaming, web browsing and voice telephony (e.g. Skype and […] . Click here to read the full article.
Chart of ADSL and ADSL2+ Speed Versus Distance
While ISPs often advertise ADSL2+ and ADSL services as having maximum downlink connection speeds of 24 Mbps and 8 Mbps, respectively, very few broadband users can expect to achieve such speeds. As shown in the figure below, a broadband signal generally has to travel considerable distances along the copper cable from the exchange to the street cabinet (the so-called ‘E-side’), and then along another cable from the street cabinet to the nearby residential and business premises (the so-called ‘D-side’). The […] . Click here to read the full article.
Setting Up the Billion 8800NL and 8800AXL For BT TV (Multicast)
Our favourite modem routers – the Billion 8800NL and the enhanced Billion 8800AXL – provide superb performance and represent great upgrades for broadband users using either conventional ADSL broadband or fibre broadband. For fibre broadband users, they are also fully compatible with G.INP, which is an enhancement implemented on BT’s fibre network to improve error performance and broadband speeds further. The good news is also that these are fully compatible with BT’s TV service and its multicast delivery of TV […] . Click here to read the full article.
WiFi Set Up Guide – how to set up and optimise your WiFi to boost performance and speeds
Within the last four months, most households in my local community have migrated from conventional broadband services (delivering download speeds of between 0.5 and 4 Mbps) to fibre broadband. While feedback about fibre broadband has generally been very positive, I’ve been really surprised by the number of people reporting problems after migration, including measured speeds that are erratic and/or much lower than expected. On further investigation, I have found that the vast majority of problems have been due to WiFi […] . Click here to read the full article.