Internet speed has dropped by 80% in the past month

[Treeroyk]

I live with my family, and last November, we got BT Infinity fibre-optic, and it's been great for 10 months. We were getting speeds of 50Mb/s down, and our computers were wired up with Homeplugs.

However, a month ago things started to go badly. Our basic Internet speed dropped significantly (as in, it halved), and Homeplugs aren't giving us the connection we need. After having done quite a bit of testing, we've come to the conclusion that my brother's new computer (he made it himself, out of crappy parts that keep breaking) is the problem, or at least one of the problems.

When his computer is turned off, our speeds are okay. I get 20Mb/s down (which is, of course, a MASSIVE drop from a consistent 50). As soon as his computer is switched on, however, our Internet is destroyed. Right now, he's got it on and I am getting 8 down and 11 up with my homeplug in, and 2 down/6 up with the homeplug out. It's pretty horrendous.

I guess his computer is just sucking in power, but I really can't figure out just how it works - but it is killing our Internet, one way or another. I thought perhaps it's downloading stuff all the time, but this happens when his computer is on Sleep mode and when it's disconnected from the Internet.

Finally, the homeplugs aren't giving me the right speed. When I run a speedtest on my laptop right by the router, I can get 35 or so down; however, my computer is currently getting 8 down with the homeplug connected. It used to be essentially a wired connection, but now it's getting nothing like that.

Any advice? What could be wrong with his computer? (And what might be wrong with the homeplugs?)
Sorry for the long post, just thought it'd be good to explain everything.

 

[ssddx]

its probably because you're using homeplugs.

perhaps there is more drain on the power system now (could be from any appliance like a bad dehumidifier for example) or there are power fluctuations in the house which are disrupting something.

connect up via cat5e and see what your speeds are. if they are back to where they should be then i'd suggest connecting up via networking cable and getting rid of homeplugs.

i cant imagine mixing power for devices with digital data signals is ideal. any little hiccup in the system is going to cause issues.

 

[Treeroyk]

its probably because you're using homeplugs.

perhaps there is more drain on the power system now (could be from any appliance like a bad dehumidifier for example) or there are power fluctuations in the house which are disrupting something.

connect up via cat5e and see what your speeds are. if they are back to where they should be then i'd suggest connecting up via networking cable and getting rid of homeplugs.

i cant imagine mixing power for devices with digital data signals is ideal. any little hiccup in the system is going to cause issues.

I've done a bit more testing now. When I put a laptop next to the router, it gets 65Mb/s wired but 30Mb/s wireless. I used to get 40Mb/s wireless from the other side of the house, let alone when right next to it.

Might it be that the router has simply degraded in its wireless capabilities?

And I can't connect via ethernet, it's simply not possible. The router serves 3 desktop PCs in different rooms (all upstairs), and the router has to be in our old dining room that we never use (downstairs).

If not homeplugs, is there another way of getting the signal out across the house? The router doesn't cut it any more - I can't quite deal with pathetic speeds of 2Mb/s to my desktop.

I'm still sure there is a problem with my brother's PC though - when it turns off, the Internet speed shoots up.

 

[ssddx]

if you have his pc turned on but the internet cat5e or however you connect up to the homeplugs disabled then its clearly a limitation of the homeplugs. you might be able to solve the issue by plugging the pc into another outlet for power and leaving the outlet with the homeplug without any power drain at all. this would likely fix the issue.

homeplugs in general were a bad idea from the start. novel in concept but they just dont take into account any sort of real power drain on the same circuit they are on. basically its a bandaid for people who do not want to try and wire their house for networking.

its not possible? things are always possible. you can cat5e wire the whole house if you wanted but its a bunch of work. of course that would involve cutting some holes, patching and painting. its also possible to move your router from the dining room to some other area. typically they are only connected to the "control box" or whatever you have downstairs via a coax cable so just moving it and extending the coax (buying/makinga new cable) and running the coax under the floor and pulling it up in the room you want is fairly easy.

of course how easy everything is depends on the style of your house. if you have a basement for instance it is very easy. you can even do this with a crawlspace. if you do not and for some strange reason they poke through the wall in your dining room and have all the control boxes and whatnot there then its more of an issue but you could move the router if need be.

keep in mind that the router isnt limiting you to 2mbs (as your laptop wired test proved)

you could use a wireless extender to provide a wireless signal upstairs and then connect up wirelessly with your computers via a wifi card however this isnt as good as cat5e direct. basically this just improves the signal strength of the wifi signal so its closer to max