I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

ah same as me! thanks this is useful. And you didnt need to put your PPPoE details into the Edgemax?

Ive ordered a BT openreal modem anyway off ebay, I think i want to avoid the double NAT that you get from having the THG3000 on a seperate network as I want to be able to VPN in from home and having to go via the THG3000 network makes this more difficult...

again this is from my fairly basic networking understanding

Yeah, I was this close to buying a modem but it hasn't been causing me problems. I can SSH into my NAS through the two NAT (needed to forward the right ports) so it does work. Just a bit of a faff.
I have the router set up to use DHCP for the WAN connection, coz the vodafone box wants to give it an IP.

Organisation has moved to a new office
We have a decent ish Business ADSL connection attached to a meraki router. We need to put in a couple of wireless APs and the broadband supplier has quoted £1500 for a survey of one floor 380m sq
Seems a little excessive no? Anyone know what the going rate would be? Guessing closer to £500 a day

You've not really given enough info to tell.

Without seeing floor plan and building materials nobody will know how many APs you need. You say a couple, but is that based on a wireless survey? Which APs are they using? How many days are they quoting? What proportion of that fee is service and what proportion is hardware?

At first glance, £1500 to supply and install a very good WIFI system does not sound outrageous but without further details its hard to tell. It also depends on the quality of service that you expect. Not all wifi solutions are equal.

Sorry I made a typo, £1500 for the survey alone. Just for one large room + a small 9msq meeting room behind a stud wall

I'm used to the survey being included for "free" but thats on larger installs. Yeah, that's a lot for a site that size imo.

I would have thought you'd easily find a company to survey for less. Where are you based?

Agreed I have never seen a separated survey charge for APs. Sorry can’t really share site location beyond “not London”

I was quoted £3500 for a survey on Monday as a standalone charge. I'm not sure of the area but it's a 200 person office with a dozen meeting rooms, breakout space, kitchen etc. Something like 5 days work allegedly (a day for two people on site plus report production time).

2,000 m^2 apparently

BT HG612 modem installed, PPPoE detailsin the USG, everything works perfect!!

I’ve breached 60mb/s down for the first time!

Coverage on the AP AC Lite is excellent.

Although, weird one, my powerline adapters speed has halved.

Its in the same wall socket.. just connected to the USW-8 instead of the ISP box..

Duplex on the Ethernet cable match at each end?

dont follow?

I assume you have a bit of cat 5 between the router and Powerline adapter? Has that failed to negotiate the same duplex setting at each end? That would cause poor throughput.

Or do you mean the reported Powerline speed in some management utility is lower? In which case turn them on and off?

Or maybe the router is kicking out a lot of noise which is interfering in which case move them physical apart and/or add a switch between them or go hardcore with fibre.

this is on fast.com from the ethernet device before vs after.

it could be that the other socket on that panel, going from one ISP router to... USG, switch and modem causes enough noise to disrupt it?

Have you got power over ethernet enabled? I have a vague memory of reading that could impact on powerline speeds.

the switch has 4 poe and 4 non-poe and its plugged into a non-poe port

geriatric internetz, dangerously ill informed user...desperately trying to not loose my job.

Have been forced to relocate to my folks. Internet connection is BT Fibre, through their NGA ECI-CPE modem type 1B to an older Apple TimeCapsule.

iStumbler suggests Wifi signal in the -35 to -63dBm around the house, with ~95 dBm noise on an entirely free channel. Detached house so minimal other networks to compete with (6 others on another channel). No microwave. Conclusion: Wifi network seems to be fine.

Testing through speediest.net gets me similar speeds on 3 different macs and iPad. With VPN and without VPN. Conclusion: devices are getting consistent connection.

Problem is the speed fluctuates from 30 mbps (what dad has paid for - suits his email needs) and about 0.01 mbps. Any ideas why? What are the next steps I can take?

follow up question, as and when I have a home again, recommendations for skilled internet humans that I can hire in an advisory capacity... ?

What are the next steps I can take?

Connect a laptop directly to the router, see how the speed varies.
If it's consistent there then you can rule out the internet connection and it's down to the wireless.
If the speed is still flaky via a network cable then call BT and when you're on the phone don't mention WiFi at all, tell them that you only have 1 device and it's connected directly via a cable to their modem, so that they can't fob you off.

Thanks - tried this this morning, but couldn't get my computer to talk to the modem at all, even trying to replicate settings on my mac from current router. Sage advice on calling them out without mentioning wifi... here goes.

Thanks - tried this this morning, but couldn't get my computer to talk to the modem at all, even trying to replicate settings on my mac from current router. Sage advice on calling them out without mentioning wifi... here goes.

Can you connect to the Apple router via a cable?

If BT modem is connected to Apple router directly, and laptop is connected to Apple router directly then you can switch off the wireless on the laptop and be pretty confident that you're getting speeds unhindered by walls/positioning etc.

-35 is shocking low, suspect the speed variability is due to WiFi, signal strength rather than noise

It's also worth checking the line for audible noise, eg a quiet line test via 17070 option 2. If you can hear any noise then open a fault ticket for that and don't mention WiFi/Internet/broadband.

what would be a 'sensible range' to look out for?

edit - -35 seems to be strongest signal, vs greater distance where it drops to -63, so am I getting terrible signal full stop?

intersting, useful test, thank you - quite a crackly line.