I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

What's the spectrum congestion like? There is a problem with too many WiFi networks on overlapping frequencies and signal power turned up to 11. Rather than one AP to cover the home we need lots of smaller quieter ones but that's never going to happen :(

Making sure you are on 5GHz helps as there tends to be less interference. Living in a log cabin in the middle of the woods with no neighbours for 5 miles is also good but apparently impractical.

Barely anything on the 5GHz. It has occurred to me though that I'm running two SSIDs from one AP which may slow things down.

Two SSIDs from the same AP don't make a lot of difference. There are more beacon frames but not that much.

Have you checked you don't have a bit of 100M Ethernet in the path for some reason?

There's a slim chance but it's pretty unlikely. Guess I'll have to have a check as the next step.

My Virgin WAP is not working, looking for advice pls.

Time to upgrade I reckon.

General answer is replace it with a non-shit router. My Virgin hub was bad enough that when I went away I used a timer to power cycle it every night because it couldn't make it through a few weeks without disconnecting.

If you are going to try and get Virgin to sort it then I found this https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/CommunityHubForums infinitely more helpful than Virgin's phone support.

Not sure whether to dump this here or in PC thread.
Just got a new Three 5G router, I haven't been brainwashed yet so all good.
Speeds are better than I've ever had personally. 200mbps consistent. Tested through my phone, GF's mac and wired to the laptop.

However, wirelessly on my X220, I don't even hit 1mbps. Is my laptop too old now? (chipset in a Centrino N1000) Drivers are as new as I can possibly get on here, and on a CAT5 cable, it's 200mbps+, take that out though, and pages barely load.

It shouldn't be that slow. You can replace the WiFi card on Thinkpads pretty easily - some nerd will have documented exactly which ones are compatible, then get one off eBay.

I'm not sure if you meant to reply to me but coincidentally I do have an x220.

It works fine with my Unifi AC access point and a whole variety of hotel WiFi and so on so seems surprising that it doesn't work.

Do you have anything in the pc card slot, that caused some issues with mine?

Can you test from a different wireless device?

I have on multiple devices. It seems like the wireless card is creating some sort of conflict.

@aggi Maybe subconsciously I did!! It's a great machine so very averse to changing it. It works perfectly though any access point I've put it through, but there always seems to have been a loss of connection at one point or the other even with a VPN turned off.

Good shout on the PCI slot, will remove and see.

@chez_jay It seems like you might be getting at something there. There's a very cheap upgrade to the network card that will let this machine work with all the latest standards.
I'm wired up now and it flies, so I'm suspecting it might be a hardware incompatibility issue.

You can get usb wi-fi dongles really cheaply. They're small too.

Have never come across a hardware incompatibility causing slow WiFi before, only regular dropouts! Must be an old IBM thing.

IF I wanted to replace my virgin hub three, and it appears I might, what are my options that don't look like fucking robot insects with antenna every where?
OR
Do I want to do the mesh thing?

Currently using TP link powerline job.

Yeah it's an odd one for sure. I've never encountered anything like this before. At any rate, I've ordered a newer chip-set (£12) which is near enough plug and play (Just need a modified bios) and will see how it works out.

I'd recommend tp link deco whatevers. Made my virgin media internet wifi a lot more reliable.

As @root says, TP Deco twin pack from Argos. Changed my (shitty WiFi) life.

Amazon has the triple pack for an extra £20 at the moment
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0851D6MXY

How innocuous and invisible are these things? Are my kids liable to stick them on their head?

If this is to scale they look like they're about six foot tall

Fuck Daddy Bezos tho. And Damo wouldn't need 3

They're about the size and shape of a kitchen roll about 1/4 into the roll. You can also customise/turn of the LED on top at night, which I don't notice being on during the day.

One would need to be connected to your virgin hub by ethernet and then anything already connected by ethernet to the virgin hub would need to connect to that Deco. The second just needs to be near a mains socket.

How innocuous and invisible are these things?

Sorry for the rubbish pics.

They're innocuous enough for me not to have bothered switching off the light on the top.

When I was procrastinating over other options I saw a few people on reddit had wrapped their Unifi APs. Looking at these wrapping them would be pretty easy.

Unfortunately the Argos price has gone up. Probably due to the lfgss run on them thanks to Stevo's excellent selling.

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I've got the m9s which are more saucer like.