VM Business : Underwhelming Internet speeds ; looking for advice

[jimi-eh]

Hello
I am having difficulties in reaching good consistent speed in my house network. I was hoping someone could help me gather some insight, so I can plan ahead.

inparticular regarding the Virgin media wifi Booster (PG-9072LG-VM) :
is it a slow wifi standard like wifi 3? (30Mbps which is the most bandwidth i can get)

There are a few constraints in my house :
The walls are thick. Wifi signal is reduced, 5Ghz is useless.
The electricity on each floor appear to be on different boards viz the powerlan on the ground floor cant find the powerlan on the 1st floor.

Here are some figures
The Maximum Speed I seem to be able to get is 30Mbs on speedtest via the 2.4Ghz PG-9072LG-VM Access Point.
I can get 50Mbps via ethernet on the router


I live with other people and I cant determine if someone is over using the connection, but I believe they are, so often my connect slips down to 3Mbps

Unsure if its the ping command on repeat being ignored, but the router will be pinged 19 times at ~20ms and then sky rocket either 45 ms or 150-200 ms for one or 2 readings (unsure if this is just the ICMP protocol being low priority?)

I believe the powerline or wifi booster in use is a WiFi
PG-9072LG-VM Virgin media Wifi (powerline?) Wifi booster

As a Tenant in the house I m trying to find out what is going on, so I can plan to get better equipment or to lobby Vm for help fixing the connection ; although I have determined the connection runs at 50Mbps and seems to be working fine at the router.

Here is the Docsis WAN Overview data for one time ; if that helps:

Downstream Overview
Force Downstream Frequency (MHz)
Apply
Port Frequency (Hz) Modulation Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Channel
1 258750000 256QAM 4.700 40.366 16
2 186750000 256QAM 5.800 40.366 7
3 194750000 256QAM 5.700 40.366 8
4 202750000 256QAM 5.700 40.946 9
5 210750000 256QAM 5.800 40.366 10
6 218750000 256QAM 5.800 40.366 11
7 226750000 256QAM 5.800 40.946 12
8 234750000 256QAM 5.500 40.366 13
9 242750000 256QAM 5.300 40.366 14
10 250750000 256QAM 5.100 40.946 15
11 266750000 256QAM 4.600 40.946 17
12 274750000 256QAM 4.700 40.946 18
13 282750000 256QAM 4.500 40.366 19
14 290750000 256QAM 4.600 38.983 20
15 298750000 256QAM 4.700 38.983 21
16 306750000 256QAM 4.400 40.366 22
17 314750000 256QAM 4.900 40.366 23
18 322750000 256QAM 4.600 40.366 24
19 330750000 256QAM 4.700 40.366 25
20 338750000 256QAM 4.800 38.983 26
21 346750000 256QAM 4.100 40.366 27
22 354750000 256QAM 4.500 40.946 28
23 362750000 256QAM 4.000 40.366 29
24 370750000 256QAM 4.100 40.366 30
Upstream Overview
Port Frequency (Hz) BandWidth Modulation Power (dBmV) Channel
1 49600000 6400000 ATDMA 43.000 1
2 36600000 6400000 ATDMA 42.250 3
3 43100000 6400000 ATDMA 42.250 2
4 23599912 6400000 ATDMA 42.000 9


Thanks in advance!
Ps I am based in Brighton, unsure if its langley or Bromley ; if that makes any sense.

[gunner45]

The only real solution is to run Ethernet cabling through walls and ceilings. Can you get your landlord's permission?

[jimi-eh]

Originally Posted by gunner45

The only real solution is to run Ethernet cabling through walls and ceilings. Can you get your landlord's permission?

Well I could ask... thanks for that!

Well what do you think about getting Wifi 6 extenders instead. I think that would boost the bandwidth between the other tenants and so give us a bit more head room.

Anyone got much experience with Wifi6? I found my Wifi 6 adapter on my pc was alot faster than the older Wifi standard ;Using it over a LAN was an option.

Would 2.4hz channel be as fast on 802.11a as with wifi 6 802.11ax?

[adduxi]

If you can't install cables, then look at a WIfi Mesh system. Each node would ideally have line of sight of each other, as you stated the walls are thick. As for Wifi 6, yes it is faster PROVIDED the rest of the network is also Wifi 6 or better. Make sure any Mesh system you consider has a dedicated "backhaul" Wifi channel between the nodes.

[Jaymoss]

Buy your own mesh system and backhaul upstairs to downstairs wired . I run mine up the exterior wall you can buy nic cable for this

I went through an vent and cut a little channel in my bedroom window so the window shuts against it and place my node on the windowsill. I do not care about the bodge though haha

[jimi-eh]

Nice thanks, I will look at a mesh. Hoping its not too expensive. Will look into what that means.

Does that mean its a half-duplex system? Such as the wifi for in and cable for out traffic?

Basically it means several WiFi points combine to look like one network.

[homesecurity]

Your DOCSIS RF signal levels are spot on.
Downstream power sitting between +4.0 dBmV and +5.8 dBmV with an SNR averaging 40.3 dB across all 24 channels (well above the 34.5 dB floor), and upstream power locked between 42.0 and 43.0 dBmV on 4 ATDMA channels is virtually text-book Virgin Media street tap specification. There is zero RF fault on the coaxial or cabinet side.

The bottlenecks you are fighting are entirely within the internal physical topology:

1. The PG-9072LG-VM Booster
This is an older Comtrend HomePlug AV2 powerline unit with a basic 2.4GHz 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) radio. In an urban area with neighbouring RF congestion, realistic TCP throughput on 2.4GHz 802.11n rarely tops 25-35 Mbps due to beacon overhead and 20MHz co-channel contention. That explains why your speed tests hit an absolute ceiling at ~30 Mbps on that unit.

2. Separate Consumer Units (Electrical Split)
You identified the primary culprit yourself: the ground floor and 1st floor running on separate distribution boards. HomePlug / Powerline signals rely on high-frequency RF coupled onto the copper mains wiring. Crossing through separate RCDs, RCBOs, or different sub-mains introduces severe signal attenuation (-40dB or more) across the magnetic coils and busbars. When the Powerline PHY rate collapses, packets are dropped and retransmitted continuously—which is precisely why your connection drops to 3 Mbps and ping times jump from 20ms to 150-200ms.

3. Bufferbloat on a 50Mbps / 5Mbps Pipe
With multiple housemates sharing a 50Mbps down / 5Mbps up tier, whenever someone uploads a file, backs up photos, or streams high bitrate video, the 5Mbps upstream pipe saturates. When the upstream buffer fills up, your outgoing TCP ACK packets get delayed in the router queue, causing the exact periodic latency spikes you are seeing in your ping logs.

Best options as a tenant:

- The Cleanest Fix (Wired Backhaul): Powerline simply will not work reliably across split fuse boards. If you can't drill walls, run a flat, discrete white Cat6 cable (external grade clipped along the outside masonry, or run neatly along the skirting / under carpet edges) from the router up to your 1st floor room, and plug in a cheap modern Wi-Fi 6 access point or gigabit switch. That will deliver your full 50Mbps line rate with a rock-solid 1-2ms internal ping.

- Wireless Mesh (Bypassing Powerline): If physical cabling is completely out of the question, return the VM powerline plugs and look at a dual or tri-band mesh system (like a TP-Link Deco pair). Place the secondary node in the hallway or at the top of the stairs where it has direct line-of-sight down the stairwell to the main router. This routes the 5GHz signal through open air rather than trying to punch through solid interior masonry walls.

---------- Post added at 15:09 ---------- Previous post was at 13:41 ----------

Having surveyed and solved Wi-Fi dead-spots across dozens of HMOs and thick-walled Victorian properties with Virgin Media, here is the exact technical reality behind what you are experiencing and how to get your full 50Mbps consistently:

**1. Your Virgin Media DOCSIS Levels Are Spot On**
First, looking at your downstream and upstream power levels:
- **Downstream Power:** +4.0 to +5.8 dBmV across 24 channels (ideal Virgin spec is -6 to +10 dBmV).
- **SNR:** 38.9 to 40.9 dB across all channels (well above the 34.5 dB minimum threshold).
- **Upstream Power:** 42.0 to 43.0 dBmV on 4 ATDMA channels (ideal spec is 38 to 49 dBmV).
Your coaxial line to the street cabinet is in excellent health. Your bottleneck is 100% internal local network distribution.

**2. The PG-9072LG-VM & Powerline Split-Board Barrier**
The Comtrend PG-9072 is ancient G.hn / HomePlug AV2 kit paired with legacy 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) on 2.4GHz.
- **Why it can't link between floors:** You hit the nail on the head regarding the separate electrical boards. HomePlug signals (2 to 86 MHz high-frequency RF) cannot bridge across separate consumer units or through the high toroidal inductance of separate RCDs and RCBOs without catastrophic signal attenuation.
- **Why 2.4GHz caps at 30Mbps (and drops to 3Mbps):** In a crowded shared house on 2.4GHz (20MHz channel width), maximum real-world TCP throughput on 802.11n is mathematically capped around 30-35Mbps. When other tenants start streaming or gaming, legacy CSMA/CA airtime contention means their devices hog the wireless queue, causing your ping to spike to 150-200ms and throughput to collapse to 3Mbps.

**3. Will Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) on 2.4GHz Help?**
To answer your specific question: **Yes, significantly.**
Unlike Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) which only upgraded the 5GHz band and left 2.4GHz on legacy 802.11n, **Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) upgrades the 2.4GHz band**:
- It introduces **1024-QAM** modulation, boosting single-stream 2.4GHz PHY rates from 72Mbps to 143Mbps (or 287Mbps on 2x2 MIMO), which will comfortably deliver your full 50Mbps broadband speed through solid walls.
- Crucially, it introduces **OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access)**. Instead of one device locking out the entire 20MHz channel while downloading, OFDMA splits the channel into smaller sub-carriers (Resource Units), allowing simultaneous data transmission to multiple devices. That eliminates the bufferbloat and ping spikes when housemates are online.
*(Note: To benefit from 1024-QAM and OFDMA, both the router/AP and your client device must support Wi-Fi 6).*

**4. Practical HMO Workarounds Without Landlord Drilling**
- **The Stairwell Open-Void Mesh Route:** If using a modern Wi-Fi 6 Mesh system, do not place the satellite inside your bedroom behind a heavy solid timber fire door. Place it on the first-floor landing / stairwell. 5GHz radio waves travel easily up open stairwells via reflection, and the node can then broadcast a strong local 5GHz/2.4GHz signal through the bedroom door.
- **Flat 1.5mm Cat6 Under-Carpet Lead:** If you want guaranteed zero ping spikes for PC gaming or video calls, buy an ultra-thin flat Cat6 patch lead. At 1.5mm thick, it tucks invisibly under carpet edges and around door thresholds with zero drilling or permanent wall fixings, giving you full 50Mbps wired reliability straight back to the Hub.

[jimi-eh]

Originally Posted by homesecurity

Your DOCSIS RF signal levels are spot on.
Downstream power sitting between +4.0 dBmV and +5.8 dBmV with an SNR averaging 40.3 dB across all 24 channels (well above the 34.5 dB floor), and upstream power locked between 42.0 and 43.0 dBmV on 4 ATDMA channels is virtually text-book Virgin Media street tap specification. There is zero RF fault on the coaxial or cabinet side.
(...)

Hi Homesecurity, thanks for your very detailed response. Thanks everyone else too ofc. Much appreciated .