Hi All,

Hoping that someone can shed some light on this for me. I had Virgin Media installed in October and am currently on their gigabit service.

Initially when I set everything up, I had the Virgin Hub 4 connected via a wired ethernet connection to a gigabit switch that enabled me to get around 950Mbps to my desktop PC upstairs in my office. The actual full speed of the connection using the SamKnows speed checker was 1150Mbps, I presume the difference is due to the speed limitations of gigabit protocol and cables/hardware.

I had also plugged in 2 Deco x20 units to switches at various points around the house, which functioned perfectly well, however I was effectively running two networks with different SSID’s (one wired, one wireless via the Deco’s) which meant that whilst they were able to share an internet connection, I wasn’t able to utilise a wired media server I have connected via ethernet elsewhere in the house with my wireless Sonos system.

Having dug around here and on the Virgin Media forum, I finally took the plunge over the weekend to rearrange some of the network devices. I now have the Virgin Hub 4 running in modem mode which is connected via ethernet to my main Deco x20 unit. The Deco is also connected to a switch that then connects to the ethernet socket on the wall of my living room, which then gives me wired ethernet elsewhere in the house via a switch in the utility room.

This means that I now have devices connecting either via ethernet or Wi-Fi to a network with the same SSID and all devices can talk to one another, so I can access my music library via Sonos again or print from anywhere in the house – wonderful!

Unfortunately, the only drawback that I seem to have noticed so far is that the internet speed to my desktop PC via ethernet has dropped significantly, from 950Mbps under the previous setup to around 500Mbps currently (using an Ookla speed test).

Whilst this is still fast by most peoples standards, it is around half the speed that I am paying for and it is probably the only device in the house (other than my PlayStation 5) that would really benefit from the full speed of the internet connection for large downloads. I have been able to unplug the Deco x20 from the Hub and then plug in a laptop connected via ethernet to do an Ookla speed test which consistently gives me 950Mbps, so something is going awry elsewhere.

The network has two Deco x20 units connected (by ethernet) along with a Deco M3W plugged into the wall sockets of the main bedroom to offset a Wi-Fi blackspot there. I have read about Wi-Fi speeds halving when additional Deco units are added (this explains why I typically get around 150Mbps when connected via Wi-Fi 6 on my iPhone to the secondary Deco x20 in my office compared to nearly 650Mbps to the ‘main’ unit downstairs), but is this similarly applied for wired ethernet traffic also? The Deco units are running in Router mode and I have made the adjustments within the Deco app to the QoS settings so that the bandwidth is 1000mb down and 100mb up. 

Any information that anyone has to either explain this drop in speed or any suggestions of tweaks I can try to see if we can get back to full speed would be appreciated.