Will my internet speed be affected if my next door neighbour gets his own router instead of using mine?

Question

I have a BT router. We both have laptops with wireless cards. He is moving next door, and wants to continue using the internet from my connection, but I am not sure that I trust him to pay half.
I have told him to get his own internet supply, which will be BT (same as mine).
If he does, will this affect my internet speed, or will it be better to let him continue using my connection?

He will be using the same supplier as me (BT), so how will this affect my speed, if any, from him using my router instead of his own (using the same supplier)?

Answer 1

depends
you can configure your router so that his machine is excluded form your router (so you could turn off his connection if he doesn't pay)

in an ideal world 2 users using the same router will possibly have a marginal affect on speed (its possible if you are both downloading a lot of stuff at the same time then it may be a bit slower (there is only so much stuff that can be pumped down the line at any one time)

however Broadband (especailly the adaptive rate "upto 8MB" is dependant on who is using the broadband connection on your exchange or segement so ultimately everyone is rationed (it sthis that affects the download speed if more people are using broadband in your area then you will get a smaller slice of the available bandwidth.

I dont think you wll be adversley affected speed wise, hwoever there are a couple of points to bear in mind
1) your neighbours use may blow your download limit
2) your neighbour may down load dodgy or dubious stuff, meaning your telephine circuit come under suspisicion fromt eh authorities (likewise spam or internet based fraud)
3) if your router shuts down (my BT Voyager does often) you may need to reset the device at the neighbours request)
4) it may be possible to circumvent some of the security on your BT account - your neighbour maybe able to 'impersonate' you in dealings with BT.

in short if you can afford it, I'd paddle your own canoe, and make your connection solely yours.

Answer 2

No. You can actuarly setup a password to access your router. I don't know how to do it on the bt router though. I know how to do it on a speedtouch router, which is you go into the settings and go into the password section, so maybe bt might be similar - why not phone bt and ask them how to setup password on the router?

Answer 3

It defiantly would have an effect on your internet performance. The question is how much. This depends on what you do ie lots of downloads etc…The main issue here is that in theory, you can spy on each others activities if you want and know how to…so you decide…

Answer 4

Tell him to get another line if you don't want to share your speed anymore.
But if he doesn't use your speed to download big files, just normal browsing then it's ok. doesn't affect much. You only see the lack of speed when you both want to download

Answer 5

I would have thought you would have more speed if he got his own supply.

Answer 6

Yes, I would think so because the traffic will be less.

You're letting him mooch off you? You're very generous.'

Answer 7

yours will speed up if he gets his own rooter