Broadband speed

[mgb2010]

Looks like its not only me with the slow broadband. We have been on Plusnet for over a year with 'upto 8mb' which has been running around 1.5 to 2mb. For the last month it has been really s..l...o..w. So much so websites like youtube are unusable.

I am rather suspicious that since the release of 'gamer' and 'priority' type packages (for more £££ per month) our performance is rubbish. I suspect we have had our priority on the network reduced.

Oh well, must be about time to change broadband provider again.

[khitajrah]

BT isn't any better. I'm paying for 8mb and last night it ranged from 0.48 to 1.3.

[JustMe]

My "up to 8meg" package is costing me the same as my "up to 2meg" package was and before that my "up to 1meg". Would advise anyone thinking of a faster speed to check if their current service provider will give them a better speed for the same price.

[Fifi]

^^ Note that that often ties you into another contract for a year or whatever with your ISP. You're really signing up for a new contract.

[JustMe]

^^ Note that that often ties you into another contract for a year or whatever with your ISP. You're really signing up for a new contract.

 

I thought that but there was certainly nothing mentioned in the small print either time I changed and indeed the 2meg to 8meg change offered the chance to drop down to 2meg again. Worth watching out for extension of contract in the small print and also checking that the change is to a service with a lower usage allowance than the previous service.

[mgb2010]

I have been rummaging around on the Plusnet website and opened a help case. It appears that BT have upgraded our exchange to a system that dynamically finds the optimum broadband speed upto 8mb. It has configured my account at 0.5mb MAX!!!! So from a 1.5mb to 2mb before christmas (with no connection or performance problems for over a year) BT have now throttled back the line to an optimum setting 0f 0.5mb. Great! Theres progress for you

[Colin]

^^ Note that that often ties you into another contract for a year or whatever with your ISP. You're really signing up for a new contract.

 

Consumers do have a certain amount of protection although I'm not really sure what applies.

 

Clearly, if your ISP fails to deliver anything approximating the service you are paying for then, it is THEY who are in breach of any contract.

 

The 'up to' clause is all well and good if they can reach something approaching the maximum for a reasonable percentage of the time but if the best they can provide is only half of what was promised with an average that is even lower it seems that they don't have a leg to stand on should you wish to cancel.

 

HEADS UP TIME.

 

Ran some speed checks through a link on the Tiscali web site which seemed to suggest I was getting much better results than those shown on independant test sites. Could Tiscali be 'cooking the books' a bit?

[Pooks]

Hmm. I really don't know where to start with this.

 

Lots of different little things can affect the connection speed and neither your broadband provider nor anybody else tends to do a very good job at explaining it.

 

The 'Up to 2 meg service' that people used to get is different to the 'Up to 8 meg' service that most people are offered now. For some people (particularly those with a poor phone line or a significant distance from the exchange) the 'Up to 2 meg' package will work better than the MaxDSL (Up to 8 meg) package.

 

When you first sign up for a MaxDSL package, your telephone line is tested over a period of approximately 10 days to identify the best connection rate that your line can handle. If your connection has problems then the connection rate will drop down to ensure that you have a stable connection. Many things can change though, atmospheric pressure, the amount of rain we have had, how many telephones you have plugged in in the house, etc ,etc, can all have an effect on the line quality.

 

If you are using a router that is 'always on' and you are experiencing low speeds then it is worthwhile switching it off and on a couple of times daily over the period of a week or two to see if the speed improves.

 

The contention ratio (amount of folks connected to an exchange) matters a fair bit but not as much in Shetland as the population per exchange is fairly low.

 

Identify everything in your house that could be a problem. Is the router/modem situated next to something that could cause interference (digital phones/microwaves/speakers)? Do you have multiple devices plugged in to the phone connection (Sky/phones/fax)? Are all your microfilters working correctly? I have seen many of these fail, they are cheaply built and prone to dying.

 

The biggest problem that Shetland has is that the end-point we all connect to the rest of the world through is via a mish-mash of microwave dishes and bits and bobs that can't really handle the uptake in data that we have had in the past few years. The new fibre cable should help significantly.

 

It is easy to blame the ISP's but at the end of the day it is worth checking out the connection at your end before going to another ISP.

 

For what its worth I have had no problems with my ISP apart from what they have already issued problems with (minor).

[Fifi]

^^ Note that that often ties you into another contract for a year or whatever with your ISP. You're really signing up for a new contract.

 

I thought that but there was certainly nothing mentioned in the small print either time I changed and indeed the 2meg to 8meg change offered the chance to drop down to 2meg again. Worth watching out for extension of contract in the small print and also checking that the change is to a service with a lower usage allowance than the previous service.

It was certainly the case with Pipex - new contract if you notice that new accounts are advertising faster speeds for the same money you're paying and want to upgrade.

[Colin]

Hmm. I really don't know where to start with this.

 

Lots of different little things can affect the connection speed and neither your broadband provider nor anybody else tends to do a very good job at explaining it.

 

 

Not wanting to sound ungrateful but, you are 'teaching your granny to suck eggs' on this one.

 

I am aware of all the things that can cause problems and those I can control have been eliminated.

 

I have had a new length of line installed (to the pole at the foot of my garden) and, when testing, use the master socket with everything else disconnected.

(BT's own line test suggested a mighty 7.8Mb was possible.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I am only about 100M from the local exchange so, most problems are probably occuring from there out.

 

IMHO, the most likely cause of the problem is the microwave bottleneck between here and the mainland.

 

I have been running speed tests every couple of hours to try and find a pattern and, for what it's worth, at 3am this morning it was clocking at 9.3Mb. By 7am (when I got up) it was down to 4.3Mb, Just before I started writing this it was clocking at an average of 3.5Mb (which I consider acceptable for this time of day).

I wonder if broadband performance is inversely proprtional to the number of kids on 'The Street'

[Pooks]

Sorry Colin, my reply wasn't directed at you, I was just trying to summarise many of the problems that can be a factor. A lot of people think that it is the ISP at fault and move on to somebody else only to have the same problems. Other people think that the new ISP is far better when it is really just down to the new equipment they receive from the new ISP.

 

It is worth checking out everything else before deciding to switch. You wouldn't buy a new car because one of the lights stopped working.

[Gibber]

I got 3 mobile broadband on pay as you go last weekend as I now don't have a BT line due to a feckless girlfriend who insists on phoning all corners of the globe and doubly insisting on not paying the bill...er...anyway..I'm getting between 300 kbps and 1000 kbps. Ususally the higher speed is late at night.

[Roachmill]

After sticking in an I-Plate from BT (which made sod all difference) I was put on to a freeware app TCP Optimizer. It's Windows only and updates (and allows you to revert to) the settings your PC uses to talk over the net.

 

After running it, picking the broadband network connection and ticking the optimised settings button... my download speed in LK went from an average of 1.6 to 6.9 lovely megs of goodness. At first I thought it was nonsense. I've since run it on one Win2K server, 2 XP Pro and one XP Home machines... all report the same before and after speeds. Now I think it's a miracle

[ArabiaTerra]

My broadband speed went up last night. I have been getting 2.2Mbps since I first got broadband about 3-4 years ago. Last night, it went up to 7.4Mbps!

 

Anyone else had this?

[Riviera]

[mod]Merge Point on 05/02/2009[/mod]

 

Changed over from BT Dial-up to BT Broadband on Sat 24-Jan-09, you know, this high speed service BT sell you,

 

I did a speed test on=

 

30-Jan at 2330 =

 

Down load =0.22MB Up load =0.15MB (max speed)

 

02-Feb at 2000 =

 

Down load =0.20MB UP load = 0.10MB (max speed)

 

05-Feb at 0451 =

 

Down load =0.06MB Up load =0.03MB (max speed)

 

The above "*high speed BT Broadband*" is in the Mossbank area, what is you'r broadband speed ???,