Poor broadband speed

[krieghammer]

I moved into a newly built estate and kept my Broadband with Sky, as for £10 a month unlimited, seemed a cracking deal.

Anyway, got the letter through the door stating up to 4Mbps and line active from a certain date. Realistically I know the stated speed will only be reached on a very rare occasion and I'd least expect between 2 - 2.5Mbps most of the time which I am happy with. BB has been active for 2 weeks and I have still not achieved above 400kbps! Yes 10 years ago acceptable but not now due to data heavy websites and streaming.

So I have been back and forth with Sky, and now they are sending out a BT Openreach technician to conduct onsite testing of my phone line. Did more googling and have discovered that the BB is rife with problems in my area. BT Have an exchange in the town I live in but it is over subscribed and they won't invest in a new exchange in the other side of town.

I cant think what else the problem will be after swapping out routers, filters, master socket checks etc. I am not sure if it is a BT strategy for this area by keeping normal copper wire BB s**t because they have recently rolled out FTTC in the new areas. In a way it forces you to move to fibre optic (not a bad thing I guess but costly). If I can't get better than what I have just now then I will have to bite the bullet and go back to BT and take up their Inifinty connection.

 

[Paul_C]

Is the 400kbps speed you quote as returned by one of the online speed checkers, or is that the actual speed that your ADSL modem is connected at?

 

[krieghammer]

I use speedtest.net to check my online speed. When Sky sent a signal on my line they got the same speed also.

 

[Paul_C]

Access your modem/router via its configuration interface and see what your actual ADSL speed is for comparison.

 

[Big Tone]

I got duped into a vodnofone 3G+ load of crap about three years ago. It was the old bull $h1te about how good the coverage is, or was meant to be. It later transpired that it was theoretical which translated into absolutely pathetic in the real world.

They messed me about something terrible! “Try this” and “Go to our branch and get a different SIM card”. All to no avail of course but by this time I had just gone over the two week cancelation period and was committed to 18 damn months of this turd package.

I called and wrote but they basically told me tough $h1t, it's in the contract.

Long story short, I gave it to my girlfriend who managed to get slightly better reception, (still not good), from her flat in a different area. Needless to say I haven’t and will never have anything to do with them ever again and tell everyone I know to steer clear of the robbing to$$er$.

Moving on three years... I had a good package from TalkTalk which I recently cancelled because in truth all I wanted was the broadband. I don’t need or want free calls or indeed any line rental because I have my mob for that so why do I want to pay £18 per month for a few hours Net use and free calls 'just because I can'? Ans: I don’t! Long story short..

Nowadays I have an 02 payg dongle or my smart mob which is 1£ for a day’s worth. I might need this a couple of times a month for online banking etc.

They are always trying to get you to buy some bigger package that you don’t need or want and the stupid thing is most people have been duped into thinking it’s a necessary lifeline to have 24/7 access. A recent survey, (for what they're worth), said that most youngsters would rather forego their TV than their mob. IMO most people don’t realise the difference between a need and a want, or rather they are enibrieated on contact.

"Ooo! Iv'e got a text. I wonder if it's the Pope. Oh, it's my mate Eric saying I'm a nob head. I'll have to text him back, I can keep one eye on the road"

 

[TicklyT]

You may be able to improve your broadband speed by ensuring your internal telephone wiring is optimised for ADSL working.

Eliminate any unfiltered sockets, or sockets teed off the 'line' side of your NTE. Multiple cable ends do little for ADSL signals.

Ensure the correct type of cable is used throughout - DIY extension cable kits often use a flat cable without twisted pairs that will do for ADSL signals roughly what myxomatosis does for rabbits.

Consider replacing your NTE front plate with a filtered version, and connecting your router directly to that.

 

[krieghammer]

Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 589 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 528 kbps


Details from my router.

It's a newbuild house so everything should be new and in order (in theory).

 

[krieghammer]

Hooked up a phone and made a call. No noise or distortion either. Conversation perfectly clear. Me thinks this is the best I'll get through copper wire..... may be a cancel with ISP and bite my lip and take BT inifinity... All I need is 2mbps not 28mbps!

 

[Paul_C]

Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 589 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 528 kbps

So it's looking like a line issue rather than congestion on the other side of the DSLAM. You could try temporarily isolating all extension wiring and connecting your modem directly to the master jack to see if that makes any difference; it will show if there's something internally causing a drastic problem.

Do you know how far away from your exchange you are? If you're not sure where it's located, entering your phone number on this page should tell you:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Click on the exchange name which appears from the number to see the map.