My internet speed: very unhappy
- Thread starter staniland
- 43 comments
- 3,620 views
- 35,492
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
You really aren't going to like this:
On a 7 Mbps down/.89 Mbps up. And to make it worse, my wife is streaming a movie on Netflix...
Have you power cycled the modem?
Did you just sign up for BT or have you had it a while and the speed just suddenly dropped?
Also, their site says that they will provide the maximum speed you line will support, up to 20Mb so it's possible you have bad wiring. Hopefully that's not it. 👎
On a 7 Mbps down/.89 Mbps up. And to make it worse, my wife is streaming a movie on Netflix...
Have you power cycled the modem?
Did you just sign up for BT or have you had it a while and the speed just suddenly dropped?
Also, their site says that they will provide the maximum speed you line will support, up to 20Mb so it's possible you have bad wiring. Hopefully that's not it. 👎
I once complained that my connection was as slow as the old 56k dial-up service, they checked, sent an engineer, cable modem was the problem, once replaced it worked great.
resetting by turning off for 30 seconds can help in some cases. (some not all)
supposed to be on 10meg, so not great at the moment, probably busy this time in evening
I always test from/to the same server as I know what it should be telling me 99% of the time
resetting by turning off for 30 seconds can help in some cases. (some not all)
supposed to be on 10meg, so not great at the moment, probably busy this time in evening
I always test from/to the same server as I know what it should be telling me 99% of the time
- 5,481
- Seattle, WA
- RykonZero
That's on wireless, with a near dead router. Being next to Microsoft rocks.
Why is my upload faster than my download?!
Smallhorses
Staff Emeritus
- 7,260
This is from California to the UK server in Gloucester, 5250 miles away.
You need to get in touch with BT about that.
I'm on a 10Mbps Up/down symmetric fibre-optic link at home.
- 5,481
- Seattle, WA
- RykonZero
A lesson I've learned: Don't download from Botswana.
- 35,492
- Downtown North Dakota
- Cy-Fi
Agreed. This threads intention is to help staniland with his connection issue/s. If you want to post your speed connections, you should use the Your internet connection? thread.
Have you made any progress, stanilan?
- 6,584
- Kent, UK
- GTP_Jondot
O2, know that I love you.
As for the OP, my house is on an 'up to 24mb' package with BT and gets just under 1. The most likely factor is how far you are from the phone exchange. Whack your postcode in here and see how far yours is from you. As a comparison, my house with 1mb/s is nearly 3 miles away from the exchange, and my student flat with 11mb/s is about 3/4 of one.
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- 7,956
- BradleyH131
Yeah people get suckered into internet speeds. I'm not sure what technology is used in other countries but here ADSL2+ is the primary form of transmission. It is generally advertised as 24000/1000 speeds.
However, it is not a guaranteed speed, and highly depends on distance to the exchange. As Jondot said previously, you can get shocking speeds on a 'Up To 24000' connection. I personally at home get about 13000. You won't get the full speed unless you literally live next door to the exchange, and even then it's impossible to get the maximum advertised speed.
However, it is not a guaranteed speed, and highly depends on distance to the exchange. As Jondot said previously, you can get shocking speeds on a 'Up To 24000' connection. I personally at home get about 13000. You won't get the full speed unless you literally live next door to the exchange, and even then it's impossible to get the maximum advertised speed.
- 833
- Burnley UK
- GTP_PendleDuke
- 87,818
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Almost no-one I know in the UK gets anything like the "up to" speeds advertised by the providers. But then "up to" is the maximum you could possibly expect and doesn't reflect what your line supports.
If you go here and tap in your phone number (more accurate) or postcode (less accurate), BT will tell you what the maximum speed they think your line can support is. We have an "up to 8Mb" package with PlusNet, BT rate our line to 1.5Mb, my router reports 1.56Mb and Speedtest.net give us 1.2Mb to Manchester.
Sam Knows is also terribly good if you're into tech details. Essentially, if many/most/all ISPs listed under the LLU section (Local Loop Unbundled) are checked as being able to provide you a service, you can expect to be able to get higher speeds than if many/most/all are crossed - a non-LLU BT exchange cannot provide speeds higher than 8Mb at the exchange itself, never mind 5km away. Our exchange is, on the whole, a non-LLU exchange, though Be. are unbundled and we may be able to receive an "up to 24Mb" service from them (if we lived on the exchange).
If you go here and tap in your phone number (more accurate) or postcode (less accurate), BT will tell you what the maximum speed they think your line can support is. We have an "up to 8Mb" package with PlusNet, BT rate our line to 1.5Mb, my router reports 1.56Mb and Speedtest.net give us 1.2Mb to Manchester.
Sam Knows is also terribly good if you're into tech details. Essentially, if many/most/all ISPs listed under the LLU section (Local Loop Unbundled) are checked as being able to provide you a service, you can expect to be able to get higher speeds than if many/most/all are crossed - a non-LLU BT exchange cannot provide speeds higher than 8Mb at the exchange itself, never mind 5km away. Our exchange is, on the whole, a non-LLU exchange, though Be. are unbundled and we may be able to receive an "up to 24Mb" service from them (if we lived on the exchange).
- 87,818
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Which would make paying for "up to 24Mb" O2 or TalkTalk a bit of a waste for your parents, really.
Don't be suckered by headline speeds - if you're already on "up to 8Mb" but your line can support only 1.5Mb, pick a company that offers the best "up to 8Mb". Best may mean cheapest - in our case we went for a company with good reviews for stability, uptime and customer support, and we have a stable, permanently up connection which they've fallen over themselves to keep working at our end.
If your exchange is unbundled for O2/TalkTalk/Be. then you may be able to get faster speeds as they insert some of their own hardware at your local exchange - use their phone line checkers on their websites to find out. The copper pair from the exchange to your house is still BT's however and perhaps the biggest factor in what is lost on the way.
Oh, also, The Daily Mash is as accurate as ever on this topic (language warning - it's the Daily Mash!).
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- 6,584
- Kent, UK
- GTP_Jondot
Eeexactly, and some companies just aren't set up to deal a stable connection. Tiscali used to be the worst offenders for it, and now they've merged into TalkTalk who I can only assume are even worse. We've had BT broadband for something like 3 years and it's been excellent - even if the company its self is hateful. The only issues I've had with it have (as it turns out) been down to the router. It'd be nice to see O2 behave in a similar away - I seem to remember Be getting excellent reviews prior to the O2 takeover, so let's hope it continues.
- 3,131
- GTP_GTPrologue5
- None
Looks like my download speed is pretty high. Other notes, it seems I'm running a Canadian server, yet I'm in the U.S. And I have the fastest download out of the ones you've posted (Jondot, you're off by .25).
- 87,818
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
No, you just opted to test on a Canadian server. But this thread isn't about who has the best download speed, as TB has already pointed out. It's about helping people (originally the OP) who aren't getting the download speeds they think they ought.
Smallhorses
Staff Emeritus
- 7,260
Indeed, DSL speed is limited by cable length, which is why, as I've shown on the previous page, by testing to the same server as the OP, I can get double his download speed and 6 times his upload speed despite being 105 times further away from the server than he is, and using a wireless connection, because I'm using a fibre-optic link since we're living in a relatively new development which was built in 2003 with fibre-optic provisions for phone, broadband (I could get up to 1Gbps if I felt like forking over $300 / month for the priviledge!
) and cable TV.
under 50 miles.... shocking speed...
This is from California to the UK server in Gloucester, 5250 miles away.
You need to get in touch with BT about that.
Unfortunately as has been described here, until BT gets round to upgrading their wiring or installing fibre-optics, you're stuck with what you've got. I suspect that's a massively costly undertaking and won't happen anytime soon, especially outside of major population centres.
I don't know if it'd be worth investigating a wireless satellite connection to give better speeds? Many mobile phones in the US now offer a tethering option allowing you to connect to the internet on your laptop via the mobile connection, although I'm sure this is pretty costly, but my company pays for it for most of it's remote employees.
CAMAROBOY69
Premium
- 18,567
- Michigan
- CAMAROBOY69
I went through something similar a couple years ago. After quite a few line techs and other techs coming out to the house, the issue ended up being the router they gave me. Regardless you NEED to call them and have someone come out to the house. After all my problems I ended up with 3 months of free internet.
ExigeEvan
Premium
- 17,192
God I love being in a fibre optic area. Which I'm assuming is solely because we host a fairly large Virgin Media call centre in Swansea, along with Admiral insurance and a fair few others.
Upto 10mb, 2.7 miles by road (assuming wiring follows main road), and I get...
[EDIT]
Upto 10mb, 2.7 miles by road (assuming wiring follows main road), and I get...
[EDIT]
Ofcom
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- 3,131
- GTP_GTPrologue5
- None
