Very variable broadband speeds

[Moose.]

We've recently changed suppliers at home to Eclipse, who customer service wise have been excellent.

When we joined they expected us to be connected at about 6.5Mb (8Mb service). However, we've been getting speeds as low as 0.2Mbs up to about 3.2Mbs We've followed everything we've been told by Eclipse and things are still very variable, so they're going to send a BT engineer round to look at our phone lines. Slight catch is that if the BT engineer finds the problem is our fault, we'll be charged for the call out.

So, anyone have any experiences like this? How can any of this be our fault? We're using a Netgear DG834 router with the latest firmware etc etc

[flossythepig]

Moose. said:

When we joined they expected us to be connected at about 6.5Mb (8Mb service).

You must be close to the exchange for that sort of speed.

Moose. said:

However, we've been getting speeds as low as 0.2Mbs up to about 3.2Mbs

When does the variation occur?
My connection to the exchange is about 3Mbs, according to the router. Speed checks at different times of day vary from 200Kbs (yesterday evening peak time, 18:00) to about 2.5Mbs (this morning at 07:00).

There are a number of factors. One is sharing your connection with up to 50 other users at peak times.

I have noticed the speed can change when I restart the router. Currently investigating why so I can beat my ISP

Have a look at the forums on ThinkBroadband (used to be ADSL Guide). There is a specific section for Eclipse.

Edited by flossythepig on Monday 14th May 14:05

ThinkBroadband Forum said:

Agreed. I also meant to ask before whether you've checked if your exchange is congested? This can be checked (well, estimated) at nildram - if your exchange is red, then that may well be hampering your speed, in addition to Virgin's problems. My exchange was congested before Christmas for a couple of months or so, and my speeds went back up to normal when it was upgraded.

Edited by flossythepig on Tuesday 15th May 12:42

[Zad]

Have you tried connecting to the test socket (if you have one) behind the BT faceplate? Quite a few problems can be caused by house phone wiring picking up electrical noise and this eliminates it. Additionally, if you dial 17070 and select option 2, it should be a totally quiet line with no clicks, pops or noises.

You are lucky you can get your ISP to even look at it. With my connection my ISP (BeThere) aren't interested and just fob me off by saying it is environmental noise near the line. Which is utter tosh.

If you install the DSL Modem Tool from here www.2cent.de/dmt/v8/dmt.zip that can give you a visual indication of when your line gets noisy and what the various line parameters are etc.