Internet speed

[JohnnyJones]

It's getting worse. Did the Bt test this morning, 230 Kbps. It's been slow at certain times for ages, 1.8 Mbps is normal. Lunchtime and early evening it's more or less unusable.

So fed up with it. Would be better off without it.

Any ideas.

[philthy]

Change isp?

Who are you with, and how far are you from the exchange?

[JohnnyJones]

Utility Warehouse.

Out in the country, a mile or so from the exchange.

Thing is, a couple of months ago it was fine.

Is 'Bandwidth' the same as 'speed'? They're baffling me with technology!

[philthy]

Try doing a speedtest here:

http://speedtest.net/

This is the result I just got:

[SMB]

JohnnyJones said:

Utility Warehouse.

Out in the country, a mile or so from the exchange.

Thing is, a couple of months ago it was fine.

Is 'Bandwidth' the same as 'speed'? They're baffling me with technology!

think of it as a motorway, 3 lanes, when empty you can do 70, thats the advertised speed, what they sell you on. But they also sell that 70mph to others , hence you have contention, multiple people trying to use it at the same time, once you have everyone using it, speed can drop to a crawl. depending when you run a speed test you could get near advertised speeds, but when contention is high, you will get lower speeds.

Shop around not just for high advertised speeds but low contention ratios.

[Munter]

philthy said:

Try doing a speedtest here:

http://speedtest.net/

This is the result I just got:

www.bethere.co.uk

[twinturboz]

How accurate are these speed tests?

Edited by twinturboz on Friday 12th February 12:06

[philthy]

twinturboz said:

How accurate are these speed tests?

Reasonably accurate. I'd like to see the op's results though.

[Accelebrate]

twinturboz said:

How accurate are these speed tests?

They're a pretty accurate representation of the speed you're currently able to achieve between yourself and the server you're testing against...

Edited by Accelebrate on Friday 12th February 12:19

[sonic_2k_uk]

Mines gone downhill massively in the last 6 months, seems to be the isp throttling services.

Shame, as ive been with my isp for 9 years. Looking to move.

[SMB]

Accelebrate said:

twinturboz said:

How accurate are these speed tests?

They're a pretty accurate representation of the speed you're currently able to achieve between yourself and the server you're testing against...

Edited by Accelebrate on Friday 12th February 12:19

Do test a few times and against different offered sites, you can get dramatically different results.

[Accelebrate]

SMB said:

Do test a few times and against different offered sites, you can get dramatically different results.

Yes... Different servers, different distances/routes involved, different traffic levels to contend with. You'll never achieve a constant 'your internet is this speed' when there's so many variables, that's just the way the internet is. Speedtest gives you a reasonable idea of the sorts of speeds you might achieve during almost real world web use.

If you're curious run some tests against locations in the US, this will give you a good idea of the speeds you might see when communicating with a lot of websites.

Edited by Accelebrate on Friday 12th February 12:39

[bigfoot7]

It's amazing what speed you can get at work

[itsnotarace]

bigfoot7 said:

It's amazing what speed you can get at work

Yes it is, upload is a bit slow just now - it should be symmetrical

[Elroy Blue]

This is what I have to live with!!

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][/URL]

[FlossyThePig]

BT website said:

Broadband option - BT Total Broadband
Estimated connection speed - 1.0Mb download
When you can get it - Now

Edited by FlossyThePig on Friday 12th February 20:09

[fastfreddy]

Check your speed with the BT broadband speed checker first of all. It's best to do this and build up a history of measurements so you can present them with the evidence later if necessary.

http://speedtester.bt.com/

It's not always a contention issue. Reset your router, plug it direct into the master socket and disconnect any other equipment connected to that line if you can.

If the speed is still the same after a few days, get your ISP to check the line and whoever looks after the cable coming into your house to make sure there's no fault there either.

It's not uncommon for speeds to gradually decrease over time because of terminations, cables or equipment being affected by moisture, oxidization etc. etc.

Sometimes they can put up a bit of a fight before admitting something is wrong, but keep complaining and you might get a result.

[JohnnyJones]

Not sure how I do that fancy snapshot of the test screen.

Yesterday lunchtime - 1.8 download, 0.3 upload

Last night - 0.273 download, 0.12 upload

This morning is a bit better - 3.3 download, this test with speedtester.bt.com so no upload speed.

If it can be 3.3 this morning does that mean my stuff, ie the sockets & wires in the house are ok?

Thanks for replies so far, most helpful.

[Mattt]

£50 a month - fking brilliant.

[croyde]

I was having problems similar to the OP but now I have my router connected to the master socket and after a few days the speed improved.



So this is now back to what it was when we first got broadband but around Christmas, when it was not connected to the master socket, I was better off using my 3G phone as a modem.

Edited by croyde on Saturday 13th February 09:47

Edited by croyde on Saturday 13th February 09:48