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veekay
19-May-09, 09:21
Morning clever people.

I am having problems, I believe with my broadband speed. BT on the other hand say there is nothing wrong and suggested I do a few speed tests. I have now done these test and wondered if you might tell me whether I am right or wrong before I get back to lovely Region 6. The results may as well be in SerboCroate for the sense they mean to me so if I write them here can you tell me what they mean

I did three tests as suggested one at 1730hrs, one at 2030hrs and one at 0845 hrs. the results were

1730hrs 88kbps; 2030hrs 90kbps; 0845hrs 95kbps;

The bumf at the top of thepage said

DSL connection rate Downstream 256 kbps, Upstream 441kbps

IP profile for my line 135 kbps
Actual throughtput - the figures I have printed above for the times I took the readings.

Now as stated I don't know what it all means but to me it seems there is some sort of problem because even the best kbps is much less than I am getting. I know you brainbods will put me right and tell me if I shouold get back to BT and ( hopefully) if you suggest I do get back to them tell me what I am talking about

Sorry to waffle and thanks

blueivy
19-May-09, 10:30
1730hrs 88kbps; 2030hrs 90kbps; 0845hrs 95kbps;

The bumf at the top of thepage said

DSL connection rate Downstream 256 kbps, Upstream 441kbps

IP profile for my line 135 kbps
Actual throughtput - the figures I have printed above for the times I took the readings.


I assume the problem you are having is that your download speed is very VERY slow?

Those figures are screwy. Given the 441kbps figure I would suggest you're paying for an 'up to' 8Mb package? I've not yet seen a line connection rate where the Download is actually rated lower than the upload speed.

My guess is that BT have either capped your line speed or have screwed it up entirely.

Whereabouts are you and do you know how far you are from the exchange?

When did this start happening?

Do you do a lot of 'music sharing' via BitTorrent (or eMule, or Kazaa or .... whatever)?

What package are you paying for?

What site did you do the tests from?

veekay
19-May-09, 11:06
Hello clever blueivy thanks for getting back to me it is all as clear as mud now!

I am a long way from the exchange 7.5 km and know I am about the furthest I can be to get broadband but things have been getting worse lately and the house hasn’t moved. I have recently started an OU degree course so am spending a lot more time on the computer so am only aware of the problem being constant lately, before I spent as little time as possible on the machine so thought it probably was me.
As for music sharing I wouldn’t know where to begin - and that’s the truth. In fact apart from basic computer type stuff I don’t do anything at all. The package I am supposed to be on it up to 2Mb and the test was at www.speedtester.bt.com (http://www.speedtester.bt.com/) I was given this by BT broadband when I telephone yesterday to ask what the reason was for things being so very very slow.


So I would guess BT have screwed up (again).

Question – why would they want to cap my line when I don’t do much and certainly nothing big.

Thanks for you time
Val

veekay
19-May-09, 11:10
Sorry you are right it is up to 8Mb. All BT packages are this rating now

blueivy
21-May-09, 17:15
So I would guess BT have screwed up (again).

Question – why would they want to cap my line when I don’t do much and certainly nothing big.

Thanks for you time
Val


If you don't do anything that I mentioned above (file sharing etc.) then the only other proper reason I have seen BT do this is for customers who have BT Vision. In this case what they do is enable Quality Of Service (QoS) which, without getting too technical, simply takes a chunk of your bandwidth and guarantees it to the BT Vision box. That way when you're watching a movie that is coming through yoru broadband it won't stop and stutter every few seconds.

If you are not using BT Vision then the only other thing I can suggest is your modem / router. If it's a BT supplied one then they will support that too. If you have put this in yourself then they will try and blame that too, understandably as it's an unknown to them. If you don't have BT Vision and it's a workign BT modem / router then BT have either screwed up or you have a problem with your line. Either way it would need to be BT who fix it.

However BT, and other ISP's, are generally pretty bad at admitting there is a problem. I would keep doing the speedtests using the Speedtester website every day (and more if you can) so that you can demonstrate that this is not a blip but a constant speed problem that your line has. The more evidence you have that you have a problem, the more inclined they will be to actually do something about it.

BT have a very bad habit of fixing a problem while admitting that there isn't one - you ill complain about it, they deny there is a problrem and lo and behold everything magically fixes itself - the BT fairies are back in town.

veekay
21-May-09, 20:25
Many thanks Blueivy. I will take your advice and so the speedtests for a few days then the fight starts - JOY!

badger
22-May-09, 14:46
BT have a very bad habit of fixing a problem while admitting that there isn't one - you ill complain about it, they deny there is a problrem and lo and behold everything magically fixes itself - the BT fairies are back in town.

So glad to know this is an established fact - thought it was just me and my friends. It's happened to me several times now and is sooooo annoying.

veekay
23-May-09, 11:05
Just thought I would let you know that the BT faries didn't do their job. I actually had to get the bods at region six to do something.
When yesterday morning the KBPS reading hit an all time low of 11 I telephoned again and was eventually told there was a fault. what a surprise that was to me. This morning I have been told that the fault on the line has been rectified - I am about to test it and see.

No I am not holding my breath

Regards

veekay
23-May-09, 11:10
Glad I am not holding my breath I am not, as promised getting my 135kbps but only 85. Here we go again!