Author Topic: BT Broadband (Read 10470 times)

AJ · « **on:** October 14, 2009, 01:53:57 pm »

Has anyone in the Birkenhead (or close) area got BT Broadband? Sky are fucking me around a bit - I've suddenly endured a massive loss in download speed and they're not doing a lot to help me. Whilst I don't expect to actually get 16mb download speeds on a 16mb line, 1mb is disgraceful (even more disgraceful is the actual speed - 150kbps). Their attempts to 'help' me have consisted simply of telling me to rearrange my set up, even though I told them it's never changed and I used to get 500-600kpbs.

So I'm looking to change provider for broadband and BT look to be OK. 20MB line (ha, yeah right), home hub and an 'accelerator faceplate' (whatever one of those is). However, the speed advertised and such makes no difference unless people are actually getting decent service.

So, RAWKites (preferably those local to me), what experiences have you got with your service providers and who should I go with?

Ta.

iSmiff · « **Reply #1 on:** October 14, 2009, 01:56:41 pm »

BT are stable but shite.

gerrardspetal · « **Reply #2 on:** October 14, 2009, 01:57:27 pm »

I'm not that close to you but never really had any problems with BT myself.

AJ · « **Reply #3 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:00:59 pm »

I'm mainly interested in download speeds, to be honest. I could handle Sky being shite if I was still getting 5-600kpbs, but I'm not.

Millie · « **Reply #4 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:04:04 pm »

AJ - I have had BT broadband for ages in Wirral (Greasby area) - has always been pretty good

AJ · « **Reply #5 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:05:18 pm »

Do you download much Ange?

redchiz · « **Reply #6 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:06:32 pm »

Have you tried changing the channels on your router? This happened to me. All it takes is somebody with a similar router (not necessarily Sky) to move in nearby and your speeds suddenly drop. I am more than happy with Sky to be honest and if you take their TV and phone package they are cheap as.

AJ · « **Reply #7 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:11:02 pm »

I've got the whole package with Sky and it has always been decent, granted. However, there's no sense in paying for a 16mb line and only getting a maximum download speed of 1.15mb and actual speeds of 150kbps. I'd sooner pay more for a package that gives me somewhere near what they're meant to.

However, if you told me more of this channel changing idea that could be helpful.

Millie · « **Reply #8 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:13:05 pm »

Quote from: AJ on October 14, 2009, 02:05:18 pm

Do you download much Ange?

Best talk to Ben about that - he does quite a bit

SP · « **Reply #9 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:16:15 pm »

How are you measuring download speed? Broadband packages quote rates in Mbit/s or Kbit/s. Most other computing applications talk about MBytes/s or KBytes/s. 8 MBit = 1 MByte.

Because the 2 have the same initials, people get very confused. Of course Broadband suppliers pick the larger number...

redchiz · « **Reply #10 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:20:20 pm »

What kind of routerr is it AJ?

And the other thing, if your line won't deliver "up to 16Mmbs" you might as well opt for the "up to 8mbs" service and save yourself a fiver a month.

AJ · « **Reply #11 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:26:07 pm »

Quote from: Southern Pansy on October 14, 2009, 02:16:15 pm

How are you measuring download speed? Broadband packages quote rates in Mbit/s or Kbit/s. Most other computing applications talk about MBytes/s or KBytes/s. 8 MBit = 1 MByte.

Because the 2 have the same initials, people get very confused. Of course Broadband suppliers pick the larger number...

Fuck knows. When I do a speedtest on speedtest.net I get 1.15Mb/s. When actually downloading I get 150kbps. Hopefully that means more to you than it does to me

.

Quote from: redchiz on October 14, 2009, 02:20:20 pm

What kind of routerr is it AJ?

And the other thing, if your line won't deliver "up to 16Mmbs" you might as well opt for the "up to 8mbs" service and save yourself a fiver a month.

It's a Netgear DG834GT mate.

I've done a search on the channel changing so I'll have a little tinker with that when I get home, after changing my set up of microfilters and such. What I've read seems to indicate that if it was a channel confliction problem it would only affect my wireless connection, when in my case, even when I plug in my ethernet cable I'm getting the same result on the speed test and the same download speeds.

SP · « **Reply #12 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:29:41 pm »

Quote from: AJ on October 14, 2009, 02:26:07 pm

Fuck knows. When I do a speedtest on speedtest.net I get 1.15Mb/s. When actually downloading I get 150kbps. Hopefully that means more to you than it does to me .

150 kBtyes/s = 1.2Mbits/s

So where do you get the actual download speed from? If they are in different units they would be entirely consistent. Do you know how far from the exchange your house is?

AJ · « **Reply #13 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:34:20 pm »

The actual download speed, as in the speed I'm downloading files at, is from the download manager I use. Although I get the feeling that's not what you're asking...

According to where my closest exchange is, according to www.samknows.com, I'm 0.12 miles from it.

SP · « **Reply #14 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:36:14 pm »

Quote from: AJ on October 14, 2009, 02:34:20 pm

The actual download speed, as in the speed I'm downloading files at, is from the download manager I use. Although I get the feeling that's not what you're asking...

According to where my closest exchange is, according to www.samknows.com, I'm 0.12 miles from it.

It is what I am asking. Which download manager is it?

That close to the exchange, that's pretty shit. I get better down a couple of miles of cable. It smells like it is being throttled.

AJ · « **Reply #15 on:** October 14, 2009, 02:38:34 pm »

FlashGet. Although when I download directly through my browser I get the same too.

It's also worth noting that I'm using a Rapidshare premium account, so there's no reason why I shouldn't be getting good speeds. Unless, ofcourse, they're capping it to death, or there's a problem.

SP · « **Reply #16 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:02:32 pm »

Quote from: AJ on October 14, 2009, 02:38:34 pm

FlashGet. Although when I download directly through my browser I get the same too.

It's also worth noting that I'm using a Rapidshare premium account, so there's no reason why I shouldn't be getting good speeds. Unless, ofcourse, they're capping it to death, or there's a problem.

It reports in KiloBytes. Your download speed is consistent with the Speedtest so that is not an issue. Your only problem now is why both are consistently shite.

redchiz · « **Reply #17 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:07:55 pm »

Sky don't throttle. Your numbers do seem very strange, AJ.

AJ · « **Reply #18 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:17:16 pm »

I'll be home in a bit, I'll change the set up as they told me to and I'll try channel changing.

If no luck, I'll be back

.

Stonerdude · « **Reply #19 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:42:06 pm »

I wouldn't go with BT for what you want to download mate

Be Broadband or O2 would be worth looking into. They don't throttle speeds, you can download as much as you like, they're pretty cheap and the pings are really low, good for online gaming.

iSmiff · « **Reply #20 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:48:00 pm »

o2 are planning on throttling p2p and usenet between 8pm and 11pm

no biggie really but that's the plan

Stonerdude · « **Reply #21 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:52:00 pm »

Didn't know that, is that the same for Be as well?

3 hours of throttling is nothing really though.

iSmiff · « **Reply #22 on:** October 14, 2009, 03:59:36 pm »

i've not heard anything but Be but since they're the same company i'd not be shocked, it's no bother to me, i do all my heavy downloading over night

GBF · « **Reply #23 on:** October 14, 2009, 04:00:46 pm »

Quote from: iSmiff on October 14, 2009, 01:56:41 pm

BT are stable but shite.

Stably shite

markcd · « **Reply #24 on:** October 14, 2009, 04:01:21 pm »

I'm with BT, (no where near you) and the service is pretty good. I get about 5.5 Mb/s from an 8Mb connection - but I've given up trying to use torrents as BT shape their traffic a lot. Rapidshare is fine though - I get about 600 Kb/s DL using Orbit

AJ · « **Reply #25 on:** October 14, 2009, 04:31:00 pm »

Just got in now and changed my set up. As expected, no change. Here's the stats from the router:

Modem
ADSL Firmware Version    A2pB023b.d20e
Modem Status    Connected
DownStream Connection Speed    1344 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed    416 kbps

Will try changing the channel now.

Paul_McG · « **Reply #26 on:** October 14, 2009, 04:37:22 pm »

Quote from: iSmiff on October 14, 2009, 03:48:00 pm

o2 are planning on throttling p2p and usenet between 8pm and 11pm

no biggie really but that's the plan

I thought that was only on their Access package ?

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=259,E=0000000002496305940,K=6301,Sxi=4,t=broadband_case,CASE=20820

Basically if you are running off an exchange from which they use BT equipment.

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=259,E=0000000002496305940,K=6301,Sxi=4,t=broadband_case,CASE=17048

Paul_McG · « **Reply #27 on:** October 14, 2009, 04:51:41 pm »

Quote from: AJ on October 14, 2009, 04:31:00 pm

Just got in now and changed my set up. As expected, no change. Here's the stats from the router:

Modem
ADSL Firmware Version    A2pB023b.d20e
Modem Status    Connected
DownStream Connection Speed    1344 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed    416 kbps

Will try changing the channel now.

BT have a decent go at estimating your speed according to the phone number

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=26957

I get a massive 3.5mb/s through O2 and that was only after fitting an BT i-plate before that it was a leisurly 1mb/s but I am a lot further away from the exchange.

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=7256

Good test is to plug the router straight into the master socket and leave it like that for 48 hours to see if anything is slowing it down.

The i-plate basically takes the "bell wire" out of play, there is a DIY version

http://www.jarviser.co.uk/jarviser/bellwirenutshell.html

By the way none of this may work for you but it helped out my download speeds.

AJ · « **Reply #28 on:** October 14, 2009, 05:05:18 pm »

Quote

Great news, our even faster broadband service offering up to 20Mb is available in your area! We estimate your maximum connection speed to be 9.0Mbps (Megabits per second) which means your telephone line supports the UK's most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband.

iSmiff · « **Reply #29 on:** October 14, 2009, 05:39:17 pm »

Quote from: Paul_McG on October 14, 2009, 04:37:22 pm

I thought that was only on their Access package ?

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=259,E=0000000002496305940,K=6301,Sxi=4,t=broadband_case,CASE=20820

Basically if you are running off an exchange from which they use BT equipment.

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=259,E=0000000002496305940,K=6301,Sxi=4,t=broadband_case,CASE=17048

cool, i'm on an LLU

AJ · « **Reply #30 on:** October 15, 2009, 08:43:00 am »

Sky are doing something on their lines called DLM.

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-dlm/23760-what-dlm-everything-you-need-know.html

Seems that quite a lot of people are having issues with slow download speeds after Sky have done this, and the solution is to ring them and ask them to manually lift your speed again. Spoke to one of the first line technician guys yesterday (the ones that just read from a script) who told me that the information he had said my line could handle 8-16MB/s but what I was getting was 1.3. So he's handed it up to the next level of techies with a note on it to manually lift it to what it should be.

They'll be (hopefully) ringing me in the next 24 hours to say it's done. If not, I'm off.

iSmiff · « **Reply #31 on:** October 15, 2009, 08:55:43 am »

moving house?

bit drastic don't you think?

anon-y-mouse · « **Reply #32 on:** October 15, 2009, 09:30:09 am »

Quote from: markcd on October 14, 2009, 04:01:21 pm

I'm with BT, (no where near you) and the service is pretty good. I get about 5.5 Mb/s from an 8Mb connection - but I've given up trying to use torrents as BT shape their traffic a lot. Rapidshare is fine though - I get about 600 Kb/s DL using Orbit

BT's traffic is shaped between 5pm and Midnight. Outside those times you'll get a perfectly good speed through torrents.

iSmiff · « **Reply #33 on:** October 15, 2009, 09:33:11 am »

I fully support traffic shaping during peak hours, there's no reason people can't download in the middle of the night.

redchiz · « **Reply #34 on:** October 15, 2009, 09:52:29 am »

Quote from: iSmiff on October 15, 2009, 09:33:11 am

I fully support traffic shaping during peak hours, there's no reason people can't download in the middle of the night.

But if everybody downloaded in the middle of the night...

iSmiff · « **Reply #35 on:** October 15, 2009, 09:55:25 am »

Quote from: redchiz on October 15, 2009, 09:52:29 am

But if everybody downloaded in the middle of the night...

but not everybody will, only dead smart people like me

SP · « **Reply #36 on:** October 15, 2009, 10:32:47 am »

Quote from: iSmiff on October 15, 2009, 09:55:25 am

but not everybody will, only dead smart people like me

So you're a well dressed zombie?

iSmiff · « **Reply #37 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:09:57 am »

zombies are undead

SP · « **Reply #38 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:35:29 am »

Quote from: iSmiff on October 15, 2009, 11:09:57 am

zombies are undead

They have died and are thereby dead. They are re-animated corpses. The undead is a subset of the dead.

iSmiff · « **Reply #39 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:56:01 am »