Slow internet BT Broadband

[stolzy]

When we had broadband installed in our place in Kent its was very slow for the first week, then it speeded up to a blistering 2Mb.

We've been away for a couple of months and now its back to 0.13/0.33 Mb (download/upload - that's right, the upload speed is faster than the download speed ).

Also the BT broadband box keeps dropping the broadband connection (2-10 times an hour).

BT say there is no problem on the line, but clearly the line speed has been reduced because the connection hasn't been used much - its just like when it was first connected.

What can I do?

I've got loads of terminal sessions pinging random addresses to try an increase the apparent traffic - do I have to leave these on when I'm away?

 

[turbine_2]

The way that ADSL works is by picking the best speed that it thinks the line can support. One of the ways that it does this is by looking for disconnects. If it disconnects a lot then it drops the speed to the next step until it gets a stable one.
If you turn your ADSL router / modem off a lot it can't tell the difference between that and a noise induced disconnect, so the first thing to do would be to ensure the ADSL router / modem is on and connected all the time possible.
Other than that, there are a number of things that you can try to boost the speed based on the wiring within the house. Easiest is to start with the faceplate that BT supply in the first instance. If the master socket has a bottom half that can be disconnected do that and plug the ADSL filter into that socket (this should disconnect all the house internal wiring). This will give you the best speed possible.
There's a whole host of speed boosting things you can find on the net with a google search but most will start with this step.
Good luck (says he on is 512Kb/s down / 768Kb/s up "up to 20 Mb/s" service)

 

[stolzy]

Interesting, is the fact that I'm away a lot a factor - sometimes the adsle is not used for months at a time.

I dream of 512K, I'm currently getting 130K - I could get better than that with a modem FFS!

Neighbors across the road (20m away) get 3-8MB

I already plugged the filter into the internal socket on the BT socket. There is nothing else connected in the house apart from the ADSL box - not even a phone.

Just before I last left (in September) everything was fine.

 

[shugie]

BT's kit thinks your line is slow, every time you reconnect it starts a ten day "training" programme to see how fast your line can safely be. Very few people do what you do and only have the router on occasionally.

If you aren't there very often, and don't need that much bandwidth, you might be better off with a 3G connection, unless you are too rural for that to work either.

I use 3G for a backup network, get about 3.6MBs on the Three network, seems to do fairly well, but it needs a 3G router with an external antenna to work well. 500MB/month for a tenner as I recall, so not stupid money to run either.

 

[cookie]

BT's kit thinks your line is slow, every time you reconnect it starts a ten day "training" programme to see how fast your line can safely be.

it shouldn't start from such a ludicrously slow point though. IME it starts a tad high and ratchets down.

 

[roddy]

I've got loads of terminal sessions pinging random addresses to try an increase the apparent traffic - do I have to leave these on when I'm away?

could this not be the problem as I believe BT will restrict your speed if they think your a heavy user,
happened to a colleague of mine who's wife has a hairdressers and he had fitted internet security cameras and since they where always connected and uploading BT would restrict there bandwidth,
but everytime they complained about the speed BT would say all was okay at there end it took 3 engineers before one of them suggested the cameras maybe the issue he turned them off for a week and bingo speed back upto what they paid for ? he dumped them after finding that out.

?

 

[Mr K]

it shouldn't start from such a ludicrously slow point though. IME it starts a tad high and ratchets down.

That's my understanding.

 

[shugie]

That's my understanding.

And mine, but BT are, as you will know, a law unto themselves.

 

[stolzy]

If you aren't there very often, and don't need that much bandwidth, you might be better off with a 3G connection, unless you are too rural for that to work either.

This is Kent FFS, I have to go outdoors and up the road to get a mobile phone signal. 3G is witchcraft in these parts

The adsl modem is left on all the time.

could this not be the problem as I believe BT will restrict your speed if they think your a heavy user

Nah, I don't think so - the pings only use a few bytes each and I'm doing maybe 1 a second. I could send billions of pings for the price of a single Paris Hilton video

 

[Mr K]

And mine, but BT are, as you will know, a law unto themselves.

To the best of my knowledge when you fire a homehub up it will attain the fastest speed it can.
Typically over the next few days it will settle to the best reliable speed.
I turn off the hub if away for more than a few days.

With Stolzy's speeds I'd guess he's a long way from the exchange and/or has loads of mismatched cable and joints between his house and the exchange....Not a lot that can be done - Not sure if there's a different way to report a broadband fault as opposed to a line fault, so as to get a broadband engineer out

Frequency of useage shouldn't affect speeds.

 

[Bigdave]

If your a sky subscriber ring their broadband department and they will test your line and honestly tell you what speed the line can give you.

I changed from BT to sky and my speed quadrupled over night! I changed nothing except to there wi fi box, same phone line, filters etc.

 

[Mr K]

If your a sky subscriber ring their broadband department and they will test your line and honestly tell you what speed the line can give you.

I changed from BT to sky and my speed quadrupled over night! I changed nothing except to there wi fi box, same phone line, filters etc.

Hard to see why If your lines work over telephone wires, these are provided by Openreach, who I work for. Whoever the service provider is, the lines and equipment from your telephone socket into the exchange equipment are the same.

 

[rce]

I have sorted two ADSL connections recently.

One was dodgy wiring from the splice outside (behind the plastic protective cover of the BT phone line coming from underground) plus nasty cheap wire and very dodgy connections within the master socket. New ish build so think builder pre installed phone wiring through cavity. Went from no Internet connection to 4meg

Other was this weekend, someone had connected most of the extensions into the old GPO box were the phone line entered the house so the master socket was effectively just a branch off this ! Bit of rewiring and an ADSL master socket and the connection went from 400k to 8meg ! Well peed off as she lives in a village in Derbyshire and gets that speed, and here in a major town we struggle to get 3meg

A good tip is to also disconnect wire No 3 from the master socket it isn't needed with modern phones and introduces noise.

 

[Mr K]

I have sorted two ADSL connections recently.

One was dodgy wiring from the splice outside (behind the plastic protective cover of the BT phone line coming from underground) plus nasty cheap wire and very dodgy connections within the master socket. New ish build so think builder pre installed phone wiring through cavity. Went from no Internet connection to 4meg

Other was this weekend, someone had connected most of the extensions into the old GPO box were the phone line entered the house so the master socket was effectively just a branch off this ! Bit of rewiring and an ADSL master socket and the connection went from 400k to 8meg ! Well peed off as she lives in a village in Derbyshire and gets that speed, and here in a major town we struggle to get 3meg

A good tip is to also disconnect wire No 3 from the master socket it isn't needed with modern phones and introduces noise.

Or fit the lates NTE5 with bell circuit filter.

 

[stolzy]

With Stolzy's speeds I'd guess he's a long way from the exchange and/or has loads of mismatched cable and joints between his house and the exchange....

Maybe, but my neighbour, whose adsl modem is not 5m from mine gets 3-8Mb

Frequency of useage shouldn't affect speeds.

The reason I thought this was an issue is that when we first had the broadband installed we had exactly the same speeds - consistently 0.1/0.3Mb.

Turned out that although the broadband had been connected there was something that had to be done to make it work. BT being BT, they hadn't done this and it was only after dozens of calls over 2 weeks that this error eventually came to light.

The broadband then worked OK, but now its reverted to the same situation as when it was just connected.

 

[Mr K]

Maybe, but my neighbour, whose adsl modem is not 5m from mine gets 3-8Mb

The reason I thought this was an issue is that when we first had the broadband installed we had exactly the same speeds - consistently 0.1/0.3Mb.

Turned out that although the broadband had been connected there was something that had to be done to make it work. BT being BT, they hadn't done this and it was only after dozens of calls over 2 weeks that this error eventually came to light.

The broadband then worked OK, but now its reverted to the same situation as when it was just connected.

Difficult to help by remote control. Your only hope is to get a broadband engineer out. Though even though I work for them, I have no idea how you'd do this...



PS: I'll ask one of our broadband SFIs tomorrow.

 

[stolzy]

Your only hope is to get a broadband engineer out.

I'm coming to the same conclusion, but the 'technical' support in India deny the existence of such a species.

I think it would be easier to get Lord Lucan to come and have a look. Anyway, I've canceled the standing order now - maybe that will get their attention[/QUOTE]

PS: I'll ask one of our broadband SFIs tomorrow.

 

[shugie]

Difficult to help by remote control. Your only hope is to get a broadband engineer out. Though even though I work for them, I have no idea how you'd do this...

I think it involves drawing pentangles on the floor, and doing a lot of muttering. Certainly the latter.

 

[E. Buygum]

You should probably install what BT touchingly call a "Broadband Accelerator" on your Master Socket. If UR with BT Retail/ Total Broadband, I think you can get one free.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.c...c.do?topicId=25075&s_cid=btb_FURL_accelerator

Assuming UR not on an older, fixed speed, service, the adjustment of line speed at the Exchange can take 10 days to deliver a stable line speed. The system is called Digital Line Management (DLM). It is actually very clever (not everybody at BT is an idiot) and tries to establish a trade off between speed and stability. If you switch your modem off regularly, it will get confused but it sounds as if you don't. DLM optimises the Synch (rather than download) speed so I don't think not having much traffic on the line should be a problem.

To get an Engineer out (Openreach Special Faults Investigation), you will need to go through your Communications Provider (assume BT Retail?). If the SFI investigation finds no fault, you'll pay...around £150 + VAT, I think. It's not uncommon for SFIs to conclude that difficult to pin down BB problems are caused by invasive Electromagnetic Radiation from post war televisions, kidney dialysis machines, milking parlours or whatever...any suspect devices?

There's a school of thought which suggests you are not likely to get much sense out of BT Retail on this kind of fault so you should initially complain about poor call quality (whether you have this problem or not)...at least they should check the line for obvious faults.

Perhaps more obviously, check filter, modem/router etc. all OK.

 

[Zoomboxer]

Perhaps more obviously, check filter, modem/router etc. all OK.

+1 for the check Router idea.

We moved from Tiscali to BT (seemed a better deal) and went from 8 meg down to lucky if it reached 1 meg

They said give it 10 days to settle down blah blah blah which I did but no improvement. They did a line check and all was OK. However, it turned out that the Router was faulty and they sent a new one which immediately brought the speed back to 8 meg.

Demand a on a new Router