How do I compare.....?

losgiganteskid

My computer seems to running quite slowly compared with my friends who's computer I was using yesterday.

My download broadband speed is 389kbps and upload speed 274kbps - i'm with AOL and supposed to be getting up to 8 Mbps - am I being short changed ??

penrhyn

Not enough information, is you friends PC a similar specification and operating system to your own?
Regarding internet how far from the exchange are you?
Have you checked the downstream attenuation in your router statistics?
At what speed is you router synchronising with the exchange?

weegie.geek

Possibly. It's an abysmal speed, but is that the download speed, or the line's sync speed?

If it's the line's sync speed then you either have a horrendously long or bad quality phone line or something's broken.

You might be getting short changed, but it also might be the physical limit of your phone line, so any other isp would only be able to supply such a speed. Up to 8mbit after all.

If your sync speed is higher and that's the speed you're getting from a speed test website, speed test websites mean nothing, technically.

All a speed test website can tell you is the speed you're able to transfer from and to that particular server at that particular time.

Routing changes all the time, so you can get good speeds to a server one day and terrible speeds the next day.

Speed tests also don't take into consideration congestion on either your local network (ie in your house, other machines using the connection) or congestion between your house and where your ISP's pipes meet the real internet.

Check your sync speed in your modem or router's control panel. Finding the info differs from router to router, so it's googling time.

If the sync speed's bad, check the distance between you and the telephone exchange, via samknows.

If it's horrendously long (at those kinda speeds I'm guessing something like 5 miles long) then there's your answer. Bear in mind that line quality plays a large part, so if your phone line spends a lot of time overground that won't help. Not will dodgy wiring in your house or at the telegraph pole.

If it's much less than 5 miles then there's probably a fault and you should contact your isp.

losgiganteskid

Thanks for all that info Geek ! Just been on the samknow site and discovered my nearest exchange is 1002 metres away and it states i have ADSL available at ~6.5mbps

Where i live has overhead wires

Reggie_Rebel

You are on AOL, you can be sure you are being short changed

tom9980

You need to double check your internal wiring as well BT will go to the main faceplate and thats it.

If you have incorrectly setup filters, have faulty wiring or a phone that is faulty it can cause slow speeds and random disconnects.

So i would double check internal wiring then phone your ISP and query the fault so they can help you sort it out.

weegie.geek

losgiganteskid wrote: »

Thanks for all that info Geek ! Just been on the samknow site and discovered my nearest exchange is 1002 metres away and it states i have ADSL available at ~6.5mbps

Where i live has overhead wires

1KM away, you should be getting MUCH faster than that. If you can get a hold of your sync speed and the line's attenuation etc that'd enable us to give you a better idea of what's wrong.

Overhead wires is fine if it just goes from the attic out to a telegraph pole, that's fairly normal.

I'm 3x the distance you are from my exchange, and I'm getting ten times the speed. (on download at least, my life'd be much easier if I had 10x your upload. Wish I was closer to the exchange and could get O2/Be here...)

Like tom's saying, I'd disconnect any extensions and wire the ADSL straight into the master socket's test socket. Use a filter, but no phone. Check the sync speeds then.

There are people who've reported success when disconnecting the ring wire. You might have better speeds then.

If it's nothing on your side of the master socket, it's calling the ISP time and asking them to look into it and fix it. That's where the fun begins, especially with AOL.