Paying for 8 meg but getting 0.5

RoxieW

We've been with orange broadband for 4 years and currently pay £10 a month for an 8 meg connection - contracted till Aug. Have been having some internet probs and told by them on phone that we're actually getting 0.5meg. According to BT and other online calculators we should be getting 5-7meg. Why are we getting such a low speed? Is it oranges fault - is there something they can do about it? Would it improve if we went to another supplier? Also, surely they should have told us when they sold us the 8mg that we cant get that speed? I can get 4mg from sky for free! So shouldnt they refund us the money that we've paid for a service that they have not delivered?
Many thanks

scheming_gypsy

there's a number of reasons..

1 - the distance from the exchange can affect the speeds you're getting
2 - the contention ratio (number of people you share the line with)
3 - what the other people are doing on their connection
4 - dodgy filters
5 - crap line

even if sky offer you 4mb it doesn't mean you WILL get 4mb

you can phone Orange and they can run checks on your line but if it was anything like my Tiscali experience it might not be worth it.
Firstly they'll tell you to plug it directly into the main socket and disconnect anything else thats plugged into any other sockets in the house etc etc and test it, so you might as well try that first.

littlem00

I have a 8MB connection, but I'm lucky if I get 3MB
People dont realise that it maybe an 8 MB Connection but it's not
guaranteed that you will get that speed.

He he tell me about Tiscali, I had no end of problems, ended up with a £50
phone bill as I had a few months of adsl going down and calling tech support
first line, ie people who cant fix problem, they just log it

So frustrating as I used to work on an ADSL helpdesk and there was nothing
I could do to fix problem

scheming_gypsy

i've worked in IT for 17 years so after a few minutes of her telling me to do this and that and me telling her i'd already done it, i told her to sling it and hung up. if they want to tell me to do loads of pointless stuff they can phone me.

aliEnRIK

Id hazard a guess your using a dodgy filter (or NO filter?)

jonesMUFCforever

Does the contract OP signed for guarantee 8 meg connection or ''UP TO 8 MEG connection' ??

savemoney

I wondered if installing a I plate may help

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3838-video-guide-how-to-install-a-bt-i-plate.html

scheming_gypsy

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Id hazard a guess your using a dodgy filter (or NO filter?)

dunno.. my speeds are the same as the OP's and i've tried about 4 different filters.

M4RKM

savemoney wrote: »

I wondered if installing a I plate may help

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3838-video-guide-how-to-install-a-bt-i-plate.html

the proper faceplate filter helped my line a lot....

kevin0410

What did you use to tell you that you're getting 0.5 'meg'? You're not mistaking MB/s with Mb/s are you?

Inactive

I think that the clue is in the word " Orange " ( read Lemon ), go to a decent ISP, they will sort it for you.