Bt speed problems

jps71

Hi Guys.

I am having major problems speed wise with my broadband.
I live within sight of my exchange but the max speed available to the exchange according to bt is 512kb.
I was advised to purchase an I plate to help increase the speed but this had no effect what so ever apart from getting me in the habit of regularly checking my speed which averages out at 490kb down load & 230kb upload.

Approx 7 days ago I noticed my broadband had slowed considerably from the dizzy heights of 490kb down to 200kb and progressively got slower over the following days.

My hub though still says Downstream 576 Kbps Upstream 288 Kbps

I contacted the bt broadband helpline (that’s a laugh) approx 10 times but they where no help at all saying there was no line fault due to what my hub was saying it was receiving.
Even though when they ran the bt speed tester on my computer the max speed of download was 57kb and the slowest was 19kb (which took 16 minutes to carry out the test) once they even said they where unable to carry out the test due to congestion on the line, on expert? Even told me that I had a fast download speed of 1.7mb until I eventually got her to understand that that was the size of the file the tester download not the speed it had downloaded it at which was 51kb, that’s when the supervisor came on to the phone & said there was nothing at all wrong with my broadband.

Any way enough rambling.

As you can probably appreciate my broadband is now practically unusable apart from for checking emails.

Can any one PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE suggest anything that I can do to get back to my amazingly fast 490kb.

I have tried swapping cables, changing micro filters, changing hubs, removing the I plate, plugging directly in to the test socket, all of which made no difference.

My desktop is connected via Ethernet cable & my laptop connects via wireless and there is no noticeable difference between them speed wise.

Hope someone can help.

Cheers Jim

penrhyn

What exchange are you on?
Also can you post your router statistics.

jps71

My exchange is North Roe in Shetland.
My router screen says








ADSL line status

Connection information

Line state Connected Connection time 0 days, 3:20:17 Downstream 576 Kbps Upstream 288 Kbps
ADSL settings

VPI/VCI 0/38 Type PPPoA Modulation ITU-T G.992.1 Latency type Fast Noise margin (Down/Up) 30.3 dB / 29.0 dB Line attenuation (Down/Up) 9.0 dB / 8.5 dB Output power (Down/Up) 10.1 dBm / 11.9 dBm





Are these the details you wanted?

Cheers Jim

jps71

Just been on to bt again & got put through to India again.
They had me run the bt speedtester twice and the result of the first test was a download speed of 51kb & the second test a speed of 26kb.
For some reason though the screen doesn't bring up the details they say should be there as in upload & download streams.

penrhyn

Looks like you are very limited at the moment, BT don't appear to be going to upgrade the exchange until 2011.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NSNRE
Looks as if the exchange is overloaded, do your neighbours have similar problems?
The i-plate does the same as if you remove the bell wire(pin 3) from any extensions you have, but you would usually have to be running over 2mbps for it to make any difference.

jps71

Thanks for all the replies.

Heres an update.

After spending over 10 hours on the phone in the past week mainly to India.
Some one has finally said they think there might be a fault on my line & they will get it inspected.
At last I might be getting somewhere.

Unfortunately even though I live with in sight of the exchange my max speed obtainable is 512kb as they say that is all the exchange its self is capable of.
So unfortunately there is no chance of 8mb, mind you the exchange is supposed to be updated in the 3/4 of 2011(I live in hope)

When my contract is due for renewal next time bt can go screw themselves I can get bad service at a cheaper price elsewhere & might be lucky enough to find some one with a UK based technical helpline.

Cheers Jim

jps71

Futher update

I contacted bt again this morning
I asked them to confirm that a fault had been reported on my line (as I was told there had on Saturday) & I was told that there ws no fault reported.
So I have now made an official complaint & someone is supposed to now listed to all the calls I made about the problem.

Funnily enough my broadband is running slightly faster today but still not up to the dizzy speeds of 490kb.

Cheers Jim

littleboo

jps71 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

Heres an update.

After spending over 10 hours on the phone in the past week mainly to India.
Some one has finally said they think there might be a fault on my line & they will get it inspected.
At last I might be getting somewhere.

Unfortunately even though I live with in sight of the exchange my max speed obtainable is 512kb as they say that is all the exchange its self is capable of.
So unfortunately there is no chance of 8mb, mind you the exchange is supposed to be updated in the 3/4 of 2011(I live in hope)

When my contract is due for renewal next time bt can go screw themselves I can get bad service at a cheaper price elsewhere & might be lucky enough to find some one with a UK based technical helpline.

Cheers Jim

The upgrade in Q4 2011 is for 21CN, not broadband. Even if you move providers, they will still be using the same BT Wholesale equiopment that you are on now.

penrhyn

I would have thought that BT would be upgrading the BB service while they were at it, especially somewhere like the Shetlands, where its doubtful that any ISP would find it viable to install their own kit.
From their C21 FAQs
BT Wholesale has introduced its next generation broadband service – called Wholesale Broadband Connect – into the market place and its functionality and availability will increase overtime. Where end users' are connected to a 21CN broadband-enabled exchange, communication providers can choose to supply end users with products based on these next generation broadband services. The ADSL2+ equipment deployed in exchanges supports a theoretical maximum speed of 24Mbit/s and end customer lines will deliver the highest possible stable speeds they can support. However, distance from the exchange, internal wiring, interference from electrical appliances and other factors will continue to affect an end user’s broadband speed.
But there is more to next generation broadband that speed. It opens the door to greater control, choice, flexibility and differentiation. WBC can prioritise different types of data running along the end user’s line and its specially designed software changes the dynamics of each line so the service is more reliable and runs at optimum levels.

BT_company_representative

Hi Jim,

I can have this broadband speed problem checked out on our end, I'll need your details so if you're still having problems feel free to drop me a PM.

All the best,

Stephanie
BT Support

Rock_Bottom

I had speed problems not so long ago, someone on here told me to change my filter and see if my speed improved - it did, it went back to normal .... worth a try innit.