internet download speed very very poor!

joemardo1

Hi,

I am currently with aol on a 2 mbits connection, in a area where carphone warehouse is unbundled and they have gone all out to sign up new customers, door to door selling etc.

These last few days I am getting bad download speeds result from thinkbroadband below

Speed Down99.17 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )Speed Up382.71 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )

as you can see the download speed is really bad, the upload speed is perfectly normal for me. I spoke to a guy at aol who said I might need a new router (existing one is a netgear dg834g v3 and seems to be working fine) and that I am connected to aol at 2.5 mbits , I have just upgraded the firmware without seeing any change in download speed.

My router says that I have DownStream Connection Speed3776 kbps

but obviously I am not getting that. I intend to let it go for a few weeks to see if there is any improvement and my question is,

Do you think its carphone who is cutting the speed and if in the future I was to change to them instead of aol I would have the same speed problems?

Joe

hotkee

try this

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/

and see what results you get

aliEnRIK

Do you do any serious downloading ~ if so they might 'cap' you
Make sure your not UPLOADING anything as that will seriously limit the download speed

Have you tried simply rebooting the router?

Knub

Visit

Speedtest.net

Try it four times during the day, in the morning when you wake, during lunchtime in the afternoon and then before you goto bed.

This will give an ACCURATE indication as to the state of the line and if it is the same all day with poor speeds - contact your ISP.

Having said that if you have been downloading heavy amounts they might have capped you. Also, Carphone warehouse as broadband supplier? You have my condolences....

joemardo1

Hi there,

Thanks for replies.I have redone the speed test and its still 0.1 mbits. I have just discovered that carphone warehouse have a broadband problem in my area for the last 3 weeks (which will presumably affect me since my AOL in on their network)

I’m in Londonderry N Ireland and according to the talk talk outage page broadband problems in the Londonderry area.

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/outages

There is a problem in Londonderry since the 7 may.

I wonder why do they take so long to fix these problems as some open problems go back to February and also, do you think if cpwn inform AOL of these local outages because according to them I am getting the full 2.5 mbits speed which at the moment is just 0.1 mbits?

Thanks
Joe

hotkee

You might be confusing MB and mega bits.
Think AOL / Talktalk as they are now - are correct and your speed is what it should be.

Basiclly if you are on 2meg broadband, your download speed per second should be about 1 tenth of 2meg, i.e. 200Kb/s. Usually the speed is less than 1 tenth depending on what you are doing or how busy the area is and the web sites you are accessing etc.

I am on 10meg cable so I get to download 1 meg of data per second (if all ok, sometimes creeps to 1.1meg.

joemardo1

Hi hotkee,

Probably sometimes I do get mixexd up with the jargon but I know I am right on this,

latest speed test,

Speed Down122.28 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )

Speed Up 361.60 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )

when downloading a file I get 15 kb/sec where it used to be over 200-247

If you or anyone else could comment on the query in my previous post as regards aol I would be grateful i.e if I am on the local carphone network then does a problem affecting that network also probably affect me on aol as well? My ip starts with 92 which I believe is cwn.

thanks
Joe

hotkee

15kb/s Thats pretty darn slow and its down to aol/carphonewarehouse to sort that out.

I would have expected your speed with 2meg broadband to be roughly 150Kbs/download (max 200Kb/s) whilst the upload to be a quarter of the download speed.

So your download speed is not too far off what you might expect - the speed test seems to be near to the mark - the upload speed looks suspicious to me as I say its normally one quarter of the download speed.

Now it depends what you are downloading when you get 15kb/sec - some servers/web sites will be slow (its on their end where the speed is slow) and not yours.

Have you tried downloading from different sources?

joemardo1

Hello again Hotkee,

I think its probably to do with the fact that there is a problem with the cpw in londonderry

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/outages

but what annoys me is aol know nothing about it when I rant their call centre and it seems cpw can let these problems run on for mths as seen on the above link.

downloading from different sources make no difference.

Joe

hotkee

I sympathize Joe (if it helps :-) )

Me mate in Coventry is with talktalk 2meg speed and have this feeling of superiority over him with 10meg cable broadband - come on yee Branson - stuff it up to 50mb TA - yeeehaa.

I did get another mate who had an outage with virgin the last week - he werent happy, I ended up looking on web to tell him there was a fault but he knew there was something up as the tv had gone as well earlier in the day.

Worst I have had myself is 12 hours+ outage about 2 months ago but you have to live with it.

I fear with the non cable providers the problem is probably more frustrating as the speeds via telephone lines do not seem to be as good as with cable.

The people on the phones usually do not know much more than you - the information about a problem takes a while to feed through the system. Had a bloke telling me nothing wrong - I said there is - he was going to arrange for someone to come out in a few days. I said forget it and a few hours later, thing was back up and running.

GunJack

Joe - what you are describing sounds like you have some major issues with your line and/or internal wiring. I would suggest posting your full router stats so I can see what's going on with your line (i.e. upstream, downstream, attenuation, etc.) then can advise further. Without that fuller picture, everyone is stabbing in the dark as to what the issue really is...

Also, get yourself over to DSLZoneUK, a specialist broadband site, for loads of good info and advice...

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php