AOL / Carphone Warehouse / Talk Talk Broadband Going Slow

zee_2

Hi ,I had same problem .been with them for 6 years ,phoned and spoke to some bloke in ireland ,he sent me a new router , D-LINK , foc to help replace my old netgear , also said upgrades in exchanges are causing some slow speeds as auto gear ? adjusts , also I think you can update router over internet ,but not sure how.

NiVZ

Hello,

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to know I'm not alone.

AOL/Talk Talk don't have their own equipment in our exchange so I suppose they are at the mercy of BT.

However, I know our equipment (router, filters, phoneline, etc) is not at fault as I am getting 3.5Mb in the mornings. It's just at night (when we use it most) that it's going so slow.

@Colin13 - I'm not prepared to accept the slow speed because it's been slow every evening for more than a week. We're paying for (up to) 2Mb BROADband which is supposed to be 20x faster than the old NARROWband 56k modems. At times it's down to 0.09Mb which is around 100kb (ie only 2x a 56k modem). Although we signed up for another 18 months, I feel we clearly have a case that they are not providing the service we were promised. I said earlier I also pay for my xbox live subscription which I can't use when it's going this slow.

Going to give them a phone and probably an email tomorrow to see what they have to say for themselves. Really don't want to leave them as we've been customers for for 15+ years with absolutely no problems, and we'd hate to lose our email addresses.

Thanks again for all replies,

NiVZ

Francesanne

Ddraig wrote: »

Mine is rediculous.I dread changing page or website ,as it goes on strike for a few minutes and says not responding.Unfortunately Ive just renewed about 2 months ago.

We finally reached breaking point with AOL and moved to SKY unlimited 2 weeks ago and my blood pressure has returned to normal.

Francesanne

NiVZ wrote: »

Hello,

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to know I'm not alone.

AOL/Talk Talk don't have their own equipment in our exchange so I suppose they are at the mercy of BT.

However, I know our equipment (router, filters, phoneline, etc) is not at fault as I am getting 3.5Mb in the mornings. It's just at night (when we use it most) that it's going so slow.

@Colin13 - I'm not prepared to accept the slow speed because it's been slow every evening for more than a week. We're paying for (up to) 2Mb BROADband which is supposed to be 20x faster than the old NARROWband 56k modems. At times it's down to 0.09Mb which is around 100kb (ie only 2x a 56k modem). Although we signed up for another 18 months, I feel we clearly have a case that they are not providing the service we were promised. I said earlier I also pay for my xbox live subscription which I can't use when it's going this slow.

Going to give them a phone and probably an email tomorrow to see what they have to say for themselves. Really don't want to leave them as we've been customers for for 15+ years with absolutely no problems, and we'd hate to lose our email addresses.

Thanks again for all replies,

NiVZ

If you decide to leave AOL at any point, you don't need to worry about losing your email addresses. We've just switched to SKY but I do prefer AOL mail and still using it plus we didn't want all the hassle of changing email address. All my original folders and contacts were still there and the format is actually better. You'll find your calendar and details are also still available.

Francesanne

zee wrote: »

Hi ,I had same problem .been with them for 6 years ,phoned and spoke to some bloke in ireland ,he sent me a new router , D-LINK , foc to help replace my old netgear , also said upgrades in exchanges are causing some slow speeds as auto gear ? adjusts , also I think you can update router over internet ,but not sure how.

We upgraded to AOL 9.1 and that's when our problems started.

Orville

the182guy wrote: »

There is no technial problem. AOL and TalkTalk/Tiscali are among the worst ISP's. They will throttle your speed, traffic shape, and also cram as many people as possible onto the same hardware at the exchange, which causes all those users speed to fall to accomodate a new customer.

The best providers are Be* and O2.

POPPYCOCK...

I am connected at 21meg. I downloaded a file last night at a consistant 1.9MB/s at around 8-9pm.

Talk Talk do not throttle at all on the Pro package except for torrent users which would not effect the op's position as he is saying he is getting the results through a speed tester.

With TalkTalk Pro, there’s no fixed limit on the amount you can download every month. That means you can download as much as you want without worrying about any extra charges.

TalkTalk Pro customers also have no restrictions on time-critical web traffic such as surfing, gaming, streaming content from applications like BBC iPlayer or using VOIP packages like Skype.

We do have a fair usage policy, which is designed to ensure your service is fast and reliable 24 hours a day. This only involves managing non-time critical traffic on our network, such as Bittorrent or Peer-to-Peer file sharing – These services often involve huge files being uploaded and downloaded, which can cause network problems.

TalkTalk Pro customers have no restrictions on torrent or file sharing activity between midnight and 3pm. At peak times, TalkTalk Pro customers can still use those services but they may find Bittorrent or file sharing is a little slower.

That was taken from the talk talk members forum.

Are you on LLU OP..?.

If not then it is more then likey to be either a problem your end. That could be any number of things such as exchange congestion or maybe you have had some new electrical equiptment installed that could be interfearing.

I used to be with O2 on their Access product ( over the BT network), it was horrendous, game pings around 200-999 at times. Could not view you tube etc at peak times. Last Friday i changed to the Talk Talk LLU package and now my pings range from 20 -70 in game servers and you tube plays fine.

Have you looked at your router stats..? What do they say.

the182guy

Orville wrote: »

POPPYCOCK...

I am connected at 21meg. I downloaded a file last night at a consistant 1.9MB/s at around 8-9pm.

Talk Talk do not throttle at all on the Pro package except for torrent users which would not effect the op's position as he is saying he is getting the results through a speed tester.

With TalkTalk Pro, there’s no fixed limit on the amount you can download every month. That means you can download as much as you want without worrying about any extra charges.

TalkTalk Pro customers also have no restrictions on time-critical web traffic such as surfing, gaming, streaming content from applications like BBC iPlayer or using VOIP packages like Skype.

We do have a fair usage policy, which is designed to ensure your service is fast and reliable 24 hours a day. This only involves managing non-time critical traffic on our network, such as Bittorrent or Peer-to-Peer file sharing – These services often involve huge files being uploaded and downloaded, which can cause network problems.

TalkTalk Pro customers have no restrictions on torrent or file sharing activity between midnight and 3pm. At peak times, TalkTalk Pro customers can still use those services but they may find Bittorrent or file sharing is a little slower.

That was taken from the talk talk members forum.

Are you on LLU OP..?.

If not then it is more then likey to be either a problem your end. That could be any number of things such as exchange congestion or maybe you have had some new electrical equiptment installed that could be interfearing.

I used to be with O2 on their Access product ( over the BT network), it was horrendous, game pings around 200-999 at times. Could not view you tube etc at peak times. Last Friday i changed to the Talk Talk LLU package and now my pings range from 20 -70 in game servers and you tube plays fine.

Have you looked at your router stats..? What do they say.

Sounds like you're the only one getting decent service then. My girlfriend's parents are with them and they have nothing but problems with it. Consistantly slow speed but even more annoying the connection drops now and again for 2 or 3 days at a time.

NiVZ

Hello,

After getting 0.24Mb last night, it's back to 3.5Mb this morning although ping is still a bit higher at 81ms vs previous 57ms. Definitely seems to be a night time problem.

My router is set to use PPoE and LLU. According to Samknows.com there is no AOL/Talk Talk hardware in the exchange (only Sky has LLU OP) and the exchange is serving approx 4000 people.

NiVZ

Orville

NiVZ wrote: »

Hello,

After getting 0.24Mb last night, it's back to 3.5Mb this morning although ping is still a bit higher at 81ms vs previous 57ms. Definitely seems to be a night time problem.

My router is set to use PPoE and LLU. According to Samknows.com there is no AOL/Talk Talk hardware in the exchange (only Sky has LLU OP) and the exchange is serving approx 4000 people.

NiVZ

Therein lies the crux of your problem. You are not connected on the LLU network so therefore are still on the BT lines. This is terribily overcongested and out of date hence why they are upgrading. Also as you say your speed crawls at night when you use it the most. Well think about every other user, they would be the same as you mostly using it at night (peak time). You could try something like a faceplate which might give a bit more speed and a more stable connection.

My advice though that is if sky have llu change over to them.

NiVZ

Hello,

I expect it to go slower at peak times, but not to be so slow as it's unusable

Have looked on other AOL / Talk Talk boards and it seems evening slow downs are a common problem with a number of people saying they are getting old modem speeds!

Will go pursue this with AOL / Talk Talk.

Thanks again for everyone's replies

NiVZ