Broadband Help

Hsl500

Hiya we are currently with BT option 3 pay 22.99 a month but Im looking at switching providers, our wireless seems non existant and hardly works, even reset it and done all meant to, still wont pick up i pod touches even if in same room says 1 bar strength.
we have BT phone line and are also with Sky basic package plus sky sports ,
any help apprecaited as ve not got a clue all want is a wireless that works at a reasonable price

thanks Helen x

TonyMMM

Sounds like a router problem rather than a provider issue ..... you can check that by connecting direct by wire to the router and see how that works.

I would suspect that there is another router close by using the same channel as you which is causing the problem....change the wireless channel (via the router settings) and see how it works then.

Hsl500

Tony thanks il have a go, just checked broadband speed online and its only coming up as just under 1mb? yet we pay 20mb? so bit lost if honest,
looked at sky as to add broadband on as a package works out not as bad as first thought, but il try theabove 1st and see as we are paying for it but not getting the service
thanks helen

bosseyed

Hsl500 wrote: »

Tony thanks il have a go, just checked broadband speed online and its only coming up as just under 1mb? yet we pay 20mb? so bit lost if honest,
looked at sky as to add broadband on as a package works out not as bad as first thought, but il try theabove 1st and see as we are paying for it but not getting the service
thanks helen

Unfortunately I think every Broadband company will offer to supply you speeds that they can't actually manage except as anything other than a theoretical maximum under ideal conditions. Whilst I could be wrong I believe the theoretical maximum of a bog standard BT line is around 6mb (someone who knows more might be able to confirm or deny this). To offer higher speeds than this, BB companies update bits and bobs in the exchange, but the speed ultimately is limited to whatever the state of the land line is and the distance to the exchange.

I'd suggest switching Broadband providers if you can - I've never been overly enamoured with BT, their service or their attitude to be honest, and I know my father in law has had a lot of issues with his wireless home hub thing.

I can recommend O2 as a decent supplier - the wireless router worked straight out of the box with no issues - I pay for 20mb and get around 10mb which is about as good as I expect and the service has only been down once thus far for an hour or so for 'exchange updates'. Plus it only costs me £9.99 per month which is fine.

moonrakerz

bosseyed wrote: »

Unfortunately I think every Broadband company will offer to supply you speeds that they can't actually manage........

I'm afraid they don't, they offer a service of "up to" - because they have no idea of the quality of the infra structure that feeds your PC, including the bits that you buy, router, internal leads etc, etc.
The max possible on an "up to 8mbs" service is 7.150mbs.

bosseyed wrote: »

I pay for 20mb and get around 10mb

Again, you are making a statement that is just not the case........you are paying for an "up to" 20mbs service.

You will not find any ISP that guarantees a particular download speed.

I am no great friend of any ISP but I have some sympathy for them when I keep reading "I am paying for.....but only get............". Doesn't anyone read what they sign up to ?

I will agree with your comments about o2. I pay for an "up to 16mbs service" and get 13 to 14; more than happy !

kwikbreaks

Why crosspost?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2531563

weegie.geek

You don't pay for 20mbit, you pay for up to 20mbit. Unfortunately with DSL you're at the mercy of the quality and length of your telephone line. The noisier the line, or the longer the line, the slower the broadband will be. There are a few other factors, like what the actual line is made of. Most are copper. As a moneysaving exercise, some are (at least partially) aluminium, which is useless for broadband.

To be honest though, if you're getting such a bad signal there's a good chance your actual internet connection is faster than 1mbit, it's just the dodgy wi-fi signal that's bottlenecking you. First things first, get hold of an ethernet cable and connect directly to the router using the cable. Disable wireless on the laptop/pc and do a speed test then. That'll avoid any problems introduced by the bad wireless connection.

Lots of other things like extensions and iffy internal wiring can effect your broadband speed too. Best to check that out, and run with the bare minimum of cabling coming off the master socket.

As to the slow wireless, it shouldn't be so bad when you're standing beside the router, so it does sound like you have neighbours who use the same or overlapping channel as your router. The only thing you can do is change the channel your router works on, but in urban areas that's not always possible. Depending on where I am in the flat, I can see a dozen different wireless networks. Needless to say, I'm mostly wired, using only the wireless laptops to browse and do light work on the internet. Any heavy downloading is done over ethernet since wireless can't keep up with my 20mbit+.

There's also a slight possibility that you're accidentally connecting to a neighbour's wi-fi, and the signal's so low because it's through a couple of walls. Easy to check, turn your router off and see if you still have internet access.

To check how many networks are visible (therefore potentially interfering with yours) use something like netstumbler. I'll show you what channels the networks are using, and hopefully help you decide what channel to change yours to, to minimise interference.

It could just be that the BT supplied router is awful of course. Routers aren't too expensive though, I picked up a decent one for less than a tenner on ebay, and if you shop around you can get a decent new one for less than £30. Incidentally, the one I bought from ebay is the one that Sky supply.

I'd probably take a look on samknows.com and see what ISPs are available where you are. Chances are there's a better ISP than BT available, they really are mediocre at best in terms of price and speed.

Hsl500

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Why crosspost?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2531563

sorry i posted here first then found the other thread which was more suitable as had broadband /internet issues:o

kwikbreaks

You'll get more answers here. Whether those answers will help is more debateable - nobody in this thread asked for the most important bit of information any ADSL issue needs to start off a resolution - the line stats from the router.

DVardysShadow

Hsl500 wrote: »

sorry i posted here first then found the other thread which was more suitable as had broadband /internet issues:o

It is generally reckoned to be polite to post on both threads that you have crossposted. It saves someone spending a long time answering your query on 1 thread and then finding someone else posted the same 20 mins earlier on the other thread.

bosseyed

moonrakerz wrote: »

I'm afraid they don't, they offer a service of "up to" - because they have no idea of the quality of the infra structure that feeds your PC, including the bits that you buy, router, internal leads etc, etc.
The max possible on an "up to 8mbs" service is 7.150mbs.


Again, you are making a statement that is just not the case........you are paying for an "up to" 20mbs service.

You will not find any ISP that guarantees a particular download speed.

I am no great friend of any ISP but I have some sympathy for them when I keep reading "I am paying for.....but only get............". Doesn't anyone read what they sign up to ?

I will agree with your comments about o2. I pay for an "up to 16mbs service" and get 13 to 14; more than happy !

Ok I omitted to put the words 'up to' in my post, apologies for that - but I'd have hoped it was fairly clear from my post that I never expect a BB company to actually be able to supply the quoted line speed figure, as you say a lot of it is beyond their control - at no point did I suggest that I should be getting the speed of 20mb - read again, you'll see that I'm quite happy with 10mb. If I was expecting 20mb I wouldn't be happy with 10mb now would I!

And I'm fully aware that the stated line speed is subject to all manner of things - again, I stated a couple of these in my post.

And I still stand by my original line - in rare and ideal conditions maybe you'll get the full line speed quoted, but generally you'll never get the full stated speed via DSL thanks to all the factors we've already covered - ergo, no BB company is likely to be able to supply the speeds they quote.