Help - Broadband problems - Ultra slow!

MrWill

Hi all,

Back in July this year I moved into a property with my gf. We got broadband set up as soon as we could, and chose an all in one Sky package (tv, phone and broadband).

We had to wait about 6 weeks until our phone line was activated as the previous tenant had not used it. Once we finally got the all clear we were away with our broadband.

It's advertised as 'Up to 20mb' broadband, and when I ordered the broadband I asked for an estimated line speed. They said they cannot test the line because it is inactive but they said it would be around 4 mbps.

So, I did a speed test every week or so - for the first 6 weeks the highest reading I got was 1.3 mbps! Shocking! Since then it has been at 0.35 mbps and no higher. This is unbelievable.

I've read numerous threads on the internet on how to make sure it's not an extension wire which is causing reduced speed, etc etc. My router is connected straight to the master telephone socket via a filter. I then use a built in wireless card on my new Dell PC to receive the wireless (this is reading as 48mbps, so no problems there.)

Does this mean it's pretty much Sky who's done this? I'm extremely dissappointed with Sky broadband, I can't believe the cheek of it to be honest. I don't download anything I mainly surf the web, and download about 10 songs per week if that, and watch youtube vids. Now I can't even stream a low resolution youtube video without it stopping every 3 seconds.

What should I do? I'm pretty sure if I ring Sky they'll blame it on my telephone exchange, even though I live in a 5 year old modern estate which has over 500 houses. My neighbours have BT broadband and they are receiving speeds of over 15 mbps. Do I have any power to get Sky to do something about this?

Sorry about the moan but I'm sure there are many others experiencing the same thing!

Thanks,

Will.

penrhyn

If you have read up on connection speeds then you will know that to be any help we need to know your router line statistics.

Click on http://192.168.0.1/sky_router_status.html

user admin
password sky

Scroll down to show statistics and post them.

MrWill

Apologies for not doing that I did mean to.

Here are the stats:

Connection Speed: Downstream 510 kbps, Upstream 589 kbps,

Line Attenuation: Downstream 58.5 db, Upstream 35.5 db

Noise Margin: Downstream: 12.5 db, Upstream: 10.0 db

Full stats can be found here:

http:// i35.photobucket.com/albums/d167/jellybeans27/Capture.jpg

12bdebt3

I rang up Sky about my internet connection the other day, it was acting like dial-up (I was playing Xbox and when someone rang the internet disconnected) anyway after going through my set-up numerous times with the guy on the phone the only thing he told me was to change the microfilter, which made no difference. I knew it wouldn't make a difference before hand but I tried it out of despair. That 12.4db is pretty high. Normally it is that high when Sky are monitoring your Internet connectivity for the first week or 2 after connecting. As you did this a few months ago I highly doubt it's that. You should be looking for that connection speed to be increasing 500+kbps is really slow, I'd be surprised if you got over 5mbps with those stats.
Out of curiosity do you have the free Sky internet or the £7.50 unlimited?
P.S. My Sky internet was also running very slow last night but not as slow as yours was...

MrWill

I have the unlimited at £7.50 as I thought the free one would give me the problems I seem to be having now! I think it's a disgrace when they charge you for something and give you jack all back.

Yeah mine's been slow for weeks and I've had enough of it to be honest! I will change the filter also out of despair lol....

penrhyn

MrWill wrote: »

Apologies for not doing that I did mean to.

Here are the stats:

Connection Speed: Downstream 510 kbps, Upstream 589 kbps,

Line Attenuation: Downstream 58.5 db, Upstream 35.5 db

Noise Margin: Downstream: 12.5 db, Upstream: 10.0 db

Full stats can be found here:

http:// i35.photobucket.com/albums/d167/jellybeans27/Capture.jpg

With your line attenuation you should be getting between 3 and 4Mbps download speeds.
It looks like the line has been capped, possibly due to instability in the past or the DLM did not work properly.
Do you have any wired extensions?, if so could you retake the stats from your test socket.

You then need to get on to Sky and get them to remove the cap.

macman

Before you contact Sky, you need (as penrhyn advises above) to retest your speed using the BT test socket behind the master socket split faceplate. Do this test connected by ethernet, not wireless. if the problem persists, you can rule out any problem with your wireless connection or your extension wiring.

MrWill

Right, I'm now connected to the one behind the faceplate, and wired to the router rather than wireless. Here are the results:

Connection Speed: Downstream 504 kbps, Upstream 671 kbps
Line Attenuation: Downstream 58.0 db, Upstream 35.4 db
Noise Margin: Downstream 7.3 db, Upstream 9.0 db

I'm guessing this is not much better than before? Shall I get onto Sky?

Only thing I think is that they wil just say I signed up to a fair usage policy blah blah blah or that it's because of my telephone exchange - things I know don't affect my area. Plus I hardly use the internet anymore in terms of downloading so I don't affect any fair usage. I even used to use the Talktalk at my Dad's for m xbox, streaming music, videos etc etc. He still has this and it is still returning over 6 mbps and his is free!

penrhyn

There is definitely something wrong with your line, have you done a quiet line test?

Plug a phone into the test socket and dial 17070, follow the prompts.

macman

Is Sky also your line rental provider? If there is noise on the line, then this will affect both your broadband and voice calls.

MrWill

Yes Sky are also my line rental provider - phone calls are of very poor quality and often find it hard to hear the person on the other end - I'm guessing this is related! About to phone Sky so will update afterwards,

Thanks for the help.