Broadband speed ideas please

welshbookworm

Since Opal took over from Nildram my speed has dropped from 3.9/4.1 to 3.1 and has even plummeted to 1.8 on more than one occasion.
According to their webby I could get 7.9 :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I spoke to the techy guys and their reading was 5.1 as a possible speed !
I'm now doing the 4 tests in 24 hours to see if it fluctuates.
I've had my computer checked for nasties and nothing was found.
Is there anything constructive I can do or suggest that they can do to boost my speed ?
Many many thanks

JasX

Find your master BT socket and remove the faceplate (disconnects all your internal wiring) then plug your router into the internal test socket, if possibly wire your PC directly into the router rather than using wireless. That'll eliminate any effects of your internal wiring and if you get a noticable speed boost there are a few things you can look at on your side.

If thats just as fast as it was otherwise not much you can do internally -get onto a broadband speed test/mapping site to see what other people in your physical area are getting with other ISPs and consider switching if they are much better.

Are you on the fastest package/not throtteled by your current ISP?

Also look up your exchange on samknows.com if your provider is offering the standard BT ipstream and old faster ISP was LLU unbundeled might be worth switching back to them or another LLU provider

vice versa if you were with a BT reseller and moved TO a LLU provider maybe switch back to BT / a BT reseller on an alternate LLU operator.

Final thing that might be worth doing is ask your ISP if you are on ADSL Annex A or ADSL Annex M and switch to the other one -strictly speaking M should make your uploads faster and downloads slower but as they operate slightly differently (don't really understand that bit -something that was contributing to losses) I actually found both my doown and up speeds went up when I got switched to M

welshbookworm

I don't have a master socket!
I have a little thing hanging from my wall near my door that has wires that resemble dusty vermicelli leading to a cable that goes to my phone socket.
It looks as if it was put in in the 50's when the flats were built!
I think I'll give BT a bell and see if they can bring my wiring into the 21st century !
Many thanks
Will update when I have got through to BT

Hammyman

I reckon the problem is ISP based, not you. Lack of bandwidth on their back end.

welshbookworm

Update
Spoke to nice man called Steve with an Indian accent and managed to convince him my wiring was older than him.
He's agreed to send an engineer round before the 12th to sort it out, after I pointed out that the wiring in question was before the phone socket.
So fingers crossed I might get somewhere.
Many many thanks, I never thought to look for the master socket before.

JasX

Hammyman wrote: »

I reckon the problem is ISP based, not you. Lack of bandwidth on their back end.

yup but you can always lose a noticable amount from poor quality/condition internal wiring, perhaps more likely the case from the OPs description of their wiring.

btw OP what i was possibly moving on to is BT may also try to sell you some form of 'plate' adaptor once you have a master socket to 'improve' your speeds, all this does is disconnect the 3rd 'bell' wire from your socket, not needed with modern digital phones anyway so you have a choice between sending BT some money or just taking off the faceplate and pulling the bell cable off yourself

EDIT: cross post but better be absolutely sure what BT will do for free and what they may try to charge you for if they find something up thats not their end.... google might possibly be more informative than the indians in the call centre if you're struggling.

welshbookworm

was about to post this
thankyou, I only have one phone socket with one filter to one router and one phone so any problems are likely to be with the BT wiring. When I had my phone put in 16 years ago the engineer said that I should get my wiring upgraded but it never happened. I mentioned this to Steve and he had the decency to agree that it was out of order! LOL

and BT phoned ! They said they would be with me in 30 minutes! and they were.
The engineer has just left. He replaced the junction box where the wire enters my flat and given me a nice new Master socket.
Speed is slightly up (now 3.2) but he says it could take three days for the wires to "settle in". Didn't try and sell me anything and there was no talk of costing me anything.

m00nie

they came out and done it in the same afternoon?? blimey..

welshbookworm

Yep I was stunned when he rang and said he'd be with me in half an hour!
Was here just before 5 and left with all the work done by 7.
I was very impressed.