Crawling Broadband

Dammam

I'm tearing my hair out here. I was happily using AOL broadband for a couple of months on the platinum tariff. My download speed was 2.4mb which is about the limit of my line at the moment.
The problem started when my wife decided to move the phone. The BT box has always sat loose on a shelf since we moved in, but she had to move it for the phone to reach.

Since this happened, broadband speed has plumetted to 128k! I replaced the filter, the cable from line box to router, network cable from router to pc. The phone has continued to work perfectly, but the broadband doesn't budge above 128k. I've checked the wires into the BT box but that seems ok. The only thing I could think was that the BT cabling was old (it is the old 4 wire type - over 30 years old as far as I can see) but more of that later.

After checking the wiring (and the obvious virus, adware and everything else checks) I called AOL for their instant helpdesk. Got through after an hour and got them to check the line etc. They said that as far as they were concerned, I was getting 2mb.

Next step was BT and their considerably quicker customer support. I asked them to check the line and - yep, no problems, I should be able to get 2mb broadband. Lost for another avenue I asked if they could change the cable - they can, but it would cost £116.33 for the callout and thereafter an hourly rate of £99! Even then, I can't guarantee that this is the problem.

So - is there anything I could have missed? The router is a Netgear DG834GT by the way. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dammam

Still problems sadly. Not using it wireless.
If the filter is faulty, would it just stop working completely or could it cause the problem? I've tried 2 filters, but the second one has been hanging around for years. Unusual for 2 to show the same problem but is it a possibility?

EDIT just checked the sticky and the filter can indeed cause speed problems. Best buy a couple on the way home.

espresso

Dammam wrote:

So - is there anything I could have missed? The router is a Netgear DG834GT by the way. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's a bit worrying that "The problem started when my wife decided to move the phone."

It may help if you look at the Line Stats in your router, Line attenuation, Noise margin etc.

Dammam

Thanks guys. Bought a new Belkin filter and hey presto all is well again!

peter999

Dammam wrote:

Thanks guys. Bought a new Belkin filter and hey presto all is well again!

That's what we like, a happy ending, before you changed everything unnecessarily.

Dammam

I'd also like to point out that I bought the quality 5E cable from SVP from about a fiver, and it seems to have squeezed a bit extra from my system. I'm now showing 3.24 download speed as opposed to 2.4.

Magical!