Major fluctuations in broadband speed

southernscouser

Official MSE Insert:

If you've arrived from Google, our fully researched Boost your BroadBand speed guide may be helpful.

Back to the original post...

Can anyone tell me if this is 'normal' or not as it's starting to test my patience.

Basically the last couple of days the internet has slowed drastically to the point of last night where running a speed test showed I was getting 175kbs. :undecided

This is according to speedtester.bt.com



Then below, the results I've been getting. At the bottom, last nights disgrace. Then two more today. I then plugged the router in to the main phone socket downstairs which improved connection speeds, about twice as quick at times 12.32 and 12.33. Then two more downstairs up to 1170kbps.

The next one was upstairs, but then the following were done by changing the microfilter upstairs which improved speeds to similar downstairs. However, look at 13.11 and 2166kbs. :eek: I've never had that sort of speed and it seems a complete one off.

Why is fluctuating so much? I 'think' I've ruled out the socket upstairs slowing it down, or at least it being a problem as the speed is similar to downstairs and I appreciate you lose a bit of speed. Should I be getting faster speeds, even up to 2.1mbs?

I really don't know. :undecided

Edited to add: These were all being connected with an ethernet cable but getting similar speeds wirelessly too.

fwor

There are several factors that are completely outside of your control.

Firstly, ADSL is a contended service - you are competing with loads of other people in your area for a fixed amount of bandwidth from the exchange onto the internet itself, and if too many of them use high bandwidth everyone elses slows down.

Secondly, your provider may be using "traffic shaping" which throttles bandwidth according to time of day and total load on the network.

Thirdly they may be working on the network, causing temporary changes in performance.

There are of course more than just those three factors involved...

southernscouser

fwor wrote: »

There are several factors that are completely outside of your control.

Firstly, ADSL is a contended service - you are competing with loads of other people in your area for a fixed amount of bandwidth from the exchange onto the internet itself, and if too many of them use high bandwidth everyone elses slows down.

Secondly, your provider may be using "traffic shaping" which throttles bandwidth according to time of day and total load on the network.

Thirdly they may be working on the network, causing temporary changes in performance.

There are of course more than just those three factors involved...

Thanks for the reply.

I understand the contended service bit. Plusnet say on their site to test speeds between 12am and 4pm so I assume this is their quietest period on average. I just don't know whether the speeds I'm getting are acceptable, or normal. :undecided

I've checked for any problems at the exchange and none are reported.

Can anyone think of anything I need to do/test before I spend hours on the phone moaning? :undecided

googler

BT are rolling out the fibre optic service, Infinity, in our area, and the cynic in me would suggest that the slowdowns are a ploy to persuade users to switch from the regular service.....

I want to talk to someone but can't face 20 mins or so trying to make myself clear to, and reading through scripts with, Rahul in Mumbai.....

phoneguy

googler wrote: »

BT are rolling out the fibre optic service, Infinity, in our area, and the cynic in me would suggest that the slowdowns are a ploy to persuade users to switch from the regular service.

That's strange. I experienced almost identical slow downs when the Infinity product went live locally. I had about six weeks of trouble with my ISP, who are excellent, scratching their heads to solve it. At the same time we were being mailshoted near daily by BT trying to entice us to sign up for infinity, they even cold called and doorstepped us.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but after changing everything on my line (Exchange equipment, E side, D Side, internals) and showing a pair quality test the Queen would be proud of, BT wholesale seemed to 'magically' rebuilt my services in software, and it started working as it should again - about the same time the Infinity leaflets stopped. All rather odd, and smelling too fishy.

My money would have been on sheer incompetence rather than intent, but I'm used to dealing with BT.

jaydeeuk1

I was going to ask if you were on plusnet. I have the same, sometimes during the evening, down speed might be 200kbps, other days 1600kbps (best we get out here in the sticks). Think I'm on a bog standard package - not this 'pro' thing they sell for lower ping and directed traffic. Might be their way of trying to make me upgrade!

penrhyn

Post your router line statistics and we can see whats going on.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

southernscouser

penrhyn wrote: »

Post your router line statistics and we can see whats going on.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

I think this is what you're after. :rotfl: Thanks.