adsl exceptionally fast in Clacton but why?

happyhero

Hi I am usually the one to sort my friends PC's out when they get problem i.e. I have a reasonable amount of knowledge when it comes to PC's. Recently I visited my friends in Clacton on sea and they asked me to check their ADSL speed.

My friend and his mother are both on the standard Talktalk package i.e. up to 8Mbps. First we visited his mothers and I was amazed to find she had a speed of just over 10Mbps. I tried many internet sites for their speed testing offerings and all gave a very similar result. The PC was about 4 or 5 years old and playing with the internet testing it, on online videos etc, I cannot say that it was particularly noticeably better than mine which goes at about 2Mbps.

We then went back to my friends house and tested his ADSL and he was getting 8Mbps, still incredibly high, i.e. if you are on the standard package with Talktalk. I have found you generally get around 2Mbps to say 5Mbps so what is going on in this sleepy town of Clacton?

I started wondering about some software causing these funny readings but I have done this hundreds of times before and never got these result before.

Any ideas how this is happening, in neither case is the PC very new or have any obvious fancy software?

boxst

Generally it doesn't have anything to do with the computer, but distance from the exchange (and package you are on).

I live quite close to mine and with BE* I get 18mb, someone else on the same package as me but lives a good mile or so further away syncs at 9mb.

When FTTC (Fibre To the Cabinet) arrives (BT Infinity) then only the distance to your cabinet matters and you should get close to 80mb.

Edit: Put your number and postcode in here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker and you will see how far away you are from your exchange and the options for LLU like BE*.

GunJack

All TT LLU packages were upgraded to the up to 24Meg service a good while ago, so no suprise they are getting 10Meg if they're close enough to the exchange. The biggest limiting factor is Line attenuation (which roughly equates to distance to the phone exchange). I suggest you start your broadband education here:-

http://www.kitz.co.uk/index.htm

one of the top UK broadband websites

John_Gray

What speed tester do you use? I find that SpeedTest.net gives highly amusing results with Firewalls which seem to do data buffering, like Kaspersky's Internet Security package.
For example, my max 10 Mbps (typically 9.4 Mbps) cable line has been clocked at 33.4 Mbps!