Slow broadband - what to do???

Mr_Thrifty

I am in a not very rural area and only get 3.0Mbps on my broadband. This is unacceptable in this day and age!! It's like being in the dark ages again! Cable isn't an option out here either. No BT infinity too. Any ideas what I can do, guys? I work from home on the PC and such slow internet access is almost unbearable.

moneypenny2k

I live in London docklands and the best I ever got on bb was 2meg. I couldnt get virgin as no cable here either, too close to the river. Sky is now doing fibre optic this may be an option, it's the way I've gone, 30meg now

Buzby

Not really! As BT will be providing the backhaul from your premises to the exchange, speed is not limited by this, but the number of custromer sharing the connection (called 'contention ratio') the lower the contention, the faster the speed you will get. FRom memory Openreach operate on 10:1, whilst cable - if you could get it - was 6:1. THe other solution is to move where you can get a cble connection, or fibre DIRECT (not this 'Infinity' nonsense).

McKneff

I live in a town and a good way away from the exchange, ordinary surfing like Im doing now is not too bad but trying to use iplayer or record a programme is impossible. I tried to once and it took 2 hours to record 15 minutes of programme so i just abandoned it and never bothered again. Bit of a nuisance really but.........

ktothema

I live greater London and only get 4.5mbps on a good day. My parents live in the sticks and get 11mbps. Goes to show how much distance from the exchange can play too (were a lot further from our exchange than my parents are from theirs).

notbritishgas

There are a few things that could cause slow broadband, but firstly has it always been this slow or has it just happened?

The distance from the exchange (attenuation) is one of the main factors. If you post up your router stats this would give us some clue. this means going into your routers home page.

Secondly your internal wiring could cause it, to prove that plug your router into the test socket of your main jack, this is where the telephone line comes into your property and eliminates all of your own wiring. Leave it to settle down a while and then check your speed.

As someone said earlier the time of day will affect speed, when more people are using the circuit you are on the speed will diminish, this is mostly in the evening after about 5pm. The fastest time will be in the morning.

If you post up your stats this will enable us to give some more advice.

macman

You should be able to do most things with a 3MBps connections, are you sure that is what you are actually getting?
3MBps is not 'fast', but it's 60 times faster than dial up, and more than many people can get on rural exchanges.

Gordon_Hose

3Mbps is perfectly acceptable.