Painfully slow broadband....

joho

More of a vent than anything as I am close to throwing my (brand new) laptop across the room in temper!

We have spent nearly £600 on new laptop, new router/modem and new microfilters and today I was getting a wonderful download speed of 226kbs - thats Kbs not Mbs!

I wanted to watch something on BBC iplayer (we used to be able to with no problems) but couldn't through the TV because it runs for about 40 seconds and then loads, 40 secs then loads etc. etc.

So I put iplayer on the laptop. 6 hours 50 secs it wants to download a 1hr programme, because I couldn't watch it live on there either.

My broadband is with TalkTalk (used to be Tiscali and just never got round to changing) but line is BT. I can't register on the TalkTalk forums for assistance because they don't recognise the account number and phone number and say my account is no longer active. However, they like to continue taking my money.

I can't get to the bottom of what speed I am SUPPOSED to be receiving but I'm pretty sure I'm paying for more than 226kbs. I can't run TalkTalks own line tests because they have my old postcode and I can't change it in the account details section.

Why is nothing ever easy with those morons!?!? :eek:

Thanks for listening. If anyone has any ideas what more to do while I wait for them to come back to me about forum registration please advise.

penrhyn

Can you log on to your router and post its line statistics. You may ned to google to find the log in details of your particular make and model but here is your starter for ten.


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

BB is sold as up to x Mbps, what you will get is dependent on your distance from the exchange, although since you are on a resold BT product network congestion may also be a problem.

GeoffX

Are you connecting wirelessly to the router? If so, try using a network cable and see if that improves the speed.

cootuk

Can you connect your modemwith a lan cable direct into the port inside the master telephone socket? - that would eliminate all your internal wiring as a problem.
Have you asked neighbours what speeds they get as you might have a long line? Uswitch broadband section also has a Streetstats area where you can see other peoples speeds in your area.

joho

penrhyn wrote: »

Can you log on to your router and post its line statistics. You may ned to google to find the log in details of your particular make and model but here is your starter for ten.


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

BB is sold as up to x Mbps, what you will get is dependent on your distance from the exchange, although since you are on a resold BT product network congestion may also be a problem.

I can login to router. I'll have a goo at the stats you need.

GeoffX wrote: »

Are you connecting wirelessly to the router? If so, try using a network cable and see if that improves the speed.

Yes connecting wirelessly. I think we had the laptop connected direct to the router/modem and it didn't help, but I seem to recall trying to turn off the wireless mode, getting very confused and having to give up. So I'm not entirely sure we did it right.

cootuk wrote: »

Can you connect your modemwith a lan cable direct into the port inside the master telephone socket? - that would eliminate all your internal wiring as a problem.
Have you asked neighbours what speeds they get as you might have a long line? Uswitch broadband section also has a Streetstats area where you can see other peoples speeds in your area.

We have two master sockets (according to hubby); the modem/router is connected to one and Sky was connected to the other but we disconnected it once we were trying things to improve the BB. Both these sockets have microfilters in them. I don't know whether we have a lan cable between the router/modem and the socket or not.

Not checked immediate neighbours speeds. One much nearer the exchange has great BB with an Xbox connected permanently. Another, further away than us, has equally bad/worse service. Both different providers. Will check out Streetstats though.

I'm not very technical so words need to be simple, but thank you all for showing me some pity and trying to help!

joho

Some of the stats, I think:
ADSL
Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME
Downstream Upstream
Data rate(Kbps) 263 1017
Noise Margin 32 8
Output power(dBm) 12 8
Attenuation(dB) 16 6

I also tried changing the channel today as I read somewhere that it was likely to be the same as neighbours.

Edit: just ran the uSwitch speed test - 0.2Mbs download, 0.8Mbs upload yet it says TalkTalk is the fastest in the area with 7.5Mbs.

penrhyn

OK


Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME
Downstream Upstream
Data rate(Kbps) 263 1017
Noise Margin 32 8
Output power(dBm) 12 8
Attenuation(dB) 16 6

Um, something incredibly wrong here.
Where have you got the modem plugged in?

Can you plug it directly into the Master test socket.


PS Its not a wireless problem, its a problem between you and the exchange, you should be running between 16 and 20 odd Mbps.

joho

HI penrhyn - done that. Don't know if anything should have changed, but uSwitch speed test results are the same.

Router stats:
Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME
Downstream Upstream
Data rate(Kbps) 263 1019
Noise Margin 32 8
Output power(dBm) 12 10
Attenuation(dB) 15 7

Edit: we'll try connecting to the test socket in what we believe is another master socket tomorrow.

penrhyn

You should only have one master socket, it will be where the phone line comes into the property.
The reason to use the test socket is that extensions wired to the back of the master's removable faceplate can adversely affect the broadband signal and are eliminated in this manner.
Have you ever got a decent broadband signal or have you always had problems.
BTW Have you an alarm connected to the phone line? Are all extensions in use filtered including sky box if you have one?

joho

Morning penrhyn,

Our BB used to be okay - not top speed, but we could watch something on iPlayer. YouTube or video streaming was never very good, but not impossible like now!

I'll take a look at our sockets, but hubby seems to think we have 2 masters as we have 2 cables coming into the house. Maybe, like you suggest, one is an extension from another socket and is just running outside instead of inside.

I've got 4 filters in (as I read about using a max of 4 on a thread on here about microfilters) including the sky socket, the one where the router/modem is, one where a phone is connected and one other. We don't have an alarm connected anywhere.

Should I be asking BT to come out and check the boxes?

Can you tell me what sort of numbers I should be seeing in those router stats? Maybe then if I try our other sockets and get some different numbers we'll find one that's working better.

Really appreciate your help. Good of you to take the time.
Jo

GunJack

joho, there's a few issues here, gis a min....