Broadband Speed

looking_to_save_money

slow downloads;

I rent my line from BT and use Virginmedia for 8meg BB and phone calls, but my connection is very slow when checking it shows 54mbps, any ideas why?

thanks

Browntoa

if wireless connection then you are seeing the speed of the wireless link between the router and the Laptop/Pc

somewhere in the routers admin panel it should tell you the true connection speed or try https://www.speedtest.net

Madasafish_Customer_Care

Hi Looking to Save Money,

Speeds up to 8MB are very sensitive to internal wiring. Here is a guide that I wrote earlier in the year which has some good pointers on troubleshooting your connection.

I think that if you're getting speeds of 54kbps this indicates that there is either a problem with your hardware/software set up, your internal wiring or a BT fault.

Microfilters
Check that every phone socket in your house that is in use has a microfilter fitted to it. Remember to include phone sockets that are being used for Sky TV boxes and FAX machines.

Microfilters can be problematic if you are using a faulty one. Faulty microfilters will impact your speeds and you will get disconnections. To check your microfilters to see if you’ve got a faulty one, unplug everything from all phone sockets in the house, test each filter from the test port from within your master socket by connecting to the Internet. If you get a substantially lower sync using one of the filters you’ve found your faulty one and it will need to be replaced.

This website offers advice on finding your sync using a variety of different pieces of sofware: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm

Master Socket
Internal wiring can influence the end speeds that you receive. If you are getting slower speeds than expected and you’re connecting from an extension socket, please move your set up to the master socket and see if your sync rates improve. If they do leave it there for three days to see if the speeds improve. If the speeds do improve it may be time to look at getting a wireless router or a very long ethernet cable.

A further step if you don’t see any improvement from your master socket is to connect from the test socket that exists within your master socket and see if the sync rates improve from that location. If the sync rates improve, please stay connected to the test socket for three days and see if your speeds improve. If your speeds do improve from the test socket but not from the master socket it is most likely that your internal wiring is causing the problem and you will need to get your local phone person out to fix it. Make sure you test out everything else first (such as microfilters) before you get the phone person in!

Hardware
Get up to date with the latest drivers or firmware for your broadband modem/router. Most hardware manufacturers have the latest drivers available on their websites for download; we recommend that you make sure that your drivers are up to date .

Apple Macintosh
I love Macs and I use one at home. If you’re a Mac user do not connect to the internet using a USB connection – treat yourself to a router that’s got an ethernet cable and use that to connect.

Speed Tests
In the instance all of the above doesn’t point towards the cause of the problem, you’ll need to get in touch with your ISP. Before you do, run a few speed tests at different times of day through the BT speed tester: http://speedtester.bt.com

Change in Your Sync Speeds
If your sync rates decrease, your throughput speeds will immediately decrease too. If your sync rate increases, it will take three days for your throughput speeds to increase. Go figure.

If you see an increase in your sync rate please stay connected for three days and you should see an increase in your speeds; provided that the sync rate stays at that rate or higher.

Good luck!

Kind regards,
Samara

BexTech

looking_to_save_money wrote: »

slow downloads;

I rent my line from BT and use Virginmedia for 8meg BB and phone calls, but my connection is very slow when checking it shows 54mbps, any ideas why?

thanks

Others have given details on the broadband.

Just a note on the calls package, you are only using Virgin for the free calls and routing the other calls back on BT or via 18185? as Virgin are very dearer for calls outside the free ones.

superscaper

Madasafish_Customer_Care wrote: »

Hi Looking to Save Money,

Speeds up to 8MB are very sensitive to internal wiring. Here is a guide that I wrote earlier in the year which has some good pointers on troubleshooting your connection.

I think that if you're getting speeds of 54kbps this indicates that there is either a problem with your hardware/software set up, your internal wiring or a BT fault.

The OP didn't say they were getting speeds of 54kbps. They said it was showing 54mbps, which as Browntoa pointed out means they were looking at their wireless speed not their broadband speed.

matty2767

microfilters have to be installed on sockets without devices attached to them as well.

espresso

matty2767 wrote: »

microfilters have to be installed on sockets without devices attached to them as well.

Er No they don't! Where did you get that gem from?

superscaper

espresso wrote: »

Er No they don't! Where did you get that gem from?

I suppose you should also plug something into every wall socket to stop the electricity falling out

As per espresso's shocked response, you only need microfilters on sockets where there is a broadband modem and/or phone, and of course you don't need any on extension sockets if it comes through from a main socket with a microfilter on. Ie you shouldn't end up with two microfilters along the same line.

Idiophreak

looking_to_save_money wrote: »

slow downloads;

What sort of downloads are going slow?

Just downloading documents etc from the internet?

matty2767

espresso i was only passing on what bt have told me recently when i had problems with my broadband speed. like i pointed out to him on the phone the instructions to the home hub clearly say one microfilter to every device. he said they were wrong and that bt had revised them to say a microfilter needs to be fitted to every socket whether there was a device or not.

Cricri

First off, your line is 8Mbps (that's BITS, not BYTES). Last time I checked, 54Mbps>8Mbps. So you should wonder "hooray, why do I get so much".

Secondly, as others said, 54Mbps is NOT your INTERNET speed. You are likely using WiFi 802.11g, which by definition as a maximum bandwidth of 54Mbps. Since your device shows a bandwith equal to the full 54Mbps, that leads me to the conclusion that your wifi reception is excellent. However, this is utterly irrelevant.

Similarly, 8Mbps is not the volume of data you get at every moment, but the maximum rate that you are allowed. If your connection is slow, it could be your provider, or a bad configuration of your network.

If you have more than one device, they'll share the badnwidth. So if you are aware of anyone else using your connection (kids, wife, gardener, etc), here you go. If you are not aware of that, and since you use WiFi, someone could be leeching your connection, especially if you didn't protect it, and it is also possible if it's protected (in particular with WEP). So encrypt your connection with say WPA2 and see if that helps.

If pages don't load at all, they could be blocked by your firewall or anything of the sort.