Connection speeds differing

shaggyjh

Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated, it's beginning to drive me crazy! Sorry for the long post.

By going onto samknows.co.uk i have found out that the maximum my line will hold for broadband is about 1.5Mbs.

I have moved ISP to Virgin Media (for my sins) in August and use a Dlink 520+ ADSL modem router. The router shows a connection speed of about 400kbps and upload of 400kbps also. I've used this router for years on Tiscali and it was fine.

Over the last month i have continuosly checked the connection on speedtest.net and get download speed of 150kbps and upload of 340kbps whether connected by wireless or ethernet cable to the router.

If i connect the speedtouch modem by USB to the PC the pop up box tells me i have connected at 1.7Mbs and the diagnostics show a download speed of 1700kbps, but if i check the speed via speedtest.net i get the usual 150kbps.

I know i won't get the maximum per the connection, but surely somewhere near it would be nice. I can't even run the speedtester.bt.com website as it just grinds to a halt.

The computer i can live with, but my PS3's connections speeds are download 50kbps and upload of 4kbps!!!! There is no way i can play online with these figures.

Is there anything i can do? I'd leave Virgin if possible but i can't till July unless i want to pay to leave :mad:

DatabaseError

dump the d-link if its connecting badly, and stick with the speedtouch.kitz have a bras profile page showing that if your router syncs at 400kbs your expected download would be about 250kbs, due to the bt profile system this can take many days to change. with the speedtouchs' sync of 1700kbs (1696?) your profile should raise to 1250, giving you over a meg downstream. use the bt speedtester to check your profile, if it hasn't improved in 3 days, yet the sync remains at 1696 phone your isp.
you may find you get an even better sync by connecting directly to the master socket in the BT faceplate, just remove the front of the BT master socket and you'll see another socket to plug the router and filter into.

shaggyjh

Thanks.

I have got a new router coming in the post, i will see what sort of rate it syncs at.

I tried the line noise test on the main socket last night dialling 17070 option 2 and it was silent, so hopefully that means that the actual line is ok.

I will keep the speedtouch modem plugged in for the next week and see if my speed increases.

Many thanks for your help

PaulK_3

We'll need more information to actually be able to suggest things to try, things like are you in the main socket, are there any telephone extensions on the line, if there are more than one telephone socket in use have all in-use sockets got filters on? Is the filter the first thing plugged into the wall socket?

shaggyjh

Right i have tried plugging the extension cable into the test socket on the main socket. The extension then has a filter on it with the router plugged in to this. There is a 2nd phone socket upstairs which has a filter in it at the wall with nothing plugged in.

This morning i finally was able to get a result on the speedtester.bt.com website using IE, firefox was not working for some reason.

The results were as follows: -

IP profile for your line: 350kbps
DSL - Upstream: 448kbps
Downstream: 418kbps
Actual throughput during test: 310kbps

About 6weeks ago my router was syncing at about 1700kbps. How do i go about getting it back up to somewhere near this figure again? I have reset, unplugged internet cables and such so many time, with long delays between rebooting the router but this has made no difference.

However, as i said in post #1, if i plug the speedtouch modem supplied by Virgin Media when i connected to the broadband it has a sync rate of about 1700kbps??!?

Hopefully today my new router should turn up and i can install this, will it make any difference or do i need to contact Virgin Media at 25p/min??

Many thanks

DatabaseError

you must plug the router into the faceplate, not an extension (which may be faulty). this will show you the maximum achievable rate on your line, go to Kitz for instructions on how to read the connection stats from the router, this is different to the ip profile which you posted, and post the results.
if it turns out your extension cable is causing the problems, it may be possible for you to use a wireless router connected to the faceplate from upstairs, or run cat 5 cable from a wired router to upstairs, which is a far better solution than extensions which inherently introduce noise onto the line (just cos you can't hear the noise doesnt mean its not there, at a completely different frequency to voice, and our ears cannot hear it).
also be aware that it takes a few days for a profile to rise.
just noticed you're with virgin, recently they made changes which increased the latency (pings) making game playing hard,
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Inactive

shaggyjh wrote: »

Is there anything i can do? I'd leave Virgin if possible but i can't till July unless i want to pay to leave :mad:

I would suggest that Virgin are probably the root cause of your speed problems, they have diabolical feedback at many forums, on a par with Tiscali, Talk Talk etc.

shaggyjh

Cool cheers for the help.

I've received the new router today so i'll install that tonight and put it straight into the master socket.

Linneys

I am not sure if that i am emailing to the right address or not but i wanted to give you this potential tip so that might help others.

I have recently had a cause to change my intenet provider. The new company offered me a choice of 3 plans at varying prices and connection speeds. The sales person was 'pushing me' to buy the quickest conection & most expensive plan. However, I had been told previously that my line would only take a speed of 6 mega whatevers??. I asked the sales person if i brought the faster plan /speed would that make my connection work at the top speed. The sales person then reluctantly told me it wouldn't.

:j So my tip is that it might be prudent for ALL people using broad band to check the actual speed that thier telephone line will take before they are talked into an over priced provision. This could be a HUGE saving for most people.

I hope i have not got this wrong but if i have please bin my email.
Best wishes
Linda S

shaggyjh

Last night i installed the new router which couldn't pick up the DSL signal!!

So i stuck with the DLink router. When i had a look at the sync speed in the configuration page the downstream was upto 1983kbps!!!!

Obviously when i did a test at speedtest.net the download speed was about 350kbps.

This morning i have tried the test again and my ping is down to 73ms and the download speed up to about 1450kbps, result!

I wrote a pretty peeved off email to Virgin Media a few nights ago, so maybe they have reset the IP profile.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I now need to sort out the new router, which i'll post in another thread. It's the 2nd one i've had and both don't pick up the DSL signal???