internet UK speeds
my web speeds at home are a pile of total toss

I get 2.5mb download speed tops of
most days i get a meg
(I live just outside of Bristol)

Why in this day and age arent all communications
being optimised in the UK ?
isnt good communications key to building a better society ?

Can any betan than is technical actually seriously answer this
question for a everyday joe please ?
(Cov Boy, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:04, 15 replies)

*strokes 50Mb Virgin line*

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:05, closed)

It's all relative.
Without a reference, what does your number actually mean? What speed are you supposed to get?

In absolute terms, 5 years ago that kind of number would have given most of us a boner.

Eventually, most of us will get fibre-optic, and the numbers will rise. But then we'll all be streaming hi-def movies, and will still complain.

What we actually need is for these companies to stop selling 10mbps, and delivering 2.5mbps.
(username failed moderation, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:09, closed)

well yes better to be more specific
im paying for a advertised

"Truly unlimited up to 20Mb broadband"

when running speedtest I get a meg most days
and 2.5mb at about 1 o clock at night
(Cov Boy, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:15, closed)

the key words in this statement are "up to"
Firstly you are on a contention based service - typically 50:1 Secondly your phone line is too far from the exchange and/or has loads of knots in it, probably inside your house.

The word "unlimited" just means it's uncapped - it doesn't guaretee when you'll actually get your 20 megabits (which equales 2.5 mega bytes incidentally)- just that you will, eventually.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:23, closed)

thanks for the reply buffet.

i as a non technical user feel a bit cheated with the proposed "up to" and actual recieving figure
but as you say i guess eventually the speeds will increase
(Cov Boy, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:41, closed)

Simples
Copper twisted pair wasn't meant to carry anything like the bandwidth required for broadband digital communications. It was designed for analogue voice. Bell Labs. BT and countless other academics and engineers toiled for years to give you two and a half Million bits per second error free down a damp piece of wet string five miles long so that you could whinge on about it taking 10 minutes to download 3 hours of high definition porn to countless millions of other people all in the blink of an eye for micro pennies.

That do you ?
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:17, closed)

I wish clicking replies meant something.
I'm going to click it anyway.
( Pig Bodine., Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:29, closed)

This and your exchange.
If it isn't unbundled then everyone has to share the bt ipstream pipe into the exchange, which means it'll be oversubscribed and contended to fuck.

This will result in a high speed connection between your router and the exchange, but a shit download speed.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 18:23, closed)

*smugs*
BT FTTP 100meg down 15 up *full of win*
( Signify, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:19, closed)

Turn it off then turn it back on again.
( Draconacticus Reject shampoo. Demand real poo!, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:28, closed)

because ...
...BT were going to put fibreoptic cables EVERYWHERE for EVERYONE on a BT line, but after maggie sold off BT to be privatised she thought that BT would have an unfair monopoly if they could provide fibreoptic cable to everyone.

THATCHER'S BRITAIN PFAAA!
( Spunky McPunk not dead yet, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 12:46, closed)

it may be worth
Checking with your isp how long the twisted copper pair line length is and how much noise is on the line... if your quite a distance (3km + maybe etc) and/or there is lots of noise there is nothing much you or they can do.

Prod your isp to take a proper look just in case they buggered the set up or have accidentally throttled the line. It maybe that during set up when the service tried to auto negotiate what speed it should run at the software/human buggered it up.

Also look at who the isp is - most resell BT or part of the BT service. It may be the isp has a highly contended interconnect with BT. Although most isp's caveat their service by saying upto 50:1 or 20:1 contention you should never be sharing bandwidth at those levels - 2:1, 4:1, 5:1 is quite usual if you experience any contention at all.

google "samknows" and have a dig around on that site and good luck
( sutit only the crumbliest, flakiest posts, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 13:09, closed)

^^^ This
Also, if you get a few dropouts, what ADSL will do is reconnect at a lower speed next time.

The speed of a new line basically "ramps up" over a few days until it finds the best speed it can achieve without dropping out.

If a problem develops with your line later, noise etc, causing it to drop out frequently, then this algorithm will kick in again and you can end up with quite a low "cap", even after the original fault has been fixed. Your ISP can remove/reset this for you and it will (hopefully) start ramping up again.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 13:36, closed)

Give us your phone number and postcode and we'll check it for you.

(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Fri 23 Sep 2011, 13:32, closed)

Can I have your name, DOB and mother's maiden name as well?

(Vigilante Man weeps because you're stupid., Fri 23 Sep 2011, 22:49, closed)