Yet Another Cycling Forum

General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: andyoxon on 17 November, 2010, 11:37:01 pm

Title: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 17 November, 2010, 11:37:01 pm
Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test (http://www.speedtest.net/)

It's got faster here over the last year... used to be 4.5Mb/s for ages.  We're with TalkTalk (OpalT)

(http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/46733/2697902840101458909S600x600Q85.jpg)

still not quite fast enough for streaming HD video though...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 18 November, 2010, 07:13:23 am
Mine is

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035047750.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Sheme the upload speed is so slow!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tiermat on 18 November, 2010, 07:21:07 am
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_qiccGaSOyOs/TOTTp_49KMI/AAAAAAAAAsg/obm20qtGdjE/adsl.jpg)

Not at home ATM, so this a shot from my router, also on Opal
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Polar Bear on 18 November, 2010, 07:43:32 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035067644.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Shows numbers slightly less than the broadband connection page of my router modem shows.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 18 November, 2010, 07:58:42 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035078427.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Andrij on 18 November, 2010, 08:02:07 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035081949.png)

 :P
 
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 November, 2010, 08:47:22 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035115377.png)

Which is a lot better than it was earlier this year.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jacomus on 18 November, 2010, 08:51:36 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035119067.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

This is the result for my office. We pay for a 10 by 10 uncontested line.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gus on 18 November, 2010, 08:52:05 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035118437.png)

 :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: LEE on 18 November, 2010, 08:56:53 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035121723.png)

Virgin (domestic) 10Meg

Note.  I was struggling to get 4Meg download until Virgin sent an engineer to swap out my ancient NTL modem with a new Virgin one, at which point I started getting what I pay for.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Priddy on 18 November, 2010, 08:59:44 am
(http://www.richardpriddy.co.uk/images/Capture.PNG)

This is our office speed, on a good day. Rather disappointing for a Web Development company...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Woofage on 18 November, 2010, 09:05:55 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035128612.png)

Here was me thinking our d/l speed was pretty good. It's clearly only average...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 18 November, 2010, 09:09:06 am
Mine is

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035047750.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Sheme the upload speed is so slow!

That's the nature of ADSL I am afraid. The A is Asymmetric.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Rhys W on 18 November, 2010, 09:10:37 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035133581.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: vorsprung on 18 November, 2010, 09:16:35 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035137927.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

That's work, Zen Internet
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 18 November, 2010, 09:19:03 am
Work:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035140449.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 18 November, 2010, 09:22:46 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035140656.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Not bad for rural Scotland. Jealous of some of the speeds posted here though :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 18 November, 2010, 09:24:03 am
Virgin (cheapest one)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035143939.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 18 November, 2010, 09:54:08 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035081949.png)

 :P
 

SOMEBODY is plugged in down at Telehouse.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 18 November, 2010, 09:56:42 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035171509.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

;)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: numbnuts on 18 November, 2010, 10:14:53 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035185131.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 18 November, 2010, 10:41:11 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035171509.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

;)

Not domestic I take it.   :)

As I understand it with phone line BB, the limits on speed are mainly distance to exchange and occasionally hardware e.g. as in Lee's modem.  We're about 1.5-2mls from the exchange, and have a relatively new modem so ~8Mb is probably reasonably good for us.

We also inherited cable with the house, so what kind of speeds would be possible with this in comparison?


Andy
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 18 November, 2010, 10:47:05 am
Mine is

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035047750.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Sheme the upload speed is so slow!

That's the nature of ADSL I am afraid. The A is Asymmetric.

In our case it is Asymptomatic.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 18 November, 2010, 11:28:10 am
Not domestic I take it.   :)

No but I'm spending more time at work than I'd like to, so it's beginning to feel like home. Holibobs tomorrow for a long weekend, plus only 2 days work next week. :)

A more sedate ~6mbps and 0.5mbps at home, sometimes it synchs at 10mbps and 1mbps but it's not very stable when it does that.

I stopped noticing so much when I moved back to the BT Homehub (to get on BT Fon) as it doesn't have the same monitoring/SNMP capabilities as my old ADSL router...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 18 November, 2010, 11:32:00 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035247348.png)

Which is pretty much what my traffic shaping is configured for (so VOIP and other small packets get priority over HTTP etc).  If I could be arsed to turn it off, the BRAS rate is at 16M, so I should see the best part of 16M/1M

Line currently synced at *peers* 18.9M/1.0M.  I'm a little over 300m from the exchange as the crow flies.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 18 November, 2010, 11:49:23 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035262690.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

A fast speed for me on wonderful BT in Londonton...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 18 November, 2010, 12:03:39 pm
Virgin via Maidenhead is pretty consistent. I just got 9.85/0.47. I'm paying for 10.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: 2_Flat_Erics on 18 November, 2010, 03:52:16 pm
I have never had total faith in one shot online speed testers. You really need to run the test several times at different times of day. Also use several different test sites and then average them all to get an idea of your true speed. If the site is paticularly busy you can get an unrealistically low speed and at other times you may see what appears an unrealistically high result.

Case in point...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035499447.png)

and five minutes later

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035513253.png)

and again a few minutes later

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035523522.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I'm on a virgin 10Mb link. I know that the test can be a little off depending on how many bits the tester thinks there are in a byte and bytes in a Kb etc but 118Mb off is just trying to massage my ego  ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 18 November, 2010, 03:59:50 pm
Whereas I repeated my test 10 minutes after the first and had results within about 1% of my initial test...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 18 November, 2010, 04:02:54 pm
A different flavour of cr*p...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035544752.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 18 November, 2010, 04:11:05 pm
It's probably a badly written test that's cached the stuff on the download test - hence the unrealistically fast results of subsequent tests.

It's not buffering.

If you look closely, the test reports the connection speed as the speed it was reading right at the end of the test, not the average over the entire test.

Also, the speed reported is the speed at which it is read off the TCP socket once received by the computer (it obviously has to have arrived down the wire to be read) but it means that if you make your computer busy enough during the early parts of the test program execution then you can get an artificially high reading once the computer is free enough to catch up with the data that has already been received by it.

This, coupled with the first bit of detail means that artificially high scores are easy to get.

If I repeat the test 5 or 6 times I get results anywhere from 15 to 120.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gruff on 18 November, 2010, 04:19:32 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035559580.png)

£12 a month, truly unlimited downloads, with no installation fee, first 3 months free, and £50 cashback for signing up in the first place. I've not ever seen a deal even remotely that good from anyone else.

O2 (rebadged Be network).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 18 November, 2010, 06:10:27 pm
Work:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035140449.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Home:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035719761.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: microphonie on 18 November, 2010, 06:29:17 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035738044.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


Pretty much the same as it's been whenever I've tested the line over the last 2-3 years.

It'll do for what I need the pc for. Processing power is what my pc is lacking - it takes an age to boot-up these days.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 18 November, 2010, 07:37:36 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035840349.png)

For which we pay a lot.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 18 November, 2010, 07:53:59 pm
Peak time

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035862221.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

It'll be faster later on.



I was right - 5 minutes later
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035870404.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hugo15 on 18 November, 2010, 08:32:09 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035907041.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Hmmm....... not very fast  :(  Although we aren't out in the sticks we live miles from the exchange.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 18 November, 2010, 08:43:27 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035907041.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Hmmm....... not very fast  :(  Although we aren't out in the sticks we live miles from the exchange.

You would be better off with a couple of plastic cups at each end of a damp piece of string!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 18 November, 2010, 08:44:29 pm
You know how when you get into the countryside, you can smell shit? Don't worry about it, it's just the smell of FAIL out here in the wilds:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035920841.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 19 November, 2010, 08:52:19 am
Home:-

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1036505481.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

That's with the BB synched at 6654kbps and 1192kbps.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 19 November, 2010, 09:55:03 am
Apart from Chris S and Hugo,
I HATE YOU ALL!
I'M GOING TO THKWEAM AND THKWEAM AND MAKE MYTHELF THICK!

IT'TH NOT FAIR!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nicknack on 19 November, 2010, 09:57:35 am
Courtesy of Virgin

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1036558027.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: LEE on 19 November, 2010, 10:13:17 am
In practical terms though, where do higher download speeds stop being an advantage?

You are after all dependent on the bandwidth of the remote server, Photobucket, YACF, ITunes or whatever.

A high bandwidth in the office may allow 100 people to each grab a slice of a 100Meg connection but you may still be downloading from a server with a 10Meg connection.  

Having never tried downloading, say, a 10MB podcast using >100Mb connection, is it really 10x quicker than a 10Mb connection?

I'm surprised to see a Web development company with such poor bandwidth, I'd have thought that sort of performance could have an adverse effect on your business.

I cancelled my free trial of 20Mb (18Mb donwload speed) and reverted to my 10Mb because I couldn't see any significant difference.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Woofage on 19 November, 2010, 10:14:09 am
Bit quicker this morning ;D

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1036559249.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris (was scych) on 19 November, 2010, 10:28:26 am
Apart from Chris S and Hugo,
I HATE YOU ALL!
I'M GOING TO THKWEAM AND THKWEAM AND MAKE MYTHELF THICK!

IT'TH NOT FAIR!

I had the same issue with BT. Very slow. The contention ratio is too high (too many people trying to use the same bandwidth at the same time. If you can get O2 (Be Broadband) at your exchange then consider changing to them. They use ADSL2+ which offers faster upload and download speeds. They're also very good at customer service. A lot better than BT ever were with me.

In the new house we were quoted by BT as being able to get up to 1 Mb/s download speeds. We went with Be and the router is currently showing 5 Mb/s (realistically it's 4 - 4.5 Mb/s at peak times).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 19 November, 2010, 11:00:56 am
Quote
The bad news: BE broadband is not technically-compatible with the type of landline you currently have.

Which is always the case. Even if they have equipment in the exchange that has briefly sniffed the future, I appear to be doomed to 3Mbps by a length of string cheese stretched between our house and exchange.

Also appears to give us the choice of BT, BT, or BT. I'm like a cream trim phone too, please.

And the fucking laughing Virgin crowd can stopping pushing leaflets promising broadband speeds faster than light itself through my letterbox. Not to me, you can't, so please desist or I replace my string cheese wiring with Richard Branson's stretched out entrails. Let's see how many megabits per second that handles.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 19 November, 2010, 11:05:02 am
O2 are weasels with a download limit that isn't in their paperwork or selling material. This on a premium account that was costing way more than the base level one.

Singularly unhelpful too.

And the f'wits still send me survey links asking me to rate their broadband service.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 19 November, 2010, 11:51:36 am
In practical terms though, where do higher download speeds stop being an advantage?

You are after all dependent on the bandwidth of the remote server, Photobucket, YACF, ITunes or whatever.

A high bandwidth in the office may allow 100 people to each grab a slice of a 100Meg connection but you may still be downloading from a server with a 10Meg connection.  

Having never tried downloading, say, a 10MB podcast using >100Mb connection, is it really 10x quicker than a 10Mb connection?

I'm surprised to see a Web development company with such poor bandwidth, I'd have thought that sort of performance could have an adverse effect on your business.

I cancelled my free trial of 20Mb (18Mb donwload speed) and reverted to my 10Mb because I couldn't see any significant difference.

Yes.

A couple of reasons:

1 - You can multitask without it impacting anything
2 - There are some servers out there you can hit out of peak time and get a full-bore download. It is really quite awesome to see.
3 - Oh yes. Bragging rights

(My 50mb speed is at home, courtesy of Virgin Cable)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: 2_Flat_Erics on 19 November, 2010, 12:59:55 pm
In practical terms though, where do higher download speeds stop being an advantage?

You are after all dependent on the bandwidth of the remote server, Photobucket, YACF, ITunes or whatever.

A high bandwidth in the office may allow 100 people to each grab a slice of a 100Meg connection but you may still be downloading from a server with a 10Meg connection.  

Having never tried downloading, say, a 10MB podcast using >100Mb connection, is it really 10x quicker than a 10Mb connection?

I'm surprised to see a Web development company with such poor bandwidth, I'd have thought that sort of performance could have an adverse effect on your business.

I cancelled my free trial of 20Mb (18Mb donwload speed) and reverted to my 10Mb because I couldn't see any significant difference.

The speed you get to download something at is only ever going to be as fast as the slowest link between you and the server your downloading from. Realistically these days the slowest part of the link is often the last hop between your provider and you.

For normal day to day web browsing and average emails an 8 or 10Mb link is more than enough. Once you start downloading full DVD's and streaming high def video then you start to feel the benefit of higher bandwidths. The question to ask is does it really matter to me that it takes an hour or two to download a full DVD or do I really need it in a few minutes? Personally I did the same as you and took a step backwards from 20Mb to 10Mb because on the few occasions I do download a large file then a few extra minutes is not going to be the end of the world.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 19 November, 2010, 01:58:12 pm
In practical terms though, where do higher download speeds stop being an advantage?

Assuming an uncontended link, and simple http-style downloads, I reckon somewhere in the region of 10Mb.  In practice I only regularly manage to saturate our 16Mb connection using bittorrent (so lots of downloads from different places in parallel) or the IPv6 Ubuntu mirror.

Of course the next big thing will be streaming HD video, which needs a little more than that to work comfortably.

Of course, add more users, or a requirement to keep some bandwidth free for phone calls or other latency-sensitive uses, and more speed becomes beneficial.

In practical terms there also tends to be a correlation between higher download speed and higher upload speed when it comes to commercially available services, so often the cheapest way to get more upload is to pay for more download than you otherwise need.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 19 November, 2010, 03:33:32 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1036890910.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

That was a bit of surprise. I tried it the other night and it was ~3annabit I think. Most we ever had from shiTiscali was about 2, so I was a bit startled to see over 6!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: SteveC on 19 November, 2010, 06:06:00 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037088653.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I suppose it is supposed to be asymmetric!

S
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andygates on 19 November, 2010, 06:14:32 pm
 :o

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037094623.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

BT in the boonies.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: SteveC on 19 November, 2010, 06:18:08 pm
:o


BT in the boonies.
Nah...Crediton's the centre of civilisation, mate!

((Not jealous, not at all...  >:( ))
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 19 November, 2010, 06:31:07 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037088653.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I suppose it is supposed to be asymmetric!

S

 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 19 November, 2010, 06:40:13 pm
Apart from Chris S and Hugo,
I HATE YOU ALL!
I'M GOING TO THKWEAM AND THKWEAM AND MAKE MYTHELF THICK!

IT'TH NOT FAIR!

I had the same issue with BT. Very slow. The contention ratio is too high (too many people trying to use the same bandwidth at the same time. If you can get O2 (Be Broadband) at your exchange then consider changing to them. They use ADSL2+ which offers faster upload and download speeds. They're also very good at customer service. A lot better than BT ever were with me.

I'm not convinced that contention is the issue. My connection speed is not significantly faster at 2-3 am (my partner's keen on astronomy so I may be at my pooter at silly o'clock.)

BT give me a good landline deal and are supposedly installing fibre by March 2011. I'm on a rolling contract so they have me somewhat captive. I'll see how things go in the spring and march if there's no improvement.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: PeteB99 on 19 November, 2010, 06:42:52 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037132108.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


Chester

 :sick:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Pingu on 19 November, 2010, 06:43:35 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1036890910.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

That was a bit of surprise. I tried it the other night and it was ~3annabit I think. Most we ever had from shiTiscali was about 2, so I was a bit startled to see over 6!

Back to reality:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037136956.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gruff on 19 November, 2010, 07:05:23 pm
O2 are weasels with a download limit that isn't in their paperwork or selling material. This on a premium account that was costing way more than the base level one.

Singularly unhelpful too.

And the f'wits still send me survey links asking me to rate their broadband service.

That's not really an O2 limit, that's a BT limit being passed on down the line to you.

If you are connected directly to O2 equipment at an unbundled phone exchange, then O2 don't enforce any kind of download limit. I'm sure they must have a "fair use" clause written in somewhere, but it's not applied. I can download literally hundreds of giabytes a month without so much as a murmur from O2, and this is on a base £12 a month package (used to be £10!).

Where a customer is not within range of an O2 unbundled exchange, all O2 can do is rebrand and re-sell the same woeful BT wholesale based offering that so many isp's are stuck with, hence the crap prices and crap download limits (that product is called O2 Home Access). In those circumstances the O2 offering is nothing special at all, being essentially a generic BT bundle.

But, if you can get the true O2 network offering, their value/performance is head and shoulders above anything else I've seen.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 19 November, 2010, 07:39:40 pm
I'm not convinced that contention is the issue. My connection speed is not significantly faster at 2-3 am (my partner's keen on astronomy so I may be at my pooter at silly o'clock.)

AAISP's monitoring (http://www.aaisp.net.uk/kb-broadband-cqm.html) can (amongst other things) detect exchange contention on the BT wholesale lines.  It does happen from time to time, but at a fairly low level and not usually for very long (it tends to be the result of a fault).  The vast majority of exchanges don't have contention issues.

More likely is contention on the backhaul from the BT network to the ISP's systems.  If the ISP isn't buying enough capacity in advance (BT requires them to do it in advance), that can make things go nasty fairly quickly.  However, I suspect the sort of ISPs who are likely to be stingy with capacity are also likely to be using aggressive traffic shaping, and capable of managing the issue that way.

In my experience contention is usually only an issue on cable connections, where the design of the network is such that contention happens on a much more local level.  Recipe for doom if you're on a street inhabited by students or young professionals, who tend to be high bandwidth users at roughly the same times of day.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 19 November, 2010, 07:45:51 pm
If you are connected directly to O2 equipment at an unbundled phone exchange, then O2 don't enforce any kind of download limit.

Unbundling is, like Broadband was originally, being rolled out in places where there are already things like Cable - it is far better to provide competing fast internet in two or three varieties in a few places than to look at overall coverage across the country, isn't it.

We are apparently slated for unbundling in December next year.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 19 November, 2010, 07:49:00 pm
Unbundling is, like Broadband was originally, being rolled out in places where there are already things like Cable - it is far better to provide competing fast internet in two or three varieties in a few places than to look at overall coverage across the country, isn't it.

See also: Fibre To The Cabinet.  Could make all the difference in bandwidth-starved rural areas, but they're rolling it out in the more profitable well-served areas first.   :facepalm:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: De Sisti on 19 November, 2010, 09:34:32 pm
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1004/5190661324_bf7e8605df.jpg)

Two hours later and the speed had dropped by more than half :-\
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: dave r on 19 November, 2010, 11:36:54 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037447533.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
o2 home broadband standard, twelve and a half quid a month. I thought it would show more speed than that, perhaps it will at another time of day.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 20 November, 2010, 11:04:59 am
Since our router is currently in Himself's study upstairs, where there are several old bits of kit best of with ethernet cabling, it would make sense for any new hub also to be situated there and hard wired.
Our master socket is in the hall, which contains a hatstand, bicycle, numerous bags and materials awaiting recycling. There's little space for computer kit there.
I think BT have offered to fit most of this free as I'm a mug Loyal Customer.
We don't do TV or games but a little more speed and stability would be welcome, just for YouTube and news videos and Facebook...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 20 November, 2010, 11:09:41 am
Well, it's consistent...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037946302.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: SandyV on 20 November, 2010, 11:14:33 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037949406.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feline on 20 November, 2010, 11:20:24 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037955894.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

No real choice of supplier here the exchange has not been upgraded for high speed BB
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: PaulR on 20 November, 2010, 11:20:44 am
What's with the Carphone Warehouse thing? ???

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037955436.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: bobb on 20 November, 2010, 12:34:48 pm
Pretty rubbish seeing as I'm no more than about 400 metres from the exchange as the telephone line flies.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1038019347.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

So if I go for BT Infinity (which I believe I can get) does this mean I can't connect wirelessly with my laptop or that it will just be a bit shit? Other PCs in the house are wired up, so that's not a problem.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: FatBloke on 20 November, 2010, 01:23:51 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1038069365.png)

Well that's cheered me up!  :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: bobb on 20 November, 2010, 03:03:54 pm
No you can connect wirelessly it's just that they are saying that the whole thing is dragged down to the wireless connection speed and that if two or more computers connect wirelessly the link is in effect shared. As I understand it one computer connected wirelessly should broad brush be the same as a wired connection.

AndyC

Ta. It will be interesting to do the test if I go ahead and get it....
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 20 November, 2010, 03:21:47 pm
To those of you considering BT Infinity, please be aware that, as with ADSL, you can get the same wholesale fibre-to-the-cabinet product (http://www.aaisp.net/broadband-FC.html) via other, more competent, ISPs than BT retail.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: dave r on 20 November, 2010, 05:19:31 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1037447533.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
o2 home broadband standard, twelve and a half quid a month. I thought it would show more speed than that, perhaps it will at another time of day.


I got that result last night and got a slightly faster one this afternoon
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1038339073.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I also did the ping test this afternoon, it recons my line quality is very good.

(http://www.pingtest.net/result/28520716.png) (http://www.pingtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gruff on 20 November, 2010, 05:41:46 pm
The broadband availability checker at Sam Knows is a very good place to get info about what's available to you at your exchange:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker)

You can also use their exchange mapper to locate your phone exchange exactly and check your distance to it etc.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyH on 21 November, 2010, 08:47:22 am
I've had ADSL since around 2000, when it was 1/2Mb downstream and rather less upstream. When we moved from Poole to Blandford 4 years ago I had to tell talk talk to limit my connection to 2Mb downstream because it fell over every time the router tried to connect faster.

Just ran the test a few times and am now getting 7032Kbps downstream and 758 up. More than fast enough for us and really quite pleasing for our location  :) Still with talk talk, and never have a problem.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: MSeries on 21 November, 2010, 09:01:10 am
. One of the selling points of infinity is that families with 2-3 computers can all enjoy fast BB however the website suggest that wireless connection of these to the hub would prevent full benefit. Thus Ethernet from the PC to the Hub is their chosen method of connection which rather misses the point.
I suspect what they are trying to point out is that currently (without Infinity) the slowest part of the link from wireless PC to website is not the wireless but probably the broadband. As broadband has improved, the speed of the wireless is becoming a governing factor. In any scenario, they whole thing is always going to be no faster than the slowest component, it seems they are implying that the slowest component is now not the broad band but the wireless.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Biggsy on 21 November, 2010, 10:47:23 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1039145058.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Biggsy on 21 November, 2010, 10:56:43 am
The broadband availability checker at Sam Knows is a very good place to get info about what's available to you at your exchange:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker)

Handy, thanks.

It says for me: "However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection".

Is that just because I currently have an ADSL connection - that needs unlocking (or whatever they call it) before I can sign up with another provider?  The BT phone line is currently just used for the phone and Virgin broadband.  I hope it doesn't mean I have no choice besides Virgin.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 21 November, 2010, 11:03:11 am
It just means you already have an ADSL service connected. You can switch to whichever ISP you want.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gruff on 21 November, 2010, 11:03:35 am
It says for me: "However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection".

Is that just because I currently have an ADSL connection - that needs unlocking (or whatever they call it) before I can sign up with another provider?

Yes, i think so.  You can only have one *dsl service on a line at a time, so I guess there's a flag against each database entry showing if someone is already providing a service on each line.

Wouldn't stop you migrating to another provider though.

Incidently, if anyone is thinking of moving to O2, you can get £50 cash back (in addition to the first 3 months free) by going via Quidco.com.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Biggsy on 21 November, 2010, 11:08:47 am
Thanks.

Actually SamKnows doesn't list Virgin Media as being available for my area - but that's my current provider - so it looks like Sam doesn't know everything.

I'm thinking about changing because Virgin's customer service has been appalling for me.  The final straw was a bloke from the complaints department ringing me up to explain a cockup.  He wasn't interested in suggestions for improvements and several times used the words "that's just how it is".  It's ironic that presumably his job is to make customers feel better about the service, when actually he made me feel shit.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Gruff on 21 November, 2010, 11:20:53 am
Actually SamKnows doesn't list Virgin Media as being available for my area - but that's my current provider - so it looks like Sam doesn't know everything.

Well, you've indicated you're using Virgin's adsl service, so I assume you're not in a Virgin *cable* area, which would explain why Samknows doesn't list it as available to you. If you're getting Virgin dsl it's just a repackaged version of BT wholesale, and Samknows doesn't attempt to list all the isp's in the land who can offer that on each phone line.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Biggsy on 21 November, 2010, 11:23:27 am
Oh I see, thanks.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 21 November, 2010, 11:45:15 am
Maybe someone with a technical hat can explain why, despite my exchange (Sydenham in SE London) appearing to have suitable cabinets with an appropriate number of flashing LEDs that in theory can provide 20 Mbps, I'm perpetually wallowing through the doldrums of 3 Mbps? I mean, I peeked through the window and they have all sorts of different colour flashing lights. If Captain Kirk had that many flickering lights, we'd be breathing dilithium fumes and he'd be so far thataway that he'd be in the next galaxy but one charming some suspiciously human looking space lady out of her dress. Me, I'm struggling, watching talking kittens buffer. Shiny techno-future, my arse. I don't need sunglasses for this shit. Still waiting for my hover car too.

All seems to come down the string cheese telephone line, which allegedly is copper, and I'm 2 kilometres from the exchange. Possibly the electrons in the wires are scared of the concrete wrong-o-saurs at the bottom of Crystal Palace park. I'd ask BT, but you know how that goes.

In fact, the following should be available.

BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
BT Wholesale SDSL
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
Bulldog LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
Tiscali LLU
Tiscali TV (via Tiscali LLU)
Orange LLU (Formerly Wanadoo)
Virgin Media (Cable)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 21 November, 2010, 12:18:59 pm
Samknows rattled me off a list very similar to ian's above.
Despite paying for BT Total, I get less than 2.3 here in NW London.

I'm holding out for Infinity...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Andrij on 21 November, 2010, 07:15:21 pm
I forgot to check at home before I left, but I've just run the test here at my parents' place here in Yankland.  I'm using my laptop, wireless:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1039666962.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
 
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 21 November, 2010, 11:20:03 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1039890767.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Shame the cable modem is flakey. It seems Virgin anticipated it being flakey as they've conveniently supplied a switch on the power cable to make it easy to power cycle.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 22 November, 2010, 02:35:34 am
Shame the cable modem is flakey. It seems Virgin anticipated it being flakey as they've conveniently supplied a switch on the power cable to make it easy to power cycle.

That's handy.  If you moan at support, will they provide a watchdog monkey to frobnicate it when the connection goes down?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Polar Bear on 22 November, 2010, 06:59:44 am
Apart from Chris S and Hugo,
I HATE YOU ALL!
I'M GOING TO THKWEAM AND THKWEAM AND MAKE MYTHELF THICK!

IT'TH NOT FAIR!

I have to say that we got a similarly shite service from BT.   We got truly awful customer service when we decided to change to O2 which comes through Be Unlimited, but, the speeds have nearly quadrupled to

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1040199308.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

All that needed to be done was plumbing at the which BT took days to do.   I could never not recommend BT for broadband nor customer service enough.

/Edit:  Oh, we pay £7.50 a month for the 'up to 8 mbit' service, approximately one third of what we used to pay BT for the apparently same service but never ever received.  
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 22 November, 2010, 07:02:05 pm
Shame the cable modem is flakey. It seems Virgin anticipated it being flakey as they've conveniently supplied a switch on the power cable to make it easy to power cycle.

That's handy.  If you moan at support, will they provide a watchdog monkey to frobnicate it when the connection goes down?

My dad often does it. Does that count?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 22 November, 2010, 07:23:25 pm
Well, having called every supplier listed as being LLU or somesuch in my telephone exchange, I can safely say none of this fabulous technology will make any difference to me, since the I am doomed until the very end of time to having BT deliver their precious cargo of telephony electrons by horse and cart.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 22 November, 2010, 07:49:01 pm
Well, having called every supplier listed as being LLU or somesuch in my telephone exchange, I can safely say none of this fabulous technology will make any difference to me, since the I am doomed until the very end of time to having BT deliver their precious cargo of telephony electrons by horse and cart.

Will your area get Infinity soonish?

Here is tonight's gem. You've got to admit my speed is rock steady...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1041008689.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 23 November, 2010, 10:20:58 am

Will your area get Infinity soonish?


September 2011. Hot on the heels of electricity and running water.

Of course, as I have noted, the exchange getting another constellation of flickering LEDs may have little effect on me. I won't hold my breath. Not only does it involve upgrading the exchange, but my successful navigation through the Stygian mists of the BT call centre experience, and the confluence of fates that will somehow result in the miraculous appearance of a competent BT engineer on my doorstep.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mike on 23 November, 2010, 11:31:24 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1041837226.png)

I quite like vispa too, they're nice people when you speak to them. The main frustration is when the network dies over the weekend or at night, as their helpdesk is only available daytimes and half day on saturday (I think - it might be a bit better now)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: spesh on 23 November, 2010, 11:48:21 am
Since Tiscali got Borged by TalkTalk, my download speed's gone up to a claimed 8Mb/s give or take 0.3Mb/s maximum, which drops by around 1Mb/s during the evening.

I say "claimed" because speedtest.net returns a download speed around 1Mb/s lower than what the DSL monitoring stuff in the systray reports.

The flip side of getting faster intertubes is that the connection appears to have got more flakey since the assimilation. This first manifested itself as the modem dropping the connection at around 7pm, regular as clockwork, but it's now happening at random intervals...  :-\
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 23 November, 2010, 12:41:50 pm
I say "claimed" because speedtest.net returns a download speed around 1Mb/s lower than what the DSL monitoring stuff in the systray reports.

That's entirely normal - the speed being measured by speedtest.net is that between you and their server. You might get better results from a different speedtest.net server.

The speed being reported in the systray will be the speed at which the ADSL device has synchronised with the exchange.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 23 November, 2010, 01:04:19 pm

Will your area get Infinity soonish?


September 2011. Hot on the heels of electricity and running water.

Of course, as I have noted, the exchange getting another constellation of flickering LEDs may have little effect on me. I won't hold my breath. Not only does it involve upgrading the exchange, but my successful navigation through the Stygian mists of the BT call centre experience, and the confluence of fates that will somehow result in the miraculous appearance of a competent BT engineer on my doorstep.

I'll probably try to brave this in the spring and report back here.
If things get out of hand, we might prevail upon Brent Cyclists OpenReach engineer member, but we try to avoid mixing business with pleasure.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 23 November, 2010, 01:32:52 pm
My mentor at work has been telling me the sorry tale of how he only gets 0.25Mb download. He phoned BT and they said that was about all he could get. I suggested mobile broadband might be a better option for him - true?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 23 November, 2010, 01:48:14 pm
Most mobile broadband is S-L-O-W and enormously dependent on the precise area.
The telcos have maps showing coverage of GPRS (akin to dial-up in speed) and 3G (a lot better but sometimes flaky). These are optimistic unless you prefer to surf outdoors, which must be delightful in an Aberdonian winter...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 23 November, 2010, 05:17:56 pm
My mentor at work has been telling me the sorry tale of how he only gets 0.25Mb download. He phoned BT and they said that was about all he could get. I suggested mobile broadband might be a better option for him - true?

There's a trick he can try that may well help. Get him to call 150 from the line concerned and select the automated line test. Doing an automated line test causes the exchange to increase the gain on the line, thereby improving the signal to noise ratio and this may well improve his connection speed even if the line test finds no fault. Of course, if a fault is discovered, then BT have to come and sort that out anyway.

The gain is (or used to be when I worked for an ISP five years ago) left at the higher setting after the test, but may be reduced again at a later date, at which point he can do another line test assuming it helped the first time.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: 2_Flat_Erics on 23 November, 2010, 06:07:49 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1041837226.png)

I quite like vispa too, they're nice people when you speak to them. The main frustration is when the network dies over the weekend or at night, as their helpdesk is only available daytimes and half day on saturday (I think - it might be a bit better now)



Vispa used to be a virtual ISP. i.e. they had no infrastructure of their own. They were just resellers for another ISP called Your Communications. When Your Communications was taken over by Thus the bods at Vista took their business elsewhere. I don't know if they are still just a virtual ISP or if they have invested in their own infrastucture. If they are still virtual then you could probably get support out of hours from the company that actually carries the connection.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 24 November, 2010, 12:23:09 am
I say "claimed" because speedtest.net returns a download speed around 1Mb/s lower than what the DSL monitoring stuff in the systray reports.

That's entirely normal - the speed being measured by speedtest.net is that between you and their server. You might get better results from a different speedtest.net server.

The speed being reported in the systray will be the speed at which the ADSL device has synchronised with the exchange.

You also have to allow for the various encapsulation overheads and the rate limiting at the BRAS (http://www.aaisp.net.uk/kb-broadband-how-atm.html), which is usually set to an integer number of megabits below whatever your average sync rate was 48 hours ago (or something of that nature).  Your ISP can find out the current BRAS rate from BTs automated systems, but very few of them pass this information on to the customer.  The BRAS rate tweaking algorithm can occasionally get stuck at a stupid value, requiring that the ISP give BT a prod with a metaphorical stout stick.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 24 November, 2010, 12:25:06 am
Of course, as I have noted, the exchange getting another constellation of flickering LEDs may have little effect on me. I won't hold my breath. Not only does it involve upgrading the exchange, but my successful navigation through the Stygian mists of the BT call centre experience, and the confluence of fates that will somehow result in the miraculous appearance of a competent BT engineer on my doorstep.

I'll probably try to brave this in the spring and report back here.
If things get out of hand, we might prevail upon Brent Cyclists OpenReach engineer member, but we try to avoid mixing business with pleasure.

This is where an ISP with a member of staff whose unofficial job title is "BT slayer" comes in.  Seriously.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 24 November, 2010, 11:03:47 am
This is where an ISP with a member of staff whose unofficial job title is "BT slayer" comes in.  Seriously.

I used to do that job occasionally. I was once assigned the task of getting an ADSL line provisioned on a beach for a Radio 1 weekend even - on the Friday. BT had had all week to do it and hadn't.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Snakehips on 24 November, 2010, 12:56:39 pm
Woe is me ..............

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1043336558.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Snake
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wombat on 24 November, 2010, 09:53:03 pm
Not so woe as earlier in the week. virgin seems to have woken up.  Not far off 10Mbit/sec as claimed

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1044030818.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Rhys W on 11 December, 2010, 11:07:34 pm
I thought things were slow round here and I find that it's been consistently down to 5 MB/s the last few days. Just checked what I pay Virgin for - it's 20MB/s!

 >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: YahudaMoon on 11 December, 2010, 11:28:07 pm
Mine says 'Speed :54.0 Mbps' is that good ? Im not very good with computer stuff.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: YahudaMoon on 11 December, 2010, 11:43:46 pm
I think it means 054.0 ???
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: liam_whippet on 11 December, 2010, 11:55:29 pm
Have you by any chance got a wireless laptop?  8)

Cos that sounds like the speed of the wireless between a laptop and the router/modem; rather than the speed of the wire between the router/modem and the phone exchange.  ;)

I think you need to visit the speedtest.net site to check the second one.  :)

FWIW my wireless claims to run at 130.0Mbps, but the BB is just under 2MB..  :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dez on 12 December, 2010, 12:23:48 am
Mine says 'Speed :54.0 Mbps' is that good ? Im not very good with computer stuff.

Your IP address indicates that you're on PlusNet. As far as I know, they only offer normal ADSL services - up to 8Mbit. As suggested above, I think you're just seeing the speed at which your computer is connected to your wireless access point. Your ADSL router's web interface (at http://192.168.0.1 (http://192.168.0.1) or http://10.0.0.138 (http://10.0.0.138) perhaps?) will tell you at what speed it has synchronised with the DSLAM at your local BT exchange and speedtest.net (http://speedtest.net) will give you an idea of the real-world speeds you're likely to achieve.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: YahudaMoon on 12 December, 2010, 12:51:02 am
@ Dez & liam_whippet . What !!! Do you both work for the secret police ? Talk about big brother ! yes I'm on a wireless unit and yes Im with plusnet. Amazing. I will try and find out my real speed without breakin this thing. Thanks.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 12 December, 2010, 06:58:49 am
Mine says 'Speed :54.0 Mbps' is that good ? Im not very good with computer stuff.

Your IP address indicates that you're on PlusNet. As far as I know, they only offer normal ADSL services - up to 8Mbit. As suggested above, I think you're just seeing the speed at which your computer is connected to your wireless access point. Your ADSL router's web interface (at http://192.168.0.1 (http://192.168.0.1) or http://10.0.0.138 (http://10.0.0.138) perhaps?) will tell you at what speed it has synchronised with the DSLAM at your local BT exchange and speedtest.net (http://speedtest.net) will give you an idea of the real-world speeds you're likely to achieve.

They also give adsl2+ up to 20mb/s, and I think are trialing fttc.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 12 December, 2010, 06:12:45 pm
Well, having called every supplier listed as being LLU or somesuch in my telephone exchange, I can safely say none of this fabulous technology will make any difference to me, since the I am doomed until the very end of time to having BT deliver their precious cargo of telephony electrons by horse and cart.

Will your area get Infinity soonish?

Here is tonight's gem. You've got to admit my speed is rock steady...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1041008689.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

It's like déja vu, all over again.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1067964013.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: JohnP on 12 December, 2010, 06:16:58 pm
My BB speed has been up and down for the last couple of days - sometimes it seems to be back to 2400bps dialup speeds.


(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1067969805.png)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: geoff on 13 December, 2010, 09:43:36 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1069527082.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


pah! Read 'em and weep. The wooden spoon is mine!

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: geoff on 13 December, 2010, 09:54:27 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1069527082.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


pah! Read 'em and weep. The wooden spoon is mine!



So I got the nice lady in Bangalore to run me a line test:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1069544540.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

 :-\
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 14 December, 2010, 12:36:33 am
AIUI It's usual to have upload slower than download. Your ping seems reasonably brisk too.
Your upload and ping are OK but your download's rubbish. I'm sure the forum geeks will have explanations and suggestions.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: geoff on 14 December, 2010, 02:32:52 pm
AIUI It's usual to have upload slower than download. Your ping seems reasonably brisk too.
Your upload and ping are OK but your download's rubbish. I'm sure the forum geeks will have explanations and suggestions.

I think it's because the wire is very thin and made of string cheese and all my neighbours want to download movies and we're effectively in da sticks, although only a few miles from the metropolis of Oxenforde. Moan whinge...

High contention ratio, on a little copper cable, in other words?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 14 December, 2010, 02:48:43 pm
High contention ratio, on a little copper cable, in other words?

There's no contention* over your own copper wire(s) that go from your house to the DSLAM at the exchange, but it's from there that it gets tricky...

In the old days of 512mbps broadband a 'contention ratio' of 20:1 meant that for every 20 customers with a 512mbps DSL connection to that exchange there was 512mbps of bandwidth out of the exchange. If every single DSL customer was using it to capacity at the same time you'd see shockingly low speeds, but since this is very unlikely everyone saw usually OK speeds. This stopped being relevant ages ago though...

Upgrades to the exchanges (direct(-ish) connections to the Internet, or rather to your ISPs network, rather than traffic first going over BT's own ATM backhaul network) and the way that ADSL works (coupled with LLU) changed the way this all works, so it's not that simple any more. There's still going to be finite bandwidth somewhere along the chain...

* Voice lines can be multiplexed over a single pair of copper, but only one DSL line can run over a single pair of copper.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Biggsy on 16 December, 2010, 03:23:17 pm
This is what I had with Virgin:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1039145058.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

This is after switching to PlusNet, using the same BT line, after more than 14 days (to allow for speed to settle):
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1073151987.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

The "estimated line speed" before signing up was "9Mbps".

Is it worth complaining and asking them to provide a faster service, at least as fast as what I had before, threating to change ISP?  (I have a "no-contract" deal, so would loose little if I did change again).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: numbnuts on 16 December, 2010, 03:26:19 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1073166860.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Rhys W on 18 December, 2010, 11:54:23 am
I thought things were slow round here and I find that it's been consistently down to 5 MB/s the last few days. Just checked what I pay Virgin for - it's 20MB/s!

 >:(


Ah, back to 19.1 now. Irate phone call averted.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: border-rider on 18 December, 2010, 12:27:45 pm
We've been down to sub 20 kb/s download at times, recently

I've just given in and ordered satellite broadband.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: De Sisti on 18 December, 2010, 03:28:13 pm
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5123/5270822925_3f0f81b111_m.jpg)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 28 December, 2010, 10:36:14 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088475904.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Something to do with the horrible crackling noises I can hear when I pick up the phone, perhaps?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 28 December, 2010, 11:12:52 pm
From my parents in France:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088512008.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


compared with mine:

Virgin (cheapest one)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035143939.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: border-rider on 28 December, 2010, 11:22:24 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088520291.png)

 >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 28 December, 2010, 11:44:59 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088520291.png)

 >:(

This must be Tewdric stepping on the hose!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 29 December, 2010, 11:01:19 am
Well the phone line doesn't sound like someone is screwing up an empty crisp packet in my ear anymore. And the squeezebox controller isn't going bonkers waking itself up every 2 mins looking for a connection, so now I suppose I have to wait 'up to 3 days' to see if the BB speed improves.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rafletcher on 29 December, 2010, 11:03:55 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1089056088.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Not too bad considering the strangling nature of the copper wires into our village. But then again it's a quiet time of year.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 01 January, 2011, 05:02:49 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088475904.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Something to do with the horrible crackling noises I can hear when I pick up the phone, perhaps?

Yay! It's back from the dead, to a much more respectable 6.36, and I didn't have to phone anyone either.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ghostrider on 04 January, 2011, 07:28:59 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1097136191.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Pathetic as usual
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 January, 2011, 07:36:58 pm
Tried using a different server? I had my test set to 'none' for preferred server, it went to London and recorded 3.6Mbps compared with 2.6 when specifying the Aberdeen server.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: keepontriking on 04 January, 2011, 10:50:21 pm
Our local campaign has just won in BT's Race to Infinity  ;D
We had the public announcement this morning with our MP Sir George Young, cycling baronet and Leader of the House.
BT then put the icing on the cake and awarded us £5000 to use on a community computer project.
£500 FOR COMPUTERS (http://whitchurch.org.uk/2011/01/and-now-we-win-5000/)
and
WHAT SIR GEORGE SAID (http://www.sirgeorgeyoung.org.uk/news/Cnewsitem.cfm?newsid=3850)

Now trying to work out how to spend it  ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 06 January, 2011, 03:27:28 pm
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1099785770.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 23 February, 2011, 05:34:59 pm
Holy cow - I've just had an upgrade to ADSL2+

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1170707236.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Just have to wait for the upstream to be uncapped now.  ;D :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 23 February, 2011, 09:24:20 pm
We're still on about 8Mb with TalkTalk.  Had something in the post for a new TT deal with "up to 24Mb BB" ('depends on line and location') speeds.  Is this possible through regular phone line connections?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 23 February, 2011, 09:37:45 pm
That's marketingspeak for ADSL2+

You're only likely to get 24Mb if you live in the exchange, though - it's all about line length.  If you're syncing at the full 8Mb on ADSL MAX, you'll probably benefit from changing to ADSL2+.  If not, the only real benefit is going to be the higher upstream rate.

Seriously though, TalkTalk are rubbish.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: spesh on 23 February, 2011, 09:46:05 pm
Seriously though, TalkTalk are rubbish.

In all fairness to Can'tTalk, their spam filtering is an improvement over Tiscali didn't provide, but other than that, they are pretty fecking useless. The connection speed has plummeted recently, and then there are the random connection drop-outs...  >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 23 February, 2011, 10:08:42 pm
s'funny, if you go to the TT website to use the speed checker to se e what speed I could get - it says 'sorry you're already a customer'...

We've been with TT for 3yrs or so and they seem OK.  Dropouts not too bad here.  I haven't got a clue whether we're on ADSL max or not?  Do TT do ADSL2+?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 23 February, 2011, 10:14:13 pm
FWIW the speed checker on
    Broadband.co.uk Dedicated to finding the best broadband for you     (http://www.broadband.co.uk/) is probably as accurate as it gets.  I know the person who wrote it, and it includes all sorts of edge-case heuristics to make up for lack of decent data from BT.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 08 April, 2011, 01:34:50 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035840349.png)

For which we pay a lot.

New router FTW

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1242358804.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 08 April, 2011, 09:14:32 pm
Holy cow - I've just had an upgrade to ADSL2+

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1170707236.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Just have to wait for the upstream to be uncapped now.  ;D :thumbsup:

And then it all went horribly pear shaped.


Still, on the bright side:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243015752.png)

New ISP FTW. And I get that 24 hours a day, unthrottled, and unlimited.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 08 April, 2011, 11:57:21 pm
why did it all go pear shaped?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Oaky on 09 April, 2011, 12:02:37 am
here in mid-Essex with Eclipse:- (http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243197844.png)

i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Oaky on 09 April, 2011, 12:08:03 am
i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...

Yup...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243204340.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 11 April, 2011, 07:17:55 pm
why did it all go pear shaped?

12 months ago I got fed up with plusnets traffic management throttling stuff. Mainly windows updates (when I was fixing various people PC's) and some none youtube video sites just would not work without waiting ages for it to buffer.

So I complained - and was given a legacy product with minimal management - at the same price as the current offerings (actual legacy price for that product was £30/month). Great I thought.

Shortly after the regrade to adsl2+, I was charged £30 - a mistake I thought. No! The offer (not communicated to me) was only valid for 12 months. I was not willing to go onto the current products with the current management so was forced to leave. (They did offer me another year with a discount to £20 - but this was still high enough to make it worth the hassle of leaving). Glad I did - I now have 20mb/s 24 hours a day, with no download limits.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: spesh on 12 April, 2011, 01:05:00 pm
FWIW the speed checker on
    Broadband.co.uk Dedicated to finding the best broadband for you     (http://www.broadband.co.uk/) is probably as accurate as it gets.  I know the person who wrote it, and it includes all sorts of edge-case heuristics to make up for lack of decent data from BT.

Just out of interest, is the result it returns the peak speed, or the speed at the end of the test?

The reason I'm asking stems from the following set of tests:

Last night, the only test on that site that actually completed (as opposed to hanging up with the download only 20% complete and the speed dial showing 8kb/s), returned a result of 0.2Mb/s download, 0.41Mb/s upload. The download part of the test took five minutes to complete, with numerous longueurs whilst the bit rate lurked at sub-dialup speeds.

By way of contrast, I ran three tests this morning, and each time the download was complete in a few seconds, returning a mean average of 0.31Mb/s download, 0.41Mb/s upload (which is still pretty poor).

I was running disk cleanup between each test this morning, and what was being cleared from the temporary internet files folder was around 0.5MB.

Assuming that the test file being downloaded last night was the same size, I can safely discount  the test result being average speed, because if that was the case, the download should have taken only 20 seconds or so!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: spesh on 13 April, 2011, 12:24:41 am
Here's today's sequence of broadband speed tests, I've used thinkbroadband.com's speed tester because it is the only one I can get to work reliably after 18:00. Click on the times for the full results of each test. I could have hot-linked to the result image files, but they only register to the nearest 0.1Mbps.  ::-)

11:06 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/130260451632197725310.html) - 207.38kbps
19:09 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/130263165599524929822.html) - 84.25kbps
19:27 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/130263268439755830047.html) - 33.26kbps
19:38 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1302633392250430194.html) - 124.45kbps
22:40 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/130264433819372532502.html) - 59.5kbps
23:52 BST (http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1302648596783331714.html) - 39.93kbps

Just over a week ago, downloading a 8MB zip folder of drivers for the modem took around two minutes (~0.53Mbs). Today, I tried updating Spybot, and gave up after ten minutes with only 800kB out of 4.7MB downloaded.

I feel some major grinkage coming on...  >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 13 April, 2011, 07:06:22 am
Before grinking, I'd suggest going through the normal diagnosis process with your ISP.

The problem with BB is that is is complex with the potential for problems at all stages (including in  your own home wiring). As a starting point:

Check what speed your router is connecting at (can be significanlty different from a speed test result
Run the BT Speedteseter (if you are on a BT line)
Test Result (http://speedtester.bt.com/)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: spesh on 19 April, 2011, 07:53:44 pm
Well, that's interesting...

Intertube performance was pretty crummy this afternoon, but since I reconnected at 17:25, I've noticed that it's been running quicker - to the point that I can actually get the speedtest.net tester to load up and run.

17/04/11 late evening:
average speed = ~150 kbps (average of 3 tests on thinkbroadband.com)
peak speeds = ~ 540 kbps (average of 3 tests on broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk)
QOS = 3%, max TCP delay = >800 ms (Myspeed VOIP quality test (http://mcs.lushsoft.com/myspeed/db/report?id=49501))

19/04/ early evening
average speed = ~1090 kbps (average of 3 tests on thinkbroadband.com)
peak speeds = 1624 kbps (average of 3 tests on broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk)
peak speeds = 1357 kbps (average of 3 tests on speedtest.net)
QOS = 57%, max TCP delay = 680ms (Myspeed VOIP quality test (http://mcs.lushsoft.com/myspeed/db/report?id=49652))

I haven't even grinked my ISP yet - all I've done today is reinstall the modem - twice, because the installation of the more recent drivers* meant I couldn't connect, so I rolled back to the original drivers as installed off my Tiscali CD.

Given speeds are meant to drop during peak time, if this is a genuine partial restoration of performance, I should be looking at a much better set of results tomorrow morning. Now, if the speed consistency and transit pauses can sort themselves out, I'd be a very happy surfer.

* The installation process offers a big list of different combinations of encapsulation modes and protocols to choose from. Guess I picked the wrong one!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 30 June, 2011, 07:16:44 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1365088176.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Crawwwl! Still, the phone line only got unborked yesterday, so I suppose I have another few days of that to look forward to until they crack the pipe open a bit wider, or whatever it is they do.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 30 June, 2011, 08:08:43 pm
Yeah, the BRAS rate limiting takes at least 24 hours to catch up with increases in line sync.  Sometimes longer.  The important thing is to leave your router on and connected; it won't increase the BRAS rate unless it thinks the line is stable.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feline on 30 June, 2011, 11:25:59 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1365448438.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Not bad  :thumbsup:
I migrated yesterday after O2 dumped me :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 30 June, 2011, 11:54:23 pm


Virgin (cheapest one)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035143939.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Amazingly, download speed is getting better and ping time longer:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1365473152.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 July, 2011, 09:28:18 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1370991470.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Win :D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 04 July, 2011, 09:35:57 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1371091158.png)

Rock steady crap.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 04 July, 2011, 09:36:38 pm
And you live in that Lundun...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Charlotte on 04 July, 2011, 09:41:44 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1371100836.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Meh  :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 04 July, 2011, 10:10:31 pm
Hmm...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1371124114.png)

BRAS rate is currently 13Mbps (throttled to 95% at the LNS to prioritise small packets), so that's a pretty good result.

Why BT feel the need to rate limit a connection that's synced at 15.3Mbps to 13Mbps I don't know...  However the annual student exodus was this weekend, so with any luck it'll soon catch up with the lack of interference and we'll be syncing at >17Mbps for the rest of the summer.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hubner on 04 July, 2011, 10:17:57 pm
Just did the test, the piccy doesn't seem to work for me but I'm getting

8.25mbps download,
0.65mbps upload,
46ms ping,

with Talk Talk.

I've done the test at various times, 8mbps seems to be the usual download, upload has been up to 0.8mbps.


Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 05 July, 2011, 08:18:23 pm
Gone back to crap again. Bleugh.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1372497683.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 05 July, 2011, 09:34:12 pm
Gone back to crap again. Bleugh.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1372497683.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

How can that be A+ better than 99% of UK? I are hard of understanding...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jakob on 06 July, 2011, 04:31:57 am
Probably because of the low ping
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: GruB on 06 July, 2011, 06:36:13 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373102764.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 06 July, 2011, 06:53:38 am
The faster than figure is broken.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 06 July, 2011, 08:49:52 am
I assume it bases it on all the tests you've done. I can click on view results and it will give me a graph of all my tests.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Oaky on 06 July, 2011, 09:40:55 am
i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...

Yup...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243204340.png)

New ISP:-

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373266796.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 06 July, 2011, 10:07:09 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373293516.png)

 :P
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 06 July, 2011, 10:54:48 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373293516.png)

 :P

With a bit of luck the wire direct from google HQ to google London passes underneath my house in Bristol. Will they notice if I tap into it with a T socket?  ;)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 06 July, 2011, 11:13:17 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373293516.png)

 :P

With a bit of luck the wire direct from google HQ to google London passes underneath my house in Bristol. Will they notice if I tap into it with a T socket?  ;)

The bit of wet string heads out somewhat south-west (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porthcurno) of Bristol   :)



Home: (2 different days)
(http://speedtest.net/result/1287895283.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/result/1289295552.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Charlotte on 06 July, 2011, 11:27:02 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373293516.png)

 :P

(http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/BtX_NEO/full_of_win.jpg)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 July, 2011, 11:31:09 am
Interesting that its asymmetry thing1. Perhaps some traffic shaping on the switch access ports.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 06 July, 2011, 02:25:36 pm
Interesting that its asymmetry thing1. Perhaps some traffic shaping on the switch access ports.

With a bit of jiggery I can tease a more symmetric one out of it:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373566991.png)

There's a large number of things that could affect it, and it could even just have changed between the "download" and "upload" phases of the test. Or the outbound direction maybe more occupied with something (http://www.youtube.com) else  ;)

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/3120321320_fc28500c6c_o.jpg)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 06 July, 2011, 02:43:20 pm
It was better asymmetric the Download was 10 times higher and the upload 2 x higher. Presumably you are sat on the end of a 1Gb bearer.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 06 July, 2011, 04:07:14 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373725909.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rower40 on 06 July, 2011, 04:19:41 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373740031.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I seem to be struggling at this remote corner of the web.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: huggy on 06 July, 2011, 06:40:12 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373943219.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Not particularly quick but does what I need it to!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 16 July, 2011, 08:53:20 pm
Not fast, but a factor of lots better than my home connection. Note DSL, not ADSL...:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1388646998.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 16 July, 2011, 09:07:25 pm
You mean SDSL not ADSL both are DSL :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: gordon taylor on 16 July, 2011, 09:13:43 pm
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1388668933.png

Our slow speed is only half the problem - the connection keeps dropping out too.

Thanks, BT.    ::-)

edit - I though that I'd get an image above. I'll try again, sorry.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 16 July, 2011, 09:20:39 pm
You mean SDSL not ADSL both are DSL :)

I do! ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 16 July, 2011, 09:21:39 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1388668933.png)

Our slow speed is only half the problem - the connection keeps dropping out too.

Thanks, BT.    ::-)

edit - I though that I'd get an image above. I'll try again, sorry.

Put  {img} {/img} either side of it using square, not curly brackets.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: gordon taylor on 16 July, 2011, 09:24:20 pm
Thank you!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 16 July, 2011, 10:11:51 pm
Still waiting for the internets to speed up in the metropolis.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1388722832.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: alecstilleyedye on 16 July, 2011, 10:20:51 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1388733374.png)

not bad, as i only pay for <30gb…
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 22 July, 2011, 05:48:07 pm
Well well.

Last November
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1035078427.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


and now

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1397364529.png)

I thought the upload speeds were getting better - looks that way. (Virgin 50Mb service)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: deliquium on 22 July, 2011, 06:22:17 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1397399939.png)

A rural downside - but there are other advantages of living up the end of a track in the mountains of North Wales
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 24 July, 2011, 02:42:58 pm
Never mind the wilds of Wales - I'm within 50 miles of That London and this is the crap service we get from BT:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1399836863.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 24 July, 2011, 03:29:00 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1399883873.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

fast, eh!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: why1040 on 02 August, 2011, 08:18:16 pm
Haha, I love living in the wilds of 17 miles from central London!  Thanks a bunch, BT!

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1414228741.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 August, 2011, 10:50:29 pm
Why, that's seiously unimpressive! I'm just back from an evening at my parents in Hendon. I got up to 10Mps there whereas I get about 2 here in Burnt Oak. We're both on BT.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Oaky on 17 September, 2011, 05:34:48 pm
i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...

Yup...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243204340.png)

New ISP:-

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373266796.png)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1487923426.png)

Test done earlier on when there seemed to be a lot of treacle in my interpipes.  :o
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: bloomers100 on 18 September, 2011, 02:52:35 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1489199574.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 26 April, 2012, 10:58:10 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1916458979.png)

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feline on 26 April, 2012, 11:04:40 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1916467008.png)

Shockingly bad ping today, I'm so glad I'm not playing a MUD game at the moment!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 27 April, 2012, 08:42:43 pm
(http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/51218/2029150580101458909S600x600Q85.jpg)

TalkTalks version.  For some reason the router speed is supposed to be quicker; anyone know why?  Tested this with a wired connection. This speed seem to stream HD TV well with no buffering so prolly won't try anything else for the mo...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Manotea on 27 April, 2012, 09:11:57 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1919402267.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 27 April, 2012, 11:15:44 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1919402267.png)

Quite similar.  We've just gone to the TalkTalk plus, mainly forunlimited download allowance and free anytime landline calls including 0870 etc.  We paid the line rental up front so for the 12months it works out to £24/mth all in.  AFAICS.

This http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/speedtest/ ** is quite good because it shows you a map of what speeds others are getting in your postcode, distances from exchanges etc.

** warning.  Mac users may suffer disappointment.   ;)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 27 April, 2012, 11:29:20 pm
Uswitch needs Flash.

Maybe when they reach the 21st Century their site will be useful  :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 27 April, 2012, 11:36:17 pm
9.95 & 1.00, i.e. almost exactly what I'm paying for. It's usually over 90% of rated, but not usually 99-100%. Can't complain.

Re-test, in case it was a fluke.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1919608466.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 28 April, 2012, 02:47:39 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1920573113.png)

It is raining. The string is wet.
Had no interwebs at all from 13.40-14.00.
Have had better but this is OK.
Should be getting 40Mbps
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 28 April, 2012, 03:25:53 pm
The string dries up a bit...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1920635550.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dibdib on 28 April, 2012, 03:31:51 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1920647755.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

This makes me sadface :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: arvid on 29 April, 2012, 11:21:38 am
Ooh, a show-off thread:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1921960193.png)
Fiber to the home ftw. I should get 100Mbit, I doubt these testing servers can reliably test that. Or my cheapass 100mbit switch ruins it.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 29 April, 2012, 11:28:34 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1921976467.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: essexian on 29 April, 2012, 11:35:04 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1921982090.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)


Could walk backwards carrying the whole internet in my backpack quicker than this!

Can't wait until my contract with Talk Talk ends so I can get a better provider! (work paid for my connection until recently so Talk Talk was their choice).

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 29 April, 2012, 02:01:30 pm
The string is wet again so my fibre to the cabinet connection has dropped. My Vodafone dongle has 'no signal' but remains connected.
I'll do the washing up. I may be some time...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 29 April, 2012, 02:43:01 pm
Looks like my wet string theory above may be wrong as my partner had uninterrupted broadband whiile I did the washing-up.
Have restarted this netbook and all seems well. (At least, the dishes are clean too!)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 29 April, 2012, 02:52:31 pm
(http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/51218/2029150580101458909S600x600Q85.jpg)

TalkTalks version.  For some reason the router speed is supposed to be quicker; anyone know why?

I expect they're referring to the difference between sync speed and TCP/IP throughput.  Sync is the raw number of bits per second passing through the phoneline.  The amount available for useful data is somewhat less than that, on account of encapsulation, error correction and whatnot.  (There used to be an artificial difference enforced by the coarse steps of BRAS rate limiting on BT wholesale lines, but BT have seen sense and are now setting the BRAS to throttle to the sync rate, so it shouldn't be an issue any more, at least on 21CN)


Helly: your string theory's the wrong way round:  Wet string's the good kind (in as much as it transmits electrons more effectively than dry string, but not as well as copper wire).  Of course, what you've probably got is a leaky junction box somewhere, and the packets are being eaten by frogs and fish and things when it gets wet.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rower40 on 29 April, 2012, 03:30:34 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1922269716.png)
It would appear I'm neither one thing nor the other; not super-whizzy, but not treacle.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: snail on 29 April, 2012, 03:40:57 pm
Download speed 0.29 mbps, upload is 0.67. Fastest it's been all day, as usually it's too slow to load the speedtest site. :-(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mcshroom on 29 April, 2012, 04:10:37 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1922327546.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Not bad for the back of beyond. Work gets 10Mb up and 10Mb down but with the lag I'd guess that's a sat link
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 29 April, 2012, 06:34:54 pm
Helly: your string theory's the wrong way round:  Wet string's the good kind (in as much as it transmits electrons more effectively than dry string, but not as well as copper wire).  Of course, what you've probably got is a leaky junction box somewhere, and the packets are being eaten by frogs and fish and things when it gets wet.

I think there's more to it than that.
The connection trips in wet weather and the frogs swallow my connection.
Apples are healthy so they laugh at the rain and reconnect despite the hub allocating a new IP address or channel or whatever.
Windows computers throw a hissy fit and refuse to recognise themselves at a new IP address so they need a reboot where it hurts, cos it's the only language they understand.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 29 April, 2012, 06:36:40 pm
Windows computers throw a hissy fit and refuse to recognise themselves at a new IP address so they need a reboot where it hurts, cos it's the only language they understand.

Defenestration.  It's the only language they really understand.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 29 April, 2012, 06:41:49 pm
 ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DaveJ on 22 May, 2012, 03:57:10 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1965458034.png)

But..... its only just come back having gone down some time between 6 and 7 this morning.

Dave
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 22 May, 2012, 05:29:42 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1965632722.png)

We are far away though.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nuovo_record on 25 May, 2012, 01:34:20 pm
at last our virgin has been upgraded to 20mb - plentyfast enough....did a speed test and got 21!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rr on 25 May, 2012, 11:17:14 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1971937868.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

O2 business broadband from wife's employer.
Don't know why it thinks we are near Preston though
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 May, 2012, 11:36:32 am
Downstairs Vista laptop on wireless
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1974243808.png)

[Edit] Unless my geographical knowledge is having a Senior Moment, I'm a tad more than 50 miles from Manchester.

Bemused of Brent.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Aidan on 27 May, 2012, 11:40:38 am
Currrently getting 6mbps download and sweet FA upload ;D   Just signed up for BT Infinity which will be installed in a couple of weeks.  Line tester says 55.8Mbps dowload and 16mbps upload.   If thats anywhere near right its going to be like going from dial up to broadband again :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 May, 2012, 12:08:58 pm
Aidan, I got BT Infinity last month. Yacf loads faster, vids on YouTube and BBC News still stutter and stop. BT Home Hub is mediocre kit, BT Desktop Help is a pile of poo and the nice OpenReach engineer snipped my landline phone extension cables.
It's been a mixed blessing...
Hope your overall experience is more positive than mine!
Title: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 May, 2012, 12:24:50 pm
Apparently, fibre is due to reach our cabinet at the end of June. Yippee!

Of course, we're still nearly a mile from our cabinet so we won't get the full benefit.

Does anyone know what kind of speed I should be able to expect in this situation? I'm undecided whether it will be worth signing up - I would need to know that we'll get enough of a speed increase to merit the cost...

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 May, 2012, 12:46:35 pm
You might not have to pay much (or anything) extra if you're already with BT, though you could get roped into a longer contract.
The BT website can give you an estimated speedfor your phone number but I don't know how accurate this is; it was wildly optimistic (3-8Mbps) in the time before we had Infinity and consistently connected at 2Mbps.
We now have a theoretical maximum of 38Mbps and have achieved this at times.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 May, 2012, 02:30:51 pm
You might not have to pay much (or anything) extra if you're already with BT, though you could get roped into a longer contract.

We're with Sky at the moment, mainly because we've got a cheap bundle with the TV and phone. Our current internet speed isn't worth paying more than a couple of quid a month for, and BT were asking well over the odds. Sky are also offering an Infinity-style package, but whether it's worth signing up for depends on what kind of speed we're likely to get and how much they'd charge...

Quote
The BT website can give you an estimated speedfor your phone number but I don't know how accurate this is; it was wildly optimistic (3-8Mbps) in the time before we had Infinity and consistently connected at 2Mbps.

Yes, "wildly optimistic" is my experience also... I don't mind being tied into a contract as long as I know what I'm letting myself in for before I sign on the dotted line...

Quote
We now have a theoretical maximum of 38Mbps and have achieved this at times.

Woo! Lucky you. :thumbsup:

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 May, 2012, 02:48:11 pm
What about Virgin? Is your street cabled for them? Ours is but I have resisted them thus far.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 27 May, 2012, 02:51:08 pm
Hmph. I want to throw stuff at the telly every time an ad for Virgin comes on. What's the point of advertising something to people who couldn't even use your product if they wanted to? I thought telly advertising was different in each region, so it's not like they need to advertise it round here - unless they're doing it deliberately to taunt me.

Bastard Bloody Branson.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 May, 2012, 03:10:56 pm
We are TV-free but inundated with junkmail for Virgin. Friend a few miles away disappointed with speeds on Virgin Business BB. My brother is satisfied with Virgin but had year-long battle with Another Telco.
They are all Shite.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 28 May, 2012, 09:24:37 pm
Hmph. I want to throw stuff at the telly every time an ad for Virgin comes on. What's the point of advertising something to people who couldn't even use your product if they wanted to? I thought telly advertising was different in each region, so it's not like they need to advertise it round here - unless they're doing it deliberately to taunt me.

Bastard Bloody Branson.

d.

They shove their broadband and tv advertising through my door about once a week. I did call them once to 'sign up' for their service. They've been checking availability for about 14 months now...

I could have told me that their little cables don't snake down my street.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 28 May, 2012, 09:36:16 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1965632722.png)

We are far away though.

I'm not. I can see the exchange from my lounge window.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1976748014.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I think it's all Plusnet can manage.
Title: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Aidan on 28 May, 2012, 10:46:38 pm
Aidan, I got BT Infinity last month. Yacf loads faster, vids on YouTube and BBC News still stutter and stop. BT Home Hub is mediocre kit, BT Desktop Help is a pile of poo and the nice OpenReach engineer snipped my landline phone extension cables.
It's been a mixed blessing...
Hope your overall experience is more positive than mine!


Helly, I'm afraid I'm expecting pretty much what you got!   Previous experience tells me I should leave well alone, but the lure of more speed when we have 4 people connected is too strong!!

Fingers crossed
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 29 May, 2012, 12:21:14 am
Aidan, I got BT Infinity last month. Yacf loads faster, vids on YouTube and BBC News still stutter and stop. BT Home Hub is mediocre kit, BT Desktop Help is a pile of poo and the nice OpenReach engineer snipped my landline phone extension cables.
It's been a mixed blessing...
Hope your overall experience is more positive than mine!


Helly, I'm afraid I'm expecting pretty much what you got!   Previous experience tells me I should leave well alone, but the lure of more speed when we have 4 people connected is too strong!!

Fingers crossed

I'd agree you 'need' Infinity. You may also find fettling skills, patience, a broad band dongle and a stiff drink useful.
You really shouldn't need all this but
Telcos are all a pile of poop.
Good Luck!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: simonp on 08 June, 2012, 03:32:31 pm
I am now getting about 17Mbps from Virgin Media Cable in Cambridge, as they've upgraded me to 20Mbps (for free). Nice.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 08 June, 2012, 03:56:29 pm
I've just got 20.5Mbps from Virgin in Warwick - on the 30Mbps service. The limiting factor is the old modem I have. They're sending me a new "Superhub" to get it up to 30Mbps on Tuesday & I get a no extra charge doubling of speed in July.

Only 1.12Mbps upload though.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wombat on 08 June, 2012, 04:42:01 pm
Currently getting about 21Mbps on virgin's freshly upgraded 20Mbps service, and the usual 1.1ish upload.  I do have the new superhub thingy, which is a Netgear modem/wifi router in one box.  Also easy to switch off the wifi for a tiny energy saving.  They sent me the superhub, 'cos I whinged about poor connection times, and they pinged the existing modem and pronounced it duff.  Reasonably happy with them over the years.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 12 June, 2012, 05:18:22 pm
OK, fitted & activated the Virgin Super Hub today and am now getting 29.03Mbps download & 1.94 upload. Quite an improvement.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 27 June, 2012, 08:25:23 pm
I visited my parents today, some 5km away.
They're on BT but don't have Infinity.
I borrowed Mum's (wireless) laptop and did a speedtest.
Ping 15ms 17MB down, 0.87 up.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 28 June, 2012, 05:05:56 pm
I've been wondering about this, since we're apparently due to get FTTC very soon...

Is all data traffic routed through the fibre where it exists, or only for those customers on Infinity or equivalent? If the former, we should see a drastic improvement in our BB speed even if we don't sign up for Infinity. If the latter, we'll have to continue to put up with our feeble long-distance copper connection or fork out for the high-speed service.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tatanab on 28 June, 2012, 05:22:07 pm
Changed to BT Infinity a few weeks ago, they phoned and it was marginally cheaper than my existing Bt deal.  The test on installation showed 18MB, I do not remember what the upload figure was.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 28 June, 2012, 05:58:42 pm
They're still promising it'll be here at the end of June. Not heard a peep. I've been hanging around the cabinet at the end of the road. Looks the same to me. I reckon they're gearing up to disappoint me at the very last moment.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 28 June, 2012, 06:41:10 pm
We're getting Fibre to the cabinet soon, I know this because the town is crawling with BT type people and some new cabinets are going in too.

It is supposed to be live at the end of June, but I think that is unlikely just now.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 01 July, 2012, 10:33:36 pm
I'm guessing something happened at the Diss exchange recently as I'd noticed my router claiming a theoretical 23Mb instead of the usual 7Mb. In a speedtest.net check, I was still only getting 3Mb.

But I remembered from this good forum that getting a line test is a good way to get your hardware at the exchange rebooted, so I did that. And now this:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2039895393.png)

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 01 July, 2012, 10:37:11 pm
My Virgin connection is so bad, speedtest won't load :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 01 July, 2012, 10:46:28 pm
Seems ok atm.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2039915511.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: L CC on 01 July, 2012, 11:36:16 pm
sigh.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2039962841.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

(If we're around 50miles from That London I've been taking the wrong roads).
No2Son & I will need to move after the summer (empty nesting, sob) and I've just added "better BB speed" to the list of Needs Wants.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 July, 2012, 09:48:39 am
Hurrah, it's the end of June, FTC is here. I should be buried under sixty throbbing megabytes of kitten pictures and clothes-negative ladies.

Oh, hold on, the BT website now says 30th September.

Cocks.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 July, 2012, 12:42:51 pm
Snap.

 >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 July, 2012, 01:29:43 pm
BTDT0TS.
I think it was about a year from the time BT said FTTC was about to come to my neighbourhood to the time I actually got it (and mine was installed in the first week of availability in my area).
Seems my parents get good download speeds anyway now (I think FTTC is available for them but they CBA right now).
Their upload speed is slow but I don't think they upload much.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 02 July, 2012, 01:41:11 pm
Our FTTC was due on Saturday.

Since there are still holes in the ground all round town, and shiny new boxes attached to the holes, I think that is unlikely.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 July, 2012, 01:50:10 pm
Hampstead's chatterati thought the cabinets were too large and obtrusive so demanded their removal.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 02 July, 2012, 02:14:49 pm
Still got homing pigeons here. The Sky ones probably get free team-approved Magic Juice to help them fly quicker. The BT ones, sadly, seem only intermittently able to connect us to the outside world.

Essex. A million miles from civilisation. According to BT.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: why1040 on 02 July, 2012, 03:15:17 pm
Argh, you've just reminded me that our latest date was end of June too.

We are now due Infinity end of September.  Our original quoted timeline was end of December, 2010.  Hence my email to them, a few minutes ago, wondering whether their project planning is seriously so poor that they get it wrong by years, or they're in the habit of lying to their customers to keep their interest piqued.

It made me feel better, anyway   ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 July, 2012, 03:43:04 pm
BT tied me into a 'pay 12 line rental in advance to save money' deal, which tethered me to them while they faffed with not installing Infinity.
I've ranted elsewhere about what happened when they finally installed Infinity.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Dibdib on 02 July, 2012, 04:57:09 pm
Just experienced what may be considered by some to be a miracle - an OpenWretch engineer turning up as promised.

Now getting my lolcats via FTTC at about 10x the previous speed. Shiny.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2041065122.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 July, 2012, 05:24:21 pm
Argh, you've just reminded me that our latest date was end of June too.

We are now due Infinity end of September.  Our original quoted timeline was end of December, 2010.  Hence my email to them, a few minutes ago, wondering whether their project planning is seriously so poor that they get it wrong by years, or they're in the habit of lying to their customers to keep their interest piqued.

It made me feel better, anyway   ;D

I'm going to grink them too. If my recall is correct and they manage September 2012, that's about 15 months after their original estimate. I have no faith that any fibre will be slinking out of the Sydenham TE any time soon. I presume as the local area is cabled extensively by Virgin Media (other than my street, of course), they're not exactly hurrying. Either that or they are scared of the dinosaurs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_Dinosaurs). They're in the way.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 July, 2012, 05:37:57 pm
AIUI, the dates are just automatically placeholders - as each date passes, it just bumps on to the next one.

The one thing that gives me hope is that I know the next two cabinets along from mine have been upgraded, so with any luck, that means mine is next. I'm not holding my breath though.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 02 July, 2012, 06:37:30 pm
You are fucking joking right????

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2041380164.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 02 July, 2012, 07:28:17 pm
My Virgin doubling has been changed from July to July onwards. Very specific, thanks, Dick.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wendy on 03 July, 2012, 08:27:56 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2043591023.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 05 July, 2012, 01:20:53 pm
Shiny birthday present on wireless after restarting BT Hub.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2046608043.png)

 :) :)
Finally stopped whinging!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: why1040 on 06 July, 2012, 10:45:07 am
Argh, you've just reminded me that our latest date was end of June too.

We are now due Infinity end of September.  Our original quoted timeline was end of December, 2010.  Hence my email to them, a few minutes ago, wondering whether their project planning is seriously so poor that they get it wrong by years, or they're in the habit of lying to their customers to keep their interest piqued.

It made me feel better, anyway   ;D

They answered!   :thumbsup:

Unsurprisingly, they didn't actually answer the question!  It was a form letter with a couple of extra sentences that showed that they had actually read my rant at them, but still managed not to say anything useful!  The lady concerned has a serious future in politics, the email was a full page long and told me absolutely nothing!!   ::-)

Apparently they're "working as hard as they can" and "appreciate my patience"! 

And so, I'm still stuck with this:  (http://www.speedtest.net/result/2048249703.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)  which, to be fair, is better than it used to be since I had an engineer fiddle my box (as it were)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 06 July, 2012, 12:36:49 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2048392729.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 10 July, 2012, 10:08:55 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452  ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 10 July, 2012, 11:41:37 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452  ;D

That's excellent!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 11 July, 2012, 12:24:30 am
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11325452  ;D

That's excellent!

Story is nearly two years old though.
My BB speed is 15 times faster than then.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 18 July, 2012, 02:39:53 pm
Virgin's doubling estimate of July 2012 proved over-optimistic:

"Your speed upgrade is going
to take a little longer

We estimate your area will be ready between:
December 2012 and May 2013"
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 18 July, 2012, 06:52:37 pm
Same here
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 18 July, 2012, 07:01:49 pm
All telcos are LYING BAAAAASTARDS!!!!!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CAMRAMan on 19 July, 2012, 09:22:29 pm
I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt - a little. I started off with a 2mbps account, which got upgraded to 10mbps. Then I called their retention team and got upgraded to 20mbps and a few weeks ago got the Superhub and now get over 30mbps on a regular basis for not very much money.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 20 July, 2012, 01:35:28 am
I am rather less charitable towards BT. I was on 2Mbps for ages despite paying for 8. The date for Infinity being available was put back by about a year in stages.
Infinity installation was less than competent.
Engineers failed to show up when booked.
I have a fast connection now but getting it was VERY painful!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: why1040 on 20 July, 2012, 10:27:47 am
That article may have been 2 years old, but it's also really funny.

I still get barely 1Mbps on a good day and I'm 17 miles from London.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nuovo_record on 20 July, 2012, 01:21:58 pm
getting a very reliable 20mb from a 20mb service - as most of the time it's 20.5!
i shouldn't complain and i'm not
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 20 July, 2012, 01:34:58 pm
This is of course all Thatcher's fault.  If BT had been allowed to provide video-on-demand services in the 80s, fibre (actual fibre, not the coax that Virgin like to pretend is fibre) to the home would probably be common by now.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 30 July, 2012, 12:39:14 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2090346801.png)

Looks like my new cable internet is much faster on a Sunday to a weekday. (Exactly as you'd expect from their "business class" product)


EDIT: hmm and seems it will go even higher (down-link speed) if I switch server...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2090567675.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 August, 2012, 10:02:16 pm
Fibre has been installed to our cabinet. I've seen the new cabinet with my very own eyes and it has a sticker on it saying "high speed internet is now available in this area" or words to that effect. Yay!

Unfortunately, BT's website is still showing it as being unavailable in this area, so I can't sign up.  :facepalm:

Maybe it's still in the testing phase. Or maybe it's one of those things that you have to actually phone up and speak to a human being to get sorted. Once it's up and running, we should be able to get around 20mbps. Not ideal but still an awful lot better than our current <1mbps.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 12 August, 2012, 10:14:10 pm
Fibre has been installed to our cabinet. I've seen the new cabinet with my very own eyes and it has a sticker on it saying "high speed internet is now available in this area" or words to that effect. Yay!

Unfortunately, BT's website is still showing it as being unavailable in this area, so I can't sign up.  :facepalm:

Maybe it's still in the testing phase. Or maybe it's one of those things that you have to actually phone up and speak to a human being to get sorted. Once it's up and running, we should be able to get around 20mbps. Not ideal but still an awful lot better than our current <1mbps.

d.

Keep visiting the BT site and book your fibre connection as soon as it's available. It will probably be at the beginning of a calendar month. They arrange engineer visits pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 12 August, 2012, 10:23:00 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2116000503.png)/URL]

Wireless, eight tabs open, world tweeting Olympic closing ceremony...

My connection speed was around 2Mbps before I had FTTC. (http://[URL=http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 12 August, 2012, 10:48:21 pm
I don't trust the online checker at all so I'm going to call BT and/or Sky tomorrow to see if anyone can tell me what the score is.

According to the line-checking site, I can't have broadband at all on the line on which I was using a broadband connection to visit the line-checking site... :facepalm:

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jacomus on 13 August, 2012, 11:22:03 am
After our office move, we are now on a 1x1mb connection. Wow, it is seriously slow compared to what we had before.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 13 August, 2012, 01:00:40 pm
Just scrolled back through the last couple of weeks of CQM graphs (http://www.aa.net.uk/kb-broadband-cqm.html) for our line.  There's no sign of packet loss or latency that wasn't related to throughput on our link (which would indicate congestion somewhere in the BT network), for the duration of the Olympic period.  Well done AAISP and our-favourite-telco.   :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 August, 2012, 01:33:16 pm
Just spoken to both Sky and BT. What I have learned, in short, is that even though fibre has been installed, we can't have it because their systems haven't been updated to show that it has been installed.

FFS.

The BT woman reckons we might have it by 30th September but admitted that was a guess.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 13 August, 2012, 01:43:21 pm
Hmmm...

I've just run the broadband line checker on some addresses between us and the cabinet and they're showing as having fibre optic broadband available.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we're connected to a different cabinet to the one I thought we were.

Or are they just not offering infinity to us because we're too far from the cabinet?

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimO on 14 August, 2012, 08:43:55 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2119720693.png)

I'm quite disappointed that I can't get the Upload over 300 Mb/s.  I've had a few which are a little faster, about 290 Mb/s.  That PC is on Gigabit Ethernet, but it is sharing it with several other machines on a switch.

I think we can get 10Gigabit Ethernet put in now, if we need to go a bit faster. ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 14 August, 2012, 08:52:22 pm
You're probably at the point where a decent ethernet chipset makes a tangible difference...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimO on 14 August, 2012, 08:55:18 pm
Yep, I did that with one of the faster machines, which I happen to be using for data validation.  It's hanging off of Remote Desktop, which is probably using up some bits as well.

I got a lot of variation with time, and also selecting one of the servers not at the top of their list improved things by an order of magnitude!

On this machine, which is a bit ancient, and which is hanging off of a 100Mbit/s Ethernet connection, I barely get 80Mb/s.

What you're doing on the machine can make a difference as well, and I suspect whatever they're using for their code is also a limiting factor.  When you're doing tests at this sort of speed, the performance of the machine makes a very noticeable difference.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hubner on 14 August, 2012, 08:58:21 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2119720693.png)

I'm quite disappointed that I can't get the Upload over 300 Mb/s.  I've had a few which are a little faster, about 290 Mb/s.  That PC is on Gigabit Ethernet, but it is sharing it with several other machines on a switch.

I think we can get 10Gigabit Ethernet put it now, if we need to go a bit faster. ;D

Yeah but how much does it cost?

I'm on a phone and broadband package: line rental, unlimited UK landline calls inc 0845, unlimited downloads. It's "only" 8 Mb/s but the price is £16 per month.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimO on 14 August, 2012, 09:05:06 pm
I shouldn't think we spend more than a few million a year on it ...

Then again, we do have more than an entire Class B (ie /16) subnet hanging off of it.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: De Sisti on 14 August, 2012, 09:06:26 pm
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7783502842_93600fa675.jpg)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 17 August, 2012, 08:59:08 pm
I am on a "borrowed connection" and it's not exactly quick...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2125561661.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 07 September, 2012, 10:27:01 am

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2164855443.png)

Wireless, with loads of tabs open on my browser.

 :) :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 September, 2012, 11:36:46 am
I've just run the broadband line checker on some addresses between us and the cabinet and they're showing as having fibre optic broadband available.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we're connected to a different cabinet to the one I thought we were.

My very clever wife made an astute observation...

Those addresses up the road that I checked are on a CT2 postcode. We're on a CT5 postcode. We're actually closer to the exchange that serves the rest of CT5, but for historical reasons, we're connected to the one that serves CT2.

According to Samknows, which checks your line according to which cabinet you're connected to, we do have fibre.

Unfortunately, BT's line checker is based on postcode alone, and according to their system, no one in CT5 is connected to fibre yet.

Several long and very trying phone calls later...

It turns out Sky aren't offering fibre broadband from our cabinet yet anyway - BT customers get first dibs, then they make it available to other ISPs later.

I think this means we could get fibre broadband if we switched back to BT, and if we could get through to someone at BT who actually understood the way their stupid fucking sytem actually works rather than just reading a script off a screen.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 07 September, 2012, 11:39:27 am
I thought BT's line checker could also work for your phone number. It certainly has for me in the past.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 September, 2012, 11:47:48 am
Only if you're a current BT customer...

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 07 September, 2012, 07:47:39 pm
Only if you're a current BT customer...

d.

Wot I is and you ain't.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 11 September, 2012, 11:52:30 pm
(http://speedtest.net/result/2174016848.png)

Tested with my new setup ( see here: http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=61234.msg1311757#msg1311757 ) This is the first time I've seen over 7Mb/s  :thumbsup: and that's using wireless with other stuff going on, I'll have to try plugging directly into the router and unplugging it from the switch.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: madcow on 13 September, 2012, 10:04:41 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2178057756.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Pretty shit really, due to being at the far end of a 3 mile cable down to the nearest exchange.  Thankfully my employer pays most of the bill or BT would have had the big FO by now. I know they can't   do much about it but I resent paying so much for so little.
When BT rang to offer me BT Vision ,I told the woman it would be waste of time and she actually agreed with me after looking at the speed test.
Short vids a la Youtube are O.K but a football match is just a joke. It took me 3 hours to download a TV programme .
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Sergeant Pluck on 21 September, 2012, 11:47:43 am
My new BT Infinity connection:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2193233672.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 21 September, 2012, 01:36:40 pm
That's nice Sgt Pluck. Shame you had to wait so long.Hopefully citoyen will get this soon...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 24 September, 2012, 11:51:21 am
After 2 months of trying to get a landline and nearly loosing my temper here is my new connection:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2199137526.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

I can't say that my country is shining on the internet front!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 24 September, 2012, 12:24:34 pm
BT's finest. Less than 50 miles from that London - but about 7 from the nearest exchange in Essex, and maybe less than 1 from the nearest in Suffolk. But connections across county boundaries Are Not Allowed.

(http://speedtest.net/result/2199181713.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 September, 2012, 06:11:32 pm
That's nice Sgt Pluck. Shame you had to wait so long.Hopefully citoyen will get this soon...

Thanks, but I'm not holding my breath! And even when we get FTTC, I think we'll get 20mbps at most because of the distance between our house and the C. Still, 20mbps would be a huge improvement so I'd take that.

d.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 25 September, 2012, 06:28:16 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2202080019.png)

Have opted for upgrade but it's not yet been implemented.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 26 September, 2012, 11:53:02 am
I have now been upgraded.
Upload speed is better.
I suppose things may yet ramp up a bit.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2203491812.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 26 September, 2012, 12:18:18 pm
That's nice Sgt Pluck. Shame you had to wait so long.Hopefully citoyen will get this soon...

Thanks, but I'm not holding my breath! And even when we get FTTC, I think we'll get 20mbps at most because of the distance between our house and the C. Still, 20mbps would be a huge improvement so I'd take that.

d.

They're estimating about 70 Mbps for me. I won't hold my breath, but it's got to be better than the current 2-4 Mbps range. No idea where the cabinet is, our wires live underground. We shall see.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 26 September, 2012, 01:27:24 pm
That's nice Sgt Pluck. Shame you had to wait so long.Hopefully citoyen will get this soon...

Thanks, but I'm not holding my breath! And even when we get FTTC, I think we'll get 20mbps at most because of the distance between our house and the C. Still, 20mbps would be a huge improvement so I'd take that.

d.



They're estimating about 70 Mbps for me. I won't hold my breath, but it's got to be better than the current 2-4 Mbps range. No idea where the cabinet is, our wires live underground. We shall see.

They've estimated 56Mbps for me.
I'll see what I get once things have bedded in and I've restarted the modem. It is very nice to have twenty times the speed I had six months ago though.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 26 September, 2012, 05:36:30 pm
Things appear to  have settled at 41Mbps. This is just 10% faster than the 37Mbps I've had.
I'm back to being some way short of 'up to x' and locked into BT for another year.
Ho hum.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: arvid on 29 September, 2012, 08:52:32 am
Ooh, a show-off thread:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1921960193.png)
Fiber to the home ftw. I should get 100Mbit, I doubt these testing servers can reliably test that. Or my cheapass 100mbit switch ruins it.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2209569954.png)

New laptop, better cable/switch management in house.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: L CC on 01 October, 2012, 07:01:41 pm
arvid, you must be gutted at that laggy laggy ping.

Here's t'other end of the scale:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2214510174.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 01 October, 2012, 07:07:30 pm
My '56Mbps' has settled at 40-41Mbps. Good enough but less than 'they' expected.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: MikeFromLFE on 01 October, 2012, 09:20:52 pm
This is typical for me recently

(http://speedtest.net/result/2119406948.png)

Ive just put in an order for BT Infinity, and I've got my MAC code from Be without too much hassle. BT will be a little cheaper, should be a lot faster, but the customer service wont be a patch on Be.
There's fibre to the end of the road so - here's hoping!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 02 October, 2012, 07:40:57 am
Ooh, a show-off thread:
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1921960193.png)
Fiber to the home ftw. I should get 100Mbit, I doubt these testing servers can reliably test that. Or my cheapass 100mbit switch ruins it.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2209569954.png)

New laptop, better cable/switch management in house.

I have now been upgraded.
Upload speed is better.
I suppose things may yet ramp up a bit.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2203491812.png)

arvid, you must be gutted at that laggy laggy ping.

Here's t'other end of the scale:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2214510174.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)



BT's finest. Less than 50 miles from that London - but about 7 from the nearest exchange in Essex, and maybe less than 1 from the nearest in Suffolk. But connections across county boundaries Are Not Allowed.

(http://speedtest.net/result/2199181713.png)

You lot piss me off.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 02 October, 2012, 07:52:11 am
How are people getting on with BT Infinity 2 using fibre to the cabinet?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2012, 08:22:04 am
How are people getting on with BT Infinity 2 using fibre to the cabinet?

I'll let you know shortly. Engineer due this morning. If I disappear it's all gone horrible wrong. My ADSL currently runs between 2 and 4 Mb/s. It may involve some internal restructuring and sneakily relocating the boxes to my top floor HQ; computers on second floor, master socket on ground (right next to the fiends' litter tray, which they fortunately don't use, but may if they don't take a shine to the BT engineer).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 02 October, 2012, 09:00:24 am
I was wondering what an Internet Bottom Bracket was.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 02 October, 2012, 09:02:34 am
How are people getting on with BT Infinity 2 using fibre to the cabinet?

I'll let you know shortly. Engineer due this morning. If I disappear it's all gone horrible wrong. My ADSL currently runs between 2 and 4 Mb/s. It may involve some internal restructuring and sneakily relocating the boxes to my top floor HQ; computers on second floor, master socket on ground (right next to the fiends' litter tray, which they fortunately don't use, but may if they don't take a shine to the BT engineer).

Ok. cheers. I've asked Zen for my MAC code ready to switch. But I'm holding back while I find out if BT FttC is really as fast as they claim.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 10:55:43 am
How are people getting on with BT Infinity 2 using fibre to the cabinet?

I've been on Infinity2 for a week.
Speeds D/L 40-41 Mbps cf 37 Infinity 1, U/L 13.5 cf 8 Infinity 1 Ping 15-20 ms (faster too)

My increased download speed is modest.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2012, 04:17:52 pm
I'm back. BT man messed with the cabinet (ah, that's where it is) and then came back and plugged everything in. I would advise you make sure they test all the phones before they leave, because if I hadn't grabbed him, I've have no extension lines.

We did discuss making my office extension the master. He recommended against it owing to it being basic el cheapo phone cable and not the magic cable they use. I tended to agree with him, the phone extension lines are standard builder splice and dice jobs, though they held up OK for ADSL (and the old modem-router hung off my office extension line). My desktop was wired, along with the NAS, and printer, but everything else was on the wifi. The NAS can go downstairs, the desktop can go wireless, and I'll get a wireless print server for the printer.

Currently getting 40 Mb/s down and 18 Mb/s up which is 10x what I had this morning (they estimated 60/20). I suspect it'll be faster with a wired connection (which I'll try later, MacBook doesn't have an ethernet port), this is probably as much as my wifi can handle (with umpteen devices needlessly chattering away and two floors between me and the box of tricks currently located on top of the cats' litter tray). I suspect my wife will pull that face if she comes home to find cat5 cable snaking up the stairs.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 06:32:50 pm
I'm back. BT man messed with the cabinet (ah, that's where it is) and then came back and plugged everything in. I would advise you make sure they test all the phones before they leave, because if I hadn't grabbed him, I've have no extension lines.


Oh, you too?
I learned the hard way!


I suspect my wife will pull that face if she comes home to find cat5 cable snaking up the stairs.

We have Cat5 snaking across the hall and up the stairs.
I do not like it and it's a trip hazard as I can't lift my feet.
BT engineer did not discuss where to put modem and put it on an extension upstairs.
David has put modem at Master socket and has Cat5 cable to the hub in his study.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: arvid on 02 October, 2012, 07:04:06 pm
Quote from: arvid
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2209569954.png)

New laptop, better cable/switch management in house.

You lot piss me off.

Pirate bay being offline pisses me off. All this bandwidth and no smut to use it for, such a waste!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2012, 07:08:51 pm
To tell the truth, I'm pretty ignorant about telecoms (there's a long, long list of things that I'm completely ignorant about). I have no idea what distinguishes a master socket from the other sockets, but he wasn't keen on running the connection through the 5 metres of cheap telephone cable hidden in my wall. Possibly he couldn't be bothered. They are willing to lay down cat5 (or whatever magic cable they use) from the modem to a place of your choosing provided it doesn't involve knocking holes in walls and pulling up carpet. He was pretty adamant that the modem has to be plugged into the master, as it has a new faceplate and presumably some kind of electrickery gubbins than enables me to find alternative uses for five hundred ADSL microfilters I seem to have acquired over the years.

I only asked about the extensions because I know when I had the line initially connected, the BT guy disappeared and I found that none of the extensions were live. By default they only test the master socket...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 08:03:21 pm
The master socket is where the line enters your property and extensions run from that.
Our BT engineer was too lazy to run Cat5 from the master socket, so put the modem on an extension in David's study, without discussing this with us.
To be fair, the connection speed has been the same with the modem in David's study or at the master socket.
Chopping the wiring to other extensions from David's study was inexcusable.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2012, 08:35:55 pm
The master socket is where the line enters your property and extensions run from that.
Our BT engineer was too lazy to run Cat5 from the master socket, so put the modem on an extension in David's study, without discussing this with us.
To be fair, the connection speed has been the same with the modem in David's study or at the master socket.
Chopping the wiring to other extensions from David's study was inexcusable.

He obviously went to a different installer school. He would have been willing to fit the faceplate to the extension in my office (which I guess made it a kind-of master) but he made it be plainly known that he would only do so under duress. Even after sampling the best coffee in the entire universe courtesy of coffee bot v2.0, he still wouldn't change his mind. I opted for the fact that he knows more about telephone wires than me (well, I figure everyone does, there are cats that know more than me about telephone wires).

For those of you following this epic saga, a wired connection also gave 40 down and 20 up (~10ms ping). That's a third less than the initial estimate of 60 Mb/s on the download. That might pick up, I suppose. All in all, it's 10x better than what I had this morning for effectively the same price per month. I just need to think of something to download now. Typical, where's a gigabytalicious Apple update when you need one.

(It's not as good via the mothership VPN though, that gives 12 down / 8 up and a 35 ms ping. Probably routing via Tau Ceti.)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 08:42:49 pm
We've found no difference between wired and wireless connections. Many of our Apples have no ethernet port. The connection does feel better than the glacial 2Mbps I had before April 3rd. 'Up to 40' was 37 'up to 76' is 40...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 02 October, 2012, 09:30:55 pm
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 02 October, 2012, 09:40:26 pm
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 02 October, 2012, 09:42:49 pm
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.

I meant the wiring that comes into the flat to the phone socket.

Modem? No wireless router?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 09:54:02 pm
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?

Not inside your house.
You'd be extremely lucky if they replaced the wiring as far as the master socket. I doubt they would do this. Ours is ancient.
You are not supposed to interfere with anything before the master socket.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 10:06:21 pm
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.

None of them have touched the spaghetti that runs from the junction box1 we share with our neighbour, runs over the front door and enters the house through a window at the side of the house. The master socket is on this window's sill.

1) This junction box had no cover for many years

(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3031/2686003540_bb6d42deab_o.jpg)

and was only replaced by a cycling friend of David's who worked for BT Openreach. Replacing the box made no difference to our then paltry speeds.

I would not be surprised if this old spaghetti is now speed-limiting for my broadband.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 02 October, 2012, 10:28:19 pm
That's what worries me. I live in a 126 year old flat (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2742960), and the phone wiring isn't much younger from the looks of it!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 October, 2012, 10:31:38 pm
This place was built in 1932. Man next door has lived here since...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Fidgetbuzz on 02 October, 2012, 10:41:51 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2178057756.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Pretty shit really, due to being at the far end of a 3 mile cable down to the nearest exchange.  Thankfully my employer pays most of the bill or BT would have had the big FO by now. I know they can't   do much about it but I resent paying so much for so little.
When BT rang to offer me BT Vision ,I told the woman it would be waste of time and she actually agreed with me after looking at the speed test.
Short vids a la Youtube are O.K but a football match is just a joke. It took me 3 hours to download a TV programme .

Close match here in rural Norfolk - slightly better for both up and down speed - but not material.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 03 October, 2012, 08:57:27 am
That's what worries me. I live in a 126 year old flat (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2742960), and the phone wiring isn't much younger from the looks of it!

Mine was built around 1350, and I suspect the phone wiring predates that. May have something to do with my pathetic "Broadband" speeds! :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 October, 2012, 09:30:48 am
That's what worries me. I live in a 126 year old flat (http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2742960), and the phone wiring isn't much younger from the looks of it!

Mine was built around 1350, and I suspect the phone wiring predates that. May have something to do with my pathetic "Broadband" speeds! :(

 ;D ;D ;D

Srsly early adopters will have ancient wires.
You might be better off somewhere where people only acquired their landlines recently, like Rotherham...

I do wish the telcos would replace old spaghetti before the lines failed totally but our ability to use mobile networks when landlines fail, removes any urgency to fix things.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 October, 2012, 09:56:52 am
If the phone wiring is old will they replace it?

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.

I meant the wiring that comes into the flat to the phone socket.

Modem? No wireless router?

As mentioned, the external wiring is BTs and they won't invest money fixing it without evidence there's a problem. I believe the lines must meet certain standards, if it fails the tests then BT will fix: there is a objective measure of how good the line is. Of course, BT's threshold may be lower than you like. They're not going to reinstall all the wiring for a few extra kilobits per second. If in doubt, ask them to test the line.

Infinity has a separate modem (declared by my wife, she of the many cushions, to be ugly) and router (less ugly) rather than an integrated unit. I have been instructed to hide them. She has a point, the modem is a largish 1990's style white box. Orange LEDs are just so over.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: AndyK on 03 October, 2012, 09:59:31 am

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.


Infinity has a separate modem (declared by my wife, she of the many cushions, to be ugly) and router (less ugly) rather than an integrated unit.

So I've got to have two units plugged in and running instead of just my current router? Sounds a bit primitive. Any idea what the thinking is behind such a retrograde step? Can I just use my existing router? I hate have lots of tangled wiring and this sounds like it'll be exactly that.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 03 October, 2012, 10:11:29 am

Quote
Infinity has a separate modem ... and router ... rather than an integrated unit.

Can I just use my existing router?

No.

I suspect your existing router may well still sync and work, but only at the existing ADSL speeds.   To gain the extra speed from the Infinity service, you need new VDSL kit.

But you don't have to use the BT kit, you can purchase an all-in-1 unit if you like.

Google for 'vdsl router'.
The Draytek ones seem to get a good write-up.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 03 October, 2012, 10:14:37 am
This place was built in 1932. Man next door has lived here since...

That must be a tad inconvenient. Do you have a bathroom rota?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 October, 2012, 10:17:09 am
This place was built in 1932. Man next door has lived here since...

That must be a tad inconvenient. Do you have a bathroom rota?

 ;D ;D

Next door is next door...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 October, 2012, 10:20:43 am

They'll lay a data extension cable up to a certain length (which I can't remember) between modem and wireless box. I doubt they'll touch any wiring you have after the master socket as that's yours to contend with. As to the wiring before the box, that's BTs and they'll only meddle if you can convince them that it's broken. That's a bit like convincing the witchfinder general that you're just a lady in a pointy hat who likes cats.

Infinity has a separate modem (declared by my wife, she of the many cushions, to be ugly) and router (less ugly) rather than an integrated unit.
Quote
So I've got to have two units plugged in and running instead of just my current router? Sounds a bit primitive. Any idea what the thinking is behind such a retrograde step? Can I just use my existing router? I hate have lots of tangled wiring and this sounds like it'll be exactly that.

I presume there aren't many integrated suitable VDSL modem/routers available and the modem supplied by BT is automatically recognised by their network. Google indicates there are a few other options out there [crossed with Feanor].

Like I say, the modem is rather industrial. This is the new corner of shame that I am under instructions to 'make pretty' because being the home of the cats' litter box, it was oh-so-nice before. There are wires and wall warts, of course. The white box is the modem.

(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn190/ianp_photo/photo-3.jpg)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 October, 2012, 10:28:52 am
The modem and the router each have their own wallwart and Cat5 cable is needed to connect the two.
The modem needs a phone line in from the master socket (obv) and the router has 4 ethernet ports you might choose to use.
Unless you go all wireless, spaghetti central approaches!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 October, 2012, 03:52:49 pm
Well that was all a going a little too well. For some reason my Mac Mini desktop is stuck at ~4Mb/s download (with a decidedly asymmetric 15 Mb/s upload). Wireless signal is fine. Mac Mini next door runs full rate, MacBook right here runs full rate, WinXP runs full rate, Media Centre downstairs runs full rate.

Deleting entries, changing channels, PRAM reset, vigorous shaking and repositioning have no effect. Of course, which computer do I use the most...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 October, 2012, 06:50:57 pm
What's a PRAM reset?
Have you restarted the router?
Have you connected any slow, archaic equipment by ethernet?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 October, 2012, 08:20:07 pm
What's a PRAM reset?
Have you restarted the router?
Have you connected any slow, archaic equipment by ethernet?

Yes, the usual stuff applied. It's nothing obvious. I don't think it's hardware, otherwise there wouldn't be a faster upload. I apply my usual axiom: wireless is magical when it works – when it doesn't, it's the devil's arse breakfast. It seems somehow, perhaps coincidentally, stuck at the pre-Infinity speed. Something is blocking the pipe. I'll need to wander downstairs and try a wired connection, see if it's more general. Then create a new account. Then start randomly nuking things until something gives. I spy a future of tedium. I should probably outsource.

(http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn190/ianp_photo/Page_1.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 October, 2012, 08:32:28 pm
Mine's dropped a little.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2219135194.png)

It is raining so the string may be wet.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feline on 04 October, 2012, 02:05:03 pm
I am so pleased, my local telephone exchange is to be upgraded next week and my broadband should then become faster. This is great news for simonp too because when he is working from home here the internet becomes treacle at 4pm when all the kids in the village get in from school and his work stuff stops working.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 10 November, 2012, 12:05:08 am
A small side effect of the recent upgrade to Ms Ham's TV provision...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2297649199.png)

 ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimO on 10 November, 2012, 12:00:31 pm
We have Cat5 snaking across the hall and up the stairs.
I do not like it and it's a trip hazard as I can't lift my feet.

Get a couple of HomePlug units (or similar).  They're not terribly expensive, and will essentially send an Ethernet connection over the mains.  All of the ones I've seen have worked out of the box with no configuration.  You just plug them in, and plug the Ethernet connections in at each end, and they work.  They're far faster than WiFi, so don't noticeably impact upon the performance of most home connections.

I bought a couple for one of my colleagues, who mostly works from home, and has her office upstairs, but the ADSL router downstairs, near the door (as it is for many people), and they've worked flawlessly, and in essence totally transparently (plus if you do use WiFi elsewhere, it'll reduce the RF congestion a bit).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 11 November, 2012, 06:09:26 pm
I can vouch for the homeplugs, they solved my wireless reception issues on the top floor, and as a bonus run a lot faster than wifi would.

Infinity is a nice improvement, though I've just had my first run in with BT support*. Oh my.

*the engineer has wired my office phone extension incorrectly and in nutshell, if I pick up that phone, the DSL connection drops. It's unambiguous. Phone off the hook, DSL light on modem flashes like it has disco fever. I presume it's wired to the wrong side of the filter.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 11 November, 2012, 06:33:07 pm
Well, this looks rubbish, but considering where I am you couldn't hope for much more.  (And it's free.  :thumbsup: )
Youtube mostly OK - Iplayer not great.  If I want a program, it's better to download it rather than try to watch "live"
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2301141563.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 16 November, 2012, 06:45:42 pm
A bit better than it used to be

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2312209793.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 February, 2013, 09:22:05 am
Mine has settled down somewhat now, and I appear to be getting a half decent throughput...

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 14 February, 2013, 09:28:47 am
This is what you get if you're lucky enough to be on Google Fiber.
(http://i.imgur.com/YvlaAxQ.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 14 February, 2013, 02:52:01 pm
This is what you get if you're lucky enough to be on Google Fiber.
(http://i.imgur.com/YvlaAxQ.png)

The Lancashire DIY brigade http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21455795) seem to get about half this; stunning!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tiermat on 14 February, 2013, 04:04:06 pm
This is what you get if you're lucky enough to be on Google Fiber.
(http://i.imgur.com/YvlaAxQ.png)

Something like when the place I worked at was connected to JANET.

The downside was I could never use the "I'm just waiting for X to download" excuse....
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimO on 17 March, 2013, 03:03:39 pm
The trouble with these massively fast connections, like the one I posted from work a while back, is that the rest of the Internet, and all of the servers, can't really deal with it yet anyway, so it's only for these very artificial cases, where you're just talking to a very close, from a network perspective, machine.  I know that my few Mbits/s ADSL link is only slightly slower than my work connection for most day to day purposes.

It only becomes useful when you're using a fast enough machine that it's useful to stream HD video, or you're transferring a lot of data, full memory cards from a camera, or lots of video files (both of which I've done recently!)  Most of the time it's unimportant, but occasionally it's useful.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 26 June, 2013, 01:19:54 pm
Today I've had a free upgrade from 20CN to 21CN (thank you A&A) :thumbsup:
While the speed isn't anything special compared some posted here it is a big improvement for me living in rural NE Scotland.

Today
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2798096797.png)

Last weekend
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2790858050.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 June, 2013, 03:29:57 pm
Last night, I noticed our internet down in not-very-rural East Kent was being particularly slow, so I did a speed check.

Normally, we have around 1mbps. Last night, we had 399kbps. FFS. In this day and age, that doesn't even deserve to be called "broadband". I can't believe I'm actually paying for this shit service.

I hate all you bastards with your superfast download speeds. Just fuck right off and shove your megabits up your arse.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 26 June, 2013, 09:11:57 pm
My speed is enough to make citoyen jealous/angry but my BB has stuttered twice in the last 24 hours so that pages have failed to open.
I thought I'd sent a friend an SMS today and only later found it had failed.
The garden in Londonton is not that rosy.
My Mancunian cousin was totally unable to use her mobile phone at the weekend as several Orange masts in the area were down. The technology sometimes seems as flaky as mille feuilles...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 26 June, 2013, 10:10:14 pm
Is anyone else getting delays/fails with SMS texting? My phone has just taken about five minutes to send a text!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 26 June, 2013, 10:35:47 pm
Got 11.68 from 3G here last night.  :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 21 October, 2013, 06:30:41 pm
A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Veloman on 21 October, 2013, 06:57:00 pm
Just stumbled on this and I'm feeling better.  Why?  Because there are lots others who get just as poor service as I do and my 0.3 Mb/s appears comparable with others here.

Rather annoying that in a 'market economy' we appear to be getting markedly different performance for the same cost.  I have no choice as cable was never installed in the village so am reliant on the telephone line which limits the speed.  Less than 4 miles away my mate gets 30 Mb/s via Virgin cable.  Another (same distance gets 15 Mb/s.

A difficult situation indeed and for some people attempting to develop a business the situation regarding poor internet connectivity conspires against them.

The future?  We will probably be outside the 95% of the population who will benefit from fast broadband.  So may I pay a commensurate sum for the service provided?  No chance!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 21 October, 2013, 11:49:44 pm
A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)

*** Hell!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nicknack on 21 October, 2013, 11:57:53 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3048511043.png)

Which I didn't think was too bad for a piece of copper wire on Sheppey.

But not quite like the cable speeds we were getting on the mainland.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 October, 2013, 09:19:53 am
Just stumbled on this and I'm feeling better.  Why?  Because there are lots others who get just as poor service as I do and my 0.3 Mb/s appears comparable with others here.

Rather annoying that in a 'market economy' we appear to be getting markedly different performance for the same cost.  I have no choice as cable was never installed in the village so am reliant on the telephone line which limits the speed.  Less than 4 miles away my mate gets 30 Mb/s via Virgin cable.  Another (same distance gets 15 Mb/s.

A difficult situation indeed and for some people attempting to develop a business the situation regarding poor internet connectivity conspires against them.

The future?  We will probably be outside the 95% of the population who will benefit from fast broadband.  So may I pay a commensurate sum for the service provided?  No chance!

TBH, Veloman, as soon as I can bin terrestrial BB I will. In the one spot in the house I can get a 3G signal, I can achieve about 5mb/s download speeds. That's usable. At Heathrow the other day, on 4G, I saw 35mb/s plus. It's likely that 4G will reach my home before BT gets the wired BB up to the government's minimum 2mb/s standard (it's not even in the long-term plan for my exchange). BT is not interested in the rural market and would dearly love to ditch it. I will happily assist them by fucking off at the earliest opportunity.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: urban_biker on 22 October, 2013, 09:24:53 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3049166982.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3049166982)

Mine this morning. Its well worth the extra £10 per month for an FTTC connection if you can get it.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Polar Bear on 22 October, 2013, 09:47:29 am
Today I've had a free upgrade from 20CN to 21CN (thank you A&A) :thumbsup:
While the speed isn't anything special compared some posted here it is a big improvement for me living in rural NE Scotland.

Today
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2798096797.png)

Last weekend
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2790858050.png)

Ours has doubled too coinciding with O2 broadband being sold to Sky.    We're still looking to move and Coop are on the list for phone and broadband but I cannot say that we're unhappy with the upgrade.   
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 22 October, 2013, 09:54:43 am
After my long wait to get Infinity (which has been pretty good), my prospective move to wild bear country will strip me of this and (as far as I can tell) put me back in the queue. Still, it is the real boonies, an entire 17 miles from central London.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 October, 2013, 10:09:46 am
After my long wait to get Infinity (which has been pretty good), my prospective move to wild bear country will strip me of this and (as far as I can tell) put me back in the queue. Still, it is the real boonies, an entire 17 miles from central London.

Beware, Ian. I'm only 50 miles from central London...

A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)

Actually, looking at that SpeedTest, who are the unfortunate 7% of GB who get even worse bandwidth than I do?  :o
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: epa611 on 22 October, 2013, 10:16:36 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3049240927.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3049240927)  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 October, 2013, 02:15:56 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3049240927.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3049240927)  ;D ;D

Just, ahem, go away. That's just not fair. :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: L CC on 22 October, 2013, 07:47:20 pm
arvid, you must be gutted at that laggy laggy ping.

Here's t'other end of the scale:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2214510174.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

We moved to town.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3050328703.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3050328703)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 02 November, 2013, 05:41:29 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3074553616.png)

Not that I'm gloating at all, you understand. Each time I check it seems to get faster......
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 03 November, 2013, 09:54:49 pm

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3076908976.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3076908976)

I do not want to pay yet another fifty quid for yet another box.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 04 November, 2013, 11:17:45 am
TBH, Veloman, as soon as I can bin terrestrial BB I will. In the one spot in the house I can get a 3G signal, I can achieve about 5mb/s download speeds. That's usable. At Heathrow the other day, on 4G, I saw 35mb/s plus. It's likely that 4G will reach my home before BT gets the wired BB up to the government's minimum 2mb/s standard (it's not even in the long-term plan for my exchange). BT is not interested in the rural market and would dearly love to ditch it. I will happily assist them by fucking off at the earliest opportunity.

I'm not even properly rural, just on the wrong exchange (ie not the nearest one), thanks to a quirk of history. The green cabinet we're connected to is fibre-enabled, but because of the distance between us and the cabinet, they won't make it available to us, and because there's only a dozen or so other houses in the same boat as us, they have no interest in rectifying the situation. Unless the requirement to supply broadband is changed from 97% to 100%, we're unlikely ever to get decent broadband. So much for the free fucking market.

Even more galling, they've installed fibre all the way to the small business park up the road - a matter of a couple of hundred metres away - so if they put a new green cabinet in there, we could in theory get a very good speed.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: StuAff on 04 November, 2013, 11:49:44 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3077886269.png)

Obviously, a bit slow compared to some on here…….
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: valkyrie on 04 November, 2013, 05:49:59 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3078626980.png)

Compared to a lot of the recent posts this doesn't seem that fast. But it's plenty fast enough for what I do.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 08 November, 2013, 09:25:31 pm

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3076908976.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3076908976)

I do not want to pay yet another fifty quid for yet another box.

They have dropped the £50 so have ordered superhub.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Fidgetbuzz on 14 November, 2013, 10:02:02 pm
rural Norfolk

download 1.3mb/s
 upload .33mb/s


You lot just have no idea how fortunate you are
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 14 November, 2013, 11:56:50 pm
rural Norfolk

download 1.3mb/s
 upload .33mb/s


You lot just have no idea how fortunate you are

I take issue with that. My nostalgia for the situation here 3 years ago https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=40660.msg776213#msg776213 (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=40660.msg776213#msg776213) is not fond!

I am not old enough to have forgotten London life in 2010!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 November, 2013, 03:21:57 pm
You lot just have no idea how fortunate you are

You are shitting me. I dream of 1.3MB!  ;)

The UN have stated that broadband internet access should be a right, which is a bit optimistic of them. What our own government need to do is establish a legally binding definition of "broadband" - not less than 10Mbps, say.

1.3Mbps would might have seemed brilliant 20 years ago but it really doesn't cut the mustard now.

We've upgraded our TV to Sky+HD, with the brilliant On Demand services that let you download programmes you've missed to watch at your leisure. Which is great if you have decent broadband and can download a whole 90-min film in HD in a matter of minutes. But we don't. So we need to plan what we might want to watch roughly a week in advance.  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 15 November, 2013, 04:21:08 pm
Well, I'm officially going back in time. Although the exchange is enabled and accepting orders, the cabinet is not thusly empowered with fibre, so back to ADSL I go. Apparently they can't tell me when it'll get upgraded though they think 'soon'.

At least I can see the cabinet out of the window and the exchange is not too far away, so I might get decent broadband. I'll be collecting more routers though. Apparently they can't not send me another one.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 November, 2013, 04:34:50 pm
Well, I'm officially going back in time. Although the exchange is enabled and accepting orders, the cabinet is not thusly empowered with fibre, so back to ADSL I go. Apparently they can't tell me when it'll get upgraded though they think 'soon'.

At least I can see the cabinet out of the window and the exchange is not too far away, so I might get decent broadband. I'll be collecting more routers though. Apparently they can't not send me another one.

I'm in the same boat. Exchange upgraded and taking orders but not for this village. We have to wait until the end of March next year apparently for them to do something to our cabinet (the fibres all ready run to it I saw them doing it this summer).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 15 November, 2013, 06:12:12 pm
rural Norfolk

download 1.3mb/s
 upload .33mb/s


You lot just have no idea how fortunate you are

Luxury. Rural Essex:

A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Glover Fan on 15 November, 2013, 06:30:28 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3103379658.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3103379658)

Can only get standard ADSL. Our exchange is being upgraded to FTTC next summer. Only because our local council had to pay millions to BT to do it.

I work from home connected to a remote server, i'm unsure how I could do this on less than 1mb though. It is in the economy's interest for everyone to access a decent connection.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 15 November, 2013, 07:55:49 pm
Thought I had ordered my now, free, superhub. Received email confirmation with two possible delivery dates but...... no show. Tracking my order on site says I do not have any outstanding orders. Mmmmmmmm is it me?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 15 November, 2013, 08:04:56 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3103566869.png)

SA39

Not bad tonight
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 November, 2013, 08:15:20 pm
Basil that ping time is horrendous. Some serious buffering problems on your link I think. Your getting twice the latency you would expect pinging across the transatlantic cable from the UK to East coast USA !
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 15 November, 2013, 08:28:46 pm
Basil that ping time is horrendous. Some serious buffering problems on your link I think. Your getting twice the latency you would expect pinging across the transatlantic cable from the UK to East coast USA !

Could that be explained by the fact that I am at the extreme limit (distance wise) of my neighbour's wireless?  The signal is so weak that it drops in and out.
(S'ok, I have their permission)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mcshroom on 15 November, 2013, 08:38:19 pm
Not bad here tonight
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3103629866.png)

We're listed as a 'future exchange' on the openreach site so it's unlikely to get much faster any time soon, but it's fast enough for now :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 15 November, 2013, 09:07:21 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3103670431.png)

Not too exciting, but seems enough - mostly. 
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 November, 2013, 09:54:32 pm
Basil that ping time is horrendous. Some serious buffering problems on your link I think. Your getting twice the latency you would expect pinging across the transatlantic cable from the UK to East coast USA !

Could that be explained by the fact that I am at the extreme limit (distance wise) of my neighbour's wireless?  The signal is so weak that it drops in and out.
(S'ok, I have their permission)

Definitely.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 15 November, 2013, 10:45:14 pm


A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)

I had BT out to investigate my slow speeds. The engineer got it to increase from 1mbs to 6.

Worth trying.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 15 November, 2013, 10:50:57 pm


A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)

I had BT out to investigate my slow speeds. The engineer got it to increase from 1mbs to 6.

Worth trying.

I would look and see what the sync speed of the router was. A speed that low looks like a stuck BRAS. The download speed shouldn't be lower than the upload.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 17 November, 2013, 09:00:14 am


A high point in BT's broadband provision. This is ~50 miles from That London:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3047909941.png)

I had BT out to investigate my slow speeds. The engineer got it to increase from 1mbs to 6.

Worth trying.

BT themselves state that the maximum speed the line will give is ~1mb. The normal speed is around 0.8 to 0.9mb. On the day mentioned above, BT automatics had throttled my connection because it kept dropping out. They reset the bandwidth while I was on the phone to them. I've had BT/open reach out several times to repair the line - being right at the end of a ~7km line in the countryside means a lot of tree rubbing and other interference. But there ain't no way I'm gonna get more than 1mb, and the exchange is not slated for upgrade. At all.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Hot Flatus on 17 November, 2013, 11:55:53 am
So I guess its move house or lump it  ;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 17 November, 2013, 08:24:41 pm
Well, there are a couple of other options. One is the mobile network getting 3G or even 4G to us. 3G is intermittent in my house, but when I have it it gives about 5mb download speeds. That's useable for most things. The second, which is being actively pursued, is satellite-based broadband. Several villages around us have it and it gives about 20mb for around £300 pa (including amortised start-up costs). I would so love to give BT the Final Finger!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 20 November, 2013, 09:26:20 pm

So I guess its move house or lump it  ;D

I've already come to the conclusion that this is my only realistic option. It has also occurred to me that the further we progress into the 21st century, the more likely it is that poor internet availability could have a seriously detrimental effect on house prices. My one glimmer of hope is that someone successfully sues BT for this and thus encourages them to fix it for the rest of us.

I know this is clutching at straws.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 20 November, 2013, 09:33:55 pm
A lot of the pressure for faster speeds in rural areas comes from the "Captains of Industry" and similar types who have moved to or have second (third?) homes in those areas. 
Your error, and mine, is to live in an area that that is not attractive to the "posh".
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: aidan.f on 20 November, 2013, 09:50:45 pm
Possible 3g solution for all you  'out there below 2MB/S'
A 3G router e.g. Solwise Net434T with external high gain antenna:-
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=14920 (ftp://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=14920)

You need to research  topography and where you best  base station is and what service providers use it, All straight-forward when on a good BB signal - Catch 22.  If you PM me with a location I maybe can help.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 21 November, 2013, 06:34:01 am

So I guess its move house or lump it  ;D

I've already come to the conclusion that this is my only realistic option. It has also occurred to me that the further we progress into the 21st century, the more likely it is that poor internet availability could have a seriously detrimental effect on house prices. My one glimmer of hope is that someone successfully sues BT for this and thus encourages them to fix it for the rest of us.

I don't see on what grounds they could sue. There is no law saying BT must provide high speed broadband. BT are are private company they can provide what services they want to or not as the case may be. They unlike the other telecoms providers in the UK have a  Universal Service Obligation that goes back to when they were public owned but that only commits them to providing a fixed telephone line not an internet connection.
At least BT are trying to get faster internet to rural areas. The government is subsidizing this but non of the other telecoms companies would even bid for the contracts to do it.

Its the nature of a privatized phone network. The low density geographically dispersed bits are not economic to upgrade properly when you cant unless you use the profits from the high density urban areas to subsidize it which privatized companies aren't interested in doing. It's the same as the Royal Mail. Private companies want to provide a rival service in cities but aren't really interested in daily delivery in rural areas.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 21 November, 2013, 07:09:09 am
A lot of the pressure for faster speeds in rural areas comes from the "Captains of Industry" and similar types who have moved to or have second (third?) homes in those areas. 
Your error, and mine, is to live in an area that that is not attractive to the "posh".

The pressure for faster broadband in ANY area comes from people. There are just more of them in urban areas and it's more cost-effective for BT to concentrate on them first. I don't live in an area that would feature on any programme about runaway house prices, but there are plenty of wealthy people who live in this part of the world. It may never be cost-effective for BT to upgrade the lines here (and that is what they appear to be saying), notwithstanding the government's commitment to 'ultra-high speed broadband' (2mb!!). But there are - or will be - alternatives, and BT needs to be aware that they are no longer the only game in town. Wired broadband? That's already history.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 21 November, 2013, 08:00:23 am
Wired broadband is not history. Satellite is rubbish due to the latency problems which cannot be fixed (its a simple matter of the distance to the satellite and back). 3G coverage is rubbish in most of the same areas that have poor land line broadband never mind 4G and then thee is the cost of 3 and 4G data packages.
The other comms companies really don't care about rural areas it's just economics, there is no one waiting to swoop and provide an alternative. I suspect BT really don't care that much either but it looks good for them to try and do something and I bet they are making some profit from the subsidies.
The only real alternatives are the very local ones such as running your own fibre or setting up a microwave link then using local Wifi repeaters. WiFi doesn't scale well though without lots of wired back haul between the APs.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 21 November, 2013, 08:12:11 am
It's effectively history here (where I live), Pat, as no-one's interested in dragging it out of the 1980s! Therefore people have sourced alternatives. Satellite broadband might not compare particularly favourably against fibre, but it compares brilliantly against 0.9mb wired! And 4G data prices are more affordable than not getting the data in the first place (actually, I have a 5Gb/month 4G contract which is about the same price as BT's basic broadband package, so it's not that bad). You're right that 4G isn't available yet where I live (3G is, intermittently), but it's more likely to be available than high-speed broadband.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 21 November, 2013, 10:01:43 am
I don't see on what grounds they could sue. There is no law saying BT must provide high speed broadband.

Like I said, clutching at straws. I'm hypothesising an admittedly unlikely case where a person can show that BT's business practices have had a significant negative impact on the value of their house. You never know.

Besides, while there may be no legal requirement at the moment to provide 100% coverage and/or a minimum standard of "broadband", that may well change, especially as more and more companies are expecting their employees to work from home at least part time - my own company is considering this as an option but it simply wouldn't be practical for me at the moment because of my poor internet speed.

The UN have declared broadband a "basic human right". Which is interesting but unlikely ever to have any bearing on my situation.

Quote
Its the nature of a privatized phone network.

Ain't that the truth. And one of the many reasons for being opposed to selling off public services. Unfortunately, that boat has long since sailed.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jacomus on 21 November, 2013, 11:44:57 am
DL: 17.91Mbps
UL: 8.11Mbps
PG: 44ms

Not too shabby. That's what my mobile is getting inside our office (which is faster than our cheapo wired broadband), using 4G. The 4G (or any) signal is a bit weak here, probably thanks to the tall buildings clustered around our not-tall one.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 26 November, 2013, 12:58:47 pm
It's effectively history here (where I live), Pat, as no-one's interested in dragging it out of the 1980s! Therefore people have sourced alternatives. Satellite broadband might not compare particularly favourably against fibre, but it compares brilliantly against 0.9mb wired! And 4G data prices are more affordable than not getting the data in the first place (actually, I have a 5Gb/month 4G contract which is about the same price as BT's basic broadband package, so it's not that bad). You're right that 4G isn't available yet where I live (3G is, intermittently), but it's more likely to be available than high-speed broadband.

Another great day in BT land:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3126461951.png)

And on a dodgy 3G connection via O2:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3126495211.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 27 November, 2013, 12:17:03 pm
DL 104.28

UL 11.24

Took delivery of our new router from Virgin yesterday and up the speed scale we went. The first router they gave us was rubbish and our WIFI speeds and availability were very poor compared to what we had before the so called super hub. The new hub, the mark 2, is a serious improvement.

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 27 November, 2013, 12:28:35 pm
When our Virgin super hub was installed (needed to get the full speed when they increased it), the setup was wrong. The installer left our old wireless router in place, & plugged that in to the super hub. Worked, & we got the right speeds - eventually - but took forever to connect.

I took our old router out & changed the settings on the super hub myself (easy to look up), & everything's worked well since.

He couldn't be bothered, I think.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 29 November, 2013, 10:24:56 am
A new low:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3132781649.png)

Ring BT: my broadband's a bit slow today.

BT: we've tested the line. It's fine.

Me: so this is the best I can expect for my £16/month plus line fees?

BT: yes.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Oaky on 01 February, 2014, 11:05:45 am
i let it choose it's preferred server for the test which ended up in Dublin(!) though.  I suspect that has most effect on the ping time and fine-tuning the server used woudln't improve my other scores much...

Yup...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1243204340.png)


New ISP:-

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1373266796.png)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1487923426.png)

Test done earlier on when there seemed to be a lot of treacle in my interpipes.  :o

About time for another check...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3274618063.png)

(EDIT: shamelessly using this thread as a personal archive of BB speed results ;))
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 01 February, 2014, 12:58:26 pm
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3274820934.png (http://www.speedtest.net/result/3274820934.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3274820934.png)

Rock steady.
BT have sneakily increased their charges.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 01 February, 2014, 01:38:12 pm
Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 February, 2014, 08:15:52 am
Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."

At least they'll give a timeframe. I live in the land of we-can't-tell-you. Surely there's a plan, say I? Apparently it's so secret that they've killed anyone and everyone who knows it. The TE is enabled and other than this little corner of commuterville, every cabinet insists on stabbing me with the words 'fibre is here!' Possibly it's the bears. Damn, all those OpenReach engineers need to do is approach the cabinet dressed as Grizzly Adams.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mrcharly-YHT on 03 February, 2014, 09:54:13 am
MrsCharly had the broadband installed at new house already (she and the kids can't live without internet access).

fibre with a stonking router. I get full signal on the top floor.

Theoretical max download speed = 66Mb

Actual test = 48Mb, with 3M upload

The upload speed makes a major difference; I took a pic of some new furniture, uploaded it to facebook. It was uploaded before I could say "How long . ..". At the current house, with Sky broadband (was O2) and a theoretical upload speed of 1Mb, it takes 30-40s to upload a pic.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 03 February, 2014, 10:06:50 am
Still waiting for BT to sort out my local cabinet so I can get Infinity, it's taking an age. I believe there's some planning problem with the new cabinet location.

"Fibre optic broadband is estimated to be in your area between February 2014 and March 2014."

At least they'll give a timeframe. I live in the land of we-can't-tell-you. Surely there's a plan, say I? Apparently it's so secret that they've killed anyone and everyone who knows it. The TE is enabled and other than this little corner of commuterville, every cabinet insists on stabbing me with the words 'fibre is here!' Possibly it's the bears. Damn, all those OpenReach engineers need to do is approach the cabinet dressed as Grizzly Adams.

Most likely it's been because there have been objections about the location of the new (larger) cabinet that services you.

Take heart that it's not all good for me. Over the last 18 months the quoted deadline has been steadily pushed further and further out. I remember checking in November 2012 and being told it would be there in December 2012. Each month I checked the deadline just moved on.

Then BT got told they couldn't do this any more and for the last 6 months mine has been stuck on March 2014. I hold little hope.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 03 February, 2014, 12:00:10 pm
They update cabinets now? I'm not sure where my cabinet is - it may be miles away. I am sure that in it is a very old, one-lunged, chain-smoking hamster on an electron wheel that has lost all its paddles. They haven't realised he's still there, so he's struggling on well past retirement age. In fact, a bit like Japanese soldiers, he'll still be there, forty years from now, spinning away ineffectually for Queen and country. And I'll still have 'broadband' that doesn't quite achieve the dizzy heights of 1mb download speed, let alone upload.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 03 February, 2014, 12:19:07 pm
Yes, BT Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet).

Broadband speed is, roughly, inversely proportional to the length of the copper between your router and the DSLAM (that magic box that converts the signals over the copper into network magic). The longer the length of copper between you and the DSLAM the slower your broadband is.

Originally your 'phone line is is a piece of copper that runs from your house to a nearby cabinet somewhere and then, along with lots of other people's bits of copper, all the way to the exchange.

When DSL was first rolled out the DSLAMs were located at the exchange, so if didn't matter if you were only 100 yards from your cabinet, it was still 6km in total to the exchange.

With FTTC they build a new, slightly larger, cabinet near the existing one and put the equivalent of the DSLAMs in the cabinet. Now the run of copper to the DSLAM is (for this example) only 100 yards, and that allows them to use VDSL2/etc to get speeds up near 80Mbps (if you're really close). The cabinet is then connected to the exchange using fibre optic cable so that capacity/speed is not an issue.

If your cabinet is miles away you may still get a speed increase if FTTC decreases the total copper run length by a large margin.

Of course, if the cabinet only serves a small number of people then it'll be way down the list of priorities for OpenReach to upgrade to FTTC as the cost per subscriber is going to be much more (laying fibre between exchange and cabinet(s)). It also depends on whether your exchange has had the equipment upgrade to handle FTTC as the exchange now needs to handle the incoming fibre.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rusky on 03 February, 2014, 12:46:54 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3278929566.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3278929566)
;D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 February, 2014, 12:52:33 pm
Most likely it's been because there have been objections about the location of the new (larger) cabinet that services you.

Take heart that it's not all good for me. Over the last 18 months the quoted deadline has been steadily pushed further and further out. I remember checking in November 2012 and being told it would be there in December 2012. Each month I checked the deadline just moved on.

Then BT got told they couldn't do this any more and for the last 6 months mine has been stuck on March 2014. I hold little hope.

I had similar before they finally launched FTTC here.
Had my Infinity connection the first week it was available here.

I thought I'd wait until Infinity...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 03 February, 2014, 12:52:56 pm
Yes, BT Infinity is FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet).[snip]



I know. My post was somewhat ironic. I have discussed with BT their plans to update my exchange to meet the government's commitment to deliver a minimum of 2mb broadband. Their reply is that they have 'no plans'. I genuinely don't have any idea where the cabinet is, but it will be a very small proportion of the 7 to 14km (depending on which BT spokesrobot I believe) line distance from the exchange - too far for any prospect of FTTC.

I don't anticipate any change in my 0.5 - 0.9mb download speed anytime in the next few years.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 03 February, 2014, 02:23:11 pm
My nearest BT fibre is a few hundred metres away. BT says it can deliver 30-42 meg here, & 6-8 meg upload.

Virgin is currently delivering 'up to' 30 (in practice at least 30, e.g. 33 just now), or 60 if you pay more,  & promising to uprate 30 to 50 later this year. Upload is much slower than BT promises, though, only 2 meg.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 03 February, 2014, 07:18:30 pm
My nearest BT fibre is a few hundred metres away. BT says it can deliver 30-42 meg here, & 6-8 meg upload.

Virgin is currently delivering 'up to' 30 (in practice at least 30, e.g. 33 just now), or 60 if you pay more,  & promising to uprate 30 to 50 later this year. Upload is much slower than BT promises, though, only 2 meg.

I might burrow a connection to your place. I'd only take 5% of your bandwidth; you'll never notice. I'll get a 500% increase.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nuovo_record on 03 February, 2014, 10:38:08 pm
32.99mb for a 30mb connection.....not bad
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 06 February, 2014, 06:11:25 pm
Tory MP takes action to improve BB in London suburbia.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/10992217.BT_pledges_broadband_improvement_in_Chipping_Barnet/?ref=rss (http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/10992217.BT_pledges_broadband_improvement_in_Chipping_Barnet/?ref=rss)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: geraldc on 19 February, 2014, 04:15:25 pm
Three finally turned on my 4G on my phone.

(http://www.speedtest.net/wp/8191039.png)

It's unlimited too. I'm going to abuse the hell out of that. Hello overnight back ups of everything...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 22 February, 2014, 12:34:30 am
Interesting that its asymmetry thing1. Perhaps some traffic shaping on the switch access ports.

Over in the valley, (and moreover, 3 years on) things seem rather more symmetric
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3323163012.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nuovo_record on 22 February, 2014, 07:49:44 pm
and apparently virgin are increasing the basic speed from 30mb to 50mb......
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 February, 2014, 10:08:58 pm
And BT are reducing theirs from 0.9 mbs to 0.2 mbs. At least where I live.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 24 February, 2014, 04:37:00 pm
Averaging 3.5Mbs today which is very good for this location. Apparently we can get FTTC from the end of the month which will be marvellous as they are predicting 80Mbs.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 06 March, 2014, 08:14:18 pm
I have a 100 meg but am going to change down as it is all getting a bit spendy.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 08 March, 2014, 07:34:36 pm
O2 at the corner of my sofa where I can get 3G:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3357435549.png)

BT couldn't even load the speedtest page.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 08 March, 2014, 07:57:41 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3357477418.png)

Looks good but test showed true shonkiness and took ages.
Maybe the string's too dry...

2 minutes later...
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3357485291.png)

Test seems to stall all the time.

Then changed the server and had a much steadier test.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3357496829.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 08 March, 2014, 10:09:41 pm
Virgin's download speeds are OK, but uploads are still comparatively shite.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3357669623.png)

WE pay for 30 meg (supposed to increase to 50 later in the year), & it's usually at least the advertised speed.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 08 March, 2014, 10:13:42 pm
And BT are reducing theirs from 0.9 mbs to 0.2 mbs. At least where I live.
Time to move? But I hear that low BB speeds now affect the price of your house.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 08 March, 2014, 10:16:41 pm
I probably will be moving in the next few months anyway. In the meantime, I'm putting as much pressure on BT as I can - in concert with others in the village. 
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 27 March, 2014, 05:03:21 pm
Well, it's gone up. Upload speed is still nothing to write home about, though.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3399881918.png)

Dunno why it wants to use a server in Brum. A bit further away than usual.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 27 March, 2014, 06:04:27 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3400020472.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3400020472)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 02 May, 2014, 12:53:09 pm
A new low:

Ping: 1545ms
Download: 0.05mbs
Upload: 0.03mbs

Too slow to actually get the image!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: PaulF on 02 May, 2014, 02:54:51 pm
With Sky

Ping 45ms
Download 2.83Mb/s
Upload 0.67Mb/s
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: JennyB on 02 May, 2014, 03:57:29 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3476282130.png)   :'(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Panoramix on 07 May, 2014, 04:30:27 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3485378059.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3485378059)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 07 May, 2014, 08:09:26 am

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3485615605.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3485615605)

Slower than 72% of France :(

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 07 May, 2014, 09:21:35 am
And 45 times the speed of my connection in UK!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Thor on 07 June, 2014, 01:27:29 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3548912466.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3548912466)

Until FTTC arrived, I was getting 2Mb or so on a good day, so I sympathise with people like TimC . 

OTOH, I am contemplating a move to somewhere where I might not get even 2Mb.  It is a major deterrent.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 18 June, 2014, 07:53:33 am
Ooo look they've upped it again  :smug:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3570396561.png)

Am I annoying those of you on 500Kb/s?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 18 June, 2014, 10:50:19 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3548912466.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3548912466)

Until FTTC arrived, I was getting 2Mb or so on a good day, so I sympathise with people like TimC . 

OTOH, I am contemplating a move to somewhere where I might not get even 2Mb.  It is a major deterrent.

I have never got anywhere near 2mb! The maximum I can get these days is 0.7mb. Much of the time it's considerably less than that.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 23 June, 2014, 12:46:12 pm
The new green box at the bottom of the street is just sitting there taunting me every time I pass. I presume they're still putting in magic wires but any attempt to get BT or Openreach divulge a schedule is greeted with cheerful ignorance. These people would deny knowing their own names. Just to wind me up more a letter just arrived from Superfast Surrey telling me we'll be upgraded by the 'end of the year.' Perhaps I need to go peel one of those superfast broadband stickers from another box and stick it on mine.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wombat on 23 June, 2014, 06:57:52 pm
And I've just had the email form Virgin asking if I want to action the free upgrade from 20Mb to 50Mb.  Why the hell would I say no?  So obviously I said yes, and in 3 days time, it should happen.  I must confess that 20Mb is generally fast enough, its upload speeds that piss me off, particularly when I'm trying to load a load of files up to WeT ransfer, or uploading to a Picasa album. 
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 24 June, 2014, 08:11:44 am
Hmm, plugging my postcode (Croydon's finest postcode) into the Superfast Surrey site tells me 'End of June 2014.'

I think it is the end of June. Perhaps they do just need the sticker.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mcshroom on 24 June, 2014, 09:53:12 am
I can now get the faster stuff (to cabinet anyway). As the fibre only runs to the cabinet would they need to install anything in the house?

I get >10Mbps download already so I need to decide whether to upgrade or not. Could be useful for iPlayer/Amazon Video streaming
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 24 June, 2014, 10:11:50 am
I can now get the faster stuff (to cabinet anyway). As the fibre only runs to the cabinet would they need to install anything in the house?

I get >10Mbps download already so I need to decide whether to upgrade or not. Could be useful for iPlayer/Amazon Video streaming

Yes, they put a new faceplate on your master socket and give you a rather fugly Openreach modem / brick. To be honest, I get 12-15ish Mb/s at the moment and that's fine for glitchless Amazon/Netflix. Uploads are slow though. Plus the mothership pay the bills and we have to exchange a lot of a data. Ruling puny humans is data intensive.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 24 June, 2014, 11:08:52 am
Now being a pensioner, I have just halved my speed with Virgin from >100mbs to 50mbs and for domestic purposes have not noticed any difference at all.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 25 June, 2014, 01:51:27 pm
Ooo look they've upped it again  :smug:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3570396561.png)

Am I annoying those of you on 500Kb/s?
500? When I were a lad I did remote support via 9.6k dial-up modem.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 25 June, 2014, 02:09:39 pm
Ooo look they've upped it again  :smug:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3570396561.png)

Am I annoying those of you on 500Kb/s?
500? When I were a lad I did remote support via 9.6k dial-up modem.

I dream of 500kbs now; 160mbs? That's immoral.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Plug1n on 04 July, 2014, 03:54:05 pm
Same as Ham.

I upgraded my Virgin bundle to get their 152Mb/s highest speed and save £13 a month on my current whack.

True to form this gives 19 MB/s (yes Bytes/s).

How on earth was I managing on 7.1 MB/s before :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 09 July, 2014, 06:24:41 pm
I have just upgraded to BT Infinity. Allegedly. 79-80 Mb/s down, 20 Mb/s up. Or so it doth estimate. I did piddle a sticker off another green BT box and added it to mine. Sorted.

Probably jinxed it now. I have in my hand a piece of paper. OK, an email. They never updated me from when I registered my interest, but the nice people from Superfast Surrey came put a piece of paper through the door and the order went through.

Don't gripe TimC, they let you play with an aeroplane. You've probably had me in the back (ed: fnarr)

Also a BT Homehub 5. Handy, as the previous one HH3 appears to have disappeared in a flurry of paint spots during the refurbishment. And it wasn't very good despite having blue lights.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 09 July, 2014, 06:57:11 pm
Gripe? Me? At least on the aeroplane I can get 50mb of Internet for about £15. That's rather better value than BT Internet at home, where the £16 a month gets me about 3mb of data!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 24 July, 2014, 08:05:46 pm
And the one where ian joins the internet age.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3645752481.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3645752481)

not bad as this machine is connected to the internet pipe via a old Belkin broadband router repurposed as a switch/access point and then via powerline adaptors across our curiously wired house to the magic palace of electrical spaghetti under the stairs.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 31 August, 2014, 05:26:29 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3726737350.png)

Download seems faster, upload has slowed a bit. Ping is meh.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 September, 2014, 04:32:17 pm
We've had BT "Faster" Broadband installed today. It's not "Infinity" but it's supposed to be better than bog standard ADSL. I was sceptical, since we're still a mile of copper wire away from the DSLAM, but I let my wife persuade me that we should sign up, and the engineer who came to fit the whizzy new faceplate today reckons we could get up to 40mbps downstream. Which would be phenomenal, considering we've been getting <1mbps to date.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 September, 2014, 05:04:35 pm
I thought BT 'faster' didn't get that fast. I'd be interested to see what you get once things have settled.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 02 September, 2014, 05:18:52 pm
I didn't think it got that fast either. From what I've read, I was expecting we might not get much more than about 3mbps, but even that would be a significant improvement on what we've been getting up to now. I know that in theory 15-20mbps should be possible but 40mbps would be beyond my wildest dreams.

We shall see!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 September, 2014, 05:26:00 pm
I'd guess 8-10MBps.
My parents get around 10 and aren't on Infinity.
They're with BT some 5km away but they obviously have posher string in Hendon than in Edgware.
I seldom topped 2MBps in my pre-Infinity days.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mcshroom on 02 September, 2014, 05:29:08 pm
I'm with BT but not Infinity, this is what mine's currently doing
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3731280094.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 03 September, 2014, 02:07:34 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3732271529.png)

Never thought I'd be so happy to achieve a D grade.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 September, 2014, 12:28:09 pm
You ping and download seem impressive; your upload
<cough, cough!>
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: 321up on 27 September, 2014, 07:20:31 pm
Using tethering via wifi on 3G network during evening (we don't have a landline)...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791955931.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791962616.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791972072.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791979976.png)

... fortunately we are due to get 4G by the end of the year at no extra cost.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 27 September, 2014, 07:44:24 pm
Still better than my landline 'broad'band!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: 321up on 28 September, 2014, 07:48:05 am
Using tethering via wifi on 3G network during evening (we don't have a landline)...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791955931.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791962616.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791972072.png)
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3791979976.png)

... fortunately we are due to get 4G by the end of the year at no extra cost.

This confirms what I expected, much faster download speed outside peak times...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3792939384.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 October, 2014, 01:05:05 am
BT you gits. Your Infinity availability checker has been saying Infinity will be available ""at the end of the month" for 18 months now but at the end of every month you change it to the end of the next month. Now you have changed it to the end of December ! You are misleading gits and have allready been kicked by the regulator for misleading advertising and you still do it !!!!!!!!!!
Not happy.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 01 October, 2014, 01:17:26 am
BT you gits. Your Infinity availability checker has been saying Infinity will be available ""at the end of the month" for 18 months now but at the end of every month you change it to the end of the next month. Now you have changed it to the end of December ! You are misleading gits and have allready been kicked by the regulator for misleading advertising and you still do it !!!!!!!!!!
Not happy.

I remember grumbling for the same reasons!
Infinity was fine when we got it but we waited a LONG time. Our availability was put back repeatedly.
Infinity technician f*cked up our landline phone extension wiring.

Sympathies!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 01 October, 2014, 01:21:13 am
The exchange has been Infinity enabled for 2 years and we have had a new Ininity capable cab in the village for 6 months so its particularly annoying, especially as they keep mail bombing the village with offers on Infinity packages ...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 01 October, 2014, 09:57:56 am
BT vs. Openreach. I could get no information about ours (TE was enabled years ago). The only info I got was from Surrey Online which was some funding scheme for Openreach to install FTTC for areas BT regarded as commercially unviable (I've no idea why we fell into that, I don't think we'd score highly on any index of deprivation, though admittedly some places have a bigger Waitrose than ours). Anyway there were as specific as to say that we'd have it by the end of the year. Probably.

Anyway about two months ago a new green cabinet appeared at the bottom of our hill. I called BT and said could I order Infiniti. And they said yes. Never did get anything from BT (and I signed up for the checker) just a circular from Surrey Online.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: contango on 01 October, 2014, 10:04:38 am

Mine is supposed to be "up to 20mbps" but I had to have it capped at 6mbps because anything faster than that and the modem kept dropping signal. Recently it started negotiating at 3mbps.

I tried a different router and got the exact same result. The shysters at BT appear to charge ~£200 for a visit if they don't find a fault, and as far as I can see there's no way of confirming whether they really didn't find a fault or whether they can sting me for the £200-odd for a "no fault found" call while quietly making a note to fix the box in the street.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nuovo_record on 01 October, 2014, 01:32:41 pm
just upgraded the phone to "talkunlimited" as advertised for £8, they did it for £6.50 and increased the speed to a useful 50mb, which when tested was closer to 55mb
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pdm on 06 October, 2014, 03:46:40 pm
Eventually took the plunge. Previously I was getting about 6-8Mbps download, 389kbps upload.
Now on my ISP phone + fibre package at a few pence less than the old BT+ISP one...
Engineer was here this morning for about 30 minutes. Managed not to mess up the extensions and did a good job.
Took me a little longer to configure the router out of the singing dancing NAT+firewall setup into something more usable and basic...  :facepalm:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3812384520.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Otto on 06 October, 2014, 04:05:04 pm

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3812421122.png)

In my office...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Redjeep! on 17 October, 2014, 08:46:10 pm


(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3839745089.png)


Truly pathetic.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 31 October, 2014, 08:01:49 pm
Over our home Wi-Fi, while Mrs B is watching streaming video (Japanese TV) on another computer . . .

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3874168911.png)

It's usually faster.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 31 October, 2014, 08:04:48 pm
Similar to me.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3874175222.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 01 November, 2014, 08:49:20 am
Virgin offered us a freebie. We accepted.

(http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b581/polyhive1/Screenshot-01_11_201408_45_38_zps54809647.png)

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 November, 2014, 01:28:14 pm
Yippee saw an Openreach van down b the new cabinet yesterday. Stopped and had a chat. They were wiring up a microwave transmitter to link the village to the nearest exchange specifically for high speed broadband. Seems like we might sorted relatively soon.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 05 November, 2014, 03:23:25 pm
Scotland is making a massive effort we saw, Harris and Lewis are being cabled up so they will next year I think it is be very high speed.

Is windybiker still around btw?

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tiermat on 05 November, 2014, 03:36:58 pm
Our Infinity was enabled very quickly, not long after Helly's, if I remember correctly.  One of the advatages of living in a rural area*, and the government pushing it's connected villages approach.  The next village from us was one of the first places to get Infinity in North Yorkshire, and all the infrastructure had to go past our front (and back) door, so it was simple.

*This, of course is a laugh, we live < 0.5 miles from the ECML, and a ECML station, in a town that has a population of ~16,000 and is within spitting distance of the Teesside conurbation.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 05 November, 2014, 03:49:42 pm
Scotland is making a massive effort we saw, Harris and Lewis are being cabled up so they will next year I think it is be very high speed.

Is windybiker still around btw?

PH

I noticed that, whist riding Windy's 300 this year.
There were trenches getting dug all along the side of the road and ducting put in and giant reels of the outer sheath that fibre goes down.
At my expense, hrumph.
And we get nuffink, hrumph.

Windy still pops up from time to time.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 05 November, 2014, 04:18:55 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3886108522.png)

My lapdancer & Miss von Brandenburg's Dingovision connection.  Not much better than the wet string at Larrington Towers.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 05 November, 2014, 06:44:54 pm
Scotland is making a massive effort we saw, Harris and Lewis are being cabled up so they will next year I think it is be very high speed.

Is windybiker still around btw?

PH

Yet some parts of rural Essex are unlikely even to make the Govt's 2mbs target before 2018. Hey, but it's all streets of gold in the south East, ain't it?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 05 November, 2014, 06:49:18 pm
Hey, but it's all streets of gold in the south East, ain't it?

IP over Golden Pavements?
Must be worth a try.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 December, 2014, 11:10:34 am
Oh, the joys of internet 50 miles from That London, the richest part of the sixth-richest country in the world.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4003361459.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4003361459)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 22 December, 2014, 11:23:44 am
I'm in a state of shock ! After two years of the BT infinity checker saying "next month" (and rolling over to the next month on the last day of the month) today it says yes you can have Infinity !
Flaming heck.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 December, 2014, 11:27:33 am
It'll never, ever happen where I am. :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 December, 2014, 11:41:17 am
The result I gave above was a rare moment of almost-usability. 30 minutes later, back to normal:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4003424621.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4003424621)

And for this I pay the standard rate for a 16mb connection...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 22 December, 2014, 12:18:37 pm
It'll never, ever happen where I am. :(

Might do. They said that about here for ages. We are in a village with only 100 houses five miles from anywhere, they had to put up a microwave link to get us Infinity.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 22 December, 2014, 12:36:33 pm
Scotland is making a massive effort we saw, Harris and Lewis are being cabled up so they will next year I think it is be very high speed.

Is windybiker still around btw?

PH

I've just got my installation date for FTTC confirmed as 30/01/2014 - this is semi-rural NE Scotland.
Feanor  - you should be be able to get fibre now or pretty soon, check here (http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/rural-broadband/) or the A&A checker on their order pages.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 22 December, 2014, 03:39:42 pm
It'll never, ever happen where I am. :(

Might do. They said that about here for ages. We are in a village with only 100 houses five miles from anywhere, they had to put up a microwave link to get us Infinity.

That's about 10 times the size of our village! We're not in any plans, ambitions or 'visions' in BT's universe to do anything beyond getting us to the Government's 2mb minimum standard. That's on the cards for sometime after 2017.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: tonycollinet on 24 December, 2014, 06:13:47 pm
After a five month marathon from when the cabinet officially went live (it was, but the replacement PCP wasn't). Finally got FTTC

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4009084773.png)

Is not too shabby
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: phantasmagoriana on 24 December, 2014, 07:18:04 pm
Ah, rural broadband:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4009198049.png)

 :-\
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: PloddinPedro on 25 December, 2014, 09:52:34 am
That's about 10 times the size of our village! We're not in any plans, ambitions or 'visions' in BT's universe to do anything beyond getting us to the Government's 2mb minimum standard. That's on the cards for sometime after 2017.
I'm in north Essex, 2 miles outside Halstead and a mile or so from the green cabinet in the local village and my "speeds" are similar to yours. A while ago, 2 Mbps would have been a useful improvement but now, with "90% of the market having high-speed broadband" content creators are increasing their output size so that I suspect that soon it will be the case that 2mbps will be no more use than dial-up email!
I wonder if I'd be better off looking at satellite services but at the moment I know nothing about it.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 December, 2014, 11:35:57 am
We were in the same position until recently - being about a mile from the cabinet, they wouldn't let us have faster internet even after they'd upgraded it. However, we now have some kind of halfway house option - not full Infinity but a much faster connection than what we had. About 18mbps, on a good day. You can only get this through BT though - our previous ISP Sky wouldn't offer us anything similar. Worth asking them if it's an option for you.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 25 December, 2014, 02:21:53 pm
That's about 10 times the size of our village! We're not in any plans, ambitions or 'visions' in BT's universe to do anything beyond getting us to the Government's 2mb minimum standard. That's on the cards for sometime after 2017.
I'm in north Essex, 2 miles outside Halstead and a mile or so from the green cabinet in the local village and my "speeds" are similar to yours. A while ago, 2 Mbps would have been a useful improvement but now, with "90% of the market having high-speed broadband" content creators are increasing their output size so that I suspect that soon it will be the case that 2mbps will be no more use than dial-up email!
I wonder if I'd be better off looking at satellite services but at the moment I know nothing about it.

I can't be much more than a couple of miles from you! I'm in Henny Street, and we work off the Twinstead exchange; I'm about 8km as the telephone line goes from there, and the OpenReach guys say that's about as far as a broadband signal will reliably go on an overground line. I'm a mile from Sudbury as the crow flies, but that's a different county and they can't possibly cross the boundary with their wires. Furrin, innit. The Faster Essex lot (or whatever they're called) claimed no knowledge of the fact that this corner of Essex is almost off-grid, and insisted that we already have 2mb BB. I have persuaded them that that is not the case! Whether they can get that through to BT is another matter...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 30 December, 2014, 11:27:31 pm
The FTTC upgrade was completed today, small town rural Scotland :smug:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4022822275.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 04 January, 2015, 12:28:11 pm
Surburbia:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4032519292.png)

Although a little more in the upload department wouldn't go amiss, it's usually more than enough. What do folk with >20 Mb/s do?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wombat on 05 January, 2015, 08:28:18 am
Presumably they download films?  In my case, with 50Mb, I just go "blimey that software downloaded quickly".  I also now have 4G on my phone, makes absolutely no difference at all!  On 3G my upload speed was already higher than the 3-ish Mb I get at home, though.  its the upload speed I'd like to see improved, for when WeTransfer-ing photos etc..
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 05 January, 2015, 09:51:08 am
Surburbia:

[img]http://www.speedtest.net/result/4032519292.png[img]

Although a little more in the upload department wouldn't go amiss, it's usually more than enough. What do folk with >20 Mb/s do?

I think it's covered by this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6eFNRKEROw).

I suppose you could ask the same question about any speed upgrade (I'm old enough to remember my first 28kbps modem and ye gads, we used to synchronise databases at work using overnight jobs via bonded ISDN lines). Truth is, it quickly becomes normal. Movies, computer games, etc. etc. Services will always grow to use the available bandwidth.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 05 January, 2015, 01:54:54 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4035085524.png)

Nothing special maybe but it is easily fast enough for iPlayer,etc. and 10x better than rural France which is still no faster than it was years ago.

According to BT the maximum I can get is 15Mbps unless I have FTTP when it is 330.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: jamesld8 on 05 January, 2015, 05:21:06 pm
rural Welsh borders, EE mobile just scraping the 3G coverage, drops to 2G at times, give s 0. 5 Mbs and 0.5 mbs up / download.

Youtube etc is a `joy` to watch in byte size clips :(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 12 January, 2015, 05:29:06 pm
The nice man from Openreach came today. I gave him a cup of coffee and he gave me this:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4053895466.png)

That's with Pcolbeck junior watching a 1080p video and doing god knows what else as well. I'll try and get a test done when no one else is using the Internet tommorow.
Still thats flaming amazing considering this morning I had 2Mbps
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: BikinOn on 12 January, 2015, 07:13:37 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4054168114.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 12 January, 2015, 10:19:50 pm
Surburbia:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4032519292.png)

Although a little more in the upload department wouldn't go amiss, it's usually more than enough. What do folk with >20 Mb/s do?

My download seems pretty fast at 47.74 Mbps today but some websitesare still really SLOW.

I seem to spend ages just waiting for small things, like newspapers, to load.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 13 January, 2015, 05:57:51 am
And at 5:30am with no one else streaming or playing games:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4055285887.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 13 January, 2015, 07:54:19 am
My download seems pretty fast at 47.74 Mbps today but some websitesare still really SLOW.

I seem to spend ages just waiting for small things, like newspapers, to load.

That's because loading websites depends on more than your raw download speed. Most newspaper website pages for example are constructed of lots of different elements located all over the place such as bits of advertising pulled in from other sites and page hit counters that are again farmed out to other organisations. When you try and load a page your computer does all sorts of things such as DNS lookups for all those sites. The page load time will be governed by how fast the DNS server you are using is and how fast all those other websites can send do their thing as well as the slowest link in the path from your ISP to all those services.
Sometimes just using a different DNS server can make things quicker. Try Googles which is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4 or OpenDNS at 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.222.220. Setting up a local caching DNS server can make things even quicker.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 13 January, 2015, 06:15:21 pm
My download seems pretty fast at 47.74 Mbps today but some websitesare still really SLOW.

I seem to spend ages just waiting for small things, like newspapers, to load.

That's because loading websites depends on more than your raw download speed. Most newspaper website pages for example are constructed of lots of different elements located all over the place such as bits of advertising pulled in from other sites and page hit counters that are again farmed out to other organisations. When you try and load a page your computer does all sorts of things such as DNS lookups for all those sites. The page load time will be governed by how fast the DNS server you are using is and how fast all those other websites can send do their thing as well as the slowest link in the path from your ISP to all those services.
Sometimes just using a different DNS server can make things quicker. Try Googles which is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4 or OpenDNS at 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.222.220. Setting up a local caching DNS server can make things even quicker.

Thanks! TBH I'm not really bothered by how slow a newspaper might be; I just slink back to another tab, returning when the page has loaded.

I was just pointing out that a fast BB connection can still entail waiting.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 24 February, 2015, 01:38:42 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4167267617.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4167267617)

 :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: nicknack on 24 February, 2015, 03:28:43 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4167520521.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4167520521)

Since we were one of the umpteen thousand customers that Virgin dumped cos they no longer wanted ADSL plebs, we have moved to Plusnet who were offering FTTC. With Virgin we were getting about 15 Mb/s download speeds so the move has been a success.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 25 February, 2015, 10:15:15 am
Blimey - even better today!

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4169594965.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4169594965)

Not bad considering I'm only paying for 40/20. The chap who came to fit the new wall plate did mention that his worksheet said to set the cabinet for 80/20, which is what he did - so could be I'm getting some free bandwidth here  :thumbsup:.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 September, 2015, 11:12:35 pm
Using free Wifi at a Premier Inn and too mean to pay extra for their 'Ultimate' wifi..
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4634905419.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 06 September, 2015, 07:47:12 am
Using free Wifi at a Premier Inn and to mean yo pay extra for their 'Ultimate' wifi..
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4634905419.png)

Better than I get at home.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 08 September, 2015, 01:07:51 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4645048479.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4645048479)

Not too shabby for the arse end of Abroad.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: jamesld8 on 08 September, 2015, 02:40:21 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4645178446.png)

about as good as it gets on EE so called  `3G` out in stix, sometimes we go to 2G only  ::-)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 26 September, 2015, 07:33:22 am


(http://www.speedtest.net/android/1475875296.png)

Our speeds were so shocking I got creative with a local WISP, luckily I work for a local company that owns lots of potential antenna sites so a deal was done. BT came along with Infinity 4 years later. Sod them!
BT are sharks. They fobbed us off with their cynical delaying tactics "sign up XX potential customers and we'll continue to ignore you " until the government offered the subsidies and then they swooped.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 06 October, 2015, 06:24:18 pm
My hotel internets are a pricy pain in the Balearics,
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4723284059.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 10 November, 2015, 05:45:44 pm
Got upgraded to FTTC today.

My line is made from poorly-cooked spaghetti, and ADSL2+ speed has dropped progressively from about 15Mbit to 6 over the course of a couple of years.
It looses sync several times a day.
It really needs a Shaun the BT Slayer on it's miserable ass, but that's for another day.

With FTTC, I'm back up to 15Mbit, and we'll see how stable it is.

Oh, and the BT OpenRetch VDSL modem supports baby-jumbos, so I can haz 1500 MTU from my PPP endpoint machine! Yay!

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4821016051.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4821016051)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Maverick on 11 November, 2015, 08:47:02 am
That looks very poor for FTTC. How far from the cabinet are you?
I would be having words with AAISP straight away.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DaveJ on 19 November, 2015, 11:36:20 pm
Just had the Virgin upgrade from 100 to 150

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4846946151.png)

I remember when we first got broadband with Demon.  About 2002 I think.  0.5Mb/s and that seemed so fast.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 28 December, 2015, 04:58:46 am
Ho ho ho. Moved house. 38mbps promised. BT Infinity ordered. Congratulations - your Infinity service is ready, they cried...


(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4949260564.png)


Don't I just love BT?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 28 December, 2015, 11:50:25 am
Up to, dear boy, up to...... :(   My free Virgin "doubling" upgrade will cost me another £29 a month apparently, so won't be bothering.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 28 December, 2015, 09:04:34 pm
'Guaranteed minimum' 20 Mbps. They'd better come good on that guarantee.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Veloman on 19 January, 2016, 08:59:18 pm
We are an oasis of poor speeds that compare to TimC (28/12/15 post) so we have the Superfast project team and BT reasonably high paid help for the area coming to the next Parish meeting.  With much discussion about all the technical stuff thus far, I found the diagram here to be most useful, or depressing for some in our village:

http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance (http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2013/chart-bt-fttc-vdsl2-speed-against-distance)

Even with fibre to the cabinet in the village some folk might not be able to access BT Infinity, particularly as some of their cable is aluminium and not copper.  And we need 2 cabinets, apparently, as the capacity for the fibre is less than the old technology.

Perhaps George will look behind the cushions on the sofa and find some more money for the next Budget to help folk who are only 2 km from a brand spanking new fibre cabinet, to have the old cable replaced with new cable to increase the speed.  A farm between the new cabinet and a pole just outside the property has benefited from replacement cable after tree damage to the old cable and is now up to between 44 and 32 Mbps while only 400m away in the village the speed is similar to TimC as they use a different route from the same cabinet.  Oh the joy of technology!

Also, we are very near the conurbation of the West Midlands and can only watch as they all benefit from cable services (Council said 'No') smart TV, live sport etc etc.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: De Sisti on 19 January, 2016, 09:16:09 pm
Just had the Virgin upgrade from 100 to 150

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4846946151.png)

I remember when we first got broadband with Demon.  About 2002 I think.  0.5Mb/s and that seemed so fast.


I'm with Virgin and my figures are similar.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 23 January, 2016, 01:40:05 am
Ho ho ho. Moved house. 38mbps promised. BT Infinity ordered. Congratulations - your Infinity service is ready, they cried...


(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4949260564.png)


Don't I just love BT?

It's up to 3.8 mbs now. Engineer booked for today (would have been the 4th visit) didn't turn up. No excuse given. Promised call back (after an hour's hold to get to talk to someone) didn't happen either. Bill arrived for £146. Grink written to CEO.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Thor on 23 January, 2016, 11:36:04 am
It's up to 3.8 mbs now. Engineer booked for today (would have been the 4th visit) didn't turn up. No excuse given. Promised call back (after an hour's hold to get to talk to someone) didn't happen either. Bill arrived for £146. Grink written to CEO.

Yebbut 3.8mbps!  You must be wondering what to do with all your new-found bandwidth  :D
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 24 January, 2016, 01:36:51 pm
It's up to 3.8 mbs now. Engineer booked for today (would have been the 4th visit) didn't turn up. No excuse given. Promised call back (after an hour's hold to get to talk to someone) didn't happen either. Bill arrived for £146. Grink written to CEO.

Yebbut 3.8mbps!  You must be wondering what to do with all your new-found bandwidth  :D

Indeed! But it was frustrating - especially when my two teenage kids turned up at Christmas expecting to play PS4/X-Box MMO games while I'm trying to stream ancient rock music via YouTube!

Anyway, teh grink to Gavin had instant results. I had a reply from him before I woke up yesterday, and an engineer turned up by 10:30 am. A high-up manager from BT Customer Relations e-mailed promising me the earth, and I was Customer No1 for the moment. Engineer worked some magic, and now:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5024768923.png)

Ok, it's well below what some have reported, but it's within the service guarantee and it'll do for now!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DuncanM on 24 January, 2016, 09:36:09 pm
Just had the Virgin upgrade from 100 to 150

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/4846946151.png)

I remember when we first got broadband with Demon.  About 2002 I think.  0.5Mb/s and that seemed so fast.


I'm with Virgin and my figures are similar.
I'm with Virgin too.  Do you notice variation in speed across the day? Also, what networking setup are you using to get over 100Mb/s?
I've run tests and got anywhere between 20 and 40 Mb/s on my laptop (wifi), and 25-75Mb/s on my (powerline wired) desktop. And I just got 110Mb/s on my mobile! The upload seems quite steady at about 13Mb/s no matter which device.
Cheers
Duncan
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 01 March, 2016, 11:53:25 am
Still no Broadband at Nouveau fboab/Chris S Towers, so we're using a 4G LTE router and an EE data-only sim to serve the house WiFi internet needs.

EE 2x 4G isn't too shabby - if it wasn't capped at 25Gb a month, I'd probably stick with it as a solution and not bother with a land line at all.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5129933786.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 19 March, 2016, 11:11:21 am
Up to, dear boy, up to...... :(   My free Virgin "doubling" upgrade will cost me another £29 a month apparently, so won't be bothering.

I'm still trying to get my head around how on earth a "Free upgrade" can cost £29 a month and not be a breach of some advertising law.

Truly the mind boggles.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Redjeep! on 24 March, 2016, 11:02:55 pm

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5195715334.png)

Truly pathetic.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 25 March, 2016, 09:23:02 am
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1825600085

No BT copper involved. Wireless for the win.
I managed to bring about a partnership between my work and a local WISP. They now have a gigabit connectionfrom Virgin which feeds the local area and our offices.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 25 March, 2016, 09:27:06 am
But ur image, it is full of FAIL :P
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 25 March, 2016, 09:31:13 am
But ur image, it is full of FAIL :P
Isn't it  :(
I'll have to sort it out when I drag myself out of my pit towards the full sized babbage engine :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 10 April, 2016, 01:45:05 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5239693125.png)

BB at Llanerchindda is much improved...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Chris S on 12 April, 2016, 01:50:41 pm
Finally! Only two months late  ;D

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5244726510.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5244726510)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 12 April, 2016, 08:20:04 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5245721448.png)

Good (in some ways) to be back home...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 14 April, 2016, 06:28:09 pm
Got regraded from AAISP's ADSL units tariff (on BT backhaul) to their shiny new Home::1 Terrabyte ADSL package (http://aaisp.net.uk/broadband-home1-terabyte.html) (on TalkTalk backhaul) this morning.

It's ostensibly the same old ADSL2+ (which is fine, as it's just the two of us and we're all of 300m from the exchange), existing IP allocations etc. remain the same, but the wholesale bandwidth is much cheaper, so we get a flat-rate allocation of 1TB/month and no peak/off-peak hours to worry about.

Downtime was about 6 minutes.  (And a hiccup from the billing system, causing some spurious invoices to be sent and then cancelled.)

Presumably as a result of differently configured equipment, or perhaps the BT engineer blowing the fluff out of the cable when re-patching things at the exchange, the latency has halved.  Line performance is otherwise comparable.

And, for maximum LOLs, RevK has credited Terrabyte customers with an extra 3TB of quota to use this month, just in case anyone wanted to download the Panama Papers (https://aastatus.net/2243).  Exactly *how* to use up 4TB of quota in 2 weeks[1] on a ~15Mb line (without resorting to underhand L2TP tactics) is left an an exercise for the reader...  :)


[1] Okay, it carries over, so it's actually 5TB in 6 weeks.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: SteveC on 14 April, 2016, 07:45:55 pm
Meanwhile I'm in what used to be a very posh hotel in Berlin (and is now just fairly posh) and the free wifi is throttled to 256kbps. And we're not getting that all the time! I recorded an upload speed of 0.01Mbps last night.
MrsC has been uploading photos to Facebook. I have not been bothering.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 16 April, 2016, 01:49:42 pm
Supplemental to the above, as the line is no longer provided by our-favourite-telco, the ISP gets an API with finer granularity of control over the line profile.  AAISP naturally present this to the customer, so I've tweaked the SNR margin down to 6dB and gained a couple of extra megabits downstream, at a minimal error rate.  We'll see if that remains stable when the students come back and power up all their electronics.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 16 April, 2016, 10:58:23 pm
It's a strictly YMMV situation.

I moved my AAISP to BE backhaul a long time ago.
This was cheaper.

But then BE got borged by sky.

But when AAISP migrated from BE to TT, it went tits-up big time here.
TTs exchange kit just could not sync reliably with me.
It took several changes of hardware and a bunch of support time to get it to work at all.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 17 April, 2016, 12:40:39 am
It's a strictly YMMV situation.

I moved my AAISP to BE backhaul a long time ago.
This was cheaper.

But then BE got borged by sky.

But when AAISP migrated from BE to TT, it went tits-up big time here.
TTs exchange kit just could not sync reliably with me.
It took several changes of hardware and a bunch of support time to get it to work at all.

Ugh.

I must admit, I'm somewhat nervous of how TT deal with faults.  But since the baseline is BT, and AAISP are on side I reckoned it was probably worthwhile.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 19 April, 2016, 11:25:41 pm
Eurgh. TT. Eurgh.

Virgin Media install hasn't been the greatest experience, mainly on account of their laying the cable over the weekend whilst we were away rather than doing it on the same day as the install, as pre-agreed. So there's yet another cable spanning the front of the house.

pfSense + VirginMedia Superhub (in modem only mode) seem not to play too nicely - In the end the magic sequence of rebooting the modem, waiting several minutes, connecting the pfSense firewall and rebooting the pfSense firewall gets things nice and stable. How resilient this turns out to be I wouldn't wager on...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5263831633.png)

We've still got TalkTalk for the time being as a failover option. The VM connection is expensed otherwise I'd have stuck with aDSL.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 19 April, 2016, 11:48:38 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5263879315.png)
It's got a bit faster. Was 50 meg download until today. We usually get what's promised, as well.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DaveJ on 19 April, 2016, 11:53:08 pm
pfSense + VirginMedia Superhub (in modem only mode) seem not to play too nicely - In the end the magic sequence of rebooting the modem, waiting several minutes, connecting the pfSense firewall and rebooting the pfSense firewall gets things nice and stable. How resilient this turns out to be I wouldn't wager on...

I've been running pfSense with the Virgin Superhub for about three months now.  So far they seem to get on OK.  I've had several outages with Virgin, and so far its always been enough just to restart the Superhub.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: jamesld8 on 20 April, 2016, 06:57:56 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5264462180.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5264462180)

joys of being in a rural community exchange area
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 20 April, 2016, 09:04:51 am
pfSense + VirginMedia Superhub (in modem only mode) seem not to play too nicely - In the end the magic sequence of rebooting the modem, waiting several minutes, connecting the pfSense firewall and rebooting the pfSense firewall gets things nice and stable. How resilient this turns out to be I wouldn't wager on...

I've been running pfSense with the Virgin Superhub for about three months now.  So far they seem to get on OK.  I've had several outages with Virgin, and so far its always been enough just to restart the Superhub.

It's very early days, but it's been dandy thus far. Using VPN remote access is nice and quick!
TalkTalk on the other hand...

(http://i.imgur.com/67GVf34.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: PaulF on 20 April, 2016, 09:26:11 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5264462180.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5264462180)

joys of being in a rural community exchange area

You should count yourself lucky, that's 50% faster than my speed
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Plug1n on 25 July, 2016, 03:28:00 pm
I've just kicked Virgin into giving me the upgrade from 160Mb to 200Mb (it seems that you have to ask, although it is no extra cost).

Just download 3.4GB in 2mins, 41 secs at an average 22MB/s.  So it does do what it says on the tin :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 12 September, 2016, 07:43:49 pm
Cabinet finally upgraded to FTTC. BT Infinity ordered, should be activated on the 27th (ha, as if).

Should go from 9mbps/1mbps to 65mbps/20mbps.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 13 September, 2016, 01:07:16 pm
It would be nice to get more upload speed, currently on 100/6 (up/down) Mb/s.
20 Mb/s upload is really quite enviable, but 6 Mb/s is much much much nicer than the 0.7 Mb/s via aDSL.

Still don't know what you guys do with all of the extra bandwidth. Although it's nice on the occasions I need to download something chunky, like an OS install.
Average bandwidth usage over the last month has been 282 kb/s
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 13 September, 2016, 01:46:02 pm
It's not just the bandwidth that's a concern for me, it's total usage.

I work from home half the time and can chew through bandwidth quite quickly:-

Broadband connection details:
Downstream    9,235 Kbps
Upstream    1,199 Kbps
Connection time    3 days, 1:18:57
Data transmitted    823.76 MB
Data received    7.34 GB

If I carry on at this rate I'll be: 7.34*31/3.1 = 73.4GB in a month which is way more than the usual monthly limits of limited deals. (This works out at just 29kbp/s.)

And that's not including BT TV (where I'll be getting BT Sport over my broadband connection since it doesn't come via the aerial) where we'll make more use of catch up TV and watching movies online (Netflix maybe).

All of the limited deals go as far as ~25GB/month, so nowhere near enough for me.

That leaves me the (BT) options of "up to 17Mbps" for £13/month (what I have for 9Mbps and not enough to support BT TV properly), "up to 52Mbps" Infinity for £20/month or "up to 76Mbps" Infinity 2 for £30/month. (These prices are ignoring the various deals they have on, and not including line rental, etc).

For £10 a month extra I get my various big work downloads done in 2/3 of the time, which is good when I've got something urgent going on.

Work don't pay for it as I don't work from home full time.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 14 September, 2016, 01:59:17 am
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5629118446.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5629118446)

Good, eh?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 14 September, 2016, 06:56:14 am
It's not just the bandwidth that's a concern for me, it's total usage.

I work from home half the time and can chew through bandwidth quite quickly:-

Broadband connection details:
Downstream    9,235 Kbps
Upstream    1,199 Kbps
Connection time    3 days, 1:18:57
Data transmitted    823.76 MB
Data received    7.34 GB

If I carry on at this rate I'll be: 7.34*31/3.1 = 73.4GB in a month which is way more than the usual monthly limits of limited deals. (This works out at just 29kbp/s.)

Even on aDSL we pulled on average 200GB a month, which is why AAISP wasn't on option (..pre-dating their current offerings). Which was mainly other members of the household streaming Netflix and Amazon TV.

I suspect that's only increased.

I don't disagree - I'm frequently connected into the office and datacentres from home and at work frequently connected to home. Although the extra bandwidth is nice, it's connection reliability and stability that's more important. Which is lost on most providers...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: woollypigs on 14 September, 2016, 07:48:55 am
We got SKY which were cheapest when we moved in, it took them about 6 months before the got the gist that we don't have a telly, but they connected us about two days before they email/texted to say that we are now online. Other than that I think in the last three years they have fallen over about 4-5 times, where we had to wait for longer than 5min to get it back up. I have noticed a few more times that we had changed IP, but didn't notice any downtime. Some times we live in Leeds other times we live in Manchester according to our IP. Get about 12down and 1.2up unlimited.

Now and again I would like a bit more speed, but it will cost more than what we pay atm and also we will get more adons that we don't use - like more phone minutes and more tv channels. Can't I just get more internet and just internet, forget the phone I did not need to call China, heck I call about once a year my parents in DK but use Skype for that. Don't need your TV entertainment  packet with 34 extra channels cause we don't have a tellybox.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 14 September, 2016, 09:14:36 am
Well, this looks rubbish, but considering where I am you couldn't hope for much more.  (And it's free.  :thumbsup: )
Youtube mostly OK - Iplayer not great.  If I want a program, it's better to download it rather than try to watch "live"
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2301141563.png)

A little better now that we've moved back into the village.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5629838796.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5629838796)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 14 September, 2016, 09:17:06 am
For reference before I get upgraded:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5629865076.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5629865076)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 26 September, 2016, 12:05:58 pm
New BT Smart Hub (notswitched over to BT Infinity yet, that's tomorrow hopefully) is a chunk faster than my ancient v1.0 BT Homehub...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5663500123.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5663500123)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 26 September, 2016, 03:13:13 pm
Virgin are supposed to have ugraded me to 70 Mb but has not moved from its previous 50. CBA ringing them up.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 26 September, 2016, 03:55:39 pm
The students are back, with the corresponding drop in ADSL SNR (less of an issue now we have full control of the line profile), and proliferation of WiFi networks crapping all over the 2.4GHz band (we're hiding from the worst of the noise on channel 13).  Not much on 5GHz as yet.

This week's SSIDs are mostly default Virgin Media ones, with a spattering of Sky, and all the Uber cars and smartphones in mobile hotspot mode that walk past.  Comedy entries limited to "Smell my cheese, you mother!" and last year's "Pretty Fly for a wifi".
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 26 September, 2016, 04:04:20 pm
Virgin are supposed to have ugraded me to 70 Mb but has not moved from its previous 50. CBA ringing them up.
They upgraded me from 50 to 76 sneakily. It was expected, but not so soon. Someone in implementation not talking to whoever sends out the notifications?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Samuel D on 26 September, 2016, 04:18:12 pm
We moved flats a few weeks ago, and we still don’t have high-speed internet here (they installed a fibre-optic line but it’s still not working). I’ve been forced to use my phone to create a personal hotspot. And you know what? It works remarkably well:

(http://dfkrkqaqb1zsx.cloudfront.net/speedtest/cdn/4824391.png) (http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/4824391)

That test was run at 9 AM on my computer connected via Wi-Fi to the phone. Is that good or good? If it weren’t for the fact that it’s annoying to have to set up my phone to do this and the fact that my mobile network has a 50 GB monthly cap before it throttles the cellular connection, I could do without a fixed line.

What are ISPs going to do when using a mobile phone for internet connectivity becomes a reality for large numbers of people?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 26 September, 2016, 04:21:13 pm
What are ISPs going to do when using a mobile phone for internet connectivity becomes a reality for large numbers of people?

Same thing they do now:  Sell mobile tariffs.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Samuel D on 26 September, 2016, 04:24:48 pm
As it happens, I’m already using the same company (Free (http://www.free.fr/)) for my mobile and landline (they haven’t got the landline part working yet, but that hasn’t stopped them from charging me!).

They charge €30/month for the fibre internet but only €20/month for the cellular connectivity. Aren’t they going to find themselves with two-fifths the income when I no longer need the fibre part?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 26 September, 2016, 04:31:34 pm
They charge €30/month for the fibre internet but only €20/month for the cellular connectivity. Aren’t they going to find themselves with two-fifths the income when I no longer need the fibre part?

Sure, but the services cost different amount to provide, and have different scalability.

I expect there will come a time when nearly everything is cellular, and most ISPs will stop doing fixed lines.  Have you tried to find a POTS dial-up ISP recently?  Most of them outsourced and then quietly abandoned it as their customers moved to DSL technology.  That would have looked equally improbable in 1999, when the wholesale cost of ADSL was about double what you're paying.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 27 September, 2016, 10:07:31 am
New BT Smart Hub (notswitched over to BT Infinity yet, that's tomorrow hopefully) is a chunk faster than my ancient v1.0 BT Homehub...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5663500123.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5663500123)

And my line has been switched over to Infinity...

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5666214942.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5666214942)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 27 September, 2016, 06:45:16 pm
(we're hiding from the worst of the noise on channel 13)

This strategy thwarted by barakta's crappy XP netbook.  Now slumming it with the proles on channel 6.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andrew_s on 27 September, 2016, 07:46:23 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5667691839.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5667691839)
BT Infinity to a cabinet 650 m away, via a hole full of water (as I found out when the water got into the junction box thingy and stopped the web working)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 27 September, 2016, 08:24:06 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5667800091.png)

 :(

Pretty carp.  Something needs to be done.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 28 September, 2016, 07:45:28 pm
This afternoon I got about 3.5 download and the testing thingy says the server is in Nottingham.  Just now I got 8 using their fondleslab app and it reckons the server is in Enfield ???
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ruthie on 28 September, 2016, 07:47:49 pm
I always, always interpret the thread title as "Your internet bottom bracket speed"  :facepalm:

Which doesn't even MEAN anything.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Canardly on 28 September, 2016, 07:52:27 pm
I did phone Virgin 150 today and via many automated menus had a remote scan undertaken, which recognised and rectified the speed issue. (Would still prefer a human bean tho' but).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 29 September, 2016, 08:32:42 am
(we're hiding from the worst of the noise on channel 13)

This strategy thwarted by barakta's crappy XP netbook.  Now slumming it with the proles on channel 6.

can't beat a good bit of structured cabling...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 29 September, 2016, 07:18:11 pm
(we're hiding from the worst of the noise on channel 13)

This strategy thwarted by barakta's crappy XP netbook.  Now slumming it with the proles on channel 6.

can't beat a good bit of structured cabling...

I assure you that we have absolutely no shortage of (un)structured cabling.  The Devil's Radio is strictly for portable devices.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 18 December, 2016, 08:24:20 pm
So the new Feanor Outpost in Edinburgh has just had it's VDSL hooked up, and I'm getting the maximum 80Mbit!

Woo!
(No screenshot of the speedtest, I'm afraid. I'm back home in Aberdeen now.)

The cabinet is right across the street, and can be seen directly out of the windows.  About 100 metres away, as the cable runs,  at a guess.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 21 December, 2016, 09:50:22 pm
I'd forgotten this one from a few weeks ago.

(http://www.alfiecat.co.uk/yetacf/speed_test.jpg)

Checkout the connection type...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 23 December, 2016, 09:21:32 pm
Mrs. B's old laptop wot I'm borrowing to play with in front of the TV is downloading at 30-35 meg, or less than half what I usually get on my under desk (hence 'desktop' is inappropriate) computer with separate keyboard & screen. The wifi should be quicker than that.

Weakness of laptop? Wi fi not working proper? Downloads slow atm coz all the neighbours are plugged in?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: phantasmagoriana on 23 December, 2016, 10:16:03 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5906590745.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5906590745)

Hmm, what shall I do with all this lovely bandwidth? :-\
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 27 December, 2016, 07:26:53 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5906590745.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5906590745)

Hmm, what shall I do with all this lovely bandwidth? :-\

I guess you won't be running a server farm :(
I hate BT but possibly not as much as you do right now
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 30 December, 2016, 11:27:56 am
(http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/1483097149840150155.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 31 March, 2017, 03:35:57 pm
Mine appears to have acquired a few more bps since last I looked

(http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6178778534.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: slope on 01 April, 2017, 06:35:27 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/6182136958.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6182136958)

There's living at the end of a rough stony track in Snowdonia for you!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 01 April, 2017, 06:44:33 pm
(http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6182157495.png)

Slope now gets what I had in London 5  years ago...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 08 April, 2017, 02:08:33 pm
Worth noting that Virgin Media have lowered their prices for new customers.
They seem happy to upgrade bandwidth/lower the prices for existing customers too if they are willing to enter into a new 12 month contract.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 16 April, 2017, 09:59:27 am
I'd forgotten this one from a few weeks ago.

(http://www.alfiecat.co.uk/yetacf/speed_test.jpg)

Checkout the connection type...

Doh. The fact that it 4G doesn't show!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: TimC on 17 April, 2017, 09:51:11 am

Doh. The fact that it 4G doesn't show!

It does - you're not on Wifi, and it shows 4G top left. But the 'my results' page would show it better.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 27 June, 2017, 12:41:24 pm
Well, this looks rubbish, but considering where I am you couldn't hope for much more.  (And it's free.  :thumbsup: )
Youtube mostly OK - Iplayer not great.  If I want a program, it's better to download it rather than try to watch "live"
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/2301141563.png)

A little better now that we've moved back into the village.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/5629838796.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5629838796)

And now after a few months it seems to be settling in to a gnat's over the Government's declared aspirational national minimum.
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/6409540305.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6409540305)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 11 July, 2017, 06:18:07 pm
I'm getting 21mbps in the middle of nowhere*  :thumbsup:

Apparently it will go up to 50 for most of the time, but this is a busy time of day.

*Very North. Where I was getting about 4mbps on ADSL, with no hope ever of getting fibre.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: slope on 11 July, 2017, 06:36:01 pm
Two days ago couldn't access the ITV4 highlights of that French race at all :(

Today is rockin' ::-)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/6446476417.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6446476417)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Samuel D on 11 July, 2017, 07:44:22 pm
Do you get a 4G signal where you live, slope? If so, you could consider using a phone instead (wired up to your computer as needed). I’ve been nearly a year without home internet here in Paris, and it works well thanks to 4G. I even work from home with it. Saves me about €35 a month, too.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: slope on 12 July, 2017, 08:46:01 am
Do you get a 4G signal where you live, slope? If so, you could consider using a phone instead (wired up to your computer as needed). I’ve been nearly a year without home internet here in Paris, and it works well thanks to 4G. I even work from home with it. Saves me about €35 a month, too.

No mobile phone signal for several miles in all directions here in the Nantgwynant valley - unless one hikes with quite some altitude in mind ;)

Would I move? Am I really unhappy? :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 12 July, 2017, 08:59:33 am
If there are enough houses around without coverage, have a look at setting up community broadband
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 22 October, 2017, 03:43:05 pm
We switched ISP from BT to Vodafone last week. My wife is on a Vodafone mobile phone contract and they offered her a good deal, also promising that we would get slightly faster internet than we were getting with BT.

Our connection with BT wasn't great but it was at least useable - it only occurred to me after the event that I should have done a speed test before we were disconnected for reference, but looking back over the thread, I posted a speed test result of 21.15mb/s on 3rd September 2014, although Vodafone claim BT were only giving us a maximum of 17mb/s.

Our internet is now barely useable. Upload speeds are ridiculously slow, which is a real problem because I'm now working from home full time and need to be able to share large files with my colleagues. And when I'm uploading stuff, it clogs the upstream connection to the point that I can't even send email.

After numerous calls to Vodafone, we've finally got them to stop suggesting it's a problem with our internal WiFi network (nothing has changed inside the house except swapping from the BT to the Vodafone router) and they have promised they will "investigate". If I open the router interface in my browser, it claims that we're getting ~21mb/s, though this is demonstrably a lie (according to a speed test conducted using a computer connected directly to the router by ethernet with all other data-hungry hardware in the house powered off).

There is some potential good news on the horizon though. Our problem historically is that the green cabinet we're connected to is about a mile away, and the exchange is over six miles away. They installed FTTC a few years ago but we're still on copper for that last mile. However, while out walking the dog this morning, we noticed that a brand-new green cabinet had been installed less than 200m from our house, and it appears to be connected to the line that serves our house. This is potentially very exciting news indeed.....

Now it's just a case of finding out how we can take advantage of this new fibrous goodness.........
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jim400 on 26 October, 2017, 03:43:44 pm
Cheating as it's not my BB speed, but inspired by the "Which cloud service? Pro's and cons" thread:

(http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6739217360.png) (http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6739217360)

Playing around with the Mother-ship's new MS Azure subscription, this is an instance of Ubuntu running on a virtual server 'somewhere' in 'UK South'.

It's actually fairly shocking just how fast the internet can be if you're not constrained to a soggy piece of string (like we are on site) and certainly changes things, why bother downloading data to do something with.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2017, 04:04:36 pm
 :o :o :o
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 26 October, 2017, 04:07:11 pm
After less than two weeks with Vodafone, we're sacking them off. They're a total shambles. And when you're having problems, as we are, they make it impossible to speak to someone who actually knows what they're talking about. So frustrating.

We're jumping back over to Sky. Fingers crossed they're a bit more competent (first impressions from speaking to their customer services are favourable).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 05 November, 2017, 12:31:53 pm
Greetings from the Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells.

(http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6766893838.png)

Giraffe says 'F***!'

Welsh notspot?

Not!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 05 November, 2017, 04:13:25 pm
Cor!  Bet the mobile's still in GPRS-land, thobut.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wombat on 05 November, 2017, 09:43:40 pm
There have been drastic improvements in middle Welshland of late.  I am currently getting 4G in Caersws, whereas I barely got a signal before, and inLlanbfair Caereinion, where you had to stand on a particular area about a metre square to be able to make a call, we're getting 4G most of the time.  We can even get 3G where our new home allegedly is (if we ever get there...)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Basil on 05 November, 2017, 10:50:37 pm
Really good 4g here in Llandysul.
As long as you are EE or Vodafone.
O2, 0g.

So how come all of our visitors are on O2?
Tough. Serves them right.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 14 November, 2017, 03:44:00 pm
We have had very good customer service with Sky. The problem in the end was a loose wire in the BT wall box and our BT experience was bloody shockingly bad.

One tech turned up at dusk and sucked his teeth, complained about being called down from Edinburgh, cited H&S and buggered off with obviously no intention of doing anything but turning up!

Sky though I have to be honest and say the lady at the call center went several extra miles considering us to be her special customers and apologizing for taking three days off but told us she would keep an eye on it from home! Truly!!

Cable has been strung and two techs I chatted to a week ago said probably by mid summer we will be FTTH so at least there is light at the end of the rather dim 5meg tunnel.

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 15 November, 2017, 10:46:14 am
There is some potential good news on the horizon though. Our problem historically is that the green cabinet we're connected to is about a mile away, and the exchange is over six miles away. They installed FTTC a few years ago but we're still on copper for that last mile. However, while out walking the dog this morning, we noticed that a brand-new green cabinet had been installed less than 200m from our house, and it appears to be connected to the line that serves our house. This is potentially very exciting news indeed.....

Now it's just a case of finding out how we can take advantage of this new fibrous goodness.........

The plot thickens. There are Men At Work today, continuing work on wiring up the new cabinet. They say it won't be up and running for another couple of weeks, but the good news is that we could potentially take advantage. The only potential stumbling block is that each provider only has a certain number of slots in the cabinet, so it's a case of getting onto Sky and making sure they bagsy one of those slots for us.

Fingers crossed...

Tbh, my download speed since we switched back to Sky seems to be just about sufficient for my needs - back to the same level it was with BT. What I really need is to get our upload speed boosted - it remains as shockingly bad as it has always been.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Bledlow on 06 December, 2017, 02:25:50 pm
Virgin have just bumped me up. E-mail arrived & I immediately ran a test. They promised up to 100 meg & delivered 116.8, according to speedtest.net. Upload's not exactly in the same league, though: just over 6.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 12 December, 2017, 07:14:43 pm
Just in case anyone was wondering how their line compares to ADSL over literal wet string:
http://www.revk.uk/2017/12/its-official-adsl-works-over-wet-string.html
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mrs Pingu on 24 December, 2017, 09:55:38 pm
(http://www.speedtest.net/result/1088475904.png) (http://www.speedtest.net)

Something to do with the horrible crackling noises I can hear when I pick up the phone, perhaps?

FFS, 0.71 download, 2100ms ping. Why does our BB always croak at Christmas?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 02 January, 2018, 11:50:25 pm
Greetings from Premier Inn, Christchurch West.

I could buy faster broadband but won't.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/6930763738.png)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: thing1 on 28 February, 2018, 03:28:16 pm
2 months into my Virgin Media contract, it's finally started serving the kind of speeds it promised all along. Maybe a day of sub-zero temps suits it better.

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/7098447974.png)

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Beardy on 28 February, 2018, 03:35:58 pm
We'd all have fibre to the premises by now if Maggie hadn't decided to stop BT from rolling it out.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 25 April, 2018, 11:36:06 am
We had a Sky engineer round yesterday to investigate ongoing problems with our internet connection - it keeps dropping out for no obvious reason. He replaced the router and booked an Openreach engineer to come today to check the line.

Openreach engineer checked the line and found no faults. He reckoned our download speed is actually 'better than expected' considering how far we are from the cabinet (just over a mile). This accords with my experience - we were told to expect 17Mb but can get 20Mb on a good day. No one can explain why our upload speed is so poor though - never better than 0.5-0.6Mb, when we should be getting at least 1Mb, if not closer to 5Mb. Best guess is that it has been capped at the exchange by the automated software that manages these things - I understand the principle that it limits your broadband signal for stability, but 0.5Mb is extremely poor.

The Openreach engineer also tried to investigate the new cabinet that has been installed about 200m from our home to see if it is online yet. He couldn't even open it! But a call to the control centre managed to ascertain that it is not yet online. No indication of when it will be operational - it was installed before Christmas, so god knows what they are waiting for.

Oh well, we've been waiting for a decent internet connection for so long that another few months won't make much difference. Very frustrating though.

Connection seems to be stable today at least - I'd normally expect to have lost the connection a couple of times by now, which suggests the old router may well have been faulty. That's some kind of progress, I guess.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: slope on 28 June, 2018, 04:30:24 pm
Hurrah! After failing to turn up on Monday, several ridiculous long complicated phone calls with BT call staff, Openreach arrived today for an appointment which was rescheduled for tomorrow! FTTP now comes all the way up the remote narrow Gwynant valley in Snowdonia and up the dead end of my stony track, as of this afternoon :)

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/7429855605.png) (http://www.speedtest.net/result/7429855605)

EDIT: Should say I chose the cheapest/slowest FTTP 50Mps £36/month package based on cost and thinking anything better than 1.3Mbps MAX was going to enhance my life? :-\ ::-)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 28 June, 2018, 04:53:36 pm
Enjoy! Speeds may creep up a bit over the next couple of days.

Looks comparable to my corner of Outer Londonton.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Ham on 02 July, 2018, 02:44:19 pm
I've just cut DOWN my speed, as part of a deal that saves me £250 / year.  Now, I only get 110mb down and 17 up.

I can live with that
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 03 July, 2018, 01:49:31 pm
After student moving chaos at the weekend (I'm sure they didn't used to *all* move in on the same day, the driving was appalling), and a couple of line drops in the last 24 hours, it appears our bonus summer megabit has arrived.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 July, 2018, 01:59:45 pm
Apparently BT are offering fibre direct to the remote command centre. On the basis that Virgin offer me non-existent cable every two days, I'm not entirely convinced that's true, but there's is a shiny cabinet at the bottom of the road that at present delivers Infinity 2 at about 70Mb/s.

That said, I honestly can't think what I need more Mb/s for. I must be getting old.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 July, 2018, 02:11:04 pm
You need faster broadband because modern websites are bloated and it's getting more difficult to prevent images and videos etc loading automatically.

I STILL don't need pictures of bananas when ordering my groceries. 'Banana' has had meaning to me for 55 years.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 03 July, 2018, 02:28:25 pm
You need faster broadband because modern websites are bloated and it's getting more difficult to prevent images and videos etc loading automatically.

I STILL don't need pictures of bananas when ordering my groceries. 'Banana' has had meaning to me for 55 years.

It's not the picture of the banananas that's the problem (that is, at least, useful to some people), it's all the dubious javascript and advertising bloat.  (I'm also a bit of a curmudgeon about the trend to apply TLS to everything.  I understand the reasoning, but it means you can't usefully cache web content the way you used to.)

Anyway, that's a red herring.  Once you've got enough downstream for n video streams, the main reason people are likely to need faster broadband is because the upstream speeds are stingy on most technologies, and they're wanting to do something upload-intensive (eg. cloud storage, offsite backups, publishing media).  Or because they're using some latency-sensitive application and a faster link usually improves that.

Our nightly backup often takes an hour or two at ADSL2+ upload speeds.  It'd soon become unworkable if we were doing stuff with photographs or video on a regular basis.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 03 July, 2018, 06:11:08 pm
I don't notice anything being slow at 70ish Mb/s – Netflix streams 4k without dropping a frame, webpages appear without pause (and when they don't, I expect the restriction is server-side). Even my epic bouts of thought leadership presenteering (and I laugh at presentations smaller than a 100MB) upload to the server quite quickly (and it's not really a process that I benefit from watching). Dropbox and Creative Cloud syncs just happen, I've never noticed a significant delay. There might be some benefit if I was pushing HD video to the server, but it most production quality static graphics which rarely top several MB.

Plus, tbh, I doubt my wifi is really running at 70Mb/s anyway. I think the powerline adaptors run at about 150 Mb/s.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 07 August, 2018, 06:10:54 pm
The Openreach engineer also tried to investigate the new cabinet that has been installed about 200m from our home to see if it is online yet. He couldn't even open it! But a call to the control centre managed to ascertain that it is not yet online. No indication of when it will be operational - it was installed before Christmas, so god knows what they are waiting for.

Oh well, we've been waiting for a decent internet connection for so long that another few months won't make much difference. Very frustrating though.

I just uploaded a big bunch of pictures to a shared Google drive and since they're all in the order of 4MB each, I was expecting it to take several hours. In fact, it took a few seconds... WTAF?

So I did a speed test and while our download speed is unchanged, upload speed has jumped to around 8Mbps - previously we've been getting 0.5Mbps on a good day, and we don't get many good days.

I have a feeling this means the new cabinet is now online. Yay!

Now we just need to get Sky to tweak our account so we can take advantage of the faster download speeds as well, and before long, who knows? Our internet connection might even begin to resemble something belonging to the 21st century.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 August, 2018, 10:23:46 am
Did another speed test this morning - looks like our connection is already taking advantage of the new fibrous goodness...

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1837/43874038522_0ee131e18b.jpg)

This is nothing short of life-changing - seriously, because as I may have mentioned, I work from home and rely on my internet connection for communication and sharing of files.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 August, 2018, 10:31:22 am
Anyway, that's a red herring.  Once you've got enough downstream for n video streams, the main reason people are likely to need faster broadband is because the upstream speeds are stingy on most technologies, and they're wanting to do something upload-intensive (eg. cloud storage, offsite backups, publishing media).

Or they work with a lazy designer who refuses to spend a little bit of time resizing 250MB+ Photoshop files to a perfectly serviceable cropped, flattened, downsampled jpeg of 10-15MB.  :facepalm:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 08 August, 2018, 10:34:40 am
But that's Sod's Law isn't it.

If you just want a downsampled jpeg of 10-15MB you'll get the 250MB+ Photoshop file.

If you need the original 250MB+ Photoshop file they'll send you a downsampled jpeg and then set their out of office...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 August, 2018, 10:50:10 am
If you need the original 250MB+ Photoshop file they'll send you a downsampled jpeg and then set their out of office...

I can't imagine the circumstances when I am likely to need the original 250MB Photoshop file. In any case, if I did, it should exist somewhere else on our shared Drive, in an archive folder, not in the live project folder that I need to have synced to my desktop.

(I need to have it synced because when creating press PDFs from Indesign files, it's best to have the linked high-res images stored locally, otherwise you have to download them ad hoc, which just slows down the process. And it's not just the internet connection that makes those file sizes a problem - my work computer doesn't have unlimited memory...)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 08 October, 2018, 05:31:03 pm
Email from ISP today...

Quote
Great news! We're upgrading our network, area by area, to bring you Fibre Max with faster average speeds of 63Mbps at no extra monthly cost.
 
What happens next?
 
These upgrades start in December and run through to spring. During this time, you will be moved automatically from Fibre Unlimited with an average download speed of 36Mbps, to Fibre Max with an average speed of 63Mbps. That's 75% faster and you don't need to do anything.

 :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It'll almost be like living in the 21st century.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Phil W on 08 October, 2018, 08:11:28 pm
Currently at 50 downstream and 20 upstream.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 08 October, 2018, 10:05:33 pm
There's now a forest of green boxes at the bottom of our road – possibly the newest one is related to direct fibre which is apparently on offer. I feel I should avail myself of it (because I don't pay the bills) but I'm hard pressed to know what I'd do with an upgrade on the 60-70Mbps I get via Infinity 2. Am I missing something?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 08 October, 2018, 10:09:33 pm
There's now a forest of green boxes at the bottom of our road – possibly the newest one is related to direct fibre which is apparently on offer. I feel I should avail myself of it (because I don't pay the bills) but I'm hard pressed to know what I'd do with an upgrade on the 60-70Mbps I get via Infinity 2. Am I missing something?

You're missing several more people in the house who all want to watch different 4K Netflix streams simultaneously (each 4K stream is about 25Mbps).

A faster upload speed is more important for me with some of my work. I'd rather have 50/50 than 80/20.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 09 May, 2019, 08:48:26 pm
We've just upgraded to fibre: 36Mbps DL / 9.5Mbps UL.  We were on ~8/0.8, for more money, and wifi that didn't reach to all rooms in aoxon towers.  Nice to have reasonable UL speed now, though DL speed was only really an issue when 3 devices were streaming at once.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rafletcher on 18 May, 2019, 08:15:49 pm
The joys of the bit of copper in a linear village. Afternoons it’s 55/30, evenings it’s 30/13!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 15 June, 2019, 03:38:39 pm
We are3 on that world called frustration.

We are to be FTTP "soon" or so we were told last year, then this year with the poles festooned in coils of fibre it came to light that the cable still had to be installed between us and the cabinet some 2 miles away on the other side of a pretty steep hill.

Cable is now installed and still nothing is happening. *silent scream* Even our MP cannot get answers from BT. What a bloody way to run a company and then to add insult to injury it seems we have to contract to them for a year initially if we want the fibre. Monopoly or what? TBH thought this sort of crap was now illegal.

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DaveJ on 25 September, 2019, 02:02:50 pm
(https://www.speedtest.net/result/8620581899.png) (https://www.speedtest.net/result/8620581899)

So that I can play with cloud backups.  It was the upload speed I was after.
Title: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Syd on 25 September, 2019, 03:37:38 pm
(https://www.speedtest.net/result/8620581899.png) (https://www.speedtest.net/result/8620581899)

So that I can play with cloud backups.  It was the upload speed I was after.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190925/ca23160a636954a815bb02f5ff1768d1.jpg)
Limited by my WIFi performance. Almost 3 times that (both up and down) when cabled.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 31 March, 2020, 09:01:42 pm
Neil the our-favourite-telco engineer re-graded our ADSL2+ to VDSL earlier, so after the requisite modem reconfiguration and kicking of pfsense, we now have about 56Mbit down and - more importantly - 20Mbit up.

(http://www.ductilebiscuit.net/gallery_albums/random/DSL_regrade.png)

Seeing about 50/18 on speed tests with the traffic shaping enabled.  That'll do.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: andyoxon on 03 April, 2020, 05:31:57 pm
...
I am at home with 9 videos ready to upload to YouTube. The first one is 1'38" and took an unbelievable 13 hours to upload. How do I turn up my upload speed?

We were on 0.8 Mbps Up, which went to 9.5Mbps, but only once upgraded to Fibre.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: pcolbeck on 05 April, 2020, 09:05:00 am
(https://i.imgur.com/3WKlFQD.png)

I am at home with 9 videos ready to upload to YouTube. The first one is 1'38" and took an unbelievable 13 hours to upload. How do I turn up my upload speed?

That looks like an ADSL connection. You cant get higher upload speeds I'm afraid that just the way it works. The A in ADSL stands for asymmetric.
To get faster uploads you would need SDSL (symmetric and not that commonly available), VDSL (fibre to the cabinet) or a true fibre connection. So basically it depends on what services are available in your area.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 05 April, 2020, 01:05:21 pm
That looks like an ADSL connection. You cant get higher upload speeds I'm afraid that just the way it works. The A in ADSL stands for asymmetric.

Technically, there's Annex M, which devotes a greater proportion of the available bandwidth to upstream.  But not all ISPs offer it, and VDSL is probably cheaper.  Yes, it's talk to your ISP stuff.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 04 May, 2020, 09:22:10 pm
The second line proved to be insufficient for two of us working from home when Virgin Media got a case of the wobblies.
So now it's on vDSL through a TalkTalk reseller:

(https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/button/1588622750862941455.png) (https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?test=1588622750862941455)

Hoping that upload improves as the line if profiled over the next few days. Even so, it is a welcome improvement.

The other line is allows a bit more throughput, although VMs peering is not the greatest:

(https://www.thinkbroadband.com/_assets/speedtest/button/1588622920146598955.png) (https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html?test=1588622920146598955)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 04 May, 2020, 10:31:21 pm
The second line proved to be insufficient for two of us working from home ...[/url]

I am jealous as even your poor 2nd line uploads 7 times faster than ours. We are both working from home. Mrs. road-runner now gives piano lessons via Whatsapp, Zoom and Skype. Today 3 of her 5 students had poor enough connections that they had to postpone the lessons.

(https://i.imgur.com/hwCbFu6.png)

That looks like aDSL. Is it time to make the switch?
Sub 1Mb/s upload is fine until you have two people video conferencing at the same time and everything falls apart because the upload bandwidth is saturated.

Full disclosure: one of the t'interweb connections is expensed by my employer. And the vDSL is cheaper than the aDSL that came before it.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 04 May, 2020, 11:17:13 pm
BT have been digging up the road near me to put in fibre. Given that this area is already served by FTTC I'm wondering if it could be the beginnings of their FTTP offering (https://www.bt.com/broadband/full-fibre) appearing the area. The availability checker says no for me, but I've registered my interest.

Some prices/details here: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/03/isp-bt-prices-new-uk-gigabit-and-full-fibre-broadband-plans.html

Quote
    Full Fibre 100
    Average Download of 145Mbps / Upload of 30Mbps
    Upfront Fee: £9.99

    Price: £39.99 a month for 24 months (£47.99 thereafter)

    Full Fibre 500 (new)
    Average Download of 500Mbps / Upload of 73Mbps
    Upfront Fee: £9.99

    Price: £49.99 a month for 24 months (£57.99 thereafter)

    Full Fibre 1000 (new)
    Average Download of 900Mbps / Upload of 110Mbps
    Upfront Fee: £9.99

    Price: £59.99 a month for 24 months (£67.99 thereafter)

I'm already paying the equivalent of £40 a month for BT Infinity (I get 70Mbps/20Mbps) so another £20 a month for 6 times the speed would be awesome and it'd make certain work stuff much easier (I occasionally have to shunt around 2-4GB files between home/work).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 05 May, 2020, 09:22:04 am
Apparently we have fibre here. Not sure how it works, I presume someone needs to put optical string from the cabinet at the bottom of the road to replace the copper.

I do seem to be paying the better part for £60 for the 70Mbps BT service (includes the entirely unwanted phone line and package). Oddly, when I check the BT site it offers my current package as a cheaper upgrade.

C'est la BT.

I've not looked for ages, but it's all now that odd model where anyone can offer a service. Bob's Booze and Newz Superspeed Broadband.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 05 May, 2020, 10:39:00 am
The major factor in broadband speed is the length of the bit of copper that carries the broadband signal - so this is between the two bits of equipment at either end (your broadband modem/router and the DSLAM at the other end). The longer the cable the slower the speeds possible.

In days of old the wire went from your broadband router/modem all the way to a box at the exchange. This could be miles, and that means broadband speeds under 10Mbps.

FTTC is BT Infinity (now called BT Fibre 1 or BT Fibre 2) means that the broadband part (which goes over the same copper wire as the phone) is terminated (i.e. the broadband signal is yanked off the wire) at the cabinet (FTTC = Fibre to the Cabinet). This shortens the copper run significantly for the broadband signal (now often a few hundreds meters instead of a mile+) and broadband speeds are up to ~80Mbps. But BT had to move the broadband termination equipment (DSLAMs, etc) to the cabinet, which means the cabinets now needed to be powered (they didn't before), plus they needed to have fibre installed between the cabinet and the exchange to carry everyone's data, so lots of faff, planning permission for bigger cabinets and digging up roads.

To make the length of copper even shorter the plan is to shorten it to zero by bringing FTTP (fibre to the premises). This is the BT Full Fibre option. Speeds up to ~1Gbps. No "broadband" in traditional terms at all as your local Ethernet network will go out of the router on the fibre. You'll need an engineer to come and yank some fibre optic cable up alongside your existing copper pair(s) and then drill it through the wall as it can't be done over the existing copper cable. Fun.

Your phone signal still travels over the existing copper wire all the way to the exchange, at which point it is digitised by an 5ESS or equivalent.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 05 May, 2020, 10:57:53 am
But how does the fibre get from the cabinet to my house? They seem to claim that they offer FTTP. I assume it has to follow the path of the copper wire but they've not put any in.

I'm not convinced it is available, and to be honest, I don't need it (I have Fibre 2 and it's sufficient). But then I don't need a phone line either. Virgin also keep sending me fibre offers, but they have no cabling either. I assume they're trawling for demand.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 05 May, 2020, 12:40:59 pm
But how does the fibre get from the cabinet to my house? They seem to claim that they offer FTTP. I assume it has to follow the path of the copper wire but they've not put any in.

Some men with ladders will come and install the last couple of hundred metres as needed.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 05 May, 2020, 12:46:37 pm
FTTP will require an engineer coming out to assess how to get the fibre to your house.

The phone lines for our building (house converted into 3 flats) are two separate cables (with 8 cores in each) that come in through a plastic conduit that, I guess, goes all the way from the wall of the house to the BT chamber of horrors that runs along underneath the pavement. So for us it should just be a case of engineers poking through a feeder and pulling the new fibre cable through, then badly botching it to the outside of the building and drilling through the wall at a really unhelpful location (probably in my daughter's bedroom).

This is the main reason that Full Fibre uptake will be slow, it's a hell of a lot more work than switching the pairs in the existing cabinet over to the DSLAM side for FTTC.

I can easily make do with the current 70Mbps I get from BT Fibre 2. There are only 3 of us in the flat and nothing 4K yet. (Streaming 4K can require up to 25Mbps depending on the compression. 3 people watching different 4k streams [Movie, TV, Sport] could start to saturate a 70mbps fibre connection.) But some occasional bits of work stuff would go from tens of minutes to under a minute, which could be useful (although that's generally an excuse to visit the kettle. Shunting the other way takes much longer, so to make that ~12 times faster would be really nice.)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 05 May, 2020, 12:55:01 pm
Probably like Virgin then. Come, get our service! Oh wait, we can't be bothered installing it. We will send you a letter advertising it every month for the rest of eternity though.

The BT cabinet isn't far away. It's a shiny new one they put in after we moved here (hence our once-upon-a-time dalliance with Virgin, BT were offering the less than blistering speeds of ADSL when we moved here).

Anyway, we don't need FTTP, I'm just idly speculating as it came up when I googled broadband availability for our postcode. I assume there's a secret tunnel up the hill that pops up at the front of our garden (where the telegraph pole lives). Actually, thinking about it, someone had accessed the cover at the base of the pole some months back (a mystery at the time, someone had unearthed yet another mysterious portal in the garden, we put it down to tidy techno-badgers).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ScumOfTheRoad on 05 May, 2020, 01:03:31 pm
I have Hyperoptic and it is bloody marvellous.

I live in the docklands are of London and the ADSL service was terrible. The exchange is a long distance away in Bermondsey.
I read that the same lines put in for the docks are still in use. During the summer the rate woudl dip to ludicrously low speeds or just fail.
I assume due to sthermal expansion somewhere.
I also read that there are no junction boxes. Lines all go direct to the exchange, as they were used as alarm lines to warehouses.
You dont want the crims intercepting the lines.

Hyperotpic comes along and will wire up an entire building, if the whole building takes the service. Thereis a router cabinet in the basement.
Cat 5 lines run up the risers to every flat. Great broadband speeds and we take their telephone service.
I am on their 50Mbps package and get that speed, I am happy with that.

It is possible to opt for up to 1Gbps with them.





Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 05 May, 2020, 01:08:22 pm
https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first

links to here: https://vimeo.com/384494767

which is a twee video with some descriptions of what happens. They can run it from a telephone pole.

It does seem to make it sound like it's one bit of fibre all the way from your property to the exchange, but in reality I think it'll be fibre to a more local point (cabinet or more localised concentrator that'll serve a bunch of properties, possibly even on top of an existing telegraph pole if that's how you get your phone). The tricky point is that the concentrators will probably need to be powered.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 05 May, 2020, 01:09:00 pm
Interesting thing I learned about BT's FTTP implementation is that clusters of n premises share an optical segment (they join the fibres with beam splitters), and the upstream is time-division multiplexed.  Hence the service is asymmetrical.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 05 May, 2020, 01:19:09 pm
The major factor in broadband speed is the length of the bit of copper that carries the broadband signal - so this is between the two bits of equipment at either end (your broadband modem/router and the DSLAM at the other end). The longer the cable the slower the speeds possible.

In days of old the wire went from your broadband router/modem all the way to a box at the exchange. This could be miles, and that means broadband speeds under 10Mbps.

Case in point:

We used to have copper wire all the way from the exchange, six miles away. Our connection made road runner's look fast.

Then they installed fibre to the cabinet, but our cabinet was a mile away, so the last mile was still copper wire. It was an improvement, but still barely deserving of being called broadband.

Then not so long ago they installed new cabinets at intervals all the way along the road, so we're now connected to one that is probably no more than 100m away. With no other changes, I'm now getting ~50mbps downstream, ~20mbps up.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 05 May, 2020, 01:31:05 pm
Hmm, the techno-badgers definitely dug out the access to the telegraph pole on our property a while back. Possibly that's what they were up to. Or something else. They didn't bother to let us know. Not that we were super bothered, it's a scruffy bit of verge that I let grow to discourage vehicles driving over it, featuring the abandoned NTL manhole. The Asbestos Palace and grounds are riddled with portals to other domains in space and time. It's not just Hell you can visit, you can pop back to the mid-80s.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Blade on 05 May, 2020, 01:39:39 pm
Had notification from Virgin Media today telling us that they have upgraded our broadband from 70 Mbps to 100 Mbps at no extra charge.

Ran a speed test and am now getting 73.5 Mbps download and 8.73 Mbps upload.  ???

We're 50 feet away from their big green box.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: marcusjb on 05 May, 2020, 02:09:02 pm
Getting FTTP is currently problematic as Openreach are effectively limiting their service delivery to anything excluding internal works until 1st June (at the soonest).

So FTTP (which requires the ONF internally) is off the cards currently (unless you meet certain criteria regarding critical national infrastructure, emergency services or certain vulnerable customers).

Upgrades such as ADSL-->FTTC can progress normally as there's no internal works.


Glad we're on FTTP (though we're actually using less bandwidth with Mrs. JB's business in the ditch at the moment) - rural Derbyshire and 300Mbps (can go higher, but that does us for running two businesses including one that moves around huge photography catalogues daily).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ScumOfTheRoad on 05 May, 2020, 02:18:38 pm
Interesting thing I learned about BT's FTTP implementation is that clusters of n premises share an optical segment (they join the fibres with beam splitters), and the upstream is time-division multiplexed.  Hence the service is asymmetrical.

What? I guess that is BT re-implementing their beloved party lines!
You all pay BT - but they put in only one set of infrastructure.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: jdsnape on 05 May, 2020, 02:28:41 pm
What? I guess that is BT re-implementing their beloved party lines!


It's a (the?) standard way of deploying FTTP infrstructure in an affordable way, they're using a standard called GPON:

http://www.gpon.com/how-gpon-works
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 06 May, 2020, 02:12:54 am
But how does the fibre get from the cabinet to my house? They seem to claim that they offer FTTP. I assume it has to follow the path of the copper wire but they've not put any in.

I'm not convinced it is available, and to be honest, I don't need it (I have Fibre 2 and it's sufficient). But then I don't need a phone line either. Virgin also keep sending me fibre offers, but they have no cabling either. I assume they're trawling for demand.

It's tricky to make out where my fibre originates but it crosses Larrington Towers Road from the telegraph pole on the other side attached to the existing landline string, and then descends the wall into a box nailed there by a couple of lads with a Transit and some ladders.  They spent some time in a hole across the road too.  Nice Man Errol from BT then did the rest - running a fibre from the outside box along the wall, into the porch and through a slightly-widened existing hole into the Atrium and thus to a box attached to the wall next to the front door.  This last is where your Ethernet cable from the router plugs in.  And, mirabile dictu, it all worked first time.  Except that Nice Man Errol put a nail through the wire from the doorbell :facepalm:
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 06 May, 2020, 09:18:29 am
Actually, I checked the BT site and it says the only fibre I'm likely to get is from Mr Kellogg's butt-affirming and healthy nocturnal habit affirmin' All-Bran.

Who knows. Anyway, I get 70 Mbps down the pipes as it stands before the mothership VPN clenches like a man who's fighting a desperate rear-guard action against the Delhi curse.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Russell on 06 May, 2020, 11:28:53 am
Miss R has moved back in with us for the duration and is working from home which involves hi def graphics and so on.  She has been having problems with the VPN dropping out so I suggested that she connects by wire rather than wifi.  I checked and my laptop downloads at around 20 on wifi and 220 on wired.  So I dug out a long cable and then we found that new MacBooks don't have an ethernet port anymore!! >:(
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 06 May, 2020, 12:17:19 pm
Miss R has moved back in with us for the duration and is working from home which involves hi def graphics and so on.  She has been having problems with the VPN dropping out so I suggested that she connects by wire rather than wifi.  I checked and my laptop downloads at around 20 on wifi and 220 on wired.  So I dug out a long cable and then we found that new MacBooks don't have an ethernet port anymore!! >:(

To be fair, the RJ45 plug is bigger than the body of any Macbook (and has been for several years). You can buy a USB>ethernet adaptor for not very much.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Greenbank on 06 May, 2020, 02:27:04 pm
You can buy a USB>ethernet adaptor for not very much.

And then a USB-C to USB(-C) hub to accommodate that fact that you didn't have enough spare USB(-C) ports to plug the adapter plus everything else in.

Or you could look into why your wireless is slow. I have no problems maxing out my broadband connection (70Mbps) over wireless.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 06 May, 2020, 02:43:56 pm
It's the trade-off between svelte and swanky or a behemoth festooned with ports. All that's plugged into my Macbook is a power cable and external monitor.

As per the other thread, my new meshy wifi things currently has me bathing in wifi. The Macbook that was lolling around at 18Mbps yesterday is currently claiming 585 Mbps.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 06 May, 2020, 05:39:11 pm
The second line proved to be insufficient for two of us working from home ...[/url]

I am jealous as even your poor 2nd line uploads 7 times faster than ours. We are both working from home. Mrs. road-runner now gives piano lessons via Whatsapp, Zoom and Skype. Today 3 of her 5 students had poor enough connections that they had to postpone the lessons.

(https://i.imgur.com/hwCbFu6.png)

No need to be jealous. The newly provisioned vDSL threw up the white flag of surrender in the small hours. A call to new the communications provider confirmed all was not well. The Broadbean switch over was not a success. System says "validation failure".  36 hours without a second line, and aDSL from the old communication provider is restored, after a fault was logged with their provider.

I'm still none-the-wiser. I've grokked that the switch over process is called GPL-NoT+ (Gaining Provider Lead - Notice of Termination, 2015 vintage) and that validation (of assets) is done early on in the switch over process.

I wish I could justify AAISPs non-too-thrifty £45 per month but I don't want to commit to coughing up that much with the uncertainty around. The new provider now seems to have cancelled the order. I'm trying to get some confirmation from a human1 as to what actually happened and whether it's possible to try again.

[1] codeword (https://xkcd.com/806/) expired?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: citoyen on 06 May, 2020, 06:49:11 pm
I checked and my laptop downloads at around 20 on wifi and 220 on wired.

I was about to comment that this sounded odd to me, and that I get the same speeds on both my laptop and desktop...

Then I remembered that my desktop connects wirelessly too.  :facepalm:

However, we do have one computer in the house that is connected by ethernet (it's right next to the router) so I just tested that one and it's no faster.

We also have powerline extenders to provide wireless hotspots around the house and the connection speed is generally pretty good with those too.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: ian on 06 May, 2020, 07:29:30 pm
I have been compulsively testing speed all day (I never much bothered until recently and probably won't again soon, I'm mostly an 'it works). Before new gadgets, I got about 45ish Mbps on my office iMac via wifi and about 12-18 Mbps on the Macbook (on the other side of my desk). I think laptops, in general, don't tend to have great antenna placement as they go where they fit. I used to get full whack (70) over a powerline.

With the new gadgets, I even get 65 Mbps wireless at the bottom of the garden and in the garage.

It does nothing against the giant spiders. Or the yeti.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 04 August, 2020, 01:31:43 pm
Got around to investigating the RED ALARM on the BT analogue line yesterday.  I assumed that this was the TDM400 card suffering droid rot, but I got nothing with an analogue phone (no dialtone, no RevK instructing our-favourite-telco engineers not to steal this pair), and couldn't even measure the requisite 50 voles (admittedly by poking probes at a RJ45 plug, which is suboptimal).  Went back to the master socket, and same thing.

Concluded that the shenanigans of a couple of weeks ago (the line - which isn't able to make or receive phone calls - rang for no apparent reason) was probably an our-favourite-telco engineer stealing the pair somewhere between the cabinet and the POTS side of the exchange.  So I removed the filter and POTS wiring from our end.

The VDSL immediately re-synced at 75/20, up from a previous 65/20 or so.  The modem was reporting an attainable rate of 82.something megabeans last night, which I thought was impressive for an 80 megabean service (presumably it wouldn't sync above 80).
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Poly Hive on 19 August, 2020, 09:57:41 am
Thanks to Openreach supplying a fibre cable from the cabinet in Jedburgh we are now cruising at 140meg from 4.1.

Lush.

PH
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Wowbagger on 19 August, 2020, 10:09:53 am
180 into my computer and 43 over the wifi.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: DuncanM on 19 August, 2020, 11:29:32 pm
I haven't checked speeds since I set my work laptop up on a Cat 6 cable to the router.
(https://www.speedtest.net/result/9941344770.png)
Very asymmetrical, but can't exactly complain! :)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: davelodwig on 21 August, 2020, 11:38:33 am
New shiny gigaclear into the house, probably the first person in the street.

300mb both ways*, tests out as well.

Very nice.

* i did not pay the extra for the 900mb service that would just be silly.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Thor on 22 September, 2020, 12:34:39 pm
Old TV caused village broadband outages for 18 months (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54239180)

 :o Hard to believe that a dodgy electrical item could have such a widespread effect.  Needless to say, Openreach covered themselves in glory, taking 18 months to get to the bottom of the issue.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: sojournermike on 22 September, 2020, 02:24:01 pm
Just got ping 68ms, 15.8 down and 17.9 up on the 4g router. BT is usually much faster down and a bit faster up, with 10-12ms ping.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: slope on 08 March, 2021, 03:11:21 pm
Is it worth spending £7 a month to get faster broadband speed when:

Current FTTP with BT 74Mb Download speed/20MbUpload speed (actual tested a moment ago 68Mb/19Mb)

^ this costs £35.45 per month. It's great, reliable and works a treat. I let my neighbours downstairs connect too cos they is young, broke and nice. Neither of us are mad streamerds

BT are offering 150Mb Download speed/30Mb Upload speed for £7 more (again a 24 month contract - my current 74/20 @£35.45 per month contract has a smidge over year to go)

Does anyone think this might improve my life? Or am I just caught up in BIGGER NUMBERS = FANTASY SATISFACTION?

ps there seems to be very few other Broadband providers who will or can connect up with the BT FTTP I have!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 08 March, 2021, 05:17:42 pm
Mostly it comes down to whether you care about the extra upstream.  If you're asking the question, you probably don't.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 08 March, 2021, 05:23:20 pm
Just got ping 68ms, 15.8 down and 17.9 up on the 4g router. BT is usually much faster down and a bit faster up, with 10-12ms ping.

This is about the same as I'm getting via Three LTE: 13-16Mb down, 22Mb up, RTT in the 50-60ms range (the latency spikes at busy times due to congestion).  More than sufficient for a backup connection.

The VDSL gets 70-80Mb down, 20Mb up and about 10ms round trip, unless the DLM has decided to do interleaving (as it did last week, because I unplugged the modem too many times), in which case it's about 19ms.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 08 March, 2021, 10:24:22 pm
Had to resolve Internet Connection speed issues at Feanor Outposts in Edinburgh at the weekend.

Junior had been complaining about very poor speeds, but the VDSL should be good for 75 down 20 up, which it was when it was installed.
And upon inspection, he was getting <1 down on the MS Surface tablet thing.

Wired connection to another device gave a solid 75 down, so a WiFi issue.
It's a dual-band 2.4 / 5 router, and it was using the 5GHz band.
But so was my tablet with no issues.

Downloaded a WiFi analyser, and its showing almost homeopathic signal levels on 5Ghz, but strong on 2.4.

Shut down the 5GHz on the router, forcing a re-connect to the same SSID at 2.4 and sanity is restored.
I think the issue is with the 5GHz radio on the tablet, and I should probably force it to 2.4 if that option exists.
But in the meantime, 5GHz is shut down on the router, and complaints have ceased.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 12 March, 2021, 11:40:01 am
Was the tablet in the same room as the router?
5Ghz doesn't reach as far as 2Ghz, nor is it as good at going through walls. It is a lot quicker when the signal is clear though.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 12 March, 2021, 12:04:41 pm
That ^^^^ might explain the dropouts and munged sound I've been having with Streamyard on a fondleslab, as I've been about as far away from the router as it’s possible to be while still being in the same building.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 03 April, 2021, 06:55:38 pm
Just today, I got 248 MB down.

4G.

Who needs a 5G vaccination...?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 05 April, 2021, 09:49:59 am
 PING ms
35
 DOWNLOAD Mbps
14.67
 UPLOAD Mbps
0.92

They recently dug up our drive to replace a cable or something.  Talktalk.  It is time we had a conversation..
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 06 April, 2021, 06:02:05 pm
Talktalk can’t offer anything faster. BT are willing to install fibre f.o.c. giving us 50mbps/10mbps for £1 pm cheaper than Talktalk. We can also keep our landline FWIW. We transfer to BT in a couple of weeks.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Afasoas on 20 April, 2021, 08:04:25 pm
A few weeks ago I noticed we didn't have a dial tone on the copper pair.

Did a speed test and results were ~25Mb/s [dl], 4Mb/s [ul].
That's about a third down from when they were after the vDSL was installed.

Support ticket raised.

Today I got a few alerts from the monitoring about the dSL flapping. The dial tone was back. And a quick speed test shows that things are back to normal:
~37Mb/s [dl], ~7Mb/s [ul].

Be nice to know what was fixed.


The nice thing about the vDSL is that the leased line for the office is only 3 hops away. And latency is ~15ms. I should really use it more. The other line is VM, which most of the staff use. Eating the same dogfood means I can get a few precious seconds to prepare myself for the barage of complaints when there is a peering issue with VM.

VM is about 19 hops away from the office and latency hovers around 29ms. It's much more variable too.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 22 April, 2021, 11:29:39 am
According to samknows our ADSL gives us:

Latency
13.4 ms

Jitter
1.40 ms

Download
30.9 Mbps

Upload
6.75 Mbps


It's not very impressive for "superfast Fibre" ADSL but that's what you get for being on the edge of town :(
Current provider is EE but it's just rebranded BT and we jump ship whenever the introductory rate runs out.
I miss my WISP!

For contrast, my (EE 4G) mobile just gave:
Download 90.6, Upload 37.4, Latency 39.8ms. Strangely there's no Jitter measurement on the mobile version of Firefox.

Maybe it's time to look at a 4G dongle thing. We can see the mast from the front door (that's what you get for being on the edge of town) so I'm hoping it gets 5G this decade!
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: chrisbainbridge on 22 April, 2021, 02:20:46 pm
We went with a 4g sim and router for church with a massive aerial.  About a metre square and massively improved the upload and download speeds. A friend living in the countryside is looking at the Starlink service.  He unfortunately missed the beta roll out but apparently it is going to roll out to anybody in the UK very soon.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Morat on 28 April, 2021, 03:14:06 pm
Starlink is an interesting option, especially for areas that are not well served by BT's Edwardian copper network.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: CommuteTooFar on 28 April, 2021, 09:56:17 pm
According to speedtest.net

Ping 23ms
51.14 Mbps download
9.28 Mbps upload

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: mr_brooks on 29 April, 2021, 12:24:28 pm
Speedtest

18ms ping
493 Mbps download
98 Mbps upload.

(Stockholm, Sweden - decent connections are the norm here)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: T42 on 29 April, 2021, 02:09:04 pm
Speedtest:

2ms ping
248.25 Mbps download
223.52 Mbps upload(!)

Orange fibre.  To be honest, I expected better on the download side.  The upload speed strikes me as far too high, but who's complaining?
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 02 July, 2022, 02:54:13 pm
After spotting a BT engineer screwing fibre to a nearby house[1], I've just booked 115/20 FTTP installation through AAISP.  This will replace our 80/20 VDSL (which gives us about 68/20).

Not so much because of the performance - which is already more than sufficient for our needs - but because it's £8/month cheaper - albeit with an installation cost that wipes out the savings for the first 12 months.  As shiny new infrastructure it ought to be more reliable, though our line's been pretty good in recent years.


[1] They've been working their way round adding fibre to the poles in the nearby streets over the last couple of months, but last time I looked it hadn't gone live for customers.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 02 July, 2022, 03:05:11 pm
(Makes note to check whether my A&A FTTP can be similarly speeded up)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 20 July, 2022, 08:34:52 pm
(https://www.ductilebiscuit.net/gallery_albums/random/FTTP.png)

That'll do.  (Slightly lower than the raw line speed, due to traffic shaping at each end.)

Re-configuring and extending the cat5 cable to downstairs that was previously carrying DSL to carry gigabit Ethernet from the other side of the the room took a lot more fucking around than expected, due to a succession of bad crimps that turned out to be perfectly good crimps being tested in a cable tester with a dodgy socket.   :facepalm:

I need to obtain a donkey-knobbler to POE-ify the ONT so it keeps chooching if the mains pixies stop dancing.

Slightly unnerving not having modem stats to monitor...
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Feanor on 20 July, 2022, 08:54:16 pm
Nice.
FTTP remains a distant hope here in this particular corner of the Frozen North.

There are some small rural communities which have Done It Themselves, and got connected, but I don't know what hoops they jumped through to do that.

Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Kim on 21 July, 2022, 12:57:35 pm
I need to obtain a donkey-knobbler to POE-ify the ONT so it keeps chooching if the mains pixies stop dancing.

Achievement unlocked.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HS4NT13/ for those playing along at home.

Has the additional advantage of sticking out less than the Openreach wall-wart did, which means it's slightly less likely to get bashed with the wheelchair ramp or recycling box.

The ONT itself is poorly secured to the wall by a pair of self-untapping screws not fully screwed down, straight into the plaster.  My spidey sense and the engineer's stud-finder were unconvinced that there wasn't a significant amount of mains wiring lurking below, but his insistence that it be installed right next to a mains socket overrode common sense.  I think I'll ignore it and hope it stays attached, and if it doesn't I'll bodge it with adhesive pad technology.
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: rafletcher on 21 July, 2022, 01:41:24 pm
Nice.
FTTP remains a distant hope here in this particular corner of the Frozen North.

There are some small rural communities which have Done It Themselves, and got connected, but I don't know what hoops they jumped through to do that.

Likewise we have no medium term prospect of BT FTTP, although I guess eventually everyone will get it if they live/wait long enough with BT wanting to do away with copper.  There is an independent supplier going to run fibre into our village but it'll be twice the price for the same speeds.  ::-)
Title: Re: Your internet BB speed ?
Post by: Jaded on 28 March, 2023, 01:00:38 am
Where I is now

(http://www.alfiecat.co.uk/yetacf/Speedtest%20Mar%202023.png)