8MB in the sticks

Keith · 22nd November 2006, 09:40

I am with Wanadoo, I went on their site on Monday to see if >2MB was available out here in the sticks and yes sirree the online checker thingy said.

A free upgrade as well so I clicked on the appropriate boxes and bingo this morning I have 8128KB download and 448KB upload speeds

Blooming marvellous

so well worth checking with your ISP

GreyGhost · 22nd November 2006, 09:55

That's an excellent result.

Several of my clients here in London having the 8meg upgrade from what is now pretty much standard 2megs has actually slowed their connection down to below 512K, simply because they are too far from the exchange or the contention ratio is to great. It takes 5 days (alledgedly) for a BT engineer to visit the exchange and reduce the speed back to 2 megs and only after some persuasion.
In one case (according to ADSL guide .org) the speeed was reduced to 208kb down and 24kb up. Spectacular loss. Speed reduced back to 2megs and hey presto, 1.9 down and 356 up.

Keith · 22nd November 2006, 10:22

Yes they do have all sorts of disclaimers re contention and download speeds in relation to distance from the exchange, my exchange, well little shed thing is about 400 yds away but all the phone lines are on overhead poles, none of this new fangled underground stuff!

my router is reporting 8128KB download and 448KB upload speeds and having just downloaded a 50MB file I saw around a 600KB download speed

Will see what I get tonight when all the natives come back home

GreyGhost · 22nd November 2006, 10:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith

Yes they do have all sorts of disclaimers re contention and download speeds in relation to distance from the exchange, my exchange, well little shed thing is about 400 yds away but all the phone lines are on overhead poles, none of this new fangled underground stuff!

my router is reporting 8128KB download and 448KB upload speeds and having just downloaded a 50MB file I saw around a 600KB download speed

Will see what I get tonight when all the natives come back home

I was under the impression that you were the only native in your immediate area

Unlikeley to change much until contention goes above 60% then it will take a significant hit. Even then with the Exchange (

) so close it may not affect you at all.

BMC123 · 22nd November 2006, 16:07

I had an interesting problem with my 8Mb connection.. caused by my stupid ISP... when i got the new connection we were told it would take 4 or 5 days for the line to "settle down" (their words)

to see what speed I could get at a steady rate. During this time, I downloaded a bit too much and as a result got put onto a "slower server" for naughty people.
fine, except i had signed up to, and was paying for, an unlimited service.

I complained, and was told it would be sorted but my speeds never went back up again, despite many calls to both BT and my provider.
I then asked BT if they could "reset" my line back to its testing phase (my isp said that would not work) and lo and behold 3 days later all back to normal. 2 months of slow internet, not my fault and the isp still refuses to refund me for those 2 months. So I guess when my contract is up i am going elsewhere...

GreyGhost · 22nd November 2006, 16:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMC123

I had an interesting problem with my 8Mb connection.. caused by my stupid ISP... when i got the new connection we were told it would take 4 or 5 days for the line to "settle down" (their words)

to see what speed I could get at a steady rate. During this time, I downloaded a bit too much and as a result got put onto a "slower server" for naughty people.
fine, except i had signed up to, and was paying for, an unlimited service.

I complained, and was told it would be sorted but my speeds never went back up again, despite many calls to both BT and my provider.
I then asked BT if they could "reset" my line back to its testing phase (my isp said that would not work) and lo and behold 3 days later all back to normal. 2 months of slow internet, not my fault and the isp still refuses to refund me for those 2 months. So I guess when my contract is up i am going elsewhere...

They broke their contract to supply whatever it is they quoted. If want to walk away I would say you have every right to do so without penalty.
The only issue is that you cannot order a new ADSL on the same line without disconnecting the old one first. So you would be without for approx 10-15 days while the new one is setup, even though there is nothing to be done at the exchange.

BMC123 · 22nd November 2006, 20:41

Funny thing is, i get the impression i am not alone as they sent us an email telling us we could all leave if we wanted too without any penalty... just email and get a MAC code. but, at the moment the service is fine, and I am not downloading much more than 40 gb's a month anyway, another problem is they host my website as part of the deal, and I would lose that if I left. I am watching closely to see if something better comes up, but nothing so far (apart from BT's home hub thing) and since they dropped their badly handled "fair usage policy" everything has run smoothly (touch wood) My only other option over here is AOL

Simon · 23rd November 2006, 00:20

An interestin note.. If you have Sky Digitial TV, then you can sign up for their broadband service. Rates do vary, but they did seem very good value for money the last time I checked.

Worth a look if you have got/planning to get Sky Digital.

BMC123 · 23rd November 2006, 00:39

I have sky digital, so I checked back when they started advertising, of course where I live is in the 65% of the UK that does not qualify for the 16Mb "max" service, and the "connect" service is (after you add in the "connection" fee) only a few pounds less than I pay now, and they won't host my website and emails for free. If you are in the 35% "area" it does look like good value, but like any other ISP outside that they lease the lines from BT so no advantage really. (for me anyway) :lol:

salop75 · 29th November 2006, 18:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by BMC123

I had an interesting problem with my 8Mb connection.. caused by my stupid ISP... when i got the new connection we were told it would take 4 or 5 days for the line to "settle down" (their words)

to see what speed I could get at a steady rate. During this time, I downloaded a bit too much and as a result got put onto a "slower server" for naughty people.
fine, except i had signed up to, and was paying for, an unlimited service.

I complained, and was told it would be sorted but my speeds never went back up again, despite many calls to both BT and my provider.
I then asked BT if they could "reset" my line back to its testing phase (my isp said that would not work) and lo and behold 3 days later all back to normal. 2 months of slow internet, not my fault and the isp still refuses to refund me for those 2 months. So I guess when my contract is up i am going elsewhere...

Its not strictly the ISPs fault as such, yes i work for an ISP but im not trying to defend all ISPs outright. The ISPs who purchase their DSL via BT wholesale are somewhat limited in the way they can support customers due to the contractual obligations with BT

I work in a small team who all remote work so we rely on our DSL, a colleague was upgraded to 8mb over a weekend and as he was away he decided to turn of his router, which turned out to be a mistake, as when the line came backup the BT DSLAM had nothing to sync against and defaulted to around 160K and stayed like that for several weeks

until BT advised disconnecting the router to allow the DSLAM to reset. Why would you set the DSLAMs to do this when the older 2MB services used to be rock solid? who knows, could be the BT equipment/software or as i suspect it could be a more aggressive re-sync policy on the DSLAMs to disguise the fact that the exchanges haven't had their backhaul capacity increased.

John

22nd November 2006, 09:40	#1
Keith This is my second home ZT400 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ellesmere Posts: 5,948 Thanks: 0 Thanked 43 Times in 29 Posts	8MB in the sticks I am with Wanadoo, I went on their site on Monday to see if >2MB was available out here in the sticks and yes sirree the online checker thingy said. A free upgrade as well so I clicked on the appropriate boxes and bingo this morning I have 8128KB download and 448KB upload speeds Blooming marvellous so well worth checking with your ISP

22nd November 2006, 16:07	#5
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	I had an interesting problem with my 8Mb connection.. caused by my stupid ISP... when i got the new connection we were told it would take 4 or 5 days for the line to "settle down" (their words) to see what speed I could get at a steady rate. During this time, I downloaded a bit too much and as a result got put onto a "slower server" for naughty people. fine, except i had signed up to, and was paying for, an unlimited service. I complained, and was told it would be sorted but my speeds never went back up again, despite many calls to both BT and my provider. I then asked BT if they could "reset" my line back to its testing phase (my isp said that would not work) and lo and behold 3 days later all back to normal. 2 months of slow internet, not my fault and the isp still refuses to refund me for those 2 months. So I guess when my contract is up i am going elsewhere... __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

22nd November 2006, 20:41	#7
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Funny thing is, i get the impression i am not alone as they sent us an email telling us we could all leave if we wanted too without any penalty... just email and get a MAC code. but, at the moment the service is fine, and I am not downloading much more than 40 gb's a month anyway, another problem is they host my website as part of the deal, and I would lose that if I left. I am watching closely to see if something better comes up, but nothing so far (apart from BT's home hub thing) and since they dropped their badly handled "fair usage policy" everything has run smoothly (touch wood) My only other option over here is AOL __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

23rd November 2006, 00:39	#9
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	I have sky digital, so I checked back when they started advertising, of course where I live is in the 65% of the UK that does not qualify for the 16Mb "max" service, and the "connect" service is (after you add in the "connection" fee) only a few pounds less than I pay now, and they won't host my website and emails for free. If you are in the 35% "area" it does look like good value, but like any other ISP outside that they lease the lines from BT so no advantage really. (for me anyway) :lol: __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

22nd November 2006, 09:55	#2
GreyGhost Banned 180+ Sport Auto Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Bedford Middle Level Posts: 17,787 Thanks: 0 Thanked 18 Times in 5 Posts	That's an excellent result. Several of my clients here in London having the 8meg upgrade from what is now pretty much standard 2megs has actually slowed their connection down to below 512K, simply because they are too far from the exchange or the contention ratio is to great. It takes 5 days (alledgedly) for a BT engineer to visit the exchange and reduce the speed back to 2 megs and only after some persuasion. In one case (according to ADSL guide .org) the speeed was reduced to 208kb down and 24kb up. Spectacular loss. Speed reduced back to 2megs and hey presto, 1.9 down and 356 up.

22nd November 2006, 10:22	#3
Keith This is my second home ZT400 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Ellesmere Posts: 5,948 Thanks: 0 Thanked 43 Times in 29 Posts	Yes they do have all sorts of disclaimers re contention and download speeds in relation to distance from the exchange, my exchange, well little shed thing is about 400 yds away but all the phone lines are on overhead poles, none of this new fangled underground stuff! my router is reporting 8128KB download and 448KB upload speeds and having just downloaded a 50MB file I saw around a 600KB download speed Will see what I get tonight when all the natives come back home

23rd November 2006, 00:20	#8
Simon Banned - Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: - Posts: 10,318 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	An interestin note.. If you have Sky Digitial TV, then you can sign up for their broadband service. Rates do vary, but they did seem very good value for money the last time I checked. Worth a look if you have got/planning to get Sky Digital.