Home Broadband speed

[kmount]

Suggests the problem isn't DNS then.

[gaz350]

O2/Be are indeed the dogey testicles imo

[Hightower]

I use Eclipse - I'm on an 8 meg package but only receive 4 meg as I live in the sticks.

The beauty about mine is I pay £30 a month for it, but it's uncontended!

[kmount]

They can't guarantee you that its uncontended as they purely resell BT's 50:1 or 20:1 products.

[Hightower]

Well one thing they can guarantee is it's a whole lot quicker than any other broadband I've previously had - no matter what time of day

[kmount]

That's good to know that you've had good speeds with them, but you shouldn't bet that that's anything 'they've' done so to speak.

They are however known to be expensive which I think keeps the 'heavy' users away which keeps their end of the network less contended than other providers. £30 for 50GB isn't bad at all.

Have you tried the ole' tricks to try and get a faster connection?

[Hightower]

The 50gb is the fair usage..... It's unlimited at off-peak times (as I'm sure most of these deals are)

I think what they say is because I'm option 1 I'm further up the ladder. Meaning that if the bandwidth was between me and an option 2, 3 or 4 then I would have priority. I think that's how it works so I take it back about being uncontended.

What's these tricks then?

[kmount]

Yeah, that would work on their end but not at your local exchange where the first level of contention occurs.

The tricks depend wholly on how you've got your router connected, i.e whether its into the master socket, filtered faceplate, is the ring wire connected etc?

You need to grab some line stats (Downstream & Upstream SNR and Attenuation along with your sync speed).

We'll work on from there.

[Hightower]

Ok - wait till I get home and I'll give you the details

[SpuffMonkey]

20mb/768k here... Virgin Media

Unless the STM kicks in between 10am and 9pm, when you get 5mb...grrrrrr

[ChrisP]

I'm with Orange since Freeserve days and I still have the original package which is uncapped.

ROTFPMSL

[best panto voice]

OH NO IT ISNT

[/best panto voice]

[markwatkins]

BE unlimited is available on my exchange currently with BT which is allegedly 2Mb... never seen it even close to that.... has anyone any comments re BE? I have never heard of them

[kmount]

Best bet would be to search tb's forums here and get a feel for the market yourself.

[Hightower]

Yeah, that would work on their end but not at your local exchange where the first level of contention occurs.

The tricks depend wholly on how you've got your router connected, i.e whether its into the master socket, filtered faceplate, is the ring wire connected etc?

You need to grab some line stats (Downstream & Upstream SNR and Attenuation along with your sync speed).

We'll work on from there.

Here's what my router says (which is plugged in to an extenstion the runs directly upstairs from the master)

Line rate: D 4512 Kbps U 448 Kbps
Attainable Line Rate: D 5056 Kbps U 1136 Kbps
Noise Margin: D 11.1 dB U 22.0 dB
Line Attenuation: D 32.5 dB U 23.5 Kbps
Output Power: D 12.4 Kbps U 19.8 Kbps

Is this all the info you need?

[kmount]

Would be worth trying it in the test socket (locating behind the master socket's faceplate) with no filter connected.

From there, you get a comparison of the 'best it can be' versus what it is currently.

The margin at 11.1dB suggests some line instability in a 24 hour period which will have lowered your sync from probably around 6mbit. - Would be interesting to see the difference from the master socket.