Broadband speeds

[AnonymousBird]

Our highest ever speed is 6-7 mbps, so not great, but enough for Mac, iPad, iPlayer all to function just about.

At the moment, using an "independent" speed checker, we are achieving 1.4mbps and I have my router and my Mac directly connected via Ethernet.

On BT's speed checker, they tell me that I am receiving 6.8mbps to my house, but that my device (my Mac) is only achieving the same 1.4 mentioned above. If my router is hard wired to my Mac, and all wireless and other devices are turned off, how can 6.89 apparently going to my router, suddenly drop to 1.4 on my hard wired Mac? BTW, when I run the test wirelessly, it is also 1.4mbps.

Is the first BT number the "optimum" number, ie. what they usually supply as opposed to what they are actually supplying today, right now?

We have had recent phone outage problems, but all resolved and according to BT they are now supplying the maximum to my router they are currently able, but I can't get that to work on my device. They usually blame customer's equipment but as I am hardwired to their router, I don't see how my equipment can be at fault.

Before I log a fault with BT, I thought I'd run this past you clever lot! Thanks.

[sugarandspite]

We have a similar issue - down to 0.3 last night!

Have you considered that your router might be an issue? We had a 4yr old one which we have just upgraded and does seem to have improved things slightly.

[AnonymousBird]

Well, we have had the router a while, it's a BT one they gave us, wonder if they will upgrade it, as it must be 5 years old. It's always been great to be honest, the line speed is limited so only so much the router can do, but it has always delivered well. Just seems an odd coincidence that our phone was all over place (as is half our village) and now our speeds are right down.

Just not sure I trust the BT figure of "this is what we are delivering" I think that figure is more "this is what we know we CAN deliver", not what they are delivering as of the time point of the speed test.....

How do I get a genuine "speed test to your house" figure of mbps?

[PedroYoniLikesCrisps]

Without wanting to sound too 'help desky' have you tried resetting your router (turning it off and on)? I've had a couple of occasions where I was on the verge of complaining about my speeds and this sorted it right out.

[friday16]

On BT's speed checker, they tell me that I am receiving 6.8mbps to my house,

Are they telling you that you're getting that, or that you should get that?

What is the actual synch speed of your router (ie, the rate at which data flows over the link between you and the exchange)? You need that to diagnose anything. The usual problem is a gross disparity between the expected speed and the synch speed, which tends to indicate either bad copper condition (which you might be able to lean on Openreach to fix) or bad wiring in your house (easy enough to fix).

[AnonymousBird]

Yes, twice, just in case! Will do so again tomorrow though, often these things take a bit of time to settle.

[Artandco]

That seems low. I just tested ours and we have a 24 download speed and 12 upload speed

[AnonymousBird]

Friday - that is not what I am quite sure about, the wording is suitably vague so it's not clear if they are actually delivering that, right now, or that they are capable of delivering that.

We never go above 7mbps, I don't think our line is capable, that is the absolute maximum which is why when they say my speed "is" 6.8, I'm not sure that it "is", just that it "could be".

I've been here before with BT, spent ages and ages on the phone, they disclaim all responsiblity and insist it is equipment failure. Then maybe hours or days later, it just seems to pick up again. One time, after many many phone calls, they reset us at the exchange and it did the trick, but god it was hard work to get them to even agree to that.

Synch speed of router - no idea, how would I find that? Is that the 6.8mbps they are claiming exists between exchange and router (and which miraculously drops to 1.4 on one stretch of ethernet cable which runs directly from my router to my Mac!). How do I show that the 6.8 is wrong?

[friday16]

Synch speed of router - no idea, how would I find that?

Hmm, Googling around implies that the BT Homehub 3 keeps this from you. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Is that the 6.8mbps they are claiming exists between exchange and router (and which miraculously drops to 1.4 on one stretch of ethernet cable which runs directly from my router to my Mac!).

More plausibly, it's the 6.8Mbps they claim would probably be available if the copper between you and the exchange were in reasonable condition and your internal wiring is OK. Is your router plugged into the master socket? If not, can you try it? Internal home phone wiring is usually pretty rubbishy.

[AnonymousBird]

This morning's job is to head for the master socket. Just haven't done it yet as it is unbelievably awkward to get to it with router and all that but if needs must, then I will today.

And yes, no idea how good the internal wiring is, but to date, it hasn't let us down.

[friday16]

no idea how good the internal wiring is, but to date, it hasn't let us down.

It only takes one slightly corroded joint to cause a problem. Given that internal wiring is sometimes stranded (bad), almost always punched down with a little disposable thingie (bad), rarely twisted (would be good if it were), never tested for anything other than voice and basic continuity (who has the gear?) and often runs alongside mains (bad if it isn't twisted, which it isn't, see above) it's a miracle it works at all.

That's why when Openreach install VDSL for their fibre product they'll only do it to the master socket. If memory serves, when ADSL originally launched and was engineer-install only, again the planning rules were pretty much master socket only. I had my master socket moved to the back of the house where the router needed to go, and I don't recall paying for that, and I certainly didn't pay for the fancy master socket with an integrated test port and filter which I still have.

[AnonymousBird]

Tested router at main socket, in the test socket, still low speeds so need to open a fault with BT as the problem is not within the house.

[NetworkGuy]

1. are you doing speed test over wi-fi or with a cable ?
   (various test sites indicate a cable is required... and not just saying that because I trust cable more, having looked at plenty of client installations where wi-fi can {quite often} cause them problems).
   
   
2. have you tried speedtest.net or the Speed Test on *> thinkbroadband.com

[NetworkGuy]

Also, be warned, sometimes Christmas (light) decorations, electric fences (in rural areas) and problems from noise from pumps, can interfere with ADSL data connection and slow it all down...

[NetworkGuy]

Ah - thank goodness you have cable to Mac. Will teach me to read fully and not skim down a load of posts. Sorry.

[NetworkGuy]

ThinkBB speed test

Speedtest.Net

[AnonymousBird]

Thanks for that, reran that speed test, still showing 1.7mbps. Have turned off Christmas lights, just in case, but no change! Going to rig everything at my main/test socket again later, BT Technical help calling me apparently. I know exactly what they are going to say and what is going to happen, but need to go through the motions in the hope that they will then reset from the exchange, like last time, and it makes a difference.

[friday16]

reran that speed test

If you're feeling up to using the Terminal program on your mac, run:

my-mac-name:~ myname$ ping -i 0.1 -g 100 -G 1400 -h 100 -c 10 www.bbc.co.uk

(type the bit in bold).

If it doesn't say (after it's finished churning through for 15s or so) something like:

140 packets transmitted, 140 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 26.860/32.416/53.053/4.060 ms

then you have a problem. The critical things are that the packet loss should be zero, and min/avg/max figures should be reasonably close and the stddev should be less than 10ms.

[friday16]

Ah, if you're not running Mavericks, you'll need to run:

my-mac-name:~ myname$ ping -i 1 -g 100 -G 1400 -h 100 -c 10 www.bbc.co.uk

(-i 1, rather than -i 0.1) and it'll take 140 seconds.

[AnonymousBird]

Well, BT have done something since I spoke to them this morning. At our main socket, we now have reached the giddy heights of 6mbps! It's as good as it will ever be, unless/until we get a serious upgrade to the area.

The problem now is getting this to our extension which is our main point of use... Hmmm.

[friday16]

The problem now is getting this to our extension which is our main point of use.

Powerline bridge over the mains? Wireless? Run a length of Cat 5 ethernet?

[AnonymousBird]

Fortunately, DH took one look at the socket tonight, tweeked one wire and the newly restored 6mbps is all around the house!

Thanks all for your support, it's good to know all this stuff, because this won't be the last time this happens.

[friday16]

DH took one look at the socket tonight, tweeked one wire

As I said: "It only takes one slightly corroded joint to cause a problem".

[AnonymousBird]

True, once BT had done there bit to get the speed to house back up (which to their credit, they did in a matter of hours), then it all worked.