BXProject

[mat_the_cat]

Ever since we've put the phone line into the house we've had a slow and unreliable broadband connection, typically about 0.3Mb/s but can be as low as 0.1, best until today was 0.5. It drops out often, we think it's good if we have a day without losing connection. Orange are no use whatsoever, and say that everything is fine, and there's nothing they can do to improve it. I've done a few speed tests today - the first was when the speed seemed blisteringly quick (to us at least), the second when it went back to its normal slowness.





What I noticed was that the download speed was about half, but the connection speed was less than half. The Ping time was considerably longer, but what actually influences this and is there anything I can do about it? And does it seem logical that this is the major factor in my connection speed? How does it compare to you guys? It seems likely that anything measured in milliseconds should not be in the thousands!

[jayw]

All i can say is that that is LOUSY, even considering where you are in the sticks!

I'm on 3G in a field which is appalling at the best of times:



But compared to your "broadband" it aint so bad

[Father Ted]

Virgin @ home, BUT - it does keep getting knocked out by some RF interferance.

[docchevron132]

pretty typical for here these days, it used to be much faster, until BT introduced the fibre optic shit that I didn't really want. Since then it's got slower and slower, and I'm still paying for 8Meg Broadband.. I'd be better off on dial up almost!

[mat_the_cat]

Thanks for rubbing it in guys! It gets very frustrating when you're using the internet for its main purpose...

But what about this Ping figure? Why does it keep jumping up and down? Where's Vanny when you need him!

[Bx Bandit]

With all the problems I had with BT, the one thing that was drummed into me was the following:

You have to have the filter connected directly to the phone line box.
Any extension cables used must be as short as possible and come AFTER the filter
You must connect to the primary socket (where the phone line comes into your house)
Try connection with an ethernet cable to rule out any wireless bother.
That's all I know which is probably what you knew anyway.

My neighbour got some sort of different primary socket which is supposed to help somehow.

But all this has started since you installed a phoneline?

[mat_the_cat]

Yeah, there was no phone connection to the house when we bought it so we had to dig a trench and put one in.



Filter is built into the master BT socket, although we have tried other filters (the Indians at the Orange call centre say this EVERY time!)
The wireless router isn't connected to the master socket directly, but it has its own ADSL cable from the master socket to an extension socket (so it can be in a central location for better wireless coverage). Performance is the same regardless of where it's plugged in.
The computer I used for the speed tests is actually hardwired to the router.

All logical advice thanks, but it doesn't seem to make a blind bit of difference in our case...

[Vanny]

disconnect EVERYTHING plugged into the master socket, plug in the router (with filter) ONLY into the master socket? Then how is it?

Is there any ghosting on the normal phone line? Any crackling or distortion?

After that, do you know where the junction box is in the road (main road) might be worth replacing the line, though i assume it is a BT line since orange dont have there own cables.

[Way2go]

How fast does the provider say your connection should be? Not the general spec but based upon your distance from the exchange.

The length of copper line from exchange to you is critical and although we have ADSL2+ , friends of mine 5km from the exchange struggle at around 1 MB/s and whereas I get 6 being just over 1 KM from exchange. Are the external cable conduits effectively sealed against water ingress as water in the cable, especially joints will also drag down the bandwidth?

I've also noticed that the speedtest.net site records shit low results compared to others since they started advertising products that would speed up your connection if you bought them. It used to record better results but...........

[Father Ted]

Meanwhile, in the woods in Nether Kellett...

[Philhod]

I've no idea what your on about!! Either it works or it don't ...surely

[Way2go]

I've no idea what your on about!! Either it works or it don't ...surely

No, it works best if you are close to the exchange and gets gradually worse the further you are from it due to signal degradation and becomes shit poor or finally doesn't work at the distant ends. When subscriber lines eventually are changed from copper to fibre then than will make substantial improvements to the delivered speed.

[Philhod]

Well I'm on cable. Whether it's copper cable or fibre I've no idea. It switches on when I press the switch and off when I press again, when I click the mouse something else appears and again when I press it again. It's all pretty instant so I presume everything is OK.

[Father Ted]

Virgin @ home, BUT - it does keep getting knocked out by some RF interferance.

And today it is being spectacularly shit.

[mat_the_cat]

I dream of shit like that FT....not that I dream of shit you understand!

Just seen Vanny's points:

disconnect EVERYTHING plugged into the master socket, plug in the router (with filter) ONLY into the master socket? Then how is it?

Not noticeably faster, or any more reliable. What we've got is a master socket faceplate with a built in filter, with phone and ADSL sockets on the front. From the back I've taken the unfiltered ASDL signal, and filtered phone signal via a length of CAT5 network cable (twisted pair) to other sockets in the house.

Is there any ghosting on the normal phone line? Any crackling or distortion?

It's not a perfectly clear signal, but I'd deem it acceptable. Dunno what's good or bad really!

After that, do you know where the junction box is in the road (main road) might be worth replacing the line, though i assume it is a BT line since orange dont have there own cables.

Our junction box is on a pole near the main road - cable is new (2007) from there to our house, and the connections in the junction box on our house are fine. I reckon it's a line problem, but BT want money if they come out and it's nothing to do with them. I've looked around at other broadband providers, but nobody will guarantee a significantly faster service.

Oh well, at least watching videos over a slow connection gives me good staying power!

[Philhod]

Not that I know fuck all about it, but when I had BT the line came from a pole accross the road and then from the back of the house, round to the front where it came in.
Over the years the reception became shite, until I could hardly make anything out, so I called them in. Turns out it was the branches of a tree that had grown round the wire.
They re connected it to the front of the house, from a different pole and all was well.
2 years later I got cable
I noticed a few trees around your place soooooo..........

[stu]

I have a recently modernised exchange at the bottom of my road.

I'm pretty convinced that that's the only factor involved with broadband speeds... it pisses me off when ISPs advertise based on their speeds, as I don't think there's anything they can do about it!

[mnde]

Here's mine....

Mark.

[docchevron132]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1441088691.png

this after taking 39 minutes for the router to find any internet connection at all, and after BT have increased the speed!
Wankers.

[Philhod]

Well mine is up and running in about 2 minutes from switch on and moves from page to page more or less instantly. Downloading say, pictures sent by email, if not instantly it's very close to it.. I'm on cable though and connected by a cable not those silly wifi things.
Also the only files and stuff I have on is work stuff. I don't download anything really.

It does hang or run slow occasionally I just run a clean up and it's OK again.