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Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:34 pm
by Dave
BBC Technology News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8171074.stm

Seems some folk aren't getting the speed they're paying for. Are you affected by pish download speeds? The BBC news channel are claiming some poor souls are only getting half a meg, perhaps they should just revert to dialup and save some pennies.

Personally I live in in the countryside on the outskirts of the gloryhole that is Galston and I get 6.6Mbps according to the BBC Broadband Speed Test and I'm paying for 8Mbps so I'm far from complaining.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:22 pm
by nuttytigger
I'm on Virgin Media and getting 11.3 Mbps and paying for 20Mbps, it all depends on time of day, and i'm also using it over the wireless, Mark gets more because he is wired to the router.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:36 pm
by Doorstop
I'm with SKY and getting 5.8 of my alleged 8.

Was with BT beforehand and only got 3 out of the 8 .. which makes a nonsense of their whole "it depends on your distance from the exchange" as all the equipment is exactly the same.

Throttle merchants.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:46 pm
by Dave
Doorstop wrote:I'm with SKY and getting 5.8 of my alleged 8.

Was with BT beforehand and only got 3 out of the 8 .. which makes a nonsense of their whole "it depends on your distance from the exchange" as all the equipment is exactly the same.

Throttle merchants.


Do SKY not use BT lines? My understanding is that it's either cable or copper, (BT or NTL as the wholesaler)

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:52 pm
by Doorstop
That's my point .. I only ever got 3meg when I was with BT on an 'up to 8meg' contract.

I got sick of their monthly download limits and jumped ship to SKY .. no change in infrastructure other than changing the router at my end to SKY's own and now I rarely get under 5meg on the equivalent 'up to 8' contract.

The only conclusion is that BT were throttling back a lot of the time .. the naughty boys.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:55 pm
by Dave
Aye, the penny dropped not long after I clicked the submit button.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:59 pm
by Doorstop
It's not like you mate. :D

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:08 pm
by Dave
::): Are you sure ::):

I wouldn't mind a similar ratio to what I get now from a cable service, but seeing as I don't get mains water, gas or sewerage here I'd be hard pushed to be thinking they might dig up my road to bring me fibre optics.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:50 pm
by Peetabix
BBC Reports 8.1 but in real life it's nearer 12. I download at 1400KB/s all the time through 02. Gotta love ADSL+ and only living a km from the exchange.

700MB file in 8-9 minutes

You can work out the rest.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:58 pm
by Peetabix
This is another test I done. Downloading a film just now at 1200KB/s. No complaints here.

Image

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:03 pm
by Sharon
Coincidentally, I sent BT a moaning email last night, and came back to 3 voicemails today - despite me saying to contact me by email *sigh*.

I get on average 2.4Mb download...which is shite.

Happily my contract is up in a week or so, so I'll be shopping around for something better.

All recommendations welcomed from those who need it to be quick and reliable..... and unthrottled!

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:06 pm
by Peetabix

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:06 pm
by John
I find Virgin Media cable broadband to be very good. You have to be on the 50 Mbps service to avoid traffic management though.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:18 pm
by Dave
Why not sign up for BT business broadband. As a business customer you always have an arguement for loss of earnings and other such stuff that simple people can't complain about. You pay a bit more but then again you get what you pay for.

As for signing up to 50Mbps broadband. Are the servers you are trying to connect to actually able to cope with your desires. I'm sure it's a two way process but am standing by to be swiftly corrected.

Re: Is your Broadband shite?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:24 pm
by John
Yes absolutely agree. 50Mbps is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. If you end up being routed through a 56Kbps dial up connection in China then tough.

For the record I have the 20Mbps service at the moment and am waiting for my local UBR to be upgraded before I can get the 50Mbps service.

The point is that it is unthrottled (for the moment) and I have several computers at home that use the internet connection a lot so it allows each of those systems to have a reasonable amount of bandwidth.

I do a lot of work where I have to download large files and it helps to be able to do it as quickly as possible.

There is also the bragging rights pissing contest factor to consider too. :)