Thetownend.com

Fellow TEF members, I'm currently on Sky BB but in recent months I've noticed that my BB has slowed right up to ridiculously slow levels. I was wondering what I can do about this or if you have any suggestions of who I can move to?

I'd go with Virgin. Another option would be Virgin. And if you need another option there is always Virgin.

You get the speed you pay for though it does slow down a bit during the evening if you've been downloading porn all day.

Depends what exchange you're on and if you can get cable in your area really.

I have found Bethere (part of the O2 group) to be fantastic in SN3

I pay for 8 @ £13.50 a month and regularly get around 11 off peak and about 7.5 peak.

Never had an issue on service

Virgin without a doubt if you live in a cabled area. ALL other Isp's have to use BT's aging network.

I'm not in Swindon but I've been nothing but impressed with Be. I get 16-17Mbps consistently and pay less than I did with my previous two ISPs, about £18 a month.

Avoid O2 unless you know that it's LLU, their standard ADSL is absolutely woeful

Going by all your comments Virgin is probably the most viable option. I'll get onto Sky today and ask them for my MAC.

Bear in mind the BT Infinity (fibre broadband) will be available in most parts of Swindon by the end of September.

Do a speed test from http://www.speedtest.net/ and see what speed your running at, there are many factors that cause you problems, but even if you go to another provider chances are you won't get it any faster, if the speed is slow then speak to Sky and see what they suggest, it may be the package your on

I've just done the test on speedtest.net, these are the results.

[url width=300 height=135]http://www.speedtest.net/result/927558222.png (http://www.speedtest.net)[/URL]

I've moved the router closer to the main socket, but it hasn't really improved. Also by looking on Samknows Virgin isn't in my area yet. The only alternative is to call Sky and see if they can do anything further for me.

What i'd do is unplug everything from the phone line including extensions and plug the router into the test socket in the master socket, assuming you have a net 5 master socket. To get to the test socket you need to remove the 2 screws and lift the front off. If the speedtest result is the same then contact sky, they'll do a line check and get an openreach tech out if necessary. They'll warn you it will cost you if its an internal issue but by going into the test socket there isn't any more you can do to prove it isn't.

also if you download a fair amount they might have throttled your bandwidth back. They have a fair usage thing it stops people downloading huge amounts all the time. normally your full service comes on between the hours of 12 mid to 7 morn. This what has happened to me with sky so i went back to bt and have had no probs as of yet.

It's over contention, in other words "Pile em high sell it cheap"

One of my rellies has the same problem. He's 600-700m from the exchange, syncs at 8128 no fail, his speeds are the same as yours, and he's not a downloader. He should be getting at least 6-7 meg down
I'm on the same exchange 1.76 km away and my speed ranges between 5-6 meg down

Should have said he's with Sky as well

Just spoken with Sky and they are about as helpful as a chocolate teapot. I tried all the usual disconnect/reconnect stuff and effectivly they told me it was the exchanges fault. I've checked available alternatives in my area and no Virgin, which only really leaves me with BT.

Having read what they have to offer I might have to sit tight to 30 Sept for Infinity.

I wouldn't even class myself as a heavier user, occasional downloading of music and vid. Occasional online gaming, but nothing compared to some people.

They won't tell you the truth, they would rather make you jump through hoops

That is some seriously shit internet connection. Is it really old wiring in the house? Is there a micro filter in all lines that are used (if you have more than one)?

My neighbor had the same and had to have a new master socket fitted. Think it cost him £150 but his speed has been fine since.

Also as someone else has said it's down to contention ratio which will be something like 100:1 (or worse) with the "free" providers like Sky and others, with BT it's typically 50:1 - you get what you pay for, I've always been with BT and never have any speed issues and I live right on the limit of the exchange. (although not in Swindon).

Actually, reading back through the thread you don't mention the router sync speed. Check your router stats (usually the router is 192.168.0.1, login: admin, passwd: sky). What is they sync speed? If its just above the speedtest results then its a line issue not contention.

Then you need to:

- Consult sky website to get a guesstimate of how fast your line should be (go straight to step 3, use 'check your address', Note its only a guess, it says I can receive 1.5Mbps when I can receive 2Mbps.)

http://www.sky.com/quickbuy/build#bbAndTalkSection

If sync speed massively below guesstimate:

- Try the router in the master test socket with all else disconnected as previously suggested

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.zensupport.co.uk/KBResources/Images/ADSL/Troublshooting/MasterSocketTest.PNG&imgrefurl=http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx%3Fid%3D11099&usg=__yUkfdVHKSWRlNtHXUT9k1X0_I0g=&h=228&w=397&sz=19&hl=en&start=0&sig2=Vd_oW6yZzq-21gvF-AYj2g&zoom=1&tbnid=64WrN0CIsDGxCM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=200&ei=A3N1TJXuA8KI4QaUz-HkBQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbt%2Btest%2Bsocket%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26channel%3Ds%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D994%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=561&vpy=258&dur=384&hovh=146&hovw=254&tx=97&ty=98&oei=A3N1TJXuA8KI4QaUz-HkBQ&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0

If still knackered:

- Badger Sky to fix it

I moved into a new build about 2 and a half years ago. The set up has been exactly the same since I've moved. There is a microfilter in the sky box and the phone downstairs, along with one in the router.


These are the results of the sync test before I moved the router.

Router StatisticsSystem Up Time: 2:02:33

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 332681 261661 0 89 137 2:01:46
LAN   16 0 0 0 0 2:02:33
WLAN   268632 339276 0 2953 2900 2:02:09
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2042 kbps 604 kbps
Line Attenuation 42.0 db 22.0 db
Noise Margin 8.6 db 18.0 db


This is what Sky seems to suggest I can get.

Currently we estimate that the maximum download speed your line could support is 6.5Mb



I moved the router to the main phone socket near the front door, took the face plate off and plugged it directly into the test socket and the results look almost identical.

Router StatisticsSystem Up Time: 0:07:06

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 10 9 0 0 0 0:00:11
LAN   15 0 0 0 0 0:07:06
WLAN   1474 1276 0 224 208 0:06:42
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2042 kbps 604 kbps
Line Attenuation 41.5 db 22.0 db
Noise Margin 8.4 db 18.0 db

Any suggestions?

If they say you should receive 6.5Mb but you're only syncing at 2042 kbps, either Sky are talking bollocks with the 6.5Mb or there's a fault on the line.

That line attenuation is very high for the speed they say you should be able to achieve, so you're either a long way from the exchange or there's a fault on the line.

How close are you to the exchange? If reasonably close then I'd say there's likely to be a fault which is creating a lot of noise on the line = worse ADSL signal.

I had a similar problem a few years back where a faulty connection in the cabinet round the corner was causing low speeds and frequent disconnections.

I'm only in old town, so at best about a mile from the exchange, but as I said previously I haven't changed anything in terms of how I've set the router up or moved it. The thing that confuses me is that I was going along fine at about 5MB up until about 4-6 weeks ago.

In areas of high demand speeds will fall, especially at times of peak usage, or sometimes line speed can be shared between users, e.g if you have 2 neighbours who have recently been put onto broadband then in some circumstances lines will be split and speeds halfed....this does not happen with BT customer, only if your line is rented by someone else e.g. talk talk, virgin landline (not cable) sky etc etc

Thanks JJ, so my options are possibly to badger Sky to fix it or move to another provider.

Throughput speed will fall, but sync rate shouldn't. My router consistently syncs at 8128 kbps but throughput varies depending on time of day.

I've never heard one ADSL connection being shared between lines either.

If it were me I'd definitely be on to Sky to ask why the sync rate has dropped so much.

Yeah badger them as much as you can, the only thing is if they come out and the fault is inside the house you will be charged by BT for repair, as all repairs done on leased lines is done by BT.

If you used to get 5 meg now only 2 with pathetic througput then i reckon line issues. Keep on at sky. Make sure you mention throughput is half meg as well as sync speed. You are getting 10 times slower throughput than before!

This. Cables are the future.