Best ISP in Swindon

[land_of_bo]

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).

[Batch]

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

[Jimmy Glass is an Alien]

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)?

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.

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.

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

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

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

- 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 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?

[Samdy Gray]

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.

[Jimmy Glass is an Alien]

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.

[Peter Venkman]

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

[Jimmy Glass is an Alien]

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.

[Samdy Gray]

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

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.

[Peter Venkman]

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.

[Batch]

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!

[Spy]

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

This. Cables are the future.