broad band issues
- Thread starter bluespit
- Start date
bluespit said:
I wonder if it could possibly be crosstalk. As take up increases your line will be picking up more and more interference from other lines in the same cable bundle. BT are trialling something called Vectoring which is hoped will address this issue but for now there's nothing you can do.
For me they key issue is that the speed to my home is consistently above 38 mb. Tested with BT online test, OOkla and several other internet speed testers including the device the BT chap used when he visited. It's the speed from the router that changes, the test currently shows 38.6 mb upto the router and 1.96 from the router to this ipad
Now given that I can do the same test at 7.00am tomorrow and get something like 30 mgb to the house and 38mb to the iPad and that happens every day giving the same speed/time distribution to my mind it is clearly related to the router or the permissions BT have allocated to my router.
If it was demand related then I would expect to see some degree of variance in the speed to my router not from it, if the router was faulty then I would not expect it to fail with a regular time pattern.
Now given that I can do the same test at 7.00am tomorrow and get something like 30 mgb to the house and 38mb to the iPad and that happens every day giving the same speed/time distribution to my mind it is clearly related to the router or the permissions BT have allocated to my router.
If it was demand related then I would expect to see some degree of variance in the speed to my router not from it, if the router was faulty then I would not expect it to fail with a regular time pattern.
I worked for BT for 34 years and was a service manager for BT Wifi so know a bit about BB, log on your router and go into advanced settings then take the helpdesk option, look at what the router thinks the line is capable of reaching :-
i.e
5. VDSL uptime: 9 days, 02:24:47
6. Data Rate: 7198 / 39994
7. Maximum Data Rate: 7221 / 55461
8. Noise Margin: 6.1 / 7.8
Mine is capable of 39 Meg (6) with an upload speed of 7 meg but on a speed test I only show 37 Meg, also check your S/N ratio (8) which in my case is nigh on perfect at around 6Db.
Dont keep switching the router off/on as this will cause a system called RAMBO to think your line is erroring and will alter the data rate to accommodate, also you could see about getting an I plate which uncouples the bell wire which is sometimes a cause in that it picks up interference from fluorescent lights and other sources. another tip is to pick the phone handset up and dial a digit to kill dial tone, and have a listen if you can hear any crackles or noise as this may indicate a HR Dis (High Resistance Disconnection) which can affect dome older types of dropwires as these kill BB speeds and are a bugger to detect.
i.e
5. VDSL uptime: 9 days, 02:24:47
6. Data Rate: 7198 / 39994
7. Maximum Data Rate: 7221 / 55461
8. Noise Margin: 6.1 / 7.8
Mine is capable of 39 Meg (6) with an upload speed of 7 meg but on a speed test I only show 37 Meg, also check your S/N ratio (8) which in my case is nigh on perfect at around 6Db.
Dont keep switching the router off/on as this will cause a system called RAMBO to think your line is erroring and will alter the data rate to accommodate, also you could see about getting an I plate which uncouples the bell wire which is sometimes a cause in that it picks up interference from fluorescent lights and other sources. another tip is to pick the phone handset up and dial a digit to kill dial tone, and have a listen if you can hear any crackles or noise as this may indicate a HR Dis (High Resistance Disconnection) which can affect dome older types of dropwires as these kill BB speeds and are a bugger to detect.
chrissrush
Member
To prove a point (over time) you could try signing up at https://www.samknows.com/ for a free whitebox.
I've had one over a year, it measures broadband performance around the clock, I can see that my average speed over the last 12 months is 69.77Mbps download & 18.53 Mbps upload with 0.07% packet loss. The minuitae of the stats they produce is interesting to me as that's what I do!
I live out in the sticks and had to put up with around 2Mbps for years until they brought FTTC to a cabinet about 500m away.
I use Plusnet (BT owned) BTW
I've had one over a year, it measures broadband performance around the clock, I can see that my average speed over the last 12 months is 69.77Mbps download & 18.53 Mbps upload with 0.07% packet loss. The minuitae of the stats they produce is interesting to me as that's what I do!
I live out in the sticks and had to put up with around 2Mbps for years until they brought FTTC to a cabinet about 500m away.
I use Plusnet (BT owned) BTW
I know a thing or three about broadband.
First log onto the router advanced setting and check the sync rate - so for example that might say 39Mbps downstream.
Run a speedtest. Ideally do this via Ethernet plugged directly into the router to remove any potential local WiFi interference issues.
- if that's less than you sync rate then likely there is excessive congestion within the BT network. All those streetcabs are fibred back to the local exchange and then a shared link onwards into the BT world. Highly likely there is too much oversubscription there somewhere. The speed test will always be a bit less (3-5% maybe) than the sync rate due to protocol overheads but if it is 2Mbps then clearly there is a problem.
Finally if the speedtest looks ok but your performance is poor for other things then as mentioned it could be BT prioritising some traffic over others to give a good performance for Video and web at the expense of less realtime downloady stuff. This will be more evident in peak times which tends to be 3pm-9/10pm ish.
Difference with BT and Virgin is that Cable is always a set sync speed whereas BT DSL sync is dependant on copper line distance to the street Cab (the "upto" bit and then that has been known to drop off over time with cross-talk etc. But both are subject to capacity planning in the higher network layers and both can get it wrong sometimes or are slow to upgrade capacity as needed.
Can we go back to cars now?
First log onto the router advanced setting and check the sync rate - so for example that might say 39Mbps downstream.
Run a speedtest. Ideally do this via Ethernet plugged directly into the router to remove any potential local WiFi interference issues.
- if that's less than you sync rate then likely there is excessive congestion within the BT network. All those streetcabs are fibred back to the local exchange and then a shared link onwards into the BT world. Highly likely there is too much oversubscription there somewhere. The speed test will always be a bit less (3-5% maybe) than the sync rate due to protocol overheads but if it is 2Mbps then clearly there is a problem.
Finally if the speedtest looks ok but your performance is poor for other things then as mentioned it could be BT prioritising some traffic over others to give a good performance for Video and web at the expense of less realtime downloady stuff. This will be more evident in peak times which tends to be 3pm-9/10pm ish.
Difference with BT and Virgin is that Cable is always a set sync speed whereas BT DSL sync is dependant on copper line distance to the street Cab (the "upto" bit and then that has been known to drop off over time with cross-talk etc. But both are subject to capacity planning in the higher network layers and both can get it wrong sometimes or are slow to upgrade capacity as needed.
Can we go back to cars now?
Well the router is saying that it thinks the line is capable of 39 Meg download and 9 Meg upload...as someone said earlier it could be a contention issue, residential users are on a 50:1 ratio meaning you are sharing your bandwith with around 49 other users so potentially if a few of these are big users the bandwidth gets squeezed for everyone, just for info BT Retail do operate traffic shaping and certain kinds of traffic can get squeezed.
From what I understand, a lot depends on the type of cable which feeds your house as aluminium cable is nowhere near as good as copper cable.
With aluminium, it's much more susceptible to crosstalk interference than copper, therefore the speed may drop over time and your speed won't return until either the aluminium is replaced or BT implements vectoring, which is intended to eliminate crosstalk.
With aluminium, it's much more susceptible to crosstalk interference than copper, therefore the speed may drop over time and your speed won't return until either the aluminium is replaced or BT implements vectoring, which is intended to eliminate crosstalk.
Yea but sync would drop and this isnt the issue here.
This is simple congestion / capacity issue that BT never admit to. With infinity its likely the link from the exchange which is probably Gigabit Ethernet with 100s or possibly 1000s of customers sharing. Whilst all ISPs share the same streetcab etc (the openreach bit) the ISP provides thier own bandwidth into the exchange. Ask others in your area who are on BT retail products if they have the same issue. If they have give BT grief. Get o thier forums. Or thinkbroadband is a useful source. If you are out of contract move to another ISP.
This is simple congestion / capacity issue that BT never admit to. With infinity its likely the link from the exchange which is probably Gigabit Ethernet with 100s or possibly 1000s of customers sharing. Whilst all ISPs share the same streetcab etc (the openreach bit) the ISP provides thier own bandwidth into the exchange. Ask others in your area who are on BT retail products if they have the same issue. If they have give BT grief. Get o thier forums. Or thinkbroadband is a useful source. If you are out of contract move to another ISP.
I live in a relatively small village (population c2000), I'm about a mile from the exchange and about 400m from the cabinet. I would estimate I'm halfway between the cabinet and the edge of the village. The fibre optic from the exchange to the cabinet has been replaced in the last 12 months
None of my neighbours have 'infinity', not really internet types and only 9 homes in my street
Im inclined to a capacity issue but can't get BT to admit they can't deliver and so they will not release me from my contract
thanks chaps
None of my neighbours have 'infinity', not really internet types and only 9 homes in my street
Im inclined to a capacity issue but can't get BT to admit they can't deliver and so they will not release me from my contract
thanks chaps
True. Sky defo isn't and they have invested heavily in their own infrastructure and connectivity into exchanges as have talktalk whereas yea some might be white label (just BT retail rebadged) or some take it via BT wholesale. Or of course go VM if you have cable on your area.
Separate thought but you are sure no one else is using your connection when checking the speed? Kids torrenting can swamp a line. Just had to ask
Separate thought but you are sure no one else is using your connection when checking the speed? Kids torrenting can swamp a line. Just had to ask