Broadband speed

[Doug]

Could anyone enlighten me re broadband speed, Virgin informed me a week ago that they have increased my broadband speed from 30Mb to 70Mb, this means nothing to me, so in an attempt to see if I could detect this increase I downloaded the Speed smart app & have tested 5 times.

The download ranged from 26.19 to 39.25Mb/s over the 5 tests
The upload ranged from 0.17 to 5.11 Mb/s
When the download was high the upload was low?

Should I expect to get near 70mb/s on an app like this, or is there another way to ensure I'm getting from Virgin the broadband speed they are claiming to supply.

 

[RogerS]

Just think yourself lucky !

Too many factors involved, Doug, for those speed tests to be anywhere near meaningful.

 

[9fingers]

VM have made similar noises to me. It has made no difference here; I get about 20mb down and 2-2.5mb up.
It is normal for about a 10:1 down:up ratio for a basic (non business) connection.

Bob

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the replies.
Bob VM have been saying for a while there are going to upgrade free of charge, but I'd heard nothing recently until I got an email saying I could apply for the upgrade.
I was concerned as there was no talk of free up grade in this new email but I proceeded & further down the line they mentioned that there may or may not be a charge & that I would receive a further email confirming this upgrade & notification of any costs.
The confirmation email duly arrived but no mention of a price increase, I don't believe this won't happen, hence my wanting to find out if I am in fact getting the speed increase I will no doubt end up paying for.

 

[RogerS]

Our exchange has recently gone fibre and I got an email from Zen. As per usual, the technical briefing details from them are reasonably detailed .

We recommend customers do not change to an up to 20 Meg service if:

Your current line speed is 6 Meg or less on ADSL "up to 8 Meg" services.
You are more than 4km from your BT exchange.
You are not able to connect your Broadband equipment to a filter at the BT master socket. An illustration of this setup may be found here: Broadband Setup Guide

I fail at the first hurdle. We get about 5.5 Meg.
I have no idea of the routing of our bit of copper or even where the exchange is...Do they really mean the exchange or the cabinet where the fibre terminates ? Or are they one and the same? Need to ask them when they return post-break.
I can do the last one!!

 

[9fingers]

Thanks for the replies.
Bob VM have been saying for a while there are going to upgrade free of charge, but I'd heard nothing recently until I got an email saying I could apply for the upgrade.
I was concerned as there was no talk of free up grade in this new email but I proceeded & further down the line they mentioned that there may or may not be a charge & that I would receive a further email confirming this upgrade & notification of any costs.
The confirmation email duly arrived but no mention of a price increase, I don't believe this won't happen, hence my wanting to find out if I am in fact getting the speed increase I will no doubt end up paying for.

Yes we went through the same process but I stopped when they would not be specific about the charge. Some of my home network is not up to those speeds anyway being based on old equipment. I have little interest in Video on demand or gaming etc. Most of my web use is text based or searching for data sheets/supplier/ebay etc so 20Mb is plenty.
I signed up with VM predecessor (comtel I think it was called) for 128k dialup and it is they who have pushed up the speeds and I've just paid the minimum - which I think is now £4.50 per month over and above the phone.
Bob

 

[tracerman]

Hi folks - prompted by Doug's post I had a look at my speeds , if it can be believed my download speed is 106.34 , and upload is 12.22 . Are these figures good ? why are they so different ? just wondering . I am inside the Southampton city boundary .

Steve

 

[Rod]

I have no choice in our village but to use BT Broadband and according to their app I'm receiving 70MB but the app on my phone gives 40 - 30 download and 17 upload.

Rod

 

[Wizard9999]

In the part of our village where I live I think we have ome of the worst speeds in the country, less than 1mbs for both upload ad download. About twenty houses up the road they are on a different exchange and get c.15mbs, the other end of the village BT provides about 20mbs. So to put it bluntly we re stuffed, a tiny area that is simply not commercially viable to give better broad band to.

Terry.

 

[RogerS]

In the part of our village where I live I think we have ome of the worst speeds in the country, less than 1mbs for both upload ad download. About twenty houses up the road they are on a different exchange and get c.15mbs, the other end of the village BT provides about 20mbs. So to put it bluntly we re stuffed, a tiny area that is simply not commercially viable to give better broad band to.

Terry.

It really can be a bit of a lottery even in some cities. Certainly a decent broadband connection would be way up the top of our decision criteria if we ever moved.

When we first came here we used a satellite link from Avonline IIRC. Also, Terry, there are some organisations that provide a localised beefy wifi service...don't know if those residents have looked into this?

 

[Phil]

Stupid question ...........................

But, where do I go looking for these speeds?

Cheers
Phil

 

[RogerS]

Stupid question ...........................

But, where do I go looking for these speeds?

Cheers
Phil

No question is ever stupid, Phil.

Try this link from where you are..
http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za

 

[TrimTheKing]

Our exchange has recently gone fibre and I got an email from Zen. As per usual, the technical briefing details from them are reasonably detailed .

We recommend customers do not change to an up to 20 Meg service if:

Your current line speed is 6 Meg or less on ADSL "up to 8 Meg" services.
You are more than 4km from your BT exchange.
You are not able to connect your Broadband equipment to a filter at the BT master socket. An illustration of this setup may be found here: Broadband Setup Guide

I fail at the first hurdle. We get about 5.5 Meg.
I have no idea of the routing of our bit of copper or even where the exchange is...Do they really mean the exchange or the cabinet where the fibre terminates ? Or are they one and the same? Need to ask them when they return post-break.
I can do the last one!!

I wouldn't base your decision on that Roger!

Previously I was getting a Max of 4.5 & 0.5 on standard ADSL, on sky fibre I get 18Mb+ & 1.1Mb.

It is all dependent on your cable distance from the nearest green box that your cabling terminate in from the house. In theory all green boxes should have a second one next to them that contains the fibre terminations.

I went from 3.97k from the exchange to 1.1k from the fibre termination hence my uplift. The cabling between me and the fibre box is not the limitation and unlikely to ever improve as it's aluminium not copper so unless it all gets wrecked or stolen then that's me for good.

Wonder if the local gypsies might ever take a liking to the cabling one night... [emoji6]

Cheers
Mark

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for that, Mark. Out two boxes are close by each other. Might have a punt...only cost that I see is a new router....any recommendations...they seem to go from pounds to over £100 (draytek for example)

 

[TrimTheKing]

Thanks for that, Mark. Out two boxes are close by each other. Might have a punt...only cost that I see is a new router....any recommendations...they seem to go from pounds to over £100 (draytek for example)

Why do you need a new router? And why would you have to pay for it...?

Mark

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for that, Mark. Out two boxes are close by each other. Might have a punt...only cost that I see is a new router....any recommendations...they seem to go from pounds to over £100 (draytek for example)

Why do you need a new router? And why would you have to pay for it...?

Mark

I assumed that my geriatric Netgear DG834 was not ADSL2+ compliant. And my ISP does not provide a router...and I prefer it that way!

 

[TrimTheKing]

Ahhhh okay. I assumed the router would be part of the upgrade package...

I've not looked at them for a whole tbh so would need to do some research. Draytek don't a good one that we've used for some smaller offices in work which might be the one you mention.

Cheers
Mark

 

[justaskin]

Hi All
Perhaps the most reliable speed check is "dslchecker.bt.com"
This is what all ISP's refer to.

My line to the fibre cabinet, judging from my speed is made up from a mixture of copper, aluminium, Don10 and wet string. All underground.

Best wishes for the new year

Richard

 

[RogerS]

Useful link, thanks, Richard. Tells me that I ain't got anything faster then 6 Meg so I think Zen might be confused. I'll give them a call when the world is back to normal aka Jan 4th 2016

 

[Phil]

Stupid question ...........................

But, where do I go looking for these speeds?

Cheers
Phil

No question is ever stupid, Phil.

Try this link from where you are..
http://speedtest.mybroadband.co.za

Thanks for the link Roger.

I tried it and got the following:-

To JHB
Down - 9.76Mbps
Up - 9.86 Mbps
Latency 11ms
Jitter 4ms


to Cape Town
Down 9.84
Up 9.89
Latency 37
Jitter 4

Is that good or bad?
Or should I get all Jittery? :lol:

Cheers
Phil

 

[RogerS]

You lucky, lucky boy!

 

[AndyP]

Haven't checked mine for ages. Tried 6 different testing sites this morning and achieved between 14.5 and 17.8 mbps download which I thought was quite good especially as my father is paying for BT fibre and was getting just 20mbps a couple of days ago.