Watch your router

[Apollo]

Most broadband accounts come with an "up to 8 MB" sticker on them, but it seems rare to see more than 2 MB. With any luck, that's about to change:

BT says that 99.6 per cent of UK homes and businesses will be able to get higher speed broadband from the end of this month. The UK incumbent said that 78 per cent of BT customer lines should be able to support 4Mbit/s and above, while 42 per cent will get 6Mbit/s and above. Those special people who live or work very close to their exchange may get upto 8Mb/s. BT said it is upgrading 5,300 exchanges to support these speeds. Pity those poor souls hooked up to the 150 smaller exchanges who won't get the spanking new speeds

[hazy]

You in the know then Apollo. Any news from NTL at the mo I get 1meg but I am about to add a router as I have got a new Laptop.

[scotia47]

I get a blazing 512kbps.

My exchange is in Maryhill, not that far from East Park Home. Someone please tell me it's not one of the "150 smaller exchanges" they're talking about...

[Apollo]

Afraid that's all I know. It was just a news item fed to me.

It's worth checking all the numbers once you've got the kit. My line speed has crept up to 2 MB over the past year, but I wasn't perceiving any change in download performance (yes, I know I don't get the full 2 MB, but going from 512 kb should done something).

There is a problem with Windows (isn't there always) in that it just plods away with its best defaults, which can be far from optimal. Using some on-line checkers, I found that my 2 MB could only achieve around 500 kb.

After ferreting around the TCP/IP optimisers, I saw this rise to a best of 1.9 MB after applying the suggested tweaks. A decent improvement, and I've seen downloads coming in at 500 k+ from some servers.

[crusty_bint]

See BT.com

[maxpower]

See BT.com

That article seems to be for something different: a more experimental, limited trial. Here is the article about the more widespread upgrades.

Will be great if I can get something above 512k!

[Apollo]

Thought I'd punch in my phone number to their new checker to see what would come up.

Although I've had 2272 kpbs for almost a year, the number checker apologises and says I may be lucky to get 256 k or 512 k, and for 1 M I'll have to wait for an engineer to come out and test the line due to its length, before they'll commit.

Ah well

[AlanM]

Afraid that's all I know. It was just a news item fed to me.

It's worth checking all the numbers once you've got the kit. My line speed has crept up to 2 MB over the past year, but I wasn't perceiving any change in download performance (yes, I know I don't get the full 2 MB, but going from 512 kb should done something).

There is a problem with Windows (isn't there always) in that it just plods away with its best defaults, which can be far from optimal. Using some on-line checkers, I found that my 2 MB could only achieve around 500 kb.

After ferreting around the TCP/IP optimisers, I saw this rise to a best of 1.9 MB after applying the suggested tweaks. A decent improvement, and I've seen downloads coming in at 500 k+ from some servers.

Your ISP maybe throttling back your speed at the exchange, I was showing 2.2Mb/s in the system tray but was getting about 1Mb/s (package was only rated at 1Mb/s at the time).

Now on a 2Mb/s package and getting very close to that figure during the day, slows to a crawl in the evening though.

[nuttytigger]

i'm on 2.2Mbps and the speed seems fine, but again on bt.com it says i would need an engineer for 1Mpbs, :)

i dont live that far away from my exchange so i may get 4Mbps

[AlanM]

I popped my number into the wee box here and it looks like I'll be able to get between 6 and 8 Mb/s. I'll just need to change my ISP to get it since Tiscali don't do an 'up to 8Meg' package

[Rossco]

Yeah, there are a couple of things you've got to watch with ISPs.

Throttling - I had an experience with talktalk broadband throttling traffic other than that on port 80 - that meant everything except surfing the web (think xbox live, file sharing, streaming media, p2p) When I called them up and gave them jip about it the lifted the limits.

Contention ratio - whilst your link to the exchange might be 2Mbps what you actually receive will depend largely upon the contention ratio your badnwidth is shared between. I use Bulldog as their ratios are much lower than most. This explains why, in the evening, a broadband slow down is experienced by some - as more people go online, a finite amount of bandwidth is shared amongst more people.

Remember, the speed that is shown in the System Tray or your adsl router is usually a maximum line speed and doesn't indicate the true achievable speed after contention effect, throttling and network overheads...

Think yourself lucky though - I've just moved into a new flat and am on dialup.........sooooooooooooooooooooo sllllllooooooooowwwwwwwwww

[crazygray23]

i had a guy in carphone warehouse try to talk me into going onto `talk talk` package and it came with free broadband for only £21 a month with the speeds up to 8gig in june/july and a 40meg useage limit it sounds too good to be true for me i wasnt aware that our switchboards handled that speed at the moment .im on 2mb with bt but im gunna change especially when u can get as good a package for less with other isp`s

im pretty sure he said 8gig but looking at the talk talk site it says 8meg

[macca734]

10 Meg cable broadband here. Can download from usenet at 1.6 Meg/s most days and watch 1000 Kbps digital television. The problem with getting it from other countries is that they cant handle the speed.

Useful link by the way;

http://tv4all.com/portal.htm

[McShad]

If you are on BT, try Bulldog

If its available in your area, you might be able to get upto 16Mb broadband. They change your line over to a bulldog phoneline at the exchange.
There was some problems when they started, but its stable and cool now. I got it when they'd started with 4Mb but I'm going to upgrade to the 16... after I upgrade the server computer. I think I might have to get a new modem too as I'm sure USB can only handle 12Mb

[AlanM]

If you are on BT, try Bulldog

If its available in your area, you might be able to get upto 16Mb broadband. They change your line over to a bulldog phoneline at the exchange.
There was some problems when they started, but its stable and cool now. I got it when they'd started with 4Mb but I'm going to upgrade to the 16... after I upgrade the server computer. I think I might have to get a new modem too as I'm sure USB can only handle 12Mb

If your using the speedtouch 330 that won't do adsl2+ you'll need a newer piece of kit.

If your going to bulldog upto16meg get a belkin 7633 as it performs very well on bulldog lines(better than on anyone else's lines) and has some neat features that mean you can squeeze more speed from the connection