Is it actually dialup that you're working off of, or did something gnaw through the cable?
Beefy's Corner - The Off-Topic Chat Thread
- Thread starter TheSecondStain
- Start date
-
Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
-
- Status
Is it actually dialup that you're working off of, or did something gnaw through the cable?
It's normally better (still appalling, approx 1.5mb dl speed) but some kind of connection problem today. Should have taken a speed test on my halls internet last year, fastest downloads I've ever seen.
Slightly relieved that it's not just me, especially now that it's not Banana but some other unknown quantity.
Don't worry, there's an awful lot of BS about regarding broadband speeds, RSS. In truth, if you are the sole user in your household, and the most you do with it is watch TV via iPlayer, then I doubt if you actually notice it's that slow. Frankly, unless you're a total online gamer or a member of an entire family of independent users, mostly anything over 10 to 12Mb/s is a bit of a waste, anyway.
However, as your location is Southampton, I would try doing the speed test again and selecting another server. Maidenhead is often the speedy one of choice, IIRC. And another thing, Talk-Talk really ought to be able to provide you with something a little nippier than 3.6 Mb/s at no extra cost. Ask them about it. 8Mb/s really ought to be the minimum and fast enough for any sole user, bar the ultra online gamers.
I was going to suggest that you must have a connection fault, Dan. As it is BT they will initially deny all knowledge, according to my experience. If you press them about it, they will check their end though. After that they'll deny all knowledge. Don't let them send an engineer out to you though. They'll try to charge you £65 for the privilege.
That reminds me that BT's latest advert, for their stumbling Home-Hub set-up, has a tag-line in it that suggests that...
...unlike some others we'll never slow you down..!
What they mean is, of course, is that they'll never reduce the bandwidth allocated to you [called throttling, in the trade], ie. reducing the Mb/s allowance to you. All this is a bit rich really, because BT used to be the biggest throttler of bandwidth in the whole broadband industry.
I was going to suggest that you must have a connection fault, Dan. As it is BT they will initially deny all knowledge, according to my experience. If you press them about it, they will check their end though. After that they'll deny all knowledge. Don't let them send an engineer out to you though. They'll try to charge you £65 for the privilege.
That reminds me that BT's latest advert, for their stumbling Home-Hub set-up, has a tag-line in it that suggests that...
...unlike some others we'll never slow you down..!
What they mean is, of course, is that they'll never reduce the bandwidth allocated to you [called throttling, in the trade], ie. reducing the Mb/s allowance to you. All this is a bit rich really, because BT used to be the biggest throttler of bandwidth in the whole broadband industry.
Yeah we did phone, they said they can find no fault their end. It'll sort itself out probably, it's a bit better now. They're our only real option in this area - they've been promising to install fibre optic cables for 18 months now, so not holding my breath on that one! We're with Virgin Media at uni, who are normally much better, but it's been really slow these past few days. Wonder if we're being throttled!
On a separate note -
http://www.not606.com/member.php/1024837-Anal-distribution
Got to be Banana this time?
http://www.not606.com/member.php/1024837-Anal-distribution
Got to be Banana this time?
[/I]What they mean is, of course, is that they'll never reduce the bandwidth allocated to you [called throttling, in the trade], ie. reducing the Mb/s allowance to you. All this is a bit rich really, because BT used to be the biggest throttler of bandwidth in the whole broadband industry.
Worked for a Canadian telecom, and they ceased throttling and increased their speeds in a much ballyhooed attempt to win people back from the independent ISPs. Nice idea, but because their infrastructure couldn't handle it, for a good couple months thereafter large sections of the network would hit a bottleneck after 6pm, causing massive packet loss. Net result? By increasing their speeds from, say, 18mbps to 25, their customers started to get 0.2 with 60% packet loss every evening. People were suitably unimpressed.
Crikey, I bet..! I think BT got a bit caught like that a few years back and they are currently going through a slightly similar process, though not as drastic as the one you've described.
Incidentally, I know a few people with BT Home-Hubs, and although the speeds tend to be quite impressive in favourable areas, they're not the most stable of connections, even when wired. I can't see what all the hype is about with them. I looked up a Wikipedia entry for the Home-Hub 3 the other day and the techies are not hugely impressed with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Home_Hub
A question for you, Schad, if you can help. I used to work in the industry, but not for many years, so I'm not up to scratch on many areas of spec and hardware, but I notice that a mate of mine has a BT Openreach wired modem/router and a Home-Hub 3 attached to it. He's completely not computer literate, so when I asked him why he had a modem/router/hub connected to a modem/router he couldn't tell me, but I understand that's a legitimate way for some BT broadband lines to work. Hasn't he got an unnecessary box in there..? Surely, the Home-Hub could do the whole she-bang taking the signal out of the socket..? Or am I missing something..?
Really, there's nothing wrong with that speed. Granted there are plenty faster around, but does it seem slow for your purposes..? If it doesn't, it's fast enough.
Yeah, I play online quite a bit (WoW and earlier this evening TF2) and recently I've had no problems of lag. I even got a 2mb/s download speed when updating TF2. And I can watch Iplayer or youtube without any problems usually.
Yeah it's too slow for my purposes, and it isn't just me in the house. Brother and parents also use iPads, computers etc.
Need to get a new ISP really.
Yeah OK, I'd agree with that. Multiple, simultaneous users will certainly make your bandwidth run out of puff.
The fastest I can get is 1.89 mbs, which is average for my village. The problem here is inadequate cabling from the local exchange throughout the village. Somerset County Council have promised that 80% of homes will have super fast broadband (whatever that is) by the end of 2015. Whoopdedoo.
I'm not overly familiar with DSL, but it shouldn't be necessary, and my guess is that -- if both are gateways (combination modem/routers) and he's using wifi, he's feeding off the signal from the primary devices and the second device is just an ornament; in normal operation the secondary one shouldn't be able to do its job hooked through a router. It's also possible to use the primary as a bridge and the latter strictly as the router, if desired, but it doesn't sound like he's likely to have configured it such.
- Status