400kb/s on a 5 - 11mb line?

[Kesz]

As the title suggests, I get 400kb/s, give or take 100kb/s when downloading, and that's literally every thing I download, no matter the web site. Up till now it's never really bothered me and I assumed that we just had a crap line, but I've recently jumped back into gaming and it's starting to grate.

I rang Sky last night and I was told that I should be getting between 5 - 11mb. I did all the mandatory tests that the guy asked and they made zero difference. At the end of the phone call it was clear he was stumped and now my problem has been elevated to another department. So now I had to wait for them to get back to me.

I have tried two different computers and different phone ports in the house. For a brief moment last night -whilst using a different phone port - I saw my download speed start at 5mb, but it degraded and it was back to the old trusty 400kb/s

I wondered if anyone might have some ideas as to what the problem could be?

 

[woppy101]

Line stats ?

 

[Kesz]

Line stats ?

Nvm. Found it.

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 4160600 4903447 0 36497 156126 07:23:36
LAN 10M/100M 4873471 4148913 0 158047 39387 07:24:29
WLAN 11M/54M 58804 49947 0 1713 527 07:24:21

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5019 kbps 1083 kbps
Line Attenuation 50.5 db 30.1 db
Noise Margin 6.3 db 3.8 db

 

[zipp0r]

its a longish line and connected pretty much as fast as it can go, 5mbit. you will never ever connect that line at 11mbit and there is nothing sky can do about it. around 490kB/s will be the absolute maximum you can download at.

 

[woppy101]

Nvm. Found it.

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 4160600 4903447 0 36497 156126 07:23:36
LAN 10M/100M 4873471 4148913 0 158047 39387 07:24:29
WLAN 11M/54M 58804 49947 0 1713 527 07:24:21

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5019 kbps 1083 kbps
Line Attenuation 50.5 db 30.1 db
Noise Margin 6.3 db 3.8 db

Are you connected to the master socket or are you plugged into an extention? Between 5-11mb is quite a big range and a 50db attenuation won't get anywhere close to 11mb, when I was on ADSL my attenuation was 45db and my DS range was 4.5 -7.5mb

 

[Kesz]

I'm currently plugged into the master socket, but I have also changed sockets and it's not made any difference. Admittedly I am currently using a extension lead, my master socket is down stairs and my computer is up stairs. I don't have a wireless network card in my computer. But as I said in my first post I moved my router down stairs and it still made no difference.

But I don't quite understand, why is it the speed it is? What causes it?

 

[GefGz]

I'm currently plugged into the master socket, but I have also changed sockets and it's not made any difference. Admittedly I am currently using a extension lead, my master socket is down stairs and my computer is up stairs. I don't have a wireless network card in my computer. But as I said in my first post I moved my router down stairs and it still made no difference.

But I don't quite understand, why is it the speed it is? What causes it?

ADSL is affected by numerous things, including line length, line quality, line material in some cases, all of these things combined will increase your line attenuation(how much the signal is degrading before reaching the exchange)

With that attenuation there is not a hope in hell of getting 11mb.
No matter what fancy setup you've got inside your house, you ain't going to be getting a decent speed with that line length.

And also, make sure when you talk about transfer speeds or anything to do with Bytes and Bits you use the correct terminology, as a 400kb/s transfer would equate to 3 MB a minute, whilst 400KB/s would be 24 MB a minute. Quite a difference.

 

[KIA]

Get rid of the extension cable.

 

[Kesz]

So is there anything I can do to get faster download speeds? Or am I doomed to be stuck with 0.5 meg a second?

 

[Kesz]

Get rid of the extension cable.

I used it with out the extension cable and it made no difference.

 

[GefGz]

So is there anything I can do to get faster download speeds? Or am I doomed to be stuck with 0.5 meg a second?

http://kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php

Put your postcode in there, let's get an idea of the distance and what your exchange has enabled

 

[Kesz]

Distance:- Direct: 1.53 km
(appx)* By Road: 2.5 km
Status
ADSL enabled: March 31, 2000
DSL Max enabled: March 31, 2006
21CN WBC (Broadband) Enabled
21CN due : (PSTN) info N/A
FTTC Available in some areas
SDSL enabled : Enabled
Broadband Access Market Broadband Access† Market 3
BT price band BTw Pricing Band Band A

Fixed ADSL: 2048 kbps (2 Mb)
DSL Max: 5500 kbps (5.5 Mb)
21CN WBC : 7500 kbps (7.5 Mb

RAG Test Results

Fixed: 1Mbps and 2Mbps available
radsl: 512Kbps and 256Kbps available
MAX: ADSL Max is available
TPON: No info in database
Check: No info available for this line!

LLU
AOL Available
Be* Available
C&W/Bulldog Available
DigitalRegion Not available
Edge Telecom Not available
Homechoice Not available
Lumison Not available
NewNet No info available
Node4 Not available
O2 Available
Pipex Not available
Smallworld Not available
Sky/Easynet Available 06.01.07
TalkTalk Available
Tiscali Available 25.07.07
WB Internet Not available
Zen Available

Cable
Virgin Media Not available
Smallworld Media Not available

Wireless
EMnet Not available
Kijoma Available
LTT Broadband Not available
Now Wireless Not available
OnLincolnshire Not available
Orbital/VFast Not available
UrbanWimax Not available

 

[woppy101]

I used it with out the extension cable and it made no difference.

I won't right away if DLM has locked the line, what was the attenuation when the router was plugged directly into the master socket?

 

[Sparx]

With your attenuation you will not see it get any better.

Have you checked to see if FTTC is available to you?

 

[Kesz]

Ok. I will try plugging the router into the master socket directly and leaving it for a while. I looked up DLM(not knowing what it meant) and it seems it could take a while to adjust its self, but I also read conflicting reports that it's no longer being used?

As for fibre it seems it is available and for only £10 extra so that is looking like a good option. I don't have much of an idea about attenuation, routers or connections in general - that's why I'm here. Getting fibre will give me the much needed download speed I'm assuming?

Also, what can I do about the master socket being downstairs and the computer being up stairs? Would going wireless be a good option?

 

[zipp0r]

post the line stats once connected to the master socket. its better to use a cat5 cable from downstairs to upstairs if you can, i found wireless to cause a few lag spikes in games.

fibre is upto 80/20mbit much faster than your current 5/1mbit

 

[KIA]

Get FTTC.

Use the address checker - https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/s...unity/Coverage/ADSL_Availibility_Checker.html

 

[bledd]

I think you may be getting confused between KB and kb

Are you expecting 5MB per second download speeds?

 

[Kesz]

Ok. It's possible that I am confused and reading it totally wrong. I am currently getting 410.70KB/s on a 7GB file.

On Steam it takes me roughly 6 hrs 30 to download a 12 GB game.

I wasn't aware that KB/s and kb/s are completely different. I am not clued up with this sort of thing, that's why I'm here. Are my expectations way over? Or should I be getting better speeds?

 

[bremen1874]

8 bits (b) to the btye (B).

410.7KB/s is only 3285.6Kb/s (3.29Mb/s) so youre still somewhat sort of the lower 5Mb/s estimate for your connection.

On the other hand a 12GB download in 6.5 hours is just over 4Mb/s and may be a better figure to believe.

If that's what you get when you connect to the master socket's test port then that may be all the line is capable of