BT internet Speed Issue

Theguy · 29 Mar 2011 at 12:25

Hi guys, I have recently began a package with BT to do my telly, phone and internet. Its the Mrs, she wanted BT Vision...

The issue is, it is damn slow, I don't really understand why it is the case, because according to fancy BT hub 3, I am connecting at 18.46 Mbps, and my upload is 1.14 Mbps. Yet when I do a speedtest.net it says I am connecting around 3/4Mbps at most.

I have done the BT speedtest too, which says I am doing around 8Mbps give or take, but I have never seen download speeds like that (which at the moment are around 200KB/s)

I can fully understand it if say they said up to 24 Mbps, but the line could only do say 8Mbps, but why is it syncing at high speed yet, the speed itself is rather low.

I was with Virgin ADSL before which connected and downloaded at 8Mbps. According to documentation on BTs side, these 10 days worth of line training and all that is the reason, but I never had that with my old ISP?

The router is connected to the master socket, I live in a newish block of flats, so my side can't really be the issue?

Sorry for my ramble on..

P.S. BT Vison on demand keeps stopping and starting too, which I would guess is connected to the lack of bandwidth my line is giving me?

3dcandy · 29 Mar 2011 at 13:41

You've gotta let it train the line and work out the best speed and stability. The equipment at BT's end monitors the connection, it will settle down after time.

Jimz · 29 Mar 2011 at 14:06

I'm with BT and have been for the past 10 years and my broadband speeds never been higher than 6Mb... never

I've always been on the highest package too.

3dcandy · 29 Mar 2011 at 14:10

Depends on many factors...exchange, line, router...

Snograt · 29 Mar 2011 at 15:27

Is that BT Infinity, i.e. FTTC?

Also, the fact that you're connecting at 18Mbps doesn't mean that you'll actually download at that speed from any given site. It's all dependant on the speed of every link in the chain between you and where you're downloading from.

An example: I have a steady "speed" of ~38Mbps, yet when I connect to Sky Player, I only get 2 bars on their connection strength thingy. Yes, this is because Sky Player is poo, but it illustrates my point!

Rroff · 29 Mar 2011 at 19:10

New ADSL/ADSL2 connections on BT will under go a 10 day training period with the initial profile often set around 2MBit/s IIRC (~240KB/s download speed) and ramp up over time (or down if theres issues with the line quality).

I've not seen actual speeds much above 6MBit/s on BT even with 10+MBit/s syncs tho.

3dcandy · 29 Mar 2011 at 19:31

I get approx. 6 meg with a sync of 7162.

That's ADSL as they haven't rolled out 2+ at my exchange yet. BT are getting pretty harsh with their traffic shaping/management.

KIA · 29 Mar 2011 at 20:43

Post the result from http://speedtester.bt.com/

Snograt · 30 Mar 2011 at 21:11

If you can get the damn thing to work, fluff. When the BT guy fitted my Infinity a short while ago he watched me struggling to get that to run and said "nobody uses that - use Speedtest.net instead"

Speedtester does give additional useful information if you can run it, of course.

KIA · 30 Mar 2011 at 21:35

Snograt said:
If you can get the damn thing to work, fluff. When the BT guy fitted my Infinity a short while ago he watched me struggling to get that to run and said "nobody uses that - use Speedtest.net instead"

It will show IP profile and may avoid traffic management. There's probably an issue with your installation of Java.