broadband speeds

[Colt]

Well there seem to be a decent contingent of savy computer people on this site so I would appreciate a bit of advise. I am a competent computer user, just do not have a clue how it all functions!

I have an 8MB BT package, which seems loads to me as I only occassionaly do music the odd utube video, otherwise sites like this and research info for work.

I have just checked my speed with a free "broadband speed checker, yours is rubbish buy one from us", type of site.

It tells me my download speed is 4.77Mbps and my upload is 281Kbps, this at 17.30. Now I am no computer geek but even I can work out that neither of these numbers is anywhere near to 8Mb.

Is this normal, should I be contacting my supplier, how can I speed things up?

I even have to wait for this site to load up

Any views gratefully received

 

[upnunder]

There are two things to take into account here.
1. Distance from the exchange
2. Contention- number of people using your particular "line".


The speed will have been quoted as "up to" 8mb download. This is the optimum that the ADSL line into the exchange can support, but not necessarily what you will be able to achieve.
Try a site like http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php and do an availability check on your postcode, that should tell you more accurately what you can expect to achieve.

there is one thing that you can buy to increase your ADSL speed, -http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=7256

These clean up the signal coming into your house and can increase the speed significantly, I use one and get about 2mb extra.

ADSL is not an exact science, and speeds can vary significantly across different times of day, as more users log on.

My recommendation would be to move from BT to an ISP that has unbundled your local exchange- have their own equipment in there, they will be able to offer you faster speeds, again, Sam knows can tell you this information.

 

[OB..]

Unfortunately there is no simple answer. BT may well be able to provide the 8MB speed, but the traffic passes over various other links to get to you, so any of them (and your own computer) may be unable to cope.

How do you find out? By asking somebody who understands it better than me, I'm afraid.

 

[Ian_Cook]

I think you might be confusing two different measures

The 8MB (eight megabytes or eight million bytes) you mention is the total amount of data you can download over a given period, (usually per month) before before you incur additional broadband fees.


The 4.77MBps is megabits per second, the speed at which you are downloading data

4.77Mbps down - 281Kbps (kilobits per second) is pretty quick

You probably have an ADSL connection at that rate. They go up to 6Mbps

It is usual for the upload speed to be much slower. Most high-speed Internet connections, including cable modems and DSL, are asymmetric, that is, they are designed to provide much better speed for downloading than uploading, since most users spend much more time downloading (which includes viewing web pages or multimedia files) than they do uploading. High speed Internet providers have designed their systems to give priority to downloading; if the upload speed was to be increased, the total data speed capability of your connection would demand that download speed be reduced. Remember that upload and download are happening at the same time over the same twisted pair of wires.


If you want real speed you'll need a T3 that runs at 45Mbps, but almost certainly you would need fibre optics to your door. T3 are also usually very expensive.

 

[PaulDG]

The 8MB (eight megabytes or eight million bytes) you mention is the total amount of data you can download over a given period, (usually per month) before before you incur additional broadband fees.

No. 8GB maybe (1000x as much), not 8MB. That will be the maximum data rate the equipment in the exchange can offer.

The 4.77MBps is megabits per second, the speed at which you are downloading data

Correct. It's the 8MBit technology limited by the cable, the distance from the exchange, etc.

It is usual for the upload speed to be much slower. Most high-speed Internet connections, including cable modems and DSL, are asymmetric, that is, they are designed to provide much better speed for downloading than uploading, since most users spend much more time downloading (which includes viewing web pages or multimedia files) than they do uploading. High speed Internet providers have designed their systems to give priority to downloading; if the upload speed was to be increased, the total data speed capability of your connection would demand that download speed be reduced. Remember that upload and download are happening at the same time over the same twisted pair of wires.

If you want real speed you'll need a T3 that runs at 45Mbps, but almost certainly you would need fibre optics to your door. T3 are also usually very expensive.

Correct.

 

[upnunder]

I can sell you a 10mb E1 circuit for about £21k per year

8mb ADSL is the maximum speed that ADSL Max can run at- not the download limit.
An 8gb Download limit is very low, average usage is about 10-20gb per month.

Look for a company that has unbundled your local exchange, they will be able to offer faster speeds, I wont go into the reasons why and how they can do this, but look for names like Talk Talk, Orange, Bulldog- they all have their own equipment in the exchanges, and can offer faster than 8mb ADSL.

By the end of next year, BT will have fully rolled out their next generation network and be able to offer speeds in excess of 16mb.

I currently sell 24mbps ADSL in some local areas near Oxford, where we have our own equipment in the exchange.

 

[Ian_Cook]

No. 8GB maybe (1000x as much), not 8MB. That will be the maximum data rate the equipment in the exchange can offer.

Assumption is the mother or all f-ups

I assumed he meant 8GB, and then made the same mistake :wow:

 

[Greg Collins]

and watch out that your flashing Christmas lights are off when you do the speed test..... (seriously)

Lots of lovely RF interference......

 

[ExHookah]

15Mbps coming into my house.

Paid for by my company, as I'm a "homeshored" associate. So I actually get better connection into my corporate networks than the people who sit in a physical office.

 

[Greg Collins]

15Mbps coming into my house.

Paid for by my company, as I'm a "homeshored" associate. So I actually get better connection into my corporate networks than the people who sit in a physical office.

then the people who provide the connections to your office desktops need firing!

out of interest what sort of contention ratio are you on at home?

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

 

[Phil E]

Vrgin have just launched a fibre optic net connection. 10 times faster than conventional boradband.
Only available if you have Virgin cable TV in your street.
About £50 per month I think, but super fast.

 

[Dickie E]

apparently Steve Walsh got on the lunatic soup after reading this thread (God knows, I'm tempted)

 

[Simon Thomas]

I spent 2 years arguing with BT that they never got near their advertised broadband speeds at my home. As for 8MB ha ha - dreaming.

I no longer use them !

 

[OB..]

In the Times today.

 

[ExHookah]

then the people who provide the connections to your office desktops need firing!

out of interest what sort of contention ratio are you on at home?

The databases we work on are hosted on servers in Salt Lake, so people in offices out here on the east coast are accessing them through Citrix, the same as me at home, but I'm on my own private line whereas they are all sharing the same T1 or T3 or something or other. So that's the theory that's been given to them. I personally think the bigger issue is that my laptop is more powerful than their desktops, so my CPU and RAM are working better than theirs.

As far as contention ratio, I don't know to be honest, it's never been mentioned by Cablevision who are my provider. I've done speedtests at various times of day and it's almost always somewhere in the 14Mbps range. I know that they give good priority to business lines, so maybe my neighbors get a slower connection on the cable lines.

I also have two computers running uTorrent almost continually, so there's a decent chance that my house eats up a lot of the bandwidth coming into my neighborhood!

 

[ExHookah]

I also have two computers running uTorrent almost continually, so there's a decent chance that my house eats up a lot of the bandwidth coming into my neighborhood!

The announcement came as Kenneth Branagh, Richard Curtis and a number of British film and television directors and producers called in a letter to The Times for internet providers to do more to tackle illegal downloading.

The group, voicing concern that “the successes of the creative industries in the UK are being undermined by the illegal online file-sharing”, said that internet providers should be compelled by law “to change the behaviour of those customers who illegally distribute content online”.

Callum McDougall, the producer of the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, said: “Film-makers rely on DVD and download sales to recoup the costs of making a film. There should be a law forcing internet providers to warn customers when they download material illegally.”

:wink:

 

[Simon Thomas]

Any Citrix connections will use tiny bandwidth - we have used it for years for corporate applications based on our corporate servers, that need remote access to them, outside of our physical locations. Originally we had to use fixed dedicated data lines, but now the web has changed that, with

It is basically a screen only refresh facility, and so sends just changes to the screen and no actual data sent or processing done on the local 'client' machine (hence it is called thin client technology).

It is functionally very limited and with increased web bandwidth, data compression techniques, web applications (.NET etc), web browsers, are not used as much as we used to.

For video rich content, and open source applications, CITRIX is not an option.

Professionally I have great concerns that the web will become congested very soon, and stated so on a recent conference platform and was slated afterwards by our wonderful UK government for causing un-necessary concern. Some countries (and for sure the UK) have massively under-invested in the technological infra-structure to move into the brave new world. Secondly wireless will grow more and more instead of fixed wire / cable and with the release of analogue TV frequencies as we switch to digital TV and whole new wireless bandwidth may be opened up.

 

[ExHookah]

Any Citrix connections will use tiny bandwidth - we have used it for years for corporate applications based on our corporate servers, that need remote access to them, outside of our physical locations. Originally we had to use fixed dedicated data lines, but now the web has changed that, with

It is basically a screen only refresh facility, and so sends just changes to the screen and no actual data sent or processing done on the local 'client' machine (hence it is called thin client technology).

That's what I'd read, so basically the local IT guys in the physical offices are spinning a line to my office based colleagues regarding the performance of the systems.

Professionally I have great concerns that the web will become congested very soon, and stated so on a recent conference platform and was slated afterwards by our wonderful UK government for causing un-necessary concern. Some countries (and for sure the UK) have massively under-invested in the technological infra-structure to move into the brave new world. Secondly wireless will grow more and more instead of fixed wire / cable and with the release of analogue TV frequencies as we switch to digital TV and whole new wireless bandwidth may be opened up.

Also read this too, and I think your concerns are very valid. The bulk of the physical infra-structure was built decades ago for simple phone use, and much of it is now used for massive amounts of data. At some point the "pipes" are surely going to get blocked up, or burst in some way.

I can envision governmental intervention at some point, to split out what could be considered "serious business use" from "recreational use". The idea being that business can be performed without being hindered by school kids using up bandwidth using stuff like YouTube. However the fuzzy line in the sand becomes harder to identify when people for whom YouTube is their business.

 

[Colt]

I thouight I had a grasp after the third thread, but then I seem to have slipped into a parallel universe with a strange language!!

Thanks for the help guys and I concur with ST's view of BT 'cause I tried to reason with them, but then they slipped into strange speak as well.

I feel a cable supplier may be the way forward, but not at £50/month