Why has my speed become so fast?

In the past week there has been a significant jump in my speed.
I now get download speeds of 11Mbps and an upload of 1Mbps.
The only change I have made recently is to my computer.
I have upgraded Vista to Windows 7.
This has transformed a slug of a computer into a butterfly.
I would however be surprised to learn that this could also affect my Internet speed.
Is this possible, or is there some other reason?

Edited by deleted (Mon 28-Feb-11 10:17:43)

Is it possible that you have been upgraded to ADSL2+ (21CN)? I received an email about this a couple of days ago, saying it would happen in the next 5 weeks.

Hi there,

If you're happy to PM me a username or ticket ID I'll happily take a look and let you know of any recent changes to your account?

That's another e-mail I didn't get.

Thanks, but as my speed is still very fast I will just leave things as it is.
I would hate for anyone to change something,


"If it ain't broke don't fix it."

Thanks. I suppose that is possible.
But I have not received any notification about that change.
I have also noticed that when I now do the Think Broadband Speed test
it recognises me as using Madasafish when previously I was correctly seen as PlusNet.
I believe they are both part of the same group, so that is another possibility.

Edited by deleted (Mon 07-Mar-11 14:43:08)

In reply to a post by kasg:

I received an email about this a couple of days ago, saying it would happen in the next 5 weeks.

I think I've received a similar email, Kevin.

Did your email say: "We have good news for you. The exchange equipment we use to provide your service has now been upgraded, and we can offer you a faster 'upto 20Mb' service. You don't need to do anything, and we'll switch you over automatically, for free. We expect this to happen within the next 5 weeks."?

Did you also get this rider: "Please note: you may receive messages advising on the progress of your order over the next 5 weeks. If you receive a message notifying you that the order has failed, don't worry - you don't need to contact us and your service will continue as normal."?

I don't know why they refer to "your order" - I haven't placed an order !! And I don't understand why they didn't just send an email advising the date of the switchover, but only if it was going to happen.

Wagstaff

While you didn't 'place an order' and only want to know switchover date if it is possible, I suspect the process being used is as if the customer asked PN to do the upgrade, PN submits the order into the BT / Openreach systsem for action by their engineers, and later get a response, either (a) confirming it went OK, or (b) saying the order failed.

PN then feeds back the result to the customer, so while it may appear a bit clunky or even, perhaps, confusing, as you are not 'placing an order' I'd say it seems quite easy enough to understand why a message may mention an "order" you didn't make, and also that it's not so simple to only tell you the switchover date without also confirming completion of the work (or how there was a problem instead).

In reply to a post by ultra:

...... so while it may appear a bit clunky or even, perhaps, confusing, as you are not 'placing an order".......

I would say that it is more than "a bit clunky" !!

Surely, the process should follow like this :-
Openreach advise all ISPs, using a particular exchange, that an upgrade has taken place. The ISPs then respond by asking Openreach whether all their particular local loops will be affected by the upgrade. If the response is negative then the ISPs need not advise their customers about the upgrade, since it has no affect whatsoever. If the response is positive then the ISPs can advise their customers accordingly.

Wagstaff

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

In reply to a post by kasg:

I received an email about this a couple of days ago, saying it would happen in the next 5 weeks.

I think I've received a similar email, Kevin.

Did your email say: "We have good news for you. The exchange equipment we use to provide your service has now been upgraded, and we can offer you a faster 'upto 20Mb' service. You don't need to do anything, and we'll switch you over automatically, for free. We expect this to happen within the next 5 weeks."?

Did you also get this rider: "Please note: you may receive messages advising on the progress of your order over the next 5 weeks. If you receive a message notifying you that the order has failed, don't worry - you don't need to contact us and your service will continue as normal."?

I don't know why they refer to "your order" - I haven't placed an order !! And I don't understand why they didn't just send an email advising the date of the switchover, but only if it was going to happen.

Wagstaff

Plusnet seem to treat lots of things as orders or requests even when they have been raised internally. Yes, I got all that and it did eventually happen, although I don't think I received any active notification, I just happened to notice it playing up one day then checked the tickets and saw that information about an activation date had been added. Anyway it settled down after an hour or so and I had clearly been upgraded as my protocol had changed to G.DMT2+ Annex A and my attenuation had gone from over 54dB to over 60db! In general it's been a slight improvement and I have been syncing at over 4 meg for most of the time (slightly more often than I did before), until a couple of days ago when it dropped to 3 Meg but I expect it will be back up again. I didn't expect much improvement on my long line and it's only a stepping stone to FTTC, which is now actually available to me (31.2Mb estimate) according to the BT Wholesale checker, but I've no idea where my cabinet is!

In reply to a post by kasg:

Plusnet seem to treat lots of things as orders or requests even when they have been raised internally. Yes, I got all that and it did eventually happen, although I don't think I received any active notification, I just happened to notice it playing up one day then checked the tickets and saw that information about an activation date had been added. Anyway it settled down after an hour or so and I had clearly been upgraded as my protocol had changed to G.DMT2+ Annex A and my attenuation had gone from over 54dB to over 60db! In general it's been a slight improvement and I have been syncing at over 4 meg for most of the time (slightly more often than I did before), until a couple of days ago when it dropped to 3 Meg but I expect it will be back up again. I didn't expect much improvement on my long line and it's only a stepping stone to FTTC, which is now actually available to me (31.2Mb estimate) according to the BT Wholesale checker, but I've no idea where my cabinet is!

Thanks for the heads-up, Kevin. I now know what to expect if the switchover takes place.

Glad to hear that, at the very least, you managed to obtain some improvement.
I'm also looking forward to FTTC - if and when it eventually happens !!

Wagstaff

Hi there,

We place batches of orders, which is why the email doesn't have an activation date.

Because of the way the ordering system works, and our notification process on the other side, it would take significant dev time to set the system to ignore order notifications just for batch orders we send, which we felt could be better spent elsewhere.

In reply to a post by mand_beckett:

Because of the way the ordering system works, and our notification process on the other side.....

Are you talking about the "spirit world" now, Mand !!!

That didn't make a lot of sense to me - but I guess it does to the OP, who's clearly not complaining about the good fortune of a faster transmission rate.

Wagstaff

Update to my original post.

After 2 weeks of the very fast speeds, things have changed.
For the last fortnight my speeds have decreased to about:
Downstream - 9500 Kbps
Upstream - 600 Kbps
(I use data from a morning thinkbroadband speed test.)

I am however still very happy.
This is still the fastest speeds I have ever had, at the lowest cost
with the most reliable connection, in the last 10 years from 4 ISPs.

Edited by deleted (Tue 12-Apr-11 10:42:49)

In reply to a post by ash76:

I am however still very happy.
This is still the fastest speeds I have ever had, at the lowest cost
with the most reliable connection, in the last 10 years from 4 ISPs.

Which of the four ISPs you've used over the past 10 years do you consider the worst ?

Wagstaff

"Which of the four ISPs you've used over the past 10 years do you consider the worst ?
- Wagstaff "

I would not put any into a "worst" category. They were all mostly good experiences for a
newcomer like me to Internet technology.

AOL was the most disappointing because I really wanted to stay with them.
I became a beta tester for them by luck, when I first used broadband about a decade ago.
They had BT set up a special connection box for me free, which I still use.
But AOL tried to force through a router upgrade, which was not designed for the router - one they had supplied me. Although I and many other users tried to tell them this they refused to listen.
When I read on their site reports of crashes caused by the upgrade, divorce followed
before it happened to me.

Only PlusNet would go into the "Best" category. But I write this after being with them for just 6 months. So it might still be the "Honeymoon" period.