Broardband speeds from the old to the new?

Hi. All

A question if I may please.
And that is Im quite a way from the exchange and also from the cabinet. Which makes my speed for the normal dsl that I am on around the 280-320 range? Which is the fastest I have ever got. (Tell a lie I had a period for a few weeks where I got in the 500-540 range but never found out why or how Must have been a fluke or what?. LOL)

I just wondered if there is anyone else who used to get the same sort of speeds as I did But have have migrated over to FTTC If so and like i said used to get the sorts of speeds as me what sort of speeds are you getting now please? I ask because im a little fed up of watching paint dry LOL No im fed up of the endless "Buffering" I keep getting now I am trying to watch over the internet. Even the wife who is completely technophobic gets her hair off when the daughter try's to put a episode of either doctors or Eastenders on BBC iplayer only for it to jump jerk and be quite pixelated to say the least.

Many thanks Andy

If your cab is enabled putting your phone number in to http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome will tell you what you can expect.

As jelv says, you need to use the phone number option of the BT availability checker for a fairly accurate prediction. If the phone number option doesn't work, use the address option. The postcode option is unreliable for FTTC predictions.

Your ADSL speed depends on the distance from the exchange, whilst your FTTC speed depends on your distance from the cabinet. There is not necessarily any correlation between the two.

It's hard to say whether FTTC will be worthwhile in your case. You certainly have slow ADSL, but FTTC falls off faster than ADSL with distance. If you are also a long way from the cabinet, FTTC might be worse than the ADSL you already have.

Well this is the chart I got back when I put in the phone Number which looks great dont it.
I just wish I could get a discount for all the years Iv been with them Now its over 13 years from the times of the 2400the 14400 and finally a 28800 analogue modems And all US Robotics. (wonder they went or did they get bought out.. cos they did make some good modems and comms gear)But so slooooow back thenLOL

Anyway here is the chart.
Errr how do i add a photo?

But in essence it says I can get ADSL-2 at upto 3.5Mbs within a range of 2.5 - 4.5? And Fibre is available at up to 51.7MBs which is good?

regs Andy

You have to put graphics somewhere on the web, then post the link. These days, I copy graphics to a 'thinkbroadband' folder inside my Dropbox Public folder, right click the file and choose 'Copy public link'.

51Mbit/s indicates you will get a substantial speed up from FTTC. What upstream speed is predicted?

that would be a massive jump in your case in simple terms you will see next to 0 buffering and would even download an episode of eastenders through iplayer in minutes.

In reply to a post by andyswain:

But in essence it says I can get ADSL-2 at upto 3.5Mbs within a range of 2.5 - 4.5? And Fibre is available at up to 51.7MBs which is good?

Sounds like you're not as far away from the cabinet as you thought you were. Strange that you get so much less than your estimated speed for ADSL though, if there is a serious issue between you and the cabinet that could affect your FTTC speeds.

Unless he means kBps, not kbps. He doesn't state either.

Also 51.7MBps is extremely good .

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 27-Sep-13 16:01:36)

In reply to a post by David_W:

You have to put graphics somewhere on the web, then post the link. These days, I copy graphics to a 'thinkbroadband' folder inside my Dropbox Public folder, right click the file and choose 'Copy public link'.

51Mbit/s indicates you will get a substantial speed up from FTTC. What upstream speed is predicted?

Iv just read again and it says Downloads Up to 51.7Mbs and upstream Upto 13.2Mbs Which would be great should I actually attain that speed. I wonder if there is any comback Say should I not get near these speeds?

I had seriously thought about going to Virgin net Simply because there is a connection point for next door right at the top of my garden on the pavement. But our house although it is No1 is missing from a lot of postal serches and other databases. One such is the one Virgin uses to see if we can get broadband LOL
And Iv even told them where there is a access point and that No3 who is the other semidetached house built on to me. Has got Virgin BB and so has No2 over the road. Then the house next to me on the other side also has access point at the top of the garden . So we are surrounded by 3 Virgin net (NTL as it used to be) and they tell us we cannot get it . What a farce. But even then I was going to think about going with Force9 Well Plus net as its now known.
That saib when I asked what they could do for me being such a loyal customer and being with them for over 13 plus years . What I got back was "well

In reply to a post by andyswain:

Iv just read again and it says Downloads Up to 51.7Mbs and upstream Upto 13.2Mbs Which would be great should I actually attain that speed. I wonder if there is any comback Say should I not get near these speeds?

Those speeds are only an estimate, and do not bind BT in any way to provide them. That said, they're normally a fairly good estimate and are often a bit pessimistic.

Part of the reason for the pessimism is that they allow for speeds dropping somewhat over time. FTTC speeds can be rather sensitive to the additional crosstalk as additional lines in same cable bundle as yours switch to FTTC. One additional line in unfavourable geometry to yours can, in some cases, knock several Mbit/s off your speed. BT Openreach are looking at deploying vectoring to mitigate against this kind of reduction, but there are only a couple of small trials at present.


If you're so far short of the predicted speed as to make FTTC worthless, you should be able to negotiate an exit from the FTTC contract without penalty and a return to the ADSL you have now. You should discuss this with PlusNet (or whichever FTTC ISP you select) before signing up if you want to explore your right to cancel.


With that estimate, it's a case of deciding whether to go for 40/10 or 80/20, as the additional speed of 80/20 may be relatively small. Most FTTC ISPs charge more for 80/20 because they pay more for the wholesale FTTC circuit. You have a fairly good chance of full speed if you opt for 40/10, but there's no guarantee.

With PlusNet, the choice is between 40/10 with a 40GB/month usage cap, or unlimited 80/20 for an extra £4/month. I'd say it was worth the extra £4/month for not having to worry about usage (you may surprise yourself how much you use with a faster connection) and the likelihood of getting a connection as fast as the line allows. If your phone service is with PlusNet, there's currently a £7/month discount on the unlimited offering for the first 9 months of your 18 month commitment, making the total extra cost of unlimited over the entire 18 months just £9!


I think you either quoted your speed in your first post as Kbytes/s, or you left a zero off. If you currently have the predicted 3.5Mbit/s ADSL, that likely has a upstream speed of no more than 0.5Mbit/s. Even an incredibly pessimistic 35/8 FTTC speed is ten times the downstream speed and sixteen times the upstream speed of what you likely have now.

In your position, I'd be signing up for FTTC immediately.

For the avoidance of confusion, can you confirm what you mean by "280-320" and "500-540" in your first post, as a couple of us have asked.

I think we need the actual words "bits" or "bytes" as well, as the OP is using both Mb and MB in the same post.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I think we need the actual words "bits" or "bytes" as well, as the OP is using both Mb and MB in the same post.

I agree - it would be good to be certain we're giving the correct advice. I think my earlier conclusions are likely to be correct, as I based them on the ADSL and FTTC speed predictions, but it would be good to understand the figures in the initial post. A speed test result may also be illustrative.

Hi All

I apologise for mixing the integers I was reading from my program that tracks my downloads hence the mixing.

That said I get speeds of 2.8 - 3.2Mbs When im downloading either a torrent or via the FTP. But like I said I did have a short period where where it did get up to over 5Mbs and am still unsure as to why But all water under the bridge.

In reply to a post by David_W:

With PlusNet, the choice is between 40/10 with a 40GB/month usage cap, or unlimited 80/20 for an extra £4/month. I'd say it was worth the extra £4/month for not having to worry about usage (you may surprise yourself how much you use with a faster connection) and the likelihood of getting a connection as fast as the line allows. If your phone service is with PlusNet, there's currently a £7/month discount on the unlimited offering for the first 9 months of your 18 month commitment, making the total extra cost of unlimited over the entire 18 months just £9!

Right
And after reading my second post in this thread I saw there was a bit missing from the end Where it started "Well. This is what it should have said,

""lWell the best offer I can give you at this time would be £7.00 discount for 6 months on an 18 month contract, this is the deal we are currently providing to our new customers at this time.
Fibre optic requires the installation of an openreach modem at the premises and a FTTC enabled router which we can provide for £5.99 postage and packaging or you can use your own router. It would need to be a cable / FTTC compatible router."""

This was in a reply to a recent conversation I had with customer support.
Now Its probably me and the old old philosophy of Loyal customers. which I now understand in this day and age seams to have no meaning In that you would think that anyone being with a company for say a few year let alone over 13years deserves something more than a "New Customer" Or am I wrong in thinking that?
Not only that but It also looks like I was offered less than a new customer if the offer of £7 for 9 months you quoted where correct. As I was told only 6months?

Im sort of like in between a rock and hard place as the saying goes. I would like to stay put as I have had great service in all the time iv been here from both support and over all service. But with out knowing an actual speed I could get?
Then there is Virgin who will fit me cable Now a engineer has been and actually seen for himself where I am and that I can get it without no extra excavations. Which is cheaper and at a speed they say ??. But I know nothing about them or what their service and support is like?

I understand your reasoning. In that the speed advantage would be such a huge leap forward.and at not extra cost. As at the moment I pay just £5 for unlimited.and I possibly do something in the range of 130 to 160 Gbs a month And as far as I can see I would not do any more. But having said that and the tech of internet TV I suppose it could rise. I have two Roku boxes one in the bedroom and one in the living room and was bought primarily to add plex and to be able to watch my own media from my NAS But as my speeds are so slow its been waste to try out any of the other features of the Roku boxes. But with fibre I might be able to.. Also with fiber rather than downloading the media from my seedbox to watch over the Rokus I could possibly stream them instead. I know it makes sense to move but which way to go is the question.

Anyway many thanks for your help and insights Regards Andy

In reply to a post by andyswain:

As at the moment I pay just £5 for unlimited.and I possibly do something in the range of 130 to 160 Gbs a month And as far as I can see I would not do any more.

Oh you will, you will, don't worry. I went from 3Mbps to nearly 70Mbps and my usage went up by a massive amount, although I wasn't using anywhere near 130-160GB (note the capital B!) per month before. Now that we know that you are getting roughly the speed you should be on ADSL, I don't think there is much doubt that your fibre speed would be near your estimate; as has been said, the estimates are pretty good and generally conservative. You are in the same position as everyone else in not knowing the actual speed you will get until after installation.

Edit: BTW I think that's a pretty good offer you have got. These days existing customers never get quite as good a deal as new customers, that is true in just about every service industry, Plusnet is unlikely to be any different.

Edited by kasg (Sat 28-Sep-13 17:56:37)

In reply to a post by andyswain:

Im sort of like in between a rock and hard place as the saying goes. I would like to stay put as I have had great service in all the time iv been here from both support and over all service. But with out knowing an actual speed I could get?
Then there is Virgin who will fit me cable Now a engineer has been and actually seen for himself where I am and that I can get it without no extra excavations. Which is cheaper and at a speed they say ??. But I know nothing about them or what their service and support is like?

Whilst it's disappointing that you don't get quite the same deal as a new customer, PlusNet are still offering you a discount. Overall, you would land up paying £21 more than a new customer over 18 months, which isn't much. You seem happy with PlusNet overall - it's good to have an ISP you feel will be able to support you if you need the support department for anything.

Whilst there's no speed guarantee, I think there's consensus that you will likely see at least a ten-fold increase in your upstream and downstream speeds by moving to FTTC, which will make a significant difference. If you get even half the predicted speed (and you will likely get much better) your connection will go from marginal for multi-tasking and unable to stream HD video reliably to being well-suited to multi-tasking and able to stream all media formats. High quality video chats on Skype will not be a problem, either.


Virgin Media's cable modem service has very high headline downstream speeds for the money, but is typically run very close to saturation to keep costs down. In some areas, Virgin have sold far more bandwidth than the system can really support, and they are not always the fastest to upgrade the network to cope with the demands placed on it.

The big problem with cable modems is architectural. You share a very fast connection between a sizeable number of other users. The speed you subscribe to determines the speed caps programmed into your cable modem. The performance of your connection therefore depends on the behaviour of those you share the channels with.

I had a cable modem way back in the ntl: days, when it was the only broadband service available in my area. I was glad to cease my cable modem service and move to ADSL when that became available. I've remained a Virgin Media customer - there's a TiVo on the desk next to the computer I'm writing this on, but I would rather pay more for a quality Internet experience.


The only reason I'd subscribe to Virgin Media's cable modem service is if I decided I could justify the expense of a backup wired Internet connection. I could put a cheap ADSL service on my second phone line, but there's still many common points of potential failure with my (incredibly reliable) Zen FTTC service. There would be essentially no common points of potential failure between Zen FTTC and a Virgin cable modem, other than within my property.

As it is, I can't justify the extra £14.50/month for a 30Mbit/s cable modem on top of my already huge Virgin Media bill. I've got an O2 mobile broadband contract and a Vodafone contract smartphone that I can tether, so that gives me two backup options for the very rare Zen outages.


There are, of course, many people who are delighted with their Virgin Media broadband service - but I would take a look in the Virgin Media forum here if you are serious about giving them a go.

In your position, I'd take the unlimited FTTC offer from PlusNet - but it is your decision.

Hi

Thanks for all the info and your suggestions .
And like has been said Iv been here that long im nearly part of the family and know and like what I get So under the circumstances is it better the devil (or force9/PlusNet in this case) you one you dont or have never had know rather than the dealings with.
So its make my mind up time.
You know In my last message where the person from customer support said "thats the same deal we offer new customers "Do you think it would be worth writing back and asking if he made a mistake as new customers get 9 months at £7 off or would it be to cheeky?

regs Andy

In reply to a post by andyswain:

You know In my last message where the person from customer support said "thats the same deal we offer new customers "Do you think it would be worth writing back and asking if he made a mistake as new customers get 9 months at £7 off or would it be to cheeky?

There's no harm in asking.

Well Iv asked and Im quite happy as they have said its yes... To the Unlimited Fibre and at the new user price.
But now iv done a little digging and it looks as though the router they supply igs not that great?

Also Iv just found out my mate over the road has had Fibre installed and is using thir (BT) equipment which is supposedly OK but when I logged on today I did the speed test and got 23.5Mbs downstream and (wait for it) 1.7Mbs upstream?
Admittedly I logged on via my laptop which was from over the road Could this have been the reason for such slow speeds?

You see now iv tried his im a little worried I might end up with getting these speeds yes the Dl is not bad but the Ul is [censored] I really need better than the 1.7Mbs

Osh

You can't measure true throughput over wireless, esp. at a distance.

In reply to a post by andyswain:

But now iv done a little digging and it looks as though the router they supply is not that great?

Many would say it's not that great, especially the wireless, but it does no harm to take it and, if you don't like it, get something better.

In reply to a post by andyswain:

Admittedly I logged on via my laptop which was from over the road Could this have been the reason for such slow speeds?

Absolutely, 100%, yes, totally meaningless! If you know him well enough to get his wireless password you should know him well enough to be able to do a proper wired speed test. Even then, you should not rely on a neighbour's speeds as an accurate indication of what you will get.

In reply to a post by kasg:

Absolutely, 100%, yes, totally meaningless! If you know him well enough to get his wireless password you should know him well enough to be able to do a proper wired speed test. Even then, you should not rely on a neighbour's speeds as an accurate indication of what you will get.

Yes I will take a lead over and ask him to plug it in and do the test as he has only got two laptops and both are used over wireless So will ask him if we can do the test again and see what we get.

Very useful link, thanks.

For my line, estimate for fibre is 33.5 / 5.9
For chip shop, in road behind house, estimate is 76.7 / 20

They've just added a new fibre cabinet about 15m from the back of the house, which serves the main road (back of my house looks out onto it). Just wondering how I can get a new line from that cabinet, rather than the one which serves me at present, several hundred metres away, past 3 blocks of flats, etc...

Maybe I will need to install 2 new lines, one to make use of any remaining pairs from the distant cabinet, to the front bedroom, and then another to connect the back bedroom to the nearby cabinet!

BT wont usually connect to a different cabinet, there are many many posts on here asking for the same thing!

maybe if you went to them direct and offered to pay the costs which will be high then you might get some luck.

although i wouldn't hold my breath

Can but ask, when the first "extra" line gets installed...