resticted Ip profile

Hi guys,

For a while now i have been monitoring my connection speed from Bt broadband.

I generally get a speed of 2.3 mbps which seems to equate to an ip profile of 2500 kbps.

Recently my ip profile has been dropped back to 2000 kbps which gives me a speed of around 1800kbps.
It has often been the case that Bt have dropped back my IP profile but i don't have full figures for all the time i have been a customer.

My question is do i have any legal recourse against Bt when it seems clear from the daily testing i have done that it isn't line length(which i have suspected for years)that is the problem but simply a case of what speed BT are willing to provide me.

1, Are BT allowed to artificially restrict my speed?

2, How can i force them to give me a speed i now know my line supports?

I phoned bt tech yet again and explained that i was assured by Bt wholesale that my line supported a speed between 2.7 and 3.0 mbps.
the girl from tech support refused to turn up my ip profile insisting the my line speed was " in range"

virgin is not an option I'm sorry to say and i don't trust other isp's to be much better than BT tbh............they are all crooks if you ask me.
So i am stuck with Bt at least for now

I am an option 3 customer downloading between 25Gb to 35GB a month, which is well within their so called unlimited range afaik.So they shouldn't be restricting my bandwidth on that basis.


Thanks in advance for any help

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-May-10 15:11:14)

As a simple answer..

1) Yes, the IP profile is part of the product of up to 8Mb or up to 24Mb - which you are still getting

2) You can't. Like 1), the product is designed up to a certain speed and they can use to say the product is working as designed.

However, 2300 sync would not equal a 2500 IP profile. The profile is always lower than the sync rate.

Can you provide some stats from your router showing your current sync rate?

Matt

Thanks for the reply,

yes you are right about what rate i get from an Ip profile of 2500kbps. that normaly gives me a downstream of 2900kbps. i didn't give that figure becuase i can't prove that figure. For some reason tthe think BB speedtest gives a result of 2.3mbps when i am seeing 2.9 on an ip profile of 2500.
Atm my ip profile is at 2000 and i am seeing 2.3 but the think BB speedtest records it as 1.8.

get this from my router


Modem
ADSL Firmware Version A2pB022c.d20e
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 2784 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 448 kbps
VPI 0
VCI 38
but i am not seeing 2.7 i am seeing downstream speeds of 2.3.

thanks again

Also have these figures from my router

ystem Up Time 1402:51:00
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 25135823 41215591 0 351 505 1292:12:28
LAN 10M/100M 41068271 25331631 0 486 464 1402:50:59
WLAN 11M/54M 947578 458035 0 285 11 943:06:06

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2784 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 60.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 7.6 db 13.0 db

OK, that is the reason for the lower IP profile

2016 kbps 2240 kbps 1750 1792 Up to 1.75 Mbps
2272 kbps 2816 kbps 2000 2048 Up to 2 Mbps
2848 kbps 3392 kbps 2500 2560 Up to 2.5 Mbps

You are falling in to the 2000 profile. If your sync was slightly higher, you'd get the 2500 profile after a few days.

The BB speedtest is correct and in line with what you should expect on the line currently.

but i am not seeing 2.7 i am seeing downstream speeds of 2.3.

You won't see 2.7Mb, or 2.3Mb for that matter (I am guessing that result from a speedtest? is incorrect). The maximum throughput on the line currently would be between 1.8-2Mb.

Matt

ok thanks matt.

But the question then becomes why am i suddenly syncing slower than i was two days ago. For the last month i have been checking my speed daily. And have been seeing speed's around 2.9 to 3.2 mbps.
i would never call that a good speed but you can stream most none HD content. once you slip below 2.0mbps you have a hard time streaming anything.

i can't believe that the sector is so badly regulated that Bt are fully within their rites to set whatever line speed they wish.
At the very least they should have a duty to provide best possible speed on a line, which ofc is what they say they do.......but as my test's show it's just not true.
for years they told me my line was rated at 1.3mbps but now i get 2 or even 3mbps.
Now my line length hasn't changed so i have to conclude they just never give me the speed i am paying for.

Thanks again

Doug

You are on a long line and getting a good sync rate for that, even after the small decrease in sync.

The speed has only slightly decreased which can happen with any rate adaptive service. If the line has increased noise, you'll sync lower. It could even be that you synced at a time when there was more noise.

2.9 to 3.2Mb is impossible with the stats you have given - even if there was no profiling, you would not get these speeds. Do you have a virus checker or similar software that could be affecting the results.

Speed isn't just related to line length but line quality which can change over time but can also be affected by external sources of radio interference. This isn't always BT's fault so it isn't always fair to blame them.

Matt

Edited by uno (Wed 19-May-10 16:16:57)

Agreeing with everything Matt has said. However you might find it useful to read my pages about BT DLM, BT IP Profiles and Noise Margin.

Note that if you connect during the daytime you will get a higher connection speed than if you connect at night. From your stats it looks as though you may have conencted at a bad time. My noise margin pages explain.

Also have a read of my Troubleshooting pages. You may find soemthing to improve your end of the line a bit .

Re the impossibly high speed tests, do you have Kaspersky or Avira anti-virus? Both of those, and perhaps some others, can cause that. I recommend the thinkbroadband speed tester.

Thanks guys,
I use norton 2010 for my antivirus.

Thanks for the links i will have a read.
the speed results near or even above 3.0mbps haven't been shown from any speedtest but come from this http://www.gamershell.com/
that offers the fastest downloads of any site i know. i have friends on virgin who get the full 20000kbps on dowloads from there.
i run BT own speedtest, which is were i read my IP prifile from or i use the thinkbroadbank one.
niether of these report better than 2.3mbps from my line. But if i run thinkbroadband speedtest and it reports a speed of 2.3mbps i can then go to that site and download at 2.9, everytime never fails.
can't explain that but it's what i get.

Thanks for the replies.

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-May-10 19:34:30)

Sounds OK, except the figures that site gives are simply wrong.

The connection speed is the actual speed the line is running at between you and the exchange. The IP Profile is always less than that (except for very short spells when it is about to change down), and your maximum attainable download speed is less than the profile.