BT and speed variances

Sorry if this is old hat but:

I have had very slow speeds from BT. I complained and made a fuss and low and behold my speed went from roughly 2mb to near 8mb. Everything was fine but now, slowly but surely, the speed is creeping down again and it is now 5.5mb.

Why oh why does BT inisit on this and give the excuse that my exchange is sooooooo popular that we have to share. It isnt my fault that BT have oversold their connections but it is me that has to suffer.

If I went to a Rolls Royce show room and ordered a car and when it arrived found that it was a model of what I thought I was getting because the car was so popular, would that be OK?

EDIT-I have just checked and my speed is now 4.7mb - what is going on with BT? does anyone care about it?

Edited by deleted (Tue 18-Jan-11 08:05:48)

you effectively bought a timeshare in a rolls royce - a contended best efforts service with no performance guarantee. Hence the price.

speedtester.bt.com will show if you have a problem with an IP profile or whatever, but 2 and certainly 4M are within the predefined acceptable performance ranges.

Other ISPs are available, as the BBC would say.

It could be temporary congestion at the exchange - this usually gets fixed after a while. It could be just normal BT over-selling, in which case you are another victim of their very effective advertising. Or it could be you do have a line problem either at your place or between there and the exchange.

What exchange is it? The link to what samknows would be great. That tells us a lot about what else you could get and also lets us check for some sorts of temporary congestion.

Does the slowdown happen at particular times of day? The results of a BT Performance Test would be useful, down as far as the end of the upstream speed. The text below that is useless.

And finally, if you can find your connection speeds, attenuations and noise margins from your Home Hub or other router that really helps.

Thanks for the input guys but I dont think I made my point very well. I was trying to say that I had a similar problem, shouted and screamed, got the engineer in after I was told it was a fault at my end (which he proved wasnt the case) and eventually they changed my profile and I was getting near 8mb. NOW, after a cooling down period my speeds are slipping again. So do I have to go through the same rigmarole to go back to the speed that I was experiencing?

All I want is consistency of supply, not a megaspeed demon, they are quick enough to take money so why show you what is possible and then reduce performance without any notification or apology?

Do BT not know when demand will outstrip supply - that cant be right surely as that would mean bad management and lack of forethought and no leadership!

Sorry, without the info I asked for nobody will be able to suggest a solution. As I said, it could even be temporary congestion at your exchange, in which case the scheduled fix date may be available.

But I assure you there is a solution, though if you are still within a 12/18 month contract period with BT then it would cost you to avail yourself of it.

You should be so lucky. 5mb and you're complaining! Living 6km from the exchange BT told me that the best I might expect would be 1mb and for 6 years, with the odd blip which they corrected when told about it, it has remained at about 750kbps to 920kbps. Nothing great but at least much better than dial-up.
Then before Christmas it dropped to about 230kbps, then 125kbps where it has remained constantly. On the 4th Jan BT said it would get better in 10 days time but nothing has happened. Like you I object to paying the full amount for a product which falls well below the standard that you were offered and nobody even takes the trouble to explain what is wrong and why it cannot be put right. The final straw is that the BT speed tester will not work. After taking an age to download, the page it tells me that the number is not recognised!!!
How can I get through to someone at BT who understands the local problem and can tell me what is happening. The call centre people on 0800 111 4567 are ever so polite and seemingly helpful but they are ineffective.

An ISP would not sell you 8mbps of transit for a retail price, if you want that kind of dedicated bandwidth it would cost 1000s, and the exchanges don't even have 1% backhaul to give everyone the FULL speed that they're advertising.

FYI: Maximum speeds with BRAS (your IP profile) is 7.1mbps, unless your on the exchange door step your not gonna get much more than 6.5mbps, maybe 7mbps, so 5.5mbps is pretty reasonable allowing for speedtesting inaccuracies as flash based tests sites aren't always accurate.

My thoughts exactly, so annoyed with these "gimmie my full 8megs i pay for" village idots.

I thought these forums were meant to be helpful. What is the point of coming on and talking about 'backhaul' and 'BRAS' and calling people 'village idiots'?
The original post and mine were just queries from a couple of newcomers who feel that they have been poorly served by BT and have received no explanation or apology from them.

All I want to know is how do you get through to someone at BT who can tell me in plain English what has gone wrong with my Broadband service and when it is going to be improved.

In reply to a post by eamason:

I thought these forums were meant to be helpful. What is the point of coming on and talking about 'backhaul' and 'BRAS' and calling people 'village idiots'?

He does get a bit like that sometimes. Fortunately most of us are a bit more helpful.

On the other hand, your first words ever on these forums were "You should be so lucky. 5mb and you're complaining!" I think the OP may have not thought that particularly amusing. OK the rest of your post was a reasonable moan in sympathy, but in a way didn't seem to need a response.

The original post and mine were just queries from a couple of newcomers who feel that they have been poorly served by BT and have received no explanation or apology from them.

Which is why you will almost never find BT recommended as an ISP on these forums. You are far from the only two.

All I want to know is how do you get through to someone at BT who can tell me in plain English what has gone wrong with my Broadband service and when it is going to be improved.

Short answer - never! Longer answer, with luck a BT_Care rep will pick up your posts and try to help. The people using that nick are good.

It's possible we may be able to help you in the forums as well, but it would be better to raise your problems in a thread of your own, and I suggest in the General Broadband Chatter forum as you will have a wider range of helpers there. It would be helpful if you do, to include the results of a BT Performance test, (down to and including the upstream speeds, not all the text following it), and the line stats from your Home Hub or other router.

if you want actual help with your connection I recommend starting a thread of your own and providing the sort of information you will be able to see asked for all over the forums here.

Armed with that people can make helpful suggestions.

The BT speedtester is a key tool, persistence may be required.

In reply to a post by eamason:

All I want to know is how do you get through to someone at BT who can tell me in plain English what has gone wrong with my Broadband service and when it is going to be improved.

Here: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/346,401,1847

Thank you very much to the three people who have replied positively to my query. However the sheer impossibility of getting a response from the BT Speedtester, which flatly refuses to recognise my telephone number, makes it difficult to provide the information which two of you say will be needed.

However, I have responded to the email address supplied by XRaySpex and will await the outcome.

Ummm .

This unrecognisable phone number smells.

Please load this speed tester. Before you run it, (I don't like it anyway as it gives ludicrous results with various Internet Security suites, like I can show over 35Mbps on a 6.5Mbps connection), note the ISP name at the bottom left.

What is it?

as a start you could look up on the Homehub interface on 192.168.1.254 (or your router IP if different) the current upstream and downstream speeds and the downstream attenuation and noise margin. The latter will be buried in the depths and require the password but the former is on the first screen I think.Agreements, decisions and concerted practices between undertakings which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition are prohibited by art. 81 (1) of the Treaty of Rome

I loaded the speedtester you recommended and it gave my ISP as BT, 'British Telecommunications' to be precise. Tested the speed and it gave 0.28 down and 0.38 up. Faster than previously tested so tried the 'thinkbroadband' test again and it gave 233kbps. Mind you it did this for three days between the 22nd Dec and the 26th and the 5th Jan and 8th Jan. In between it drops back to between 126 and 128kbps. All that can be said for it is that it is amazingly steady at these two speeds - never varies whatever the time of the day.

BT speedtester tried again this morning but still refusing to recognise my phone number.

I'm not sure where all this gets me though!

I have tried to get into my Home hub and used every password I know but cannot unlock it. I cannot also see anything of much use on the first screen ie: upstream and downstream speeds.

Will keep trying!

In reply to a post by eamason:

I loaded the speedtester you recommended and it gave my ISP as BT, 'British Telecommunications' to be precise.
...
BT speedtester tried again this morning but still refusing to recognise my phone number.

I'm not sure where all this gets me though!

I was just slightly worried that you may have been "slammed" by another provider who had taken the line off BT as well. If that had happened, which it hasn't, you might not have found out until the bills started coming in.

Emailed the address you gave me and this is the reply:
Dear Mr. Mason,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 18th January '11. It has been logged under the reference number VOL011-44592627898.

I understand from your e-mail, you are experiencing slow broadband speed and you would like to speak to someone who knows the details of the local exchange as the telephone number is not being accepted by the bt speedtester site. I fully understand your concern and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience as the broadband has become slow.

I have called you on the telephone number you have provided but was unable to contact you, so I am sending you an e-mail responce.

I have looked into the records of your broadband connection and have found that you have already contact the BT Broadband Technical Helpdesk yesterday and a re-profiling has been triggered on your broadband connection. The re-profiling will be on for the next 10 days just like the stabilisation period when your broadband connection was provided for the very first time.

I would also like to menton that your telephone connection is capable of sustaining 1Megs speed and once the re-profiling is over, the IP Profile will be set on a higher speed if the connection allows it. I request you to keep the Home Hub switched on continuously for the next 10 days and try to use the internet as much as possible which will help the server to set your IP profile on a higher speed.

There must be something wrong if they cannot even get me on my own phone! Everyone else can.

I was also told weeks ago that it would be 10 days before the speed got better but nothing happened. How many more blocks of 10 days must go by before someone does something to improve matters? And what is so magical about 10 days and what is re-profiling anyway? I never had to wait so long before, speed got up to almost the maximum within about 36 hours.

The whole thing is just one big put-off and I still cannot get to speak to anyone who knows the real facts. How do they get away with it?

The bit about the line training and profile is utter rot.

See this page, and also the IP Profile page.

Neither does the amount you use the internet have any bearing whatsoever on it.

How do they get away with it?

Legacy consumer trust from the days before broadband existed; a field engineering force most of whom have integrity, technical know-how and aim for customer satisfaction despite their bosses; a huge and good marketing department and budget; and a gullible public.

Just an utterly off-the-wall thought. Have you tried dialling your number yourself from elsewhere or a mobile? Don't use a phone number list, just the keypad from memory.

Try with and without the area code.

reset it to factory settings ? which hub version is it ?

The voices in my head tell me that the upstream/downstream speed appears top left on a page that you get to without the password, but they may be playing tricks with me.

Have tried that and it does connect with my mobile. I don't know whether the BT person meant that they could not connect or just that the line was engaged. I suspect the former.

However, the BT speed tester still cannot identify the line. How they they expect to repair/profile or do anything to the line if they have not got a record of it beats me!

They still seem quite happy to quote the line number on their bills!

It's BT Home Hub version 2 but I still cannot see anything about speeds on the open access pages.

I will do the reset and enter a new password when I have a little more time to spare as I am a little wary of returning to factory settings etc. Last time I did that was on my iPhone and it all restarted in Polish and I couldn't understand the menus to get it back to English! Had to take it back to the shop.

In reply to a post by eamason:

I will do the reset and enter a new password when I have a little more time to spare as I am a little wary of returning to factory settings etc. Last time I did that was on my iPhone and it all restarted in Polish and I couldn't understand the menus to get it back to English! Had to take it back to the shop.

Hilarious!

In reply to a post by krazykizza:

My thoughts exactly, so annoyed with these "gimmie my full 8megs i pay for" village idots.

I are must so be an villiage idiot - I knows when teknolgee is beat me.

Excuse me pal - I didnt ask to be abused by "the font of all knowledge". All I said was that I have had slow speeds, I complained most bitterly after being told that it was my equipment that was at fault, proved that it was not the case, got my profile reset to allow me a higher speed and now it seems to be slipping back to as it was before I complained.

There really is no need to slag anyone off because they have raised a point of view that you might not agree with.

If you had been careful enough to read the whole of my post I state that it is not a case of "full 8 meg" but "consistency" that I ask for!

Could you politely and calmly answer that please?

so if you have a home hub 2.0 there is a silver sticfker on the back giving you the ssid key the wirless key and the defualt admin user name.

step one open up a browser and in the bar that has the http:/ not the search engine bar type 192.168.1.254 it will ask you to enter the admin password if you have never changed it it will be the default one (it also asks you to change it hear as well so do so)

step 2 click on settings new page loads

step 3 click on advanced settings you will now be given a warning page click continue to advance settings

step 4 click on broadband new page appears then click on adsl new page appears copy an d paste results in woul dlook something like these

ADSL line status
Connection information
Line state Connected
Connection time 5 days, 20:03:15
Downstream 3,040 Kbps
Upstream 832 Kbps


ADSL settings
VPI/VCI 0/38
Type PPPoA
Modulation ITU-T G.992.1
Latency type Fast
Noise margin (Down/Up) 11.6 dB / 7.0 dB
Line attenuation (Down/Up) 52.0 dB / 28.0 dB
Output power (Down/Up) 18.9 dBm / 12.5 dBm

'unless your on the exchange door step your not gonna get much more than '

Not so, I am 1.6k from the exchange, and held 8128Kbps sync/7150 profile for many years. 8128 is possible up to 45db attenuation.

I think 8128 is only possible up to about 29dB attenuation (2.1 km).

Not arguing, but I have seen it at 45db.

I would agree it is possible. I have had sync speeds of just over 7600 with 47.6 dB of attenuation.