Appallingly low speeds

Hello,

I am getting appallingly low speeds on my BT broadband connection. In the day it sometimes gets up to about 2m/b, but in the evenings it is never more than 500kb. I checked on the Speedtest on this site just now and got a result of:

Speed Down 77.71 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )
Speed Up 78.36 Kbps ( 0.1 Mbps )

Which is completely unusable. What can I do to improve things? I live in Canary Wharf, so I would have thought that the speeds would be okay but this is way worse than when I was miles and miles out in the sticks.

Please post detailed instructions if you want me to run some test or something as am not very good with this sort of thing

Cheers,
Mark W.

The Performance Tester is now testing Broadband connection. Your configured download throughput speed for this service is 6000 k

Download speedachieved during the test was - 4677 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7328 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6000 Kbps

This is what the BT Speedtest says, but I can't get speeds anywhere near that for any website or download at all?

Date 24/03/10 19:15:23
Speed Down 30.29 Kbps ( 0 Mbps )
Speed Up 30.72 Kbps ( 0 Mbps )

Hi MWraith,

Can you run a test from www.speedtester.bt.com when the speed is slow in the evening time, and post the full results here?

Thanks,

Stephanie
BT Support

Hello,

Here are my speedtester results tonight:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 473 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7328 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6000 Kbps


This test was not conclusive and further testing is required.This might be useful for your ISP to investigate the fault.

If you wish to carry out further tests,please click on 'Continue' button.If not, please close the window using 'Exit' button and contact your ISP for further assistance with these results.

Mine is the same on Virgin,as soon as it hits peak time the speed drops.

Del.

It is called contention, and sets the better ISPs apart from what the massed market ones usually do

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

It is called contention, and sets the better ISPs apart from what the massed market ones usually do

Does that vary in different parts of the country ?

Yes, and from day to day, Contention by its nature is influenced by what the population are doing

Will the contention on the same stretch of line be the same no matter what ISP you use,or is it down to each ISP ?

djh22