Contention issue?

I may be barking up the wrong tree here...but...

I have a stable and reliable 2mb connection (with a stable SNR at 9db) I could get a little faster but it works well as it is.

I can get reliable downloads most of the day around 200bps...but in the evenings the rate will drop down to about 50bps or so (this is verified using speed checkers). Now that is a drop of around 75%. OK I know the UK net is busy at these times.

However would someone close to the exchange getting say 7mb get the same percentage drop in their speed?

It seems not from conversations with work colleagues. they DO have a slower speed in the evenings but not quite so marked. They didnt even notice until I asked them to check with a speedcheck (ie they are twice as fast on their slow as i am on fast)

S

Could be your ISP throttling your connection at peak periods.

In reply to:

---

Could be your ISP throttling your connection at peak periods

---

Maybe.

How would they 'throttle' the connection? by bits or by percentage

they are 'taking away' 150bps from me whereas 150bps on a 'fast' connection would hardly be noticable.

I am with BT and they wont let me have BTVision as I am not over 4mb connection....maybe they are 'looking after' their BTVision customers?

A comparison of BT with good ISPs who do not throttle or traffic shape.

BT Vision has an assured rate channel that reserves part of the bandwidth, may be why the restrict to certain line speeds to ensure there's enough left over.

If the congestion were in the BT Wholesale system, for example at the exchange, then a MaxDSL line is supposed to behave the same as a 2M fixed speed line under the same conditions, in other words your "faster than 2M" mates should slow down rapidly to the same speed as you.

If it's in BT Retail the ISP that the congestion occurs the rules may be different, as there is a more complex bandwidth management system at work.

If with BT then a lot depends on the method used for downloading stuff