test speeds and isp address

Hi, a few weeks ago Orange emailed that they were making some changes at my telephone exchange to improve my line to give me better speeds. All this should have been completed by now but I suspect that my speed is worse now than it was before becuase when I Skype I get message that my speed is not fast enough to support video so now I can see whoever I am Skype-ing but they can't see me.
For this reason I have just started using the speed test facility and on cheking this morning I find that on 6 May it started out as down 2636, up

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-May-11 14:18:14)

I expect you were on Orange LLU before, and that is being phased out, with customers being moved to BT Wholesale connections (non-LLU).

That almost certainly accounts for the drop in speed.

Re IP addresses, they can be either Static or Dynamic. If you are allocated a static address then it always stays the same. You would probably have been told it before you were connected, as you usually have to set it up in your router. This isn't always the case though.

If you are allocated a dynamic address one is given to you each time you connect the router. This is often different from the previous time, though with a few ISPs it is what we call "sticky" - in that it usually sticks to your line.

ISPs buy blocks of IP addresses from the relevant authorities. Static IP addresses mean the ISP has to have one for every customer all the time, dynamic means they only need enough plus some spare to provide for the maximum number they ever have connecting simultaneously.

It looks like yours is dynamic.

As an aside, I suggest you edit out the actual IP addresses. Hacker search engines crawl through this sort of place looking for them as potential targets.