Is my router lying to me?

I have been having trouble with my ISP (Virgin ADSL) for some time, slow connection, no connection etc. They always say that it is my hardware that is at fault. So I recently obtained a Netgear DG834GT router to replace my Linksys WAG54G Gateway.
I was well pleased when I got it working and the router statistics showed that I was getting 7456 kbps downstream. But when I did the speedtest to compare, it was 828 kbps. Am I missing something?
I have the router stats window open as I write and it is updating every 10 secs still showing 7456 kbps down, 576 kbps up. But the speed test says different.
Can you explain?

Virgin ADSL contention. Too many people going down to few tubes.

Please can you paste the results from a BT speed test, as far down as the end of the upstream figures.

I'm guessing with the 576 upstream, it might be a LLU service.

Matt

My last day on Virgin ADSL, 113 Kbps down / 304 Kbps up: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html...

The next day with NewNet ADSL, 6582 Kbps down / 372 Kbps up: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtestcomplete.html...

No!

The Sync Speed shown by the router is the actual bandwidth you are provided with down the line. Speedtests can only measure your throughput of actual data as it occurs; this excludes all the overheads that Internet Protocol needs to add to the data for routing and packaging purposes. Usually throughput is about 83-4% of Sync Speed; so you should be getting about 6200 Kbps.

Significantly lower speeds could be caused by your ISP throttling you or congestion at the exchange or elsewhere. Have you tried various speedtests?

I thought that strange as well, but since when have Virgin ADSL supplied LLU connections?

Or it's kiloBytes per second.

For quite a while...

Matt

Ummm. Reselling who?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Or it's kiloBytes per second.

True, but usually speedtests don't; it's data downloads that do.

It originally started as the NTL ADSL offering, they now use C&W.

Tesco sit their ADSL on the (VM) NTL platform, on C&W as the IPs confirm.

Matt

I tried The BT speedtest and it doesnt like my phone number. It needs a "service ID"
Is that displayed by the router or do I have to ask Virgin for it?

Here is my thinkbroadband result:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results/id/1...

andhere is the routers status report:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7456 kbps 576 kbps
Line Attenuation 30.0 db 18.0 db
Noise Margin 9.3 db 18.0 db

any use?

You sound like you know what you are talking about XRAYSPEX.
I used to get 5 or 6 Meg until Virgin did something at the exchange, something to do with cable and wireless. Now I never get more than 1meg. and the connection can be completely lost in the evening, round about 8 o'clock it just goes dead.
I will try some other tests as you suggest. If I can find my Service ID I'll do that BT test that Roberto suggested.

Thanks! I'm not the only one; all the contributors here are authorities

In reply to a post by monkey_shoulder:

I tried The BT speedtest and it doesn't like my phone number. It needs a "service ID"

Did it just head this by "Test Error"? That means you are not on a BT system but on LLU. You have no "service ID"!

EDIT: Ah! It sounds like when you got those higher speeds you were on BT IPStream, then the "something at exchange" was to switch you to C&W LLU, as uno suggested. This must be very congested. Do you have lots of big Tescos in your area?

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 30-May-11 19:47:41)

Yep. I called Virgin and they told me my service I.D. was "LLU ### ###" ( I'll not post the number.) This is not a Valid Service I.D according to BT.

Izzit coz I am on C&W?

I live in Cowley, Oxford. There is a Tesco and a Sainsbury nearby. Why is that important?

Yes - the BT Speedtester does not work with LLU and C&W is LLU

It was a joke based on uno saying Tesco mount their BB on the C&W LLU platform.

You have a number of LLU providers there, quite a few of which would be better than Virgin ADSL2+ LLU

BE or Sky would be good alternatives

Do you know if you are within contract?

In reply to a post by nredwood:

You have a number of LLU providers there, quite a few of which would be better than Virgin ADSL2+ LLU

BE or Sky would be good alternatives

Do you know if you are within contract?

Or even uno! I would be pretty sure they would provide a far better service than VM.

Indeed