Looking for advice on changing provider

Hello there

I'm after some advice. I live in cambridge and have been with Eclipse Internet for nearly 6 years now. Don't get me wrong, they've been great but my connection speed is a little rubbish - I've mostly lived with 2.7mb down and around 0.07 up (latest speedtest.net). I get 50gb / cap except for between 11pm and 8am when I can download anything at all.

Cambridge is pretty much last on the list for any new tech regarding provider and my only other real option is Virgin (already have Virgin TV).

My connection is mostly general use, some work from home and a fair bit of MMO' gaming. I do tend to d/l a lot overnight.

I was hoping someone could give me some thoughts on my options, such as they are. I've not really looked into different broadband all these years.

many thanks

Neph

0.07 up sounds wrong, unless you were uploading something at the time.

What are the routers from the actual ADSL router? Which telephone exchange are you connected to?

If you already have virgin cable TV, then the cable broadband is a fairly attractive price, particularly if happy to download over night

I'd probably move to Virgin Cable BB if it's the speed your after and you're an existing customer, see what they can offer you.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

0.07 up sounds wrong, unless you were uploading something at the time.

What are the routers from the actual ADSL router? Which telephone exchange are you connected to?

If you already have virgin cable TV, then the cable broadband is a fairly attractive price, particularly if happy to download over night

I wasn't uploading, it was speedtest.net, after a reboot. I have no idea what exchange, sorry.

Do Virgin remove d/l limits as well, then, overnight?

No I meant are you sure that something else was not running in the background that was using upstream bandwidth at the same time as the speedtest was running.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search will tell us which exchange if you enter your phone number

Virgin Media cable limits run 9am to 3pm and 4pm to 9pm. So no limits at night

Ah ok, no, no extra unknown process' or services run without me knowing

My exchange is:

Girton EAGIR Cambridgeshire East

I like the sound of the Virgin limits as I'm usually at work during those times.

I wonder if he meant 0.7Mbps upstream? That would be right for an 832kbps sync.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 25-Oct-12 22:26:44)

Router stats please?

As your exchange is 20CN ADSL Max only you'll get much the same from all ADSL ISPs.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

I wonder if he meant 0.7Mbps upstream? That would be right for an 832kbps sync.

Um yeah i guess I mean that, sorry. I mean, I just ran the test on speedtest.net, nothing more complex.

I guess if I want more, it's means getting virgin then?

cheers all

You may be able to get a bit more from what you have, which is why you are being asked for router stats. Those will tell us. See here for help.

For big speed improvements, then Virgin is the one to go for. Read up on their traffic management/throttling so you know what to expect. Whatever, yes it will be far faster most of the time than what you are on.

Note that exchange is Market 2 with LLU Services = none. Orange gone, I guess

VM counts.

Does it? I;m surprised! Then why does SamKnows have separate lines for "LLU services:" & "Cable:"? TMI?

Two or three 'principal' operators provide broadband services at this exchange.

Note the "operators".

VM Cable is not LLU. It's a broadband service provider. Simples .

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

You may be able to get a bit more from what you have, which is why you are being asked for router stats. Those will tell us. See here for help.

For big speed improvements, then Virgin is the one to go for. Read up on their traffic management/throttling so you know what to expect. Whatever, yes it will be far faster most of the time than what you are on.

OK cool, my stats are (sorry thought a screengrab would be easiest):

screengrab

it's an old Netgear DG834G, with firmware V4.01.06.

I'll have a read about virgin, I've always been wary of the major providers because of the traffic management,

thanks all!

Somnething is very seriously wrong.

Can you unplug all phones and try a different microfilter.

Line is so short, the exchange must be next door, but the upstream speed is only 96 Kbps and should be 448 Kbps. Have you raised this issue with your existing provider, as clearly something is wrong.

It may be a microfilter
It may be your modem is not coping well with such a short line
A misconfiguration of the line at the exchange

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are connected at 8Mbps down, and 96kbps up.

The 96 up is something wrong. It should be either 448 or 832kbps.

Please can we have the results of two different speed tests, as you should be getting far better speeds and we need to see more than just the simple speeds you gave us.There is other info that helps us.
One test is a speedtest.net one like you quoted, but please post the link to the result.

The other is a BT Performance Test, the Diagnostic Version. If you copy and paste the contents of the two text results boxes that will be fine. We don't need to see the graphics.

You should be getting over 6Mbps speed test results, but the 96kbps may be (part of) the issue.
Are you running wired or wireless to the router when you run speed tests?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Somnething is very seriously wrong.

Can you unplug all phones and try a different microfilter.

Line is so short, the exchange must be next door, but the upstream speed is only 96 Kbps and should be 448 Kbps. Have you raised this issue with your existing provider, as clearly something is wrong.

It may be a microfilter
It may be your modem is not coping well with such a short line
A misconfiguration of the line at the exchange

The microfilter is brand new, literally out of a sealed packet, this week, as I was testing. I believe the exchange is around 50m away.

I have been dealing with Eclipse for the last two weeks, yes, which is one of the reasons I've tried a new filter

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are connected at 8Mbps down, and 96kbps up.

The 96 up is something wrong. It should be either 448 or 832kbps.

Please can we have the results of two different speed tests, as you should be getting far better speeds and we need to see more than just the simple speeds you gave us.There is other info that helps us.
One test is a speedtest.net one like you quoted, but please post the link to the result.

The other is a BT Performance Test, the Diagnostic Version. If you copy and paste the contents of the two text results boxes that will be fine. We don't need to see the graphics.

You should be getting over 6Mbps speed test results, but the 96kbps may be (part of) the issue.
Are you running wired or wireless to the router when you run speed tests?

All connections to the router are wireless. Its sitting right next to the pc, though.

Speedtest.net result: http://www.speedtest.net/result/2265947380.png

BT results: download 2.47, upload 0.04 and ping of 68.75


thanks!

Took me a long time to post, Andrew, kept getting interrupted. I'll leave my post, as the speed test results could be useful.

That's the wrong BT test, and we need the full contents of the text boxes please .

Ah, wireless. Can you try it wired?

LIke this

Download speedachieved during the test was - 38.2 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 12 Mbps-0 Mbps.
IP Profile for your line is - 55.64 Mbps

Upload speed achieved during the test was - 12.37Mbps
Additional Information:
Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 20 Mbps

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

That's the wrong BT test, and we need the full contents of the text boxes please .

Sorry Ok, the bt test gave:

1. Best Effort Test: -provides background information.

Download Speed
2.11 Mbps

0 Mbps 7.15 Mbps
Max Achievable Speed

Download speedachieved during the test was - 2.11 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.6 Mbps-7.15 Mbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :8.13 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.1 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7.15 Mbps


I'm actually off away for the weekend now and so won't be able to reply much more but thank you very much for your help so far, it's an eye opener - I've been living with this for 6 years. I guess we don't notice so much as we only d/l over night and the rest of the time is quite light but, still, I'd like to get what i pay for

again, thank you.

Oh and unfortuately right now I can't make it wired, so it had to be wireless, sorry. I can grab a cable on monday and try that again though.

Wireless is the reason everything is slow. For speedy wireless you need Wireless-N.

You're talking about Market Classification; I was talking of SamKnows having "LLU Services: Yes" when none be present at present. Not so simples !

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Wireless is the reason everything is slow. For speedy wireless you need Wireless-N.

Is this the sole reason I have such speeds, though? If it is, I'm ok with that answer. My point being I don't want to swtich to, say, Virgin, only to find the wireless is again causing bad speeds.

Probably. As I say a cheap solution is to move to Wireless-N.

Wireless could well be the reason for the slow Down throughput, but something more drastic is behind the extremely slow Up Sync.

We need to see your speedtest using a wired Ethernet connection.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Wireless could well be the reason for the slow Down throughput, but something more drastic is behind the extremely slow Up Sync.

We need to see your speedtest using a wired Ethernet connection.

Ok thanks, I'll repost when I can perform that test,

Cheers!

Or even the upstream IP profile as requested earlier.

It's possible the downstream is being hampered by the slow upstream. With that narrow a band upstream perhaps the router is struggling to send acks for the downstream packets and so the downstream is having to wait?

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Your DSL Connection Rate :8.13 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.1 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7.15 Mbps

Having had experience of high Ping and Low D.Speed with previous ISP and noting SNR margins and Ping of OP. May be as simple as re seating Line Card at exchange . I read of a IDnet customer whose DS was 5.8 and US was 0.1 by a simple reseat the upload increased to 0.832.
For wireless I have never subscribed to theory that Wireless N adds much advantage to ADSLMax. over G.

Does OP have neighbour where they could connect to compare.

The OP could use inSSIDer to see wireless connections and performance.

In reply to a post by ian72:

It's possible the downstream is being hampered by the slow upstream. With that narrow a band upstream perhaps the router is struggling to send acks for the downstream packets and so the downstream is having to wait?

Exactly .

Which is why I said "You should be getting over 6Mbps speed test results, but the 96kbps may be (part of) the issue" earlier. At least we now know the downstream IP Profile is correct.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Or even the upstream IP profile as requested earlier.

That won't really prove much, on a 96kbps sync. He's getting over 60kbps upstream on speedtest.net. The downstream one was important to know though.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Wireless could well be the reason for the slow Down throughput, but something more drastic is behind the extremely slow Up Sync.

We need to see your speedtest using a wired Ethernet connection.

Ok thanks, I'll repost when I can perform that test,

Cheers!

So far we have two issues. The major one is the 96kbps upload, that may be causing the slow download. But as the others say, we still need to see what the download is like when you are wired to the router. I'm not bothered about the upstream IP Profile for now, but when you do the next BT test you may as well post the upstream result text as well as the downstream.

I'd also like to know more about your phone setup, as the cause of it all could be there. Even though you are connected downstream at 8Mbps, I would expect the noise margin to be far higher than it is. Unless with being so close to the exchange the power has been greatly reduced.

So how many sockets have you got, including any you don't use, and how many are used and for what? Does every socket that is used have a filter on it, or do you have something connected without a filter?

Have you any phone extension cables, either to the router or to anything else? Is the router connected to the master socket?

By the way, seeing as this could go on a bit, if you register it is a lot easier to use this place. No captchas when posting, a lot fewer adverts, and you can alter the layout of the forums. Just for starters .

Will make no difference to the upstream as the modem connection speed is governing that

The OP's problem is downloading.

Cuz the ACKs can't get back!

Then increase the RECW

RWIN?

Surely preferable to fix abysmal BB speeds once and for all?

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

it's an old Netgear DG834G, with firmware V4.01.06.

That must be the v3 (see label underneath) with v. old firmware. If so, latest firmware is Version 4.01.40. Might be worth updating from http://downloadcenter.netgear.com/en/product/DG834Gv3

Hello

Quite a few posts I need to reply to, so will do my best in one go!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

By the way, seeing as this could go on a bit, if you register it is a lot easier to use this place. No captchas when posting, a lot fewer adverts, and you can alter the layout of the forums. Just for starters .

You know, I just tried and it says my email has an account! I don't ever remember posting here so will sort that asap.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Wireless could well be the reason for the slow Down throughput, but something more drastic is behind the extremely slow Up Sync.

We need to see your speedtest using a wired Ethernet connection.

Ok thanks, I'll repost when I can perform that test,

Cheers!

So far we have two issues. The major one is the 96kbps upload, that may be causing the slow download. But as the others say, we still need to see what the download is like when you are wired to the router. I'm not bothered about the upstream IP Profile for now, but when you do the next BT test you may as well post the upstream result text as well as the downstream.

I'd also like to know more about your phone setup, as the cause of it all could be there. Even though you are connected downstream at 8Mbps, I would expect the noise margin to be far higher than it is. Unless with being so close to the exchange the power has been greatly reduced.

So how many sockets have you got, including any you don't use, and how many are used and for what? Does every socket that is used have a filter on it, or do you have something connected without a filter?

Have you any phone extension cables, either to the router or to anything else? Is the router connected to the master socket?

I didn't see any separate upstream profile on the bt test, just what I copied and pasted though, of course, I may have missed something.

Sockets - just the one, the main one, and it's a new line as our old line was sliced in half last year. The router and phone are on this one socket, no extensions or anything.

In reply to a post by flippery:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Your DSL Connection Rate :8.13 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.1 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7.15 Mbps

Having had experience of high Ping and Low D.Speed with previous ISP and noting SNR margins and Ping of OP. May be as simple as re seating Line Card at exchange . I read of a IDnet customer whose DS was 5.8 and US was 0.1 by a simple reseat the upload increased to 0.832.
For wireless I have never subscribed to theory that Wireless N adds much advantage to ADSLMax. over G.

Does OP have neighbour where they could connect to compare.

The OP could use inSSIDer to see wireless connections and performance.

Unfortunately, most of my neighbours are on Virgin, so noone I can compare to really.

Anyway, thanks for the continued help. Tomorrow my ISP are going to do some more tests whilst on the phone with my other half (I'm out) as they also consider the problems to be not normal and, I have to say, Eclipse do have good customer service.

And then today, my speeds are back to what they've always been. 448 up, not 96 anymore.

That's good, but what is the download speed now from the BT tester we used earlier?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

That's good, but what is the download speed now from the BT tester we used earlier?

Ok, so, copy and pasted again, I got this (over wireless still, I'm afraid):

Download speedachieved during the test was - 6.69 Mbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 0.6 Mbps-7.15 Mbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :8.13 Mbps(DOWN-STREAM), 0.45 Mbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 7.15 Mbps

thanks

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

And then today, my speeds are back to what they've always been. 448 up, not 96 anymore.

So problem was external as statistics were showing. Obviously looks like you are not going to get a better service from any BTW supplier. Virgin or Eclipse?
Bodes well for me using eclipse if I ever have problem.

Which is perfect. That's effectively full speed .

Presumably the upstream is OK as well. You sure there wasn't a second box below the one you pasted to here?

So what happened to the 2.7Mbps you started with in the OP here? You said you'd had that for years.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Which is perfect. That's effectively full speed .

Presumably the upstream is OK as well. You sure there wasn't a second box below the one you pasted to here?

So what happened to the 2.7Mbps you started with in the OP here? You said you'd had that for years.

I wish I knew. I am really lost. My g/f had a terrible time today with Eclipse on the phone, they even sent her to buy a new phone! Then, when I got in after she'd given up... I got these results. I'm totally confused. Even moreso, I work in IT and HATE it when things get fixed for no reason.

I'm going to write to eclipse to ask for a full explanation.

From what I can gather, the line fault they said they fixed last week, wasn't fixed. Today they said they still see an error. And yet I get these results. I get the feeling that *possibly* someone else has complained to BT and BT have come out and fixed something, on a similar timescale - it's all I can imagine.

As for your question regarding a second box, no, I'm afriad there isn't a second box. I just ran it again to be sure (wasn't being careful, so ignore results) and screengrabbed it:

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/5901/screenhunter...

So that's all I see, sorry

Thank you, again

kevin

Hmmmm. Most odd. I'm not happy about that.

What does speedtest.net say now? Down and up?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Hmmmm. Most odd. I'm not happy about that.

What does speedtest.net say now? Down and up?

speedtest,net is giving better figures.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2273206561.png

6.94 down, 0.38 up

Yes, those are OK, speed as expected for your connection.

The BT test is rather temperamental these days, but usually it fails completely at the results stage or completes OK.

Speedtests now look good . So what are your router stats now? Just copy & paste them.

Did you update router firmware as I suggested earlier?

EDIT: Did you get a new phone? Maybe that changed things.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 30-Oct-12 00:42:33)

All i can say is avoid VirginMedia, unless you can find good reviews in your local area, IMO if your having bad ADSL in your area, if VirginMedia is available you will find that its is already over capacity and with bring you more headaches in the long run, ALL ADSL in my local area is terrible, speeds close to the street cabinet are good, but the uploads are terrible, and the peak time speeds drop to non existent, but that being said, the ping and jitter of the ADSL product is/was much better than the SUPER FAST SUPER DUPER VirginMedia, who have massive issues with over selling in many areas, jitter into the 1000s some days, i would suggest id BT Infinity is available in your area look for a third party re seller like SKY who dont limit the connection anywhere near as much as BT do.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

speeds close to the street cabinet are good

Speeds have nowt to do with distance from street cabinet but from exchange.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Speedtests now look good . So what are your router stats now? Just copy & paste them.

Did you update router firmware as I suggested earlier?

EDIT: Did you get a new phone? Maybe that changed things.

Hey, not had a chance to update the router FW yet, no. Stats are:

port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 607505 930150 0 658 8681 33:50:43
LAN 10M/100M 199359 0 0 97 0 122:10:01
WLAN 11M/54M 3386187 2669586 0 9173 885 122:09:52

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 6 db 2 db
Noise Margin 13 db 28 db

So, been talking to my ISp again today and they insist there's an error still on the outside line and BT (assume) have said it'll be fixed on Nov 1st. Quite what will happen to my connection, I do not know. It can't really get better and Eclipse simply ignore my statements regarding what error gives me a good connection!

We did get a new phone, yes, but the better speed was achieved with the old one plugged in