In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

Do people here (who I presume are more clued up than the average broadband customer) tend to stick with one ISP or shop around and move once their contract is up?

People generally don't want to leave a good service. The price-sensitive ring their ISP and threaten to leave when their minimum term is up so they get a retention deal.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

Do people here (who I presume are more clued up than the average broadband customer) tend to stick with one ISP or shop around and move once their contract is up?

People generally don't want to leave a good service. The price-sensitive ring their ISP and threaten to leave when their minimum term is up so they get a retention deal.

Ok; many thanks for that.

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I don't suppose there are any cheap or free ways of calling 0871 numbers?

http://www.saynoto0870.com as advised. Also for 0844, another common cash-cow.

You'll prob also need to change MTU to 1500 or at least 1492. In fact I'm surprised that it's set to 1400 for BT. Sure that will be slowing you down by unnecessary fragmentation of packets.

Whenever you see a Username/Password combination in a router's set up it will always be those for logging you into your ISP, however they are phrased. It could be that BT doesn't use them and just authenticates you by your phone line no.; any BT user here would know.

Watch out for these hints:
WAN (Wide Area Network) pertains to the outside world & the Internet.
LAN (Local Area Network) pertains your own local network of devices.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Thu 13-Feb-14 17:46:08)

Every BT broadband user has the same username, (well, maybe there are two or three but it doesn't seem to matter which is used), probably only there because the Home Hubs underlying OEM firmware demands one. The password can be anything as well, and I think the HH insists on an entry as well. A space apparently works.

I think you are right, and because his router doesn't insist on entries he hasn't got any.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I don't suppose there are any cheap or free ways of calling 0871 numbers?

http://www.saynoto0870.com as advised. Also for 0844, another common cash-cow.

Thanks again for that. I will check it out as soon as time permits.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You'll prob also need to change MTU to 1500 or at least 1492. In fact I'm surprised that it's set to 1400 for BT. Sure that will be slowing you down by unnecessary fragmentation of packets.

Whenever you see a Username/Password combination in a router's set up it will always be those for logging you into your ISP, however they are phrased. It could be that BT doesn't use them and just authenticates you by your phone line no.; any BT user here would know.

Watch out for these hints:
WAN (Wide Area Network) pertains to the outside world & the Internet.
LAN (Local Area Network) pertains your own local network of devices.

Thanks.

I have no idea what MTU is or does or what the number means. Is it advisable to change any of the numbers unless told to by the ISP? Could I cause problems by changing things?

I appreciate that information about usernames and passwords. I must admit I was confused by the lack of entries in the username and password boxes.

Thanks also for the clarification regarding WAN and LAN. When explaining anything to me; it is best to assume that I know nothing and be as basic as you can!

By the way; I now seem to have had my Live Mail issues sorted thanks to help in the other thread.

Cheers

Again, I agree with XRaySpeX re the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit).

Your data is sent to you in packets. Think snail-mail and you'll get the idea. These packets are lumped together into Frames for efficiency of transmission. I think BT FTTC uses 1492-byte frames. The MTU in your router needs to be that size otherwise the system has to sort out the difference by reducing the size of frame sent to you. That introduces a number of inefficiencies with the effect of reducing your data throughput at any given sync. (It doesn't alter the sync).

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

You'll prob also need to change MTU to 1500 or at least 1492. In fact I'm surprised that it's set to 1400 for BT. Sure that will be slowing you down by unnecessary fragmentation of packets.

Whenever you see a Username/Password combination in a router's set up it will always be those for logging you into your ISP, however they are phrased. It could be that BT doesn't use them and just authenticates you by your phone line no.; any BT user here would know.

Watch out for these hints:
WAN (Wide Area Network) pertains to the outside world & the Internet.
LAN (Local Area Network) pertains your own local network of devices.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Again, I agree with XRaySpeX re the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit).

Your data is sent to you in packets. Think snail-mail and you'll get the idea. These packets are lumped together into Frames for efficiency of transmission. I think BT FTTC uses 1492-byte frames. The MTU in your router needs to be that size otherwise the system has to sort out the difference by reducing the size of frame sent to you. That introduces a number of inefficiencies with the effect of reducing your data throughput at any given sync. (It doesn't alter the sync).

Apologies for my delayed reply. I have been away for some days and unable to post.

Thank you both for your posts.

If I change the MTU as suggested; is it matter of just changing the value in the router; or will the router itself need to be rebooted?

If I need to restart the router; could that lead to other problems i.e. having to reconnect all my Wi-Fi devices? Some time ago; one of my devices stopped 'talking' to my router. Upon investigation it had turned out that router had (for some reason unknown to me) changed the 'address' which it used to communicate with the device. I'd like to avoid that happening again if at all possible.

Many Thanks.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by Jelly_Tussle:

I don't suppose there are any cheap or free ways of calling 0871 numbers?

http://www.saynoto0870.com as advised. Also for 0844, another common cash-cow.

I am a member of the SayNoTo0870 site.. and I believe Reserved is as well

It's a really useful site, and has some very helpful members.. much like Think Broadband does