Really slow speeds

For the past 3 months our connection has been stupidly slow. I know we can;t get rapid speeds but this is just silly.

Here's my speed history:
http://www.speedtest.net/results.php?sh=86541d775d77...

I have spoken to AOL many times and just get nowhere. I have had an engineer visit at beginning of February and nothing came of that. AOL stated today that the sync speed is correct but the data speed is not, eg cause of slowness but seem to fail to do anything to resolve it.

Some router stats:
Account Name
Firmware Version V2.1.00.54_1.00.54

ADSL Port

Network Type PPPoE
IP Subnet Mask 255.255.255.255

Domain Name Server 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4


Modem
ADSL Firmware Version A2pB023k.d20k_rc2
Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 3776 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 448 kbps
VPI 0
VCI 38

Wireless Port

Region Europe
11N Channel 48
11G Channel 13
Mode Up to 300Mbps at 5GHz & 54Mbps at 2.4GHz
Wireless AP Enabled
Broadcast Name Enabled

Also, our main telephoen socket looks like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/telephone-extension-socket-P...

Is this correct?

What can we do? Anyone able to help?

Can you just confirm the socket via http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tools/bt-master-socket...

In the modem there should also be attenuation and noise margin figures, if you use
http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/calculator.php
with the figures you can get an estimate of how you connect speeds match up with the expected speeds.

On the throughput, assuming you are connecting using an Ethernet cable, then the inference is maybe that AOL is not able to supply a good onward connection to the internet, usually that will show up as the connection being fast in the morning and slowing down as kids get back from school in the afternoon through until everyone goes to bed,

The socket is the 68mm wide one shown on that page.

Here is the result link:
http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/calc/calculator.php?par...

and yes I am using ethernet on this machine.

Router stats:
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoE 86340 82281 0 4272 14438 01:12:38
LAN 10M/100M 22950 19639 0 3937 830 01:13:01
WLAN 11M/54M/300M 76112 79067 0 11555 4092 01:12:45

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3776 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 58.0 db 31.5 db
Noise Margin 6.7 db 7.0 db

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-May-13 22:28:29)

Your Connection Speed is correct for your line length (attenuation). As long as that stays about that value, 3.7 Meg, then AOL is supplying the best ADSL it can.

However your speedtests are all over the place. That is either because the router keeps disconnecting and giving diff Connection Speeds or because of congestion at exchange which is typical of the ADSL Max technology that you are on. You need to keep an eye on the Connection Speed to determine which it is.

The phone socket you showed us is a extension socket not a master socket. Do you have a master socket elsewhere? Is the socket you are using the nearest socket to where the phone line enters the property?

Finally if you tell us the exchange you are on we can see if there is a better ISP and/or ADSL technology there for you?

So why is the speed so slow? It never used to be this slow. I used to get at least 1.x at the least. Now it seems very rarely I get above 1mbps.

That socket is the closest to where the line enteres our property.

Our exchange code is MRCOM

Maybe AOL is not buying as much capacity as it used to for the IPStream network, a common thing as they concentrate on their LLU network coverage area (well TalkTalk their owner does).

People are using their connections for more.

Or some fault is not affecting the sync speed yet, but is causing errors where retransmissions mean the amount of useful data you can send is smaller (generally you would expect to see the noise margin dipping to 1 or 2 dB if that were the case).

As I said earlier, if the speeds are good say at 3am to 10am, then suggests ISP based issue and changing may improve things.

But this speed is about 0.4Mbps! How is that classed as Broadband! It's rediculous!

How can I find out what a better ISP for our location would be?

Tell us the exchange name from https://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html and what WBC products it lists.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MRCOM

Run http://www.speedtest.btwholesale.com/ and go onto the "further diagnostics"

should tell you your IP profile.

Is the speed very slow at 7am ??

A small one with no LLU then it looks like.

AOL/TalkTalk/Sky are all likely to be bad choices in that case.

Andrew

So who should we switch to then?

Your exchange has been neglected by everyone except BTw, which any ISP can supply.

You best bet is probably BT Retail as they should have bought sufficient capacity; more than AOL anyway.

.

AOL as an ISP only seems to have one thing going for it. When you do a Thinkbroadband Service Provider Comparison, choose AOL as one of your choices. That gives you a reference low value for worst speed, worst reliability, and worst customer service. (Though I see EE is starting to compete on worst reliability)

In case poster is wondering, the tool is the one at
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

Where the ratings are what we collect through the speed test when people can vote, and though the rate your provider dedicated page.

Do you think BE would be ok to move to as I know we use them at work and their customer service has been excellent.?

BE ? EE ?

Huh?

BE has just been bought by Sky who are in the process of absorbing BE into Sky.

BE still have their excellent customer service, but now they have been bought out by Sky I am not sure how long that will last.

Similarly, they still let you control your line details such as SNR and interleaving, but as they become part of a bigger ISP that freedom may well disappear as well. (Pure hypothesis, no facts or special knowledge here.)

There seem to have been more complaints than there used to be on the BE forums as well; that might be mainly due to issues with migrating their network.

So, if a move might well work well for a bit, but you might find you want another move before too long.

In reply to a post by rctneil:

Do you think BE would be ok to move to

NO! You don't have BE at your exchange or any other LLU ISP, as you've been told repeatedly.

I repeat that you can only get BTw "up to 8 Meg" ADSL Max BB, just as you already have from AOL. BT Retail is likely to have the best capacity and cheapest price.

you don't have Be on your exchange. Who were you thinking of using ?

I agree 100% with XRaySpeX: BT will probably be your best bet. A friend of mine is on this exchange http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WMSRK and BT is the best ADSL MAX service that he has ever had after relatively sub-standard speeds with AOL etc..

Edited by 4M2 (Mon 20-May-13 20:04:59)