I wrote the post above at 11:40 and it is now 14:25.
And now my broadband is behaving correctly
Both tracerts are now running to completion.
Tracing route to www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms www.routerlogin.com [192.168.1.1]
2 48 ms 48 ms 47 ms anchor-hg-4-lo100.router.demon.net [194.159.161.35]
3 47 ms 47 ms 48 ms anchor-access-3-s154.router.demon.net [194.159.161.129]
4 48 ms 47 ms 50 ms anchor-inside-3-g2-0-2.router.demon.net [194.159.161.70]
5 49 ms 47 ms 47 ms anchor-border-1-g4-0-0.router.demon.net [194.70.98.30]
6 50 ms 47 ms 46 ms linx-gw1.rbsov.ncuk.net [195.66.224.240]
7 49 ms 50 ms 48 ms star1-core-rs3.test.ncuk.net [80.249.97.12]
8 54 ms 53 ms 52 ms www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\David Hutton-Squire>tracert www.speedtester.com

Tracing route to www.speedtester.com [66.199.187.181]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 12 ms 13 ms 12 ms www.routerlogin.com [192.168.1.1]
2 48 ms 46 ms 48 ms anchor-hg-4-lo100.router.demon.net [194.159.161.35]
3 48 ms 47 ms 47 ms anchor-access-3-s154.router.demon.net [194.159.161.129]
4 48 ms 48 ms 48 ms anchor-inside-4-g1-0-4.router.demon.net [194.159.161.74]
5 123 ms 124 ms 127 ms ny1-border-1-g0-3-0.router.demon.net [194.70.97.234]
6 124 ms 124 ms 123 ms nyiix.Peer1.net [198.32.160.65]
7 126 ms 124 ms 124 ms 10ge.xe-0-0-0.nyc-telx-dis-1.peer1.net [216.187.115.165]
8 133 ms 132 ms 133 ms oc48-so-2-0-0.mtl-bvh-cor-1.peer1.net [216.187.115.129]
9 144 ms 144 ms 145 ms oc48-po5-0.tor-151f-cor-1.peer1.net [216.187.114.197]
10 205 ms 204 ms 204 ms oc48.so-2-0-3.van-hc21e-cor-1.peer1.net [216.187.114.137]
11 * 208 ms 208 ms oc48.so-2-0-0.sea-coloc-dis-1.peer1.net [216.187.88.214]
12 210 ms 209 ms 208 ms sea-wes7-fe3-1a.ne.peer1.net [216.187.64.90]
13 215 ms 215 ms 213 ms 66.199.187.181

Trace complete.

And connection data is much as before:
ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3616 kbps 832 kbps
Line Attenuation 51 db 14.5 db
Noise Margin 14 db 8 db

So, perhaps has someone fixed a network problem somewhere between my exchange and Demon?
Or is traffic just lower anyway at the time of a late lunch on a sunny Friday afternoon?
Presumably we shall never know.

Hi Andrew

Well, only just managed to get on-line ... got to earn a crust and all that! Anyway, I thought I'd do a speedtest here before replying and download speed is up to 1.4Mbps!! I think your comment about being a Demon issue may well be the case.

That said I did the tracert tests you suggested and for your information, given the fact that the download speed looks like it's near the 1.6Mbps I had last year after the upgrade here are the results in short form:

tracert to thinkbroadband made the trip in 9 hops with no errors and 47ms to target

tracert to BT speedtester was different, 11 hops to vhsaccess1-pos8-0.manchester.fixed.by.net (62.6.196.202) then timed out until the maximum 30 hops reached.

Regarding the BT test I'm sure I saw a post regarding the BT tester not being available just now on my way to this thread.

Thanks again for the help

Ron

Hi David,

Mine has been like that for close to 10 days now and as you can see from my last post it seems to be near to normal again at the time of posting. I think it is a problem Demon end as, I may be wrong, but to my way of thinking, if the upstream is fine but downstream is slow then it must be some kind of slowdown at the ISP as opposed to the journey to and from there.

It looks like a case of watch this space but I rather think you are right and we may never know the cause ... I thought it may be something to do with the increase in fuel prices at the pump, the higher the price the slower the download!!

On a serious note, regarding your comment "Or is traffic just lower anyway at the time of a late lunch on a sunny Friday afternoon?" I was under the impression that the contention ratio was 20:1 for the business broadband offering? It was before the upgrade (512 / 256 - the old business 500).

Regards

Ron

BT speedtester comes and goes, if there was demon links seen before the final working hop then the speedtester results will include effects from the ISPs own network

In reply to:

---

I was under the impression that the contention ratio was 20:1 for the business broadband offering

---

Not any more. The minimum BT Wholesale speed is I think 800k (2 * the 400k on Home).

Hi Phil,

I wondered why nothing was mentioned about the 20:1 contention in the sales data on Demon ... oh well, they kept that quiet!

Meanwhile down-speed is back to close to what it was 12 months back but still no news of what the problem was. I did notice on the demon news groups that the subject had come up too.

Regards

Ron

weekends can be light on Demon, it gets slow post 9am weekdays.