BT problem at remote location

I spent the weekend with a relative near New Radnor in Powys. They have a problem with BT that they have not been able to resolve. Here are the facts:
1. They get 3mb down and 0.25 up, consistently. They are quite a way from the exchange.
2. Websites like Amazon, John Lewis and many others are either so slow they don't effectively work (Amazon), or completely inaccessible (John Lewis). No real pattern as to what works and what doesn't. I estimate about 2/3 websites don't work.
3. Some websites like Google, Youtube and the BBC work as well as could be expected - no problems there.
4. Other people in the area (i.e. same exchange, New Radnor) have the same problems with certain websites .
5. I have checked their equipment, & tried other devices (i.e. Nexus) - exactly the same. It isn't a problem with their setup I am sure. I've plugged in directly to the router and swapped filters.
6. I switched them over to using OpenDns. No change.
7. They haven't been able to resolve this with BT and never get past first level support.
8. The problem has been there for about a month, and has occurred before about a year ago (and went away)

Any ideas? This is a very frustrating problem!

It could be exchange (VP) congestion. There is nothing showing as at 23 November, but it's the sort of thing that could have happened a year ago, been fixed, and now recurred.

The ones you list probably have to access many sites to assemble complete pages.

Is it happening only for BT users, or with any ISP? Or maybe you don't know, possibly not something you would automatically ask the other sufferers.

The other thing that could be relevant is interference from Christmas lights. I believe that is an annual event.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 17-Dec-12 11:46:31)

0.25 Meg up sounds a little odd (full router stats would be useful). Is this where everyone is with BT Retail as the ISP, or same problem with people on different providers?

Did you confirm the problem with a PC using Ethernet?

Did trace route reveal any common link between the slow and fast websites?

In reply to a post by clarkac:

1. They get 3mb down and 0.25 up, consistently.

Is that sync speed or throughput? Router stats will help.

What results from: http://speedtester.bt.com/ ?

The speeds were from speedtest.net - tried many times. Sorry, don't have any more info on the router - what info would help?
The other people who have the same problem are all apparently BT as well.
Would switching to a different ISP help, such as O2? Or as the New Radnor exchange has no LLU would it actually be no different?

Taking Christmas lights seriously - they have had no such lights at her home but I guess there might be some by the exchange!

Thanks for the responses!

As mentioned the line stats from her router would be useful, it's a good idea to wire the router to the PC, it would also be good to get line stats with the router connected to the TEST socket (if there is one) within the master socket.

Master socket > http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/master-socket-...

Stats > http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm

O2 non-LLU, (O2 Access), is amongst the worst services. Stay well clear.

This problem went away just before Christmas, possibly when people had done most of their shopping! I guess it must have been exchange congestion - which I assume means that the equipment at the exchange doesn't have the capacity to cope with the number of users.

Given that it's back to normal now the backhaul may have been increased.