o2 speed problem

I've just joined o2, on the 16 meg package. My wireless box is synching at 13.7 meg. And I'm getting speedtest results of 11 meg which I'm very happy with. (I was getting 5 meg on the PlusNet 8 meg package).

The only problem is, this drops to about 6 meg...so i have to swich the wireless box off and on again, and i get 11 meg again straight away. Why is this happening? Is there a problem with the box?

When you do your speed tests are you connected to your router via wireless or by a wired connection?

If it is wireless it would be interesting to know if such speed drops also happen when you are using a wired connection.

Always on wireless. I've never connected my Mac with a wire - and it wouldn't be a feasible solution (because of the location of the router). With the PlusNet router it didn't seem to make a difference. Do you think that could be it? Is it because I have just joined o2? (Does an ADSL2+ line do that fluctuating speed thing for the first ten days, like an ADSL line does?).

It could be something simple like a neighbour switching on his wifi and using the same channel as you (you would then be sharing the bandwidth with your neighbour). Switching your wireless off then on might cause your router to use a new wireless channel.

Be/O2 do operate their own version of the "training" period - I don't know the details. I wouldn't have thought that would be the cause.

There is a dedicated O2 forum at http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=o2. It might be worth looking there to see if there is a specific problem with the "training" period.

The speed dropped terribly - down to half a meg yesterday. I called o2, and we seem to have found out it's the wireless channel I was using. I fixed it on channel 7 (i didn't realise there was a difference between channels). So he got me to try a few different ones, and it seems to be much more stable on channel 1.

I've been getting a consistent 11.2 meg for the past 24hrs. But I'm on a near 'perfect' line - 400m from the exchange, plugged directly into the test socket with no voice phone lines connected. o2 are baffled as to why I'm getting such a low speed.

(They tried reducing the SNR from 6db to 3db but itwas just too unstable - although the speed did peak at 13 meg).

Any ideas what to do next?

You might try using the freeware TCPOptimizer to see if that makes any difference to your throughput.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

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They tried reducing the SNR from 6db to 3db but itwas just too unstable

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Sounds like you have noise problems on your line.
Can you post your modem stats?