I would give anything for an 8 Mbps link!

I use an airport express plugged into the Belkin modem/router. The wifi is turned off on the Belkin. I bought the airport express in the hope it would speed things up. It didn't, but also it didn't slow things down either.

The speed is the same whether I use the airport express, or the Belkin as the central router.

The 5 systems showing as linked are all ID'd and are mine. Usually no more than 2 or 3 are connected at the same time.

The wifi is password protected, and I am certain no one else is piggy backing on our network due to the low density housing and demographic of where I live!

Thanks

I have a long post in draft, but was about to put it on hold, then saw the posts following the OP's that weren't here when I started. Which cover some of it.

I put on hold because the old Belkin worries me. First, I think we need a factory reset done, a check for up to date firmware, and an MTU check.

Summary of the rest, the further diagnostics probably failed due to a TT pool number, so I asked If the number was supplied by the Post Office. Then we need a wired test, with a friend popping round with a laptop if the OP hasn't got anything with Ethernet, and finally maybe an alternative modem/router test.

If all that fails, migration preferably to a monthly contract with a decent ISP, until we prove that works.

Our posts overlapped .

You have got an 8Mbps connection. That's what the stats say, That should give you what is called an IP Profile of 7.15Mbps, which is what I wanted to see from those Further Diagnostics. That IP Profile should be delivering over 6Mbps, like your neighbours.

There is nothing seriously wrong with the connection itself.

Oh, and to answer the other question, I can speed test by plugging the computer direct into the modem too.

Those tests are quicker than the wifi, but no more than you'd expect.

It just looks like the Post Office simply haven't bought enough back-haul capacity. If it was simply a matter of peak-time contention you'd see some periods which were good and some which were bad.

Unfortunately there aren't many ISPs who do support your sort of exchange particularly well, and the lack of ADSL2+ will mean it's never going to be great. Among other things, they are on the old 20CN network which has limited capacity. One of ISPs that's closely aligned with BTW might be the best best.

ISPs should give you a speed estimate as part of the code of conduct.

nb. FTTC doesn't suffer from this as the cabinets are not homed to small local exchanges.

?
Are you forgetting he is sync'ed at 8Mbps (on TalkTalk non-LLU) and backhaul rental is to do with the handover from BTW to TT and nothing to do with the local exchange?

Though it is possible there is a VP problem there. Something I know little about but his neighbours don't seem to be suffering.

Won't the connection be IP Stream Connect now, so no longer 20CN ATM to Centrals?

Line is fine based on the stats.

Real simple fix, choose BT or Plusnet as your ISP. Magically you will get 8Mbps.

Get away from PO.

BT is probably your best bet. I've been on an exchange with only up to 8Mbps before like yourself with no LLU provider. I had BT and could stream Netflix in HD on two machines at once on BT with the same sync.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 28-Aug-16 21:48:29)

Hello everyone and thank you so much for your help and advice.

I rebooted the modem and looked for new firmware and it appears to be up to date. It's an old modem, but it should be up to the job given the slow speed I am able to receive.

Having read all your posts, I think the answer must be to go with an ISP closely aligned to BT wholesale. This appears to be BT or plus net?

At least I feel confident that by doing this I stand the best chance of receiving a useable service.

Thank you all again for taking the time to offer your help and advice, it's really helped me know what move to make next.

I'm aware that the line syncs at 8mbps.

As far as backhaul from the the old 20CN exchanges is concerned (all of which will be rural by now), then they are limited by the 20CN capacity and they do often appear to suffer from congestion at peak times. However, what is seen under those circumstances is erratic performance with slowdowns during peak periods (and some difference between single- and multi-threaded performance). This appears to be an absolute limit on throughput which to me points to a bottleneck in the backhaul. That could easily be whatever bandwidth that is set aside and may well be whatever bandwidth has been reserved/paid for to the handoff with TalkTalk

If the neighbours aren't suffering and are on different ISPs then the finger is surely pointed at the Post Office.

As far as 20CN goes, it's my understanding (reading publicly available reports) that, whilst it was completely withdrawn at all sites where there is 21CN capacity, that there were still a small minority of small exchanges (perhaps 5%) where there were no firm plans. Indeed, the ADSL 8mbps DSLAMs are part of 20CN, and it might be that they are equipped to talk to ATM and nothing else. The normal sign an exchange has been updated to 21CN is when ADSL2+ becomes available.

Its not alignment with BT Wholesale, but a willingness to buy reasonable capacity from the various networks to cover all the UK. PlusNet does charge a bit more in areas like yours.