Slow Speeds, contention?

I've been noticing slow speeds so I ran a BT speed test:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 2123 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 600-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :7616 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 6500 Kbps

Much slower than normal, and not the first time. I used the PlusNet exchange checker and my exchange is red for the first time, from 4 March 2011, with an ETA to be fixed by 2 April 2011, but hasn't been updated since the 11 March 2011.

What I'm seeing could be contention, but what can I do about it? Perhaps it's been fixed and the problem is elsewhere?

Any ideas?

Cheers,
AP

I think its 'just tonight' as my connection has gone to hell in a handbasket. I ended up with 128 upload at one point and a couple of router reboots would not login to the Zen server so i got the error username/password message.

Et voila, its now logged in and seems to be working.

Same problem here. Generally slow speeds and some sites just aren't loading at all yet seem perfectly fine from other locations.

Edit: Guess it's being caused by this. Seems to be mostly sites peering at Linx that aren't responding very well.

Edited by deleted (Wed 11-May-11 00:21:15)

Lol, I just ran a quick speed test and it seems my "up to 8MB" line is overperforming slightly:
Download Speed: 17343 kbps (2167.9 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 199 kbps (24.9 KB/sec )

Tried again and it seems it's back to normal:
Download Speed: 4976 kbps (622 KB/sec ) Upload Speed: 228 kbps (28.5 KB/sec )

Ho hum.... :/

Certain tests can at times be somewhat inaccurate.

Edited by deleted (Wed 11-May-11 11:25:07)

From our own internal testing - any java-based speedtest that runs in a browser will not provide consistently accurate results for download/upload throughput. Variables include the OS, browser, version of java, load on the server hosting the test, time of day...

A far more accurate and repeatable test if you're on a Zen connection is to connect one machine to the router via ethernet, switch off wireless, make sure no other downloads are running and start a download of a non-zero test file from http://fuller.zen.co.uk/test/ and note the download speed shown in the browser download dialogue box - for Zen connections this provides an accurate measurement of downstream throughput. Upstream is best tested in a similar way but uploading via ftp.

For non-Zen connections it would be best to contact the ISP the connection uses to see if they have similar test files hosted on their network.