View Full Version : Terrible internet speed
hifi_dave
21-12-2017, 16:03
Since we managed to get Broadband here, ten years ago, the speed is a maximum of 1.2 Mb, which is just about workable. A fair part of the time it goes down to 0.5, as it is now. Last week, we had 5 days with no internet speed at all. With such low speeds, everything is a misery and some things, like banking are often not possible.
An Openreach engineer was booked but he cancelled, saying there was an exchange fault, though BT now deny that even happened.
We are out in the sticks, with only 8 other houses in the locality and a few miles from our green internet box, though half a mile away there is an estate which has Superfast fibre broadband.
We have complained to BT numerous times over the past ten years, spending countless hours connecting, disconnecting, moving laptops around and talking to BT call centre staff who "sympathise" but can do nothing. We usually say that we will change provider but of course that won't make any difference because another provider will just use the same BT equipment.
Anyone know who we can complain to who can make a difference ? Our MP wouldn't/couldn't help.
will depend on if you were guaranteed a minimum speed or not i guess.
The Ofcom voluntary code
The Ofcom code is voluntary, but many of the biggest suppliers are signed up. You can find an up-to-date list of broadband providers who've signed up to the code on Ofcom's website.
These providers must give you the expected range of maximum speeds for your line at the point of sale. They must help you with your speed issues, and if your speed remains below your minimum guaranteed, they must let you exit your contract penalty-free. Or alternatively you can agree to continue the contract at a lower monthly cost.
You can find your minimum guaranteed broadband speed in the information your provider sent you after the sale or upgrade.
And if you want to change broadband supplier you only have to notify the company you wish to move to. Your new supplier will then handle every aspect of the change.
You should still move from BT just on principle. Remember how they robbed us silly when they had the monopoly?
you could go to mobile broadband if you get decent signal. will obviously depend on you usage
hifi_dave
21-12-2017, 16:25
Our 'guaranteed' Broadband speed is 1.25 and that is what we get, some of the time. They have said that we are free to go to whichever provider we fancy but the poor service will remain the same, because it will use the present BT equipment.
I did check with Talk Talk and Plusnet but they confirmed that they couldn't improve on this pitiful service.
In the news yesterday, the headline was that we will all have the right to 10 Mb by 2020. Unfortunately, they didn't emphasise that is subject to financial constraints - meaning that if it costs Openreach money, they are not obliged to do it.
The only way we managed to get Broadband here, ten years ago, was that I obtained the direct telephone number of the Openreach CEO, who got the job done. What I need now is the name and number of someone who can help, because the call centres are obviously there to fob us off.
If you haven't got the infrastructure it isn't going to happen no matter who you complain to. Move out of the sticks ;)
That is the problem. In this free market, BT are kings of the castle. Where I live, although other providers can provide a service, BT throttles them through BT's exchange so they perform even worse than BT (yes, it is possible folks).
Also, BT can (not that they do this deliberately (sic)) wire up the internal connections so that you still don't get the speed you should. I had an ex-BT engineer check out my property and just by connecting the wires differently on the internal connection box got my speed up from 11mb to 23mb. BT have just offered me Infinity again, but of course, once you follow the link -surprise, surprise, it's not available on my line. But I can have unlimited broadband at up to 17mb!!
Some of us cannot get away from awful BT.
:chainsaw:
tubehunter
21-12-2017, 16:51
Best thing I did was to get rid of BT completely.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6899773816.png (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6899773816)
Happy Days
Stratmangler
21-12-2017, 16:58
Also, BT can (not that they do this deliberately (sic)) wire up the internal connections so that you still don't get the speed you should. I had an ex-BT engineer check out my property and just by connecting the wires differently on the internal connection box got my speed up from 11mb to 23mb. BT have just offered me Infinity again, but of course, once you follow the link -surprise, surprise, it's not available on my line. But I can have unlimited broadband at up to 17mb!!
In BT's defence, the line comes into the premises, and they are not responsible for any internal extension cabling. Their responsibility stops at the master socket.
BT no longer fit extension cabling, and haven't done so for at least 25 years.
Householders are notoriously tight fisted, and would rather fuck it up cobble it together themselves, rather than pay someone who knows what they're doing.
It's the same with wired data network cabling - they'll do everything they can to avoid putting their hands in their pocket and get the job done properly.
You've had someone who knows what they're doing look at yours, so you are very definitely in the minority.
not at its fastest but ok considering im at end of the line...still awaiting virgin reaching me...they say they are on way lol
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6899816088.png
not at its fastest but ok considering im at end of the line...still awaiting virgin reaching me...they say they are on way lol
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6899816088.png
Mine isn't the quickest, but a still a little faster than yours:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6900058454.png (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6900058454)
We're going to switch to Virgin in the new year, so things will improve significantly.
Marco.
Mine isn't the quickest, but a still a little faster than yours:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/6900058454.png (http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/6900058454)
We're going to switch to Virgin in the new year, so things will improve significantly.
Marco.
yup, mine is usually 28 or thereabouts, but slower today. dunno why. virgin say they will be here soon and some digging has been done not far away that might have been the cable was done recently. hoping it comes soonish so at least get a choice
Yeah, the figures for Virgin are considerably better... Wonder why your Upload speed is so different, compared with mine?
Marco.
My router has too much on it so that may have compromised things a bit. It's usually nearer yours tbh. Til I got fibre I struggled to get 3 mb so can't really complain too much
Isnt your broadband dependant on usage locally?
I have heard it likened to water pressure in a pipe , the more who draw off it the less pressure is there to be had ??
I like messing with water pipes and systems ;)
Isnt your broadband dependant on usage locally?
I have heard it likened to water pressure in a pipe , the more who draw off it the less pressure is there to be had ??
I like messing with water pipes and systems ;)
Yes it is, otherwise known as contention rate. You can really notice it on mobiles too, say, around lunchtime in central Manchester.
BilliumB
22-12-2017, 22:40
Hello Dave
Do a bit of research on Billion routers. I use one that allows me to modify the signal to noise requirements on the line to the exchange (if I remember correctly). I'm out in the sticks and this enabled my to increase the throughput on my broadband considerably (at least by a factor of 2).
They're quite expensive, but you may pick one up second hand from someone moving to fibre.
Cheers. Bill
hifi_dave
23-12-2017, 10:29
I will do that, thank you.
MikeMusic
25-12-2017, 17:19
That was about the speed we used to have. We are up a country lane, off another and some way distant from the exchange.
Fortunately for us we eventually had a BT engineer who really looked for the problem.
Took a long time and I was helping
Turns out the 'Master socket' was not.
Some Heath Robinson work by him got the real master socket going.
Bingo 12Mb and getting faster.
Next time you have BT in speak to him on the QT and see if he will come in and fix it - with you paying him of course.
That was the way I was going to go before we had the ace guy in
Hi Dave,
You say the are 8 other houses in your area who use the same internet from BT and that could add to you loosing your connection on a regular basis as you'll all have BT routers. I would suggest trying to see if you can change the channel on your router to one that's less cluttered.
See here https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/how-change-wi-fi-channel-3325316/
In BT's defence, the line comes into the premises, and they are not responsible for any internal extension cabling. Their responsibility stops at the master socket.
BT no longer fit extension cabling, and haven't done so for at least 25 years.
Householders are notoriously tight fisted, and would rather fuck it up cobble it together themselves, rather than pay someone who knows what they're doing.
It's the same with wired data network cabling - they'll do everything they can to avoid putting their hands in their pocket and get the job done properly.
You've had someone who knows what they're doing look at yours, so you are very definitely in the minority.
As a result of changes introduced relatively recently, and slipped in beneath most people's radar, the point at which a service provider responsibility stops has been shifted back to the boundary of the the property at which the service is provided.
In our neck of the woods the phone lines are above ground and when we had a problem mid-2017 they claimed that the fault was located at point between an imaginary vertical rising at our boundary and the master socket and hence could not be repaired FOC. I argued until I was blue in the face (and arse, for that matter) and got nowhere. I imagine that the same rule now applies to underground feeds.
Yet further evidence, not that any more was needed, that OFCOM exists to protect the best interests of BT/Openreach and their investors and not those of the consumer.
Jon
That was about the speed we used to have. We are up a country lane, off another and some way distant from the exchange.
Fortunately for us we eventually had a BT engineer who really looked for the problem.
Took a long time and I was helping
Turns out the 'Master socket' was not.
Some Heath Robinson work by him got the real master socket going.
Bingo 12Mb and getting faster.
Next time you have BT in speak to him on the QT and see if he will come in and fix it - with you paying him of course.
That was the way I was going to go before we had the ace guy in
You may have tried these things, but I'll say them anyway, just in case.
Good point about the master socket. You need to be plugged into that directly with a short cable, not upstairs in the bedroom socket or on an extender cable.
Tried a different RJ11 (telephone) cable between router and master socket? A bad one will break it. Stupid £2 cable can ruin everything.
Unscrew the front of the master socket and if there is a socket inside there, plug into that. Any better?
Firmware updates on a router can help a bit but not much. Try a different router? Sure you have the correct power supply for the router?
Are there any power cables which are next to the phone cable? Move them away if you can.
Have you got many devices on that one line? Too many will not be good. None except router is best.
Also, if using those homeplug things, try plugging into the router itself. Those homeplugs are pretty dodgy at the best of times.
How are the electrics in your house? That may have an effect - some mains products may be able to iron it out if it is up and down.
Can't think of anything else the moment...
hifi_dave
29-12-2017, 10:13
Thanks for all the tips but over the past 10 years, we have tried everything and been visited on several occasions by BT engineers. Trouble is, the long run from cabinet to house and BT will not do anything about that.
A couple of people have kindly sent me links or screenshots of the Openreach website where they show that our cabinet has been upgraded. This was done a few months ago and since then we have had slower speeds and even lost Broadband twice for several days. Each time we phone BT we go through the same rigmarole of plugging a cable into the router etc to check the abysmal speed and each time they say it's within acceptable limits at just over 1 Mb.
I have contacted a couple of other providers who confirmed that they wouldn't be able to improve the speed as they would just be using BT equipment, so don't change.
Our MP wasn't the slightest bit interested and what I would like to know is - who can I complain to ?
I fully sympathise. Living about 3 miles from our 'upgraded' cabinet means that we still had 512kbps over the landline.
We contacted some wireless providers and as they might have been interested they would need several customers to sign up before taking any further steps. They are however starting to make inroads into the more remote areas including businesses that can't get a decent BT service.
We did find however that both EE and Vodafone had upgraded their networks locally and although our phones could not pick up a signal in the house, an external 4g aerial and a SIM based router solved the problem. We get a minimum of 15mbps download and sometimes as high as 45mbps. As an existing EE customer this was easy to test with an existing SIM, although there is a monthly data cap we don't go over.
Kit from Broadbandbuyer.co.uk was easy to set up.
Can't answer your question about to whom you should complain but check out satellite broadband. It is not that expensive for a home setup. Europasat offer it but there are other providers. It doesn't use your phone line. Just had a quick look around and you should be able to get 10 mbps or more for about a tenner per month
https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/communications
Sounds to me like satellite broadband will be the best solution here, and it is far far far cheaper than it used to be. Bypass line issues altogether.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Govt will subsidise your setup by up to 400 pounds if ur under 2 mb
https://www.satelliteinternet.co.uk/new-packages
hifi_dave
21-04-2018, 16:28
An update.
Earlier this week, we received a card from Openreach to inform us that our green box has been connected by fibre and our internet speed should improve. My Wife has done a lot of phoning around and online chat and we have now signed up for Unlimited BT Infinity, which promises between 19Mbps and 30Mbps. Yippee..:carrot:
I'm not sure I believe them, so we will wait and see.
How far are you from the cabinet Dave?
We are in the sticks but they put fibre into the cabinet that is maybe 800 yds from our house. Its still on copper wire , but that distance is good for the full Monty whereas the further away you get it starts to drop like a stone due to the resistance in the copper I assume ??
Hope you are nearby it ;)
I have read your post again Dave:doh:
If they have fibre at the new estate , then possibly you may be lucky enough to put from there ,but if your connection runs back 3 miles to the cabinet , HHmmm:rolleyes:
They are legally bound to give you the speed they advertise to you or you can leave free. Bound to be better than you have currently
Sherwood
21-04-2018, 18:15
Ditto re BT! They are useless. Try Plusnet. Even though BT is their parent company they have a UK service centre with well trained UK tech staff.
I despise BT for cancelling engineering visits and then denying that they did. Complete incompetence and arrogance.
Geoff
I was with plusnet. Were good but costs spiralled. Now with talktalk. Seem ok so far
If you have Virginmedia in your area, and if it's speed that you want- go with them.
Their customer service has always been spot on, and speed is generally at least 80 plus. I haven't heard of any other providers being able to get anywhere near that as they use the old copper telephone wires. Virgin are a dedicated line in fibre to the box, then a line to your house.
I just ran a quick test...https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180422/6f62d4019c7d6ed77b99d6d1f524b2ef.jpg
Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk
hifi_dave
22-04-2018, 09:25
I have read your post again Dave:doh:
If they have fibre at the new estate , then possibly you may be lucky enough to put from there ,but if your connection runs back 3 miles to the cabinet , HHmmm:rolleyes:
We are around 3 miles from the box, which is why our speed has been, on a good day, 1.2Mbs. Now the box has been connected to the exchange via fibre, they have offered a few options with far better speeds, like the one we have gone for. I'm still wary but know I can cancel if they don't meet the minimum.
We have tried Virgin, EE, Talk Talk and Sky but none of them can do better than BT re speed and two of those recommended we stay with BT because they can't equal the service.
Sherwood
22-04-2018, 09:31
We are around 3 miles from the box, which is why our speed has been, on a good day, 1.2Mbs. Now the box has been connected to the exchange via fibre, they have offered a few options with far better speeds, like the one we have gone for. I'm still wary but know I can cancel if they don't meet the minimum.
We have tried Virgin, EE, Talk Talk and Sky but none of them can do better than BT re speed and two of those recommended we stay with BT because they can't equal the service.
I would still ditch BT on principle alone. When things go wrong they and their call centre are useless. Give Plusnet a try!
Geoff
Sherwood
22-04-2018, 11:45
Plusenet are owned by BT
I already noted this on this thread!
Cool. They both purchase their hosted services from BT Wholesale. IOW it’s only the customer facing side that differs.
Sherwood
22-04-2018, 12:00
Cool. They both purchase their hosted services from BT Wholesale. IOW it’s only the customer facing side that differs.
All (non cable providers) are reliant on BT's Openreach for infrastructure. What differentiates providers is their customer services. BT's are crap! Plusnet customer services are excellent!
Geoff
think talktalk have their own equipment in many places now
All (non cable providers) are reliant on BT's Openreach for infrastructure. What differentiates providers is their customer services. BT's are crap! Plusnet customer services are excellent!
Geoff
Yes, the physical access infrastructure is Openreach the services however are BT Wholesale. BT made a mistake I feel when the wholesale part was spun off, I recall they where trying to reincorporate it back into Openreach, not sure how far they got.
hifi_dave
22-04-2018, 14:55
I would still ditch BT on principle alone. When things go wrong they and their call centre are useless. Give Plusnet a try!
Geoff
I contacted Plus Net some months ago but they didn't want to take on my line, because they couldn't improve on the BT speed and said their service would probably be worse than BT.
All these service providers are probably good in their own way but when the customer is out in the sticks, it all changes.
Is there a satellite internet service that could work? We don't have Sky and have no interest there, so apologies for not knowing.
hifi_dave
22-04-2018, 15:40
I am hoping that with the promised BT upgrade, we won't need to investigate anything else.
I have no interest in streaming but I occasionally have a customer who wants to stream, so it will be nice to provide a connection. It would also be very good if we can do catch up TV as now we just sit and watch the spinning circle.
Sherwood
22-04-2018, 16:00
I am hoping that with the promised BT upgrade, we won't need to investigate anything else.
I have no interest in streaming but I occasionally have a customer who wants to stream, so it will be nice to provide a connection. It would also be very good if we can do catch up TV as now we just sit and watch the spinning circle.
You should check out the websites that compare deals. I regularly change providers because you get a better deal when switching. BT more than doubled my monthly charges after the "joining deal" ended. I would not go back to them again even if they offered a good deal.
Geoff
Sherwood
22-04-2018, 16:02
Is there a satellite internet service that could work? We don't have Sky and have no interest there, so apologies for not knowing.
Various mobile companies offer "unlimited data packages" though these have a limit on using the account as a "hot spot". I used to subscribe to the "all you can eat" data package on Three when it was £15 per month.
Geoff
MikeMusic
22-04-2018, 17:27
I contacted Plus Net some months ago but they didn't want to take on my line, because they couldn't improve on the BT speed and said their service would probably be worse than BT.
All these service providers are probably good in their own way but when the customer is out in the sticks, it all changes.
Surprised.
Assumed it would be exactly the same.
Wonder if they have been told not to nick Mummy's customers ...
If you get better than 3 mbs you will be able to stream with good hardware. About 5 is better. I get about 30. But used to stream with 3
We get pretty good speed here (with Sky), but recently had Virgin, super-fast Fibre Optic Broadband cables installed, just outside our house, so am thinking of switching to them. I'm starting to download more films, so the extra speed would be useful :cool:
As far as I'm aware, in terms of speed, Virgin are the current market leaders, and they seem pretty efficient. too. Hope you get your Internet woes sorted out soon, Dave :)
Marco.
I'm getting 75 meg with Virgin. I don't stream anything so its a bit of a waste. Maybe I can transfer some of it to Hi-Fi Dave?
The village where I live has three PCPs (green cabinets), only one of which I’d fibre enabled, and BTOR say they will not be enabling the other two, so whilst I get 70mb/s at one end of the road , people at the other end get around 2 at best. A number of villagers have got togetherness to get these people to bring FTTP to the rest of the village, which I think will be happening in the next year or so. I think it’s only available in some counties but there are similar organisations in other areas. Might be worth getting in touch with them: https://www.gigaclear.com/
Are you folks doing your speed tests with wifi or a hard connection to the modem?
Also do the ISP quoted speeds relate to wifi or connected? I've had a look but haven't found the answer to this.
Are you folks doing your speed tests with wifi or a hard connection to the modem?
Also do the ISP quoted speeds relate to wifi or connected? I've had a look but haven't found the answer to this.
I’ve got an app on my Apple tablet called “Ookla Speedtest”, and it is measuring directly from the tablet, WiFi speed, to a remote server and back. It even lets you select the server you want to ping off of. So it gives honest end user speeds.
Russell
Mine was via wireless.
Thanks, my Virgin figures are cr@p compared to that, time for a complaint - fat lot of good it will do though!
you minimum advertised will be a wired connection. wifi will vary a lot depending on router and distance from router, etc... bt's wifi is on of the best, while talktalk's is not so good, as their router isnt very good wifi wise. that said, mine is good enough
hifi_dave
02-05-2018, 11:52
Well, this morning, the nice engineer from Open Reach connected us to the fibre equipped green box and we now have............50.2 Mb....:champagne::carrot:
It's something we have been dreaming of the past 11 years since we moved here and I am fascinated at how quick everything is now. Push the button and it does it with no spinning wheels but a part of me is waiting for it to go wrong.
Wish I had my work broadband at home. 170.41Mbps download, 140.92Mbps upload.
Wish I had my work broadband at home. 170.41Mbps download, 140.92Mbps upload.
Jeez the page will arrive. Before you've finished clicking the button
We've just moved from Sky, to the 'VIP package' with Virgin, for half the price! :eek:
£88 a month including line rental, plus all your calls, weekday and weekends, including to mobiles, 350Mbps (Vivid ultra-fast, fibre-optic cable, direct to house) broadband, full Sky package, plus Movies and Sports (both Sky and BT[HD]).
As shown below, I currently get around 60Mbps download speed, with Sky, so can't wait to do a ping test after the Virgin install has gone through! :cool:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1024x768q90/924/3MXQjr.png
Marco.
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 14:21
Mine is crap. Always has been. Doesn't seem to cause me bother though.
http://i64.tinypic.com/15d9urk.jpg
Pieoftheday
02-05-2018, 14:36
Mine is crap. Always has been. Doesn't seem to cause me bother though.
http://i64.tinypic.com/15d9urk.jpg
Just tested mine just managed to get over 5mbps download and struggled to get anywhere near 1mbps upload, drops out a fair bit too:( I'm with sky.would I be better with sky fibre?
Sky fibre is what I've currently got, James. It's pretty good, but if you've got Virgin in your area, it's a no-brainer going for that:)
Marco.
Mine is crap. Always has been. Doesn't seem to cause me bother though.
That's really pish for London, Geoff! Who are you with - and have you not considered switching to another supplier who can offer better performance?
Marco.
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 14:43
I'm with Co-op, but they just use BT network. Should be better, London is not an area you expect to be slow.
I'd switch if it was causing me problems, but it doesn't.
Pieoftheday
02-05-2018, 14:45
Sky fibre is what I've currently got, James. It's pretty good, but if you've got Virgin in your area, it's a no-brainer going for that:)
Marco.
Got about 15months left on my sky contract I'm afraid, besides trying to contact virgin recently when they stuck one of their boxes in front of our house was incredibly difficult, that put me off them
I'm with Co-op, but they just use BT network. Should be better, London is not an area you expect to be slow.
I'd switch if it was causing me problems, but it doesn't.
Fair enough. Things like that would really annoy me though, regardless of it causing me problems or not, as I like to know I'm getting the best I possibly can out of anything I use! :)
Marco.
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 14:50
It's cheap! :lol:
i get decent speed but not fast in todays market. can peak at about 30mbs, but is more likely to be 26...as crow flies am about 150yards from fibre box. cables into the houses are ancient and not great stuff.
Got about 15months left on my sky contract I'm afraid, besides trying to contact virgin recently when they stuck one of their boxes in front of our house was incredibly difficult, that put me off them
Exact opposite of my experience here with Virgin.
The chap I dealt with couldn't have been nicer, more efficient or more helpful! He gave me his card with his mobile number on it, not only for arranging the switch over, but should I ever have any problems with my service, so I can deal directly with him, not a 'faceless call centre', somewhere in Mumbai.
Marco.
It's cheap! :lol:
Lol - that's all that seems to concern you!:D
Good is always more important to me than cheap.
Marco.
Pieoftheday
02-05-2018, 14:57
Exact opposite of my experience here with Virgin. The chap I dealt with couldn't have been nicer, more efficient or more helpful! He gave me his card with his mobile number on it, not only for arranging the switch over, but should I ever have any problems with my service, so I can deal directly with him, not a 'faceless call centre', somewhere in Mumbai.
Marco.
I was trying to make a complaint though:lol: good customer service makes things so much easier dosnt it
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 15:03
Lol - that's all that seems to concern you!:D
Marco.
Damn right. On my pension, I make any savings on outgoings that I can.
Just rebooted the router and PC. Marginally better, but not by much.
http://i65.tinypic.com/307mfph.png
Lol, indeed. That's why now with Virgin I only deal directly with one person, which is also a free call to his mobile:)
It probably helps living in an area where their new fibre-optic stuff has recently been installed, and so they're keen on attracting new customers. We had a card left through our door with the number of their local representative on it, which I simply called (as I was already interested in switching to Virgin), the guy came round within an hour and we signed the deal.
I've since been able to contact him in person no problem, to ask him any questions. I'd give Virgin a go when your contract with Sky runs out.
Marco.
Damn right. On my pension, I make any savings on outgoings that I can.
Just rebooted the router and PC. Marginally better, but not by much.
http://i65.tinypic.com/307mfph.png
Totally get that, but it'd unlikely cost you much (if anything) to switch to a better provider. Have you looked into it at all? :)
Never settle for shite or mediocre unless you have to!;)
Marco.
Pieoftheday
02-05-2018, 15:14
Lol, indeed. That's why now with Virgin I only deal directly with one person, which is also a free call to his mobile:)
It probably helps living in an area where their new fibre-optic stuff has recently been installed, and so they're keen on attracting new customers. We had a card left through our door with the number of their local representative on it, which I simply called (as I was already interested in switching to Virgin), the guy came round within an hour and we signed the deal.
I've since been able to contact him in person no problem, to ask him any questions. I'd give Virgin a go when your contract with Sky runs out.
Marco.
I may well do Marco:)
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 15:17
Totally get that, but it'd unlikely cost you much (if anything) to switch to a better provider. Have you looked into it at all? :)
Marco.
I did. The customer service with co-op is very good though and I like that, so I've stuck with them for over five years. It's only a couple of weeks since they sent me a new router and checked the line for me. I had similar low speeds with previous providers. It's the physical infrastructure that's letting things down and there's no chance of getting fibre-optic here.
Ah I see... In terms of fibre-optic, why not? You're in London, not the back of beyond! :)
Marco.
walpurgis
02-05-2018, 15:43
Ah I see... In terms of fibre-optic, why not? You're in London, not the back of beyond! :)
Marco.
Might as well be. It's a private estate with very few homes in it. They won't spend to lay optical here yet.
I see, well you never know:)
Marco.
From before:
We've just moved from Sky, to the 'VIP package' with Virgin, for half the price! :eek:
£88 a month including line rental, plus all your calls, weekday and weekends, including to mobiles, 350Mbps (Vivid ultra-fast, fibre-optic cable, direct to house) broadband, full Sky package, plus Movies and Sports (both Sky and BT[HD]).
As shown below, I currently get around 60Mbps download speed, with Sky, so can't wait to do a ping test after the Virgin install has gone through! :cool:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1024x768q90/924/3MXQjr.png
Had the Virgin lads in today to carry out the install (thoroughly nice guys and very professional), took a couple of hours to get it all in and set-up. Anyway, I've just done another speed test, after the switch to Vivid 350Mbps ultra-fast broadband (compare the following with the above):
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/921/BQLZff.png
Seems reasonably quick... :eek:
Marco.
You can't fault the old fibre-optic.
It's mental, mate. Movies download virtually not much after you've hit the button, just crazy-fast!!:eek::D
Plus, for whatever reason, the (already excellent) picture quality with the previous Sky Q box has been notably bettered, in terms of resolution and clarity, perhaps because it wasn't fully 4K HDR compatible, which the Virgin V6 box is, so that was a nice free upgrade!:cool:
I'll be doing a separate write-up about that in the AV section.
Marco.
Mine improved a lot when they put the V6 in. Much sharper.
One other thought is that it might not just be as a result of the V6, but also the fibre-optic cable, or moreover, receiving a TV signal underground (optimised through 'fibre-to-the-home'), as opposed to via a satellite dish?
Marco.
It could be a contributor but I've had fibre optic since 1996 so in my case the improvement can only be down to the new box.
Have you done a speed test recently? If not, could you do one and publish the results, as I'd like to see what you're getting with your fibre-optic :)
Click here: http://www.speedtest.net/
Marco.
https://i.imgur.com/we877v9.png
That's via wireless.
walpurgis
20-05-2018, 13:09
Bit better than mine then.
http://i67.tinypic.com/108gx0k.png
https://i.imgur.com/we877v9.png
That's via wireless.
Interesting... Thanks for that, so you're obviously not linked up to the super-fast stuff:)
Marco.
From before:
Had the Virgin lads in today to carry out the install (thoroughly nice guys and very professional), took a couple of hours to get it all in and set-up. Anyway, I've just done another speed test, after the switch to Vivid 350Mbps ultra-fast broadband (compare the following with the above):
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/921/BQLZff.png
Seems reasonably quick... :eek:
Marco.
Dont get virgins around here [emoji12]
Interesting... Thanks for that, so you're obviously not linked up to the super-fast stuff:)
Marco.
Yes, been on fibre optic here since 1996. First place in the country to get it I think.
Dont get virgins around here [emoji12]
Yesh, 'cos you've deflowered them all! :eyebrows:
Marco.
Yes, been on fibre optic here since 1996. First place in the country to get it I think.
That's cool, but unfortunately you're not getting anything like the same speeds as me.... I'd phone up Virgin and ask them to sort it. Should be pretty easy, as the 'infrastructure' is already in place:)
Marco.
That's cool, but unfortunately you're not getting anything like the same speeds as me.... I'd phone up Virgin and ask them to sort it. Should be pretty easy, as the 'infrastructure' is already in place:)
Marco.
It might be to do with my contract. I've been on the same one for almost 20 years. Or it's some IT thing I've got no knowledge of. Anyway 75 meg is way more than I'll ever need. It's more than ten times what Geoff is getting and his internet seems to work fine.
Yesh, 'cos you've deflowered them all! :eyebrows:
Marco.
one tries...;)
It might be to do with my contract. I've been on the same one for almost 20 years. Or it's some IT thing I've got no knowledge of. Anyway 75 meg is way more than I'll ever need. It's more than ten times what Geoff is getting and his internet seems to work fine.
Cool, I get that. For me though, "fine" isn't enough. I like super-quick page loading, with ZERO 'hanging' or dropouts, and rapid movie downloads. Plus, the Wi-Fi signal is so strong here now that I can use the laptop outside in the car, at the bottom of my drive!:D
Marco.
Cool, I get that. For me though, "fine" isn't enough. I like super-quick page loading, with ZERO 'hanging' or dropouts, and rapid movie downloads. Plus, the Wi-Fi signal is so strong here now that I can use the laptop outside in the car, at the bottom of my drive!:D
Marco.
Put it this way. To stream a 4K film you need 25 meg of spare bandwidth. So with 75 meg I could have 3 people in my house all watching 4K films - wirelessly - at the same time.
Since there is only me here and I don't stream anything I'd say I'm pretty much covered for my needs. Since there's only you and Del at your place you're getting massive overkill. Not that there's anything wrong with massive overkill, better to have it and not need it etc.
Exactly... And I like that type of overkill - just like having a huge, fuck off linear PSU, inside a CDP, or suchlike... Total overkill, but it just makes everything work more smoothly and effortlessly.
It's also why, with computers, I load them with the maximum amount of memory [everything just runs quicker and with less glitches] - and so it is with megabytes, when it comes to Internet broadband:)
Marco.
We recently got a new router, no extra cost, XFinity sent it to us as an upgrade. WiFi went from about 23mbps to 103mbps! And, better antenna coverage too. But darn if many websites are just as slow as they ever were. Facebook being one. I can watch videos from YouTube with no trouble, but try to watch a video on Facebook and it still stalls after the first 5 seconds, I guess we know who the slow poke is now? I wouldn’t mess with Facebook at all, but it’s where my musician friends post our music videos. And they are not alone, many sites are no faster at all, perhaps they need an upgrade?
Russell
nonuffin
28-05-2018, 20:28
We recently got a new router, no extra cost, XFinity sent it to us as an upgrade. WiFi went from about 23mbps to 103mbps! And, better antenna coverage too. But darn if many websites are just as slow as they ever were. Facebook being one. I can watch videos from YouTube with no trouble, but try to watch a video on Facebook and it still stalls after the first 5 seconds, I guess we know who the slow poke is now? I wouldn’t mess with Facebook at all, but it’s where my musician friends post our music videos. And they are not alone, many sites are no faster at all, perhaps they need an upgrade?
Russell
I think it's a peculiarity with facebook as I have the same problem watching a video there, whereas youtube and other online videos I have no buffering breaks at all. I have scoured facebook's control panel to no avail and the internet gurus don't have a definitive answer either.
Sorry to hear of your problems with Facebook, Russell. Hope you can get it sorted. Ditto for Dominic.
I've just watched a couple of videos on Facebook, with no issues - both uploaded and played just as quick and slick as those on YouTube. Therefore, it's clearly not a Facebook issue, which means you can hopefully do something to speed things up at your end :cool:
Marco.
Virgin have just upped their 4g speeds by 40%.. mine is now faster than my best broadband
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181106/4670c811bbe1e9a240f9109fd6c2e885.jpg
Nice one, mate. One day you'll catch up with Gaz and me!:eyebrows:
Marco.
walpurgis
06-11-2018, 19:37
Mine remains crap!
http://i68.tinypic.com/alkeq1.png
Not that bad for normal copper. Mine was about 3mbs at best til I went to fibre. Impressed by my 4g speed as it was usually only about 8mbs
Audio Al
06-11-2018, 23:27
46.33 mbps download
3.05 mbps upload
hifi_dave
07-11-2018, 11:22
Despite all the gloom and doom from BT, Virgin, Sky, Talk Talk etc, etc, saying that we could never have decent Broadband because we are 3 miles from the 'green box', we now run at over 80 mbps. Just now it was 85 and wonderful.
What happened was that BT ran fibre from the exchange to the box and despite us having copper from there to us, we can get good speeds. If we pay more, we can go faster but that's not necessary for us.
So it can be done.
MikeMusic
08-11-2018, 15:10
Goes to show you can get decent service if you keep talking
hifi_dave
08-11-2018, 16:24
Not sure about that. We "talked" to BT for 12 years and couldn't get more than 1.2 mbps. We also talked with just about every other internet suppliers and the answer was always that we are 3 miles from the box with copper cable, so it can't get better. And that was it until BT put fibre to the box and bingo - we now have fast broadband.
MikeMusic
10-11-2018, 13:38
Did your asking bring that closer or happy coincidence ?
hifi_dave
10-11-2018, 15:25
We have been asking BT and every other company we could think of for 12 years but to no avail. It was just the fact that BT fibre equipped our box (3 miles away) which gave us speedy broadband. No amount of asking, not even via our MP, did any good.
MikeMusic
12-11-2018, 12:05
Your turn for some good karma Dave
:)
hifi_dave
12-11-2018, 15:19
I have to count my blessings..:thumbsup:
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