Broadband Speed in Ratho

[Drew2u]

As a matter of interest, would anyone who reads this mind posting the download speed you are supposed to get and what you actually achieve - along with the name of your broadband provider.

Owing to our distance from the BT exchange I was wondering if anyone was getting more than 1 or 2 Mb/s as I am thinking of switching.

Thanks

DREW

[rathoraiser]

Point in case .. this potentially useful website is too secretive Drew2u ..

[rfmckay]

I'd love to get information on a faster broadband connection too. I can barely get past 512kbps..I'm with Tiscali at present. I had been with BT and I did get around 768kbps sometimes.

[br4]

My current speed is 400Mbps with TalkTalk.

[edroberts]

Hi,
I'm with British Terriblecom, and lucky to get a sustained half-meg connection! (Don't even want to think about the *actual* throughput )
Ed

[Drew2u]

Dont all switch to Sky but this is from my router and is not too shabby.....

Downstream Upstream
1536 Kbps 416 Kbps

Line Attenuation 63.5 dB
this part means you are not gonna get much better than that without moving house

Drew

[AndrewAt66]

The biggest impact on the ADSL connection speed one gets (without moving house ) is the wiring and equipment one uses to get broadband. We get around 1300Kbps Downstream, which isn't too bad, but had to do a few things to get there. In chronological order:

• To start with, we had our wireless ADSL router plugged into a telephone extension. Then, we moved it to be plugged straight into the main 'phone socket in the house (through a microfilter), and got a 25% faster connection. Given it's wireless, it doesn't matter so much where it goes, so now it's hidden under the sofa.
  
• Bought a better microfilter. At £7.99, I had a punt that it would help - it got us an extra 10%, and the connection drops less often.
  
• Got a new wireless ADSL router. We changed ISPs (to Virgin) and they gave us a new router, which we didn't particularly want but it was free. But, I'm glad we got it - took us from 800Kbps to where we are now. The previous one was a cheapo model, a few years old, the new one is a Netgear DG384G.
  

So, if people's connection speed is below the 1Mbit mark, I'd suggest seeing if you can get your router/modem plugged straight into the main 'phone socket, even on a temporary basis, just to see what you could theoretically get. If that gets you a good connection speed, but you don't have wireless, shop around for a wireless router, or maybe think about changing ISPs - many of them will throw a wireless router into the deal if you agree not to change ISPs for 12 months.

[catzi]

Hi there, I currently have 2mb exactly download and 448k upload. The 2Mb seems to have been fairly stable for the last few weeks but, from experience, it can occasionally drop to as low as 1mb. Usually a reboot of the router can sort that out.

The biggest problem with broadband in Carrickstone is the ludicrous distance to the exchange. While you can do the best you can, like connecting routers directly to the master socket etc etc, in the end I think around 2mb is the best we can expect until BT rolls out fibre to the green boxes in the street.

As far as ISP's go, we're with Zen Internet which is definitely one of the best in the UK in terms of quality and knowledgeable support but is quite expensive when compared to the likes of Talk Talk.

[Drew2u]

This is the fastest I have been able to achieve.



Test your own broadband connection here www.speedtest.net/

[catzi]

Seems to be a bit variable when you test though.

[Drew2u]

My line speed has dropped again but at 2Mbs the line was building up loads of errors and lost packets (up to 25%) meaning PS3 online was a bit unresponsive and I was getting beat a lot more than usual on FIFA !!



So the line is running slower but the online gaming is much better.



YMMV

[catzi]

Still not great, but better than it was! - I'm with BT now.