Was my connection deliberately throttled?

[Rik]

I find speedtest.net, using the Maidenhead server, to be generally consistent with BT tests, without the fuss or the three-hour wait. Of course, it's no good as evidence for BT.

As you're getting speeds higher than your profile in some tests, you may want to turn off your AV software whilst testing.

[Steve]

My next busy exchange time is late Sunday afternoon.

[Rik]

The 6 o'clock Sunday syndrome, Steve? That's always been the worst time of the week in my experience.

[alan]

I find speedtest.net, using the Maidenhead server, to be generally consistent with BT tests, without the fuss or the three-hour wait. Of course, it's no good as evidence for BT.

.
I think its been reduced to One hour between tests now Rik.

[Rik]

I haven't looked lately.

[Ray]

It has, Alan, I noticed when I used it yesterday.

[azkin13]

My speed tests on BT and Speedtest.net are consistent in that if it's slow on one it's slow on the other and visa versa ....they both now show the speed to vary considerably throughout the day since early January. Prior to this I had a constant 10-12 MB no matter what time of day or night.  I would be interested in seeing other idnet customers speed fluctuations over the same period?  Because mine are starting to remind me of how Supanet went back in the dark days.  I find that between BT and the ISP's they generally blame each other for these speed variations....

[Glenn]

Did the connection drop again at 6pm today?

[azkin13]

It started dropping after 4pm today and went down from over 12 MB to just 2MB by 9pm 

[Steve]

I think we are going over the same ground again, Idnet do not throttle, if they did there would be many similar complaints as we would all be suffering similarly.I am convinced that you are suffering from BT related congestion either at the exchange or your associated VP. Have you had any recent response from BT via Idnet regarding the BT speedtest which was below the minimum threshold.

[azkin13]

Steve,

We are not going over the same old ground, I asked the question - do idnet throttle, if they don't then I'm trying to get a difinitive answer as to why my speeds are dropping all the time since Jan when they were fine for months before then......what are your speeds like, do they fluctuate like mine do?  Nobody has posted any stats of their own speeds for me to compare with, why ? ....except ppl saying idnet don't throttle....is it the BT exchange or some other reason.....I just want to know, is that difficult to comprehend.....

[Niall]

Mine is slower than normal looking at that. I was getting 12mb down with 0.89 up, yesterday. That being said I don't really trust these speed test sites anymore as they were reporting slower speeds than I was actually getting, the last few times I've tried it.

DownStream Connection Speed     11960 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed    863 kbps

These are my stats for today.

[Simon]

Each line is different, so people posting speed comparisons is pretty useless, unless there is a widespread issue, which it doesn't appear that there is, otherwise there would be a lot more posts on here.

I am convinced that you are suffering from BT related congestion either at the exchange or your associated VP.  Have you had any recent response from BT via Idnet regarding the BT speedtest which was below the minimum threshold.

I don't think anyone could give you better advice than Steve has.

[Gary]

Just to show my speed is about where it has been for the last few months, no slow downs at all. This is ADSL MAX

[Niall]

Mine seems to hover around the same speeds on this speedtest.net. If I download a file though, I'll get nearer 12mb.

[Rik]

I'd echo what Steve has said, Az. This has all the hallmarks of a BT issue, either a hot VP or a congested exchange. I see no variation in my pitiful 3.5M line at any time.

[Lance]

I never see a variation in my 8mb (7150 profile) line either. Runs full pelt any time of day or night.

[Technical Ben]

I am not aware of any throttling performed by IDNet,there is supposed to be plenty of capacity on IDNet systems. BT has had local exchange congestion with hot VP's and 21CN congestion issues recently. Obviously from the information supplied everything is now looking ok. Incidentally when your throughput was poor was this mirrored by a reduced router sync?

azkin13, Steve was your second post. Being an administrator, he is not an IDNet spokes person. But that's the most you will get on an unofficial forum. Until an employee posts here at least (they are under no obligation to). If you received a email or phone call from IDNet, I would believe them.
I'm getting to the point where I no longer trust any business. Although that is probably to extreme, as there are still honest people around. I do believe IDNet is still one of them.

[D-Dan]

My speedtests are consistent whatever time of day I try, and whichever day I choose they are always in the top 5 at DSLZone, and I get consistent results at both BT and speedtest.net. My profile is 6,500 and I always get throughput at around 6.2 Mbs.

Steve

[azkin13]

Simon, Rik, thanks for the feedback, yes Steve may be right that it is congestion at the exchange, but my disappointment is with idnet for not giving any reason for the huge fluctuations I have been seeing, down to 2MB from 12MB over a period on Sunday.  Not even suggesting it is congestion at the exchange. This is what I received a couple of days ago from idnet support:

"There are currently no faults within the exchange which BT are reporting. The nature of the service means that it is likely you will see some fluctuation in speed, particularly at peak times however service should remain within acceptable ranges. Please ensure any tests are carried out using a wired connection rather than wireless."

I don't think 1000-99999 Kbps is an acceptable range, that is a cop out for BT and the ISP's in my opinion.

This is my speed test tonight on the BT site:

Test at 17.52 08/03/2010 (Belkin)
Download speed achieved during the test was - 12557 Kbps
For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 1000-99999 Kbps.
Additional Information:
Your DSL Connection Rate :13688 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 832 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 12000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 13.85:24.15:62.01 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

and I am happy with that sort of speed which was what I had been seeing constantly when I upgraded my service with idnet last year.  It's the wide fluctuations in speed _happening now_ thats annoying because no-one officially will tell me what is causing it.  I'll accept that Steve is probably right, congestion at the exchange, shame that idnet or BT won't confirm this 

Cheers all and end of rants on this subject from me now....I'll live with it...I still believe idnet are one of the better ISP's...

Az
ps Tech Ben and D-Dan, glad your speeds are constant whatever time, day or night, mine used to be like that too until Jan onwards....but I don't see reduced router sync speeds...they are always around 14000-15000 Kbps downstream.

[Steve]

There is probably a way out but it will cost more per month and that is to get traffic priority at the exchange.Have the weekday evenings been any better since the Olympics finished?

[D-Dan]

Oh - I never thought of that - and I'm pretty sure I pay for priority here. Sorry to muddy the waters.

[Rik]

Az

The acceptable speeds are purely a BT cop-out. As long as your speeds remain within that range, all ISPs are stuck with being unable to raise a fault with BT. It's a bit like buying a car which has a top speed of between 30 & 120mph. No car manufacturer would get away with that, but BT can.

[Simon_idnet]

To take the analogy a little further; it's like a car manufacturer saying that they can supply you with a car that can go at 120mph but also pointing out that during rush-hour the roads might be so busy that you won't be able to go that fast. Now, if you wanted to buy your very own road so that we could guarantee that you would never be sharing it with any other cars we can do that. Of course you'd have to pay the full cost of that road as the cost couldn't be shared with any other drivers...

We have asked BT if azkin13's exchange is showing any congestion and they've said not. The evidence indicates otherwise but without any concrete admission we would only be speculating.
Simon

[Rik]

Thanks, Simon, I like the extended analogy.