Another Line from Hell or Beyond.

[Kheldar]

after many years of enjoying cable we recently moved and found ourselves needing an adsl connection.

now it appears that despite only moving a few miles away to a pretty big 'village' on the edge of the big town in which we used to live we have little chance of a decent connection. (so we're in the Live With It option as opposed to the Move option  )

using the resources people have posted i've found out we're 3.05 km from our exchange.....this is probably bad i would imagine !    maybe bt will build a new exchange !

after a bad experience with purple or blue or wotever that company is called  i'm now with IDnet (about 3 weeks now) but on a really basic 1mb connection - which i have to say is soooooooooooooooooooooooo slow.

initially after we moved in bt checkers were saying we could expect a speed of around 5.5mb.  but after all the issues with the previous company the speeds they started reporting were 1mb adsl and 512k for MAX!   

i understand that once you go on adsl there is this 10 day period during which time your connection is monitored in some way and then 'set' to a level which is meant to be stable ?

i've just recently rechecked these checkers and now they are reporting :


'Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 2Mbps.


Our test also indicates that your line should be able to support a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 2.5Mbps or greater.'

So my question is, given that it appears i'm not going to get much joy from trying to get a new line or paying for a new line as per the other thread should i look to see if my line really does support the speeds the above says and upgrade my account ?

or am i likely to see my connection speeds become erratic ?

would a standard 2mb connection be likely to prove better than an ADSL MAX one which might be slight quicker ?

i usually play a lot of online games so a decent connection was/is important. i'd like to get back into playing Wow again and even try CS after a long break.

so is a slower but hopefully more stable connection better than trying for a faster but potentially less stable one in the world of ADSL ? the idea of a MAX connection of 2.5 or greater is very appealing !

i feel like i've moved house and gone back into the stone age of computer communications. and i rememeber the days of having my own 1200 baud modem (pace linnet iirc) for 'surfing' and then 'borrowing' a big black box which cost a damned fortune at the time from work on a regular basis cos it was a 2400 baud modem 

thanks.

[Lance]

Welcome to the forum Kheldar

I would suggest that you try the MAX connection first. If you find that it doesn't work out for you, you could then change to a 2mb fixed connection.

You should be able to get a stable connection on MAX for gaming, although the speed at which this stability is acheived can only be determined from trying it out!

[Inactive]

Welcome to the forum Keldhar;

[Tanzanite]

[Rik]

Hi Kheldar

Welcome to the forum.

As Lance says, it's worth trying Max first, though if you have any line stats, ie d/s attenuation, we could make a better guess at what you might achieve. Given your distance from the exchange, which is about the same as mine, I think a 2.5Mbps Max connection is probably about right. The issue for you may be one of stability. If your line proves unstable, then interleaving is likely to be turned on, which will impact on latency - not ideal for a gamer.

[DorsetBoy]

Give Max a try,it is the only way to find out.The truth about BT and their checkers is that they just don't know what you will get.

I know of a user that is over 3 miles from the exchange and gets a stable 4000kbps on Max,yet others that are only @ 1Km away from their exchange can barely get 1000kbps.

If you try it,use a router and the stats will soon tell you what you need to know.

[Kheldar]

Thanks All



I'll chat to IDnet about my upgrading options and costs etc

Also i will look into doing some speed tests and getting some router/line stats for you later when i'm at home.

hopefully the sticky will give me some info about how i get these stats displayed to post for you all.

from reading on here i understand interleaving being turned on will not be good for (quick action FPS's) games due to the increased lag/latency ?

having said that if i cant game as much the wife would celebrate 

[Lance]

With interleaving turned on you can expect an extra 20 to 40ms added to your ping, which depending on the game, may or may not make a difference.

However, if it is a problem you can give support a ring and they can ask BT to turn it off.

[Kheldar]

Thanks Lance.

potentially quite a lot for something like CS but maybe not a problem for WoW.

so what is the advantage of interleaving be on (or auto)? ie if i did request it turned off for gaming purposes would i suffer in other ways ?

[Rik]

Interleaving adds stability to the line, it's usually turned on if you suffer a lot of synchronisation losses. That said, I have interleaving on, but still ping the BBC in an average of 21ms.

[Tanzanite]

Sorry for gatecrashing but these are my pings to bbc, it's bad isn't it? I know nothing about pings!

Minimum = 34ms, Maximum =  368ms, Average =  152ms

[Rik]

Those are terrible, Eve. Try pinging the BBC and IDNet with the -n switch, eg ping www.idnet.net -n 20. If the results are still bad, cut'n'paste them into and email and send it to support.

[Tanzanite]

What does it mean though?

I don't know what pings are meant to be.

This is bbc one: Min 33ms, Max 40ms, Average 35ms

Idnet: Min 32ms, Max 42ms, Average 34ms

[Tanzanite]

By the way, I have interleaving on too.

[Rik]

Pings aren't meant to be anything, Eve, they are just a measurement of how long it takes you to reach a given website. If you ping a US site, you'll find it takes longer, for example. What matters to gamers is that their lines have low latency, or pings, so that they can respond quickly in a game. For the rest of us, pings are just a way of testing the connection.

[Tanzanite]

I do notice webpages take a  while to load and a certain game I use on my Nintendo DS through WIFI does lag quite a bit and when I play bingo online I hit the bingo button but someone else gets it! 

[Rik]

If you ping the affected sites, you'll get an idea of what's happening, Eve. Most of the time, despite having interleaving on, I see 20-22ms to the BBC and IDNet. I have seen times around 168ms, but there was a network problem at the time, which Simon soon sorted.

If you are getting erratic or high pings, it could be network congestion, server congestion/load or even exchange congestion (I notice times creep up during school holidays, for example, but usually I find that it's a server load issue).

[Tanzanite]

Um, I think it's always been like that 

[Rik]

Well, collect some stats and let support take a look at them.

[Inactive]

Um, I think it's always been like that 

Are you related to Old Bill by chance?

[Tanzanite]

I will do, just been bashing out an email with a load of stats and also history of the extension socket being wired incorrectly and being repaired and all the disconnections etc etc.

[Tanzanite]

Are you related to Old Bill by chance?

lmao! Don't think mine's quite as bad as that but would still be easier to move house! Actually a house came up recently that was very near to the exchange, not in a position to move just yet though but I do want to move, this house needs demolishing the state it's in!

[Rik]

Of course, there is a more serious issue here. None of us should be caught up in the 'chase 8Mbps' race. Very few people achieve that, and I know I never will till I move, if then. What we should, realistically, be looking for is the fastest stable service we can achieve.

[Kheldar]

well i've just spoken to idnet and they are going to get me onto the Max connection and see if i can get a faster connection 

roll on 10 days.

[Rik]

We'll watch with interest.