speed checks

[Den]

  Hi all, It seems BT has been mucking about and set my profile to low. Had a phone call from idnet today (Miriam) to say that she has contacted BT and that they have been having problems so they have agreed to set my profile higher in keeping with my line settings and it will now be back on the learning curve for the next 10days when I should be back up to the speeds expected.
Will let you know how it goes. Den 

[Lance]

You can always trust bt to cause problems somewhere along the line!

[Den]

Just two days to go, I can`t wait. First thing in the morning and some times during the day I can not retrieve emails or go onto the web, also sometimes everthing runs so slow. If I reboot my router it logs on and/or runs much faster. Top speed so far about 1930kbs. As the training period is up on Friday, what happens then? Do I wake up in the morning and all is well or does it some how happen during the day? Just don`t know what to expect. Although I have had to reboot my router, power has been left on 24/7.    In hope.

[Rik]

Hi Den

Friday will be a bit of an anti-climax I'm afraid as nothing will change, except that IDNet will be able to raise a fault with BT if necessary. TBH, the only thing that really happens during the 10 days is that your MSR and FTR are set (ask if you want to know what the acronyms stand for). Of these, FTR is the one that interests as is determines at what speed BT will consider a line faulty.

The problems accessing the web and/or email are not normal and we need to establish why that is happening. Can you post your line stats please?

[Den]

Tried to do a speed check (on bbmax) but it was so slow it did not start. Rebooted and tried again 1180 down and 358 up.

[Den]

Just checked router.
7168 down.  448up
Noise margin: 5.6dB    23dB
Output: 19.7dBm    11.9dBm
Attenuation:  43dB   26dBm

Hope this helps (I just want the speeds I was getting) 

[Den]

BT speedtest. Profile: 2000kbps.   Up: 448kbps.  Down: 7168kbps.   Actual:  1816kbps

On BBMax test it should have stated 1880kbps down not 1180kbps. SORRY

[Rik]

With a profile at 2000, it suggests your line has not been stable. Other than your own re-boots, have you noticed the connection dropping much?

Your throughput for the profile is slightly low, and you might be able to tweak another 40-50k out of your machine, however, that's nothing compared to the 6000 profile you should be on. To achieve that profile, you will have to hold the higher sync speed for three days.

Your priority, therefore, should be to ensure that there are no issues being caused by your internal wiring and then, armed with a BT speed test, to contact support. Do bear in mind that, if an engineer is sent out and he finds a fault within your internal wiring (after the master socket), you will be charged upwards of £150, so it's important to do all you can to check the wiring before raising a fault.

[Den]

   Hi all, My 10days were up on Friday. After talking to Andrew Friday and again Monday, BT once again admitted that the profile was set low and have now reset it on 6000  as from about 10.30 this morning. So I now have to see how it goes over the next 3days. At the moment throughput is 1066 how apt is that. . I will keep you informed, Den.

[Rik]

Good luck, don't go Hasting around too much! 

[DorsetBoy]

Ahh,another battle with BT then........

[Den]

I know it`s early days yet and my results will be all over the place for a few days, but I have just achieved 4190kbps on the BT test and 2400 on one of the others I now have lots of faith and am keeping every thing crossed.

[Rik]

You'll find typing hard with everything crossed. 

I'll cross my toes for you - it affects my typing less...

[Den]

I only uncross to type. This morning I achieved 5541kbps on the BT test  Still unstable and had to reboot as it was running slow at first but no doubt this will stablise as time goes by. I could end up a happy bunny.

[Rik]

Having to re-boot is odd, it sounds almost as if you were experiencing a stale session. Did you check the router stats before and after the re-boot?

[DorsetBoy]

I would resist the re-boots at present.Yesterday in particular there were noted problems with speed all over the net,I saw complaints at various sites and experienced low/variable speeds for @ 2 hours then it cleared again.
Blame the weather/Tony Blair/Geoege Bush or more likely our favourite.....BT

[Den]

Hi, Update on today.  Ran to BT tests:
1st at about 7.30am  IP throughput  5581  DSL connection rate  448 up  7008 down.
2nd at 10.20am    IP throughput   4090   DSL connection rate   448 up    7008 down.

Ran tests on speedtest.net
1st at 7.36am  Down: 3326   up: 382
2nd at 8.34am  Down: 1802  up: 382
3rd at 10.13am Down: 353   up: 382

Whats this all about?  When this happens this is when I reboot the router and speed increases (did not reboot this time). 

[Rik]

Is the line stable, ie are you seeing any re-syncs? (The BT speed tests suggest not. What profile did it report?)

Try a different tester, eg Namesco. Do you get more consistent results there?

Speed test sites can give a very distorted perception of what's going on. If their servers are busy, or the route from you to them is, they can give a low reading when there is no problem. I've found the Namesco test to be more consistent than most. Your best test, however, is to download a large file, eg Linux distro, and time that.

If you are getting the kind of variation from your connection that the figures indicate, it would suggest you may be on a congested exchange, check here.

[MoHux]

I hope Rik won't feel he has to delete this (competitor). 

I find these  files invaluable for speed checks.

HTH

[Rik]

I'm not that censorious, Mo, I had a link to PlusNet.

[MoHux]

   Cheers Rik.

[Den]

Rik, Thanks for all your help (so far). The profile on BT test is now set on 6000 so far so good.   

[Rik]

Let us know how you get on.

[Den]

Hi, Just thought you would like to hear that I have just a all time low record.
IP Profile: 6000kbps
Down-stream: 7008kbps
Up-stream: 448kbps
Actual IP throughput:   wait for it...........................55kbps   

[Rik]

Was that the BT tester? Have you tried the Namesco one I linked? Have you checked your exchange status? If you look at your router logs/stats, do they list errors? Finally , what MTU/RWIN are you using?