Hmmmmmmm ........very inconsistent speeds for me lately !!

[Lance]

Hopefully BT will sort out the contention, where ever it is!

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

" It's annoying, I know. Not long after I joined IDNet my exchange became congested and it took BT 4 weeks to do anything about it. "


Was this after an outcry from BT users or do they internal monitoring to identify when an exchange becomes snowed under, but I draw your attention to BT confirmation that my exchange is only 38% utilised.

James

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

another piece of the equation which doesnt add up to BT congestion is as follows

Results for exchange: **********Congestion
Congestion status on this exchange is  GREEN.

Your telephone line is on an un-congested exchange.

Major Service Outages
There are no Major Service Outages on your line at this present time


Something just does not add up here.

James

[Lance]

They must use internal monitoring. It just seems that they are taking reactive action, rather than preventive, and they take as long as they want to do it.

Whilst your VP may only be 38% utilised, the ATM switch, or the BT backhaul (both of which carry the traffic for all the virtual paths at your exchange) may be congested. Take a look at the diagram here

[Lance]

another piece of the equation which doesnt add up to BT congestion is as follows

Results for exchange: **********Congestion
Congestion status on this exchange is  GREEN.

Your telephone line is on an un-congested exchange.

Major Service Outages
There are no Major Service Outages on your line at this present time


Something just does not add up here.

James

Does it say when this was updated? It may be a couple of weeks old. Plus BT haven't always been the most honest when it comes to report the exchange status. I had problems at least one week before they changed the status to red.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

and on the route back upwards we go

Speed Test Results
Date 10/03/08 22:21:20
Speed Down 6004.33 Kbps ( 5.9 Mbps )
Speed Up 372.06 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.adslguide.org.uk

seems to be a "smile" curve thang going on at the minute, top dollar at start of day, rolling off during the late afternoon to a trough and as the night wears on, back up once more.

Only reason I notice it is cos I never had it before with this ISP.

James

[kinmel]

The current contention is not confined to individual exchanges, the BT backbone is not capable of handling all the new data being fed to it by P2P applications like Iplayer.

This problem is affecting all ISPs, including the LLUs, and is not going to go away any-time soon unless BT et al stop P2P from accessing their networks and that is not going to happen.

People who move around different ISPs trying to escape this problem are just chasing their tails.

[Rik]

"The fluctuation will be down to congestion on the BT network but not
necessarily related to your exchange."

It sounds like you are in urgent need of the work BT are doing across their network, James. The problem for all of us is we have to go through BT to reach iDNet.

[davej99]

You read the small print and pay your money. The only commitment needed from an ISP is a thirty day contract. Disappoint your customers and you are out of business.

[davej99]

Based on the last stats I saw BT Wholesale provide about 73% of non-cable broadband connections and the rest are LLU. (About 35% are BT Broadband and 38% are ISP's like IDNET). That is a lot of market share to prejudice by allowing contention to get out of hand, especially when LLU and maybe cable is threatening. BTw certainly have an incentive to address contention to keep market share and stay in business.

The two threats to the LLU sector, and benefits to firms like IDNET, are 21CN roll-out and the end of high BTw pricing. Cable, about the same size as LLU, would like to threaten from under its debt mountain, but at least it provides a competitive dimension, which taken with LLU, may persuade the regulator to let the gloves off. It's all to play for.

Aren't 30 day contacts wonderful?

[kinmel]

Aren't 30 day contacts wonderful?

The problem for many people is the lack of LLUs at their own exchange.

My own choices are any ISP with BTw, or Talktalk LLU.


That's a no-brainer - So IDNet's 30 day contract offers me no useable options to avoid this current BT network contention.

Peeps need to remember that ADSL has always been a BT contended product and that is now becoming apparent.

We know that in the past IDNet have always upgraded their own infrastructure ahead of problems and I believe they are still doing so.

But of course everyone is entitled to find their own coping mechanism for dealing with the new problem and no doubt some will just keep moving around BTw ISPs.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

I telephoned local BT technical support this afternoon and outlined the situation ive been describing as this thread has progressed.

When I told the techie that BT had confirmed that the exchange were I live is 38% utilised, he said there is no possibility that the congestion therefore lies with BT and it has to be IDNET servers that are causing the slowdown and he advised me to take the matter up with IDNet.

You reckon this is a BT brush off or does he have any point ?

James

[Rik]

If he had a point, James, I'd expect this place and TB to be full of people complaining. We're only seeing isolated problems, though.

You also have to question whether he considered the BT network, as well as the exchange.

[Lance]

Like Rik says, if the congestion was on IDNet's network, you would be guaranteed to have more people complaining. It's a BT brush-off I'm afraid.

[plugwash]

Based on the last stats I saw BT Wholesale provide about 73% of non-cable broadband connections and the rest are LLU. (About 35% are BT Broadband and 38% are ISP's like IDNET). That is a lot of market share to prejudice by allowing contention to get out of hand, especially when LLU and maybe cable is threatening. BTw certainly have an incentive to address contention to keep market share and stay in business.

Sky only seem interested in selling bundles, easynet don't seem interested in selling to consumers at all nor even telling me who thier resellers are. I'm know tiscali are worse than BT wholesale and i'm pretty sure talktalk are too. AOL have a reputation for not letting people quit. That covers all the LLU providers at my exchange.

Fact is the majority of the LLU providers are competing on price not performance and as such I really don't think this congestion will hurt BT that much.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

hey rik, bang on the 300 hours and the ole ar7 chipset gave the stale session, i disconnected and powered up again and got this

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
    IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
    DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM)  8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
    Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 6559 kbps


at least my ip profile didnt drop to 6500k, gotta ge grateful for small mercies dude 

James

[Rik]

These days we do, James. The pattern of people experiencing varying speeds doesn't establish a direct cause, but all the indications are that it's BT capacity and, of course, they are now focussing on 21CN, so it might not get better in a hurry.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

forgive me for being a tad off topic rik, but if i got a 2wire 2700 hgv from ebay that was bt branded, is it easy to unlock them ?

james

[Rik]

Yes. They either come with SBC firmware, or you simply use the DNS poisoning technique, which is detailed in the sticky in the 2700 board.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BT-Business-Hub-2WIRE-2700HGV-Wireless-Router_W0QQitemZ200206957010QQihZ010QQcategoryZ91356QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


rik, i have bought this and there is 1 left, its the dual ssid type too , is this the router thats going down very well with idnetters ?

james

[Rik]

That's the one. It will require poisoning.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

how do you do that rik ?

[Rik]

Take a look at Alan's post, it takes you through the whole setup process.

[Dont mention Talk Talk !!]

rik , alans guide has this line for dual ssid type

7 DNS Poisoning. -

DNS Poisoning is not necessary with the Daul SSID version, however if you wish to do so anyway, follow this proceedure:-


why do you suggest it needs done ?

james

[Rik]

On the same grounds that I make multiple backups, James.