broadband max speed help

[Jonesy]

Hey does anyone have a number i can ring that will tell me the max speed my phoneline accepts and whether there will be any possible upgrades in the future.

My phone line is with bt, and my broadband provider is aol.

I'm on the gold package costing 25 quid a month which is meant to provide 2 meg but i only get 1 meg, i might as well downgrade to the 17.99 a month for 1 meg, as its a waste of money.

i wanna change providers been with aol for much longer than a year but before i do i wanna know the max speed i can get.

Thanks

Allan

 

[DaveJwxm]

think if u go to bt broadband web site and check avalability it tells u the max speed avaliable on your line

 

[DaveJwxm]

http://www.bt.com/broadband/bb_info...obsPage=/index.jsp&obsType=LINK&obsOID=112066


half way down page

 

[DaveJwxm]

i can get 3Mb speed now , wow only used to be 1Mb

 

[Griff]

Any phone number or database you check with will only tell you the max speed your exchange supports whether it's ADSL over IPStream or LLU or ADSL2+ over LLU.

Only physically checking the relevant properties of your line will tell you the real (physical) speed it can support.

Anything else that claims to tell you different will be a guess/estiamte based on straight line distance (from your postcode or phone number) and is useless.

 

[Jonesy]

ok that checker seems to say i can have 3 meg, so how come my package with aol is up to 2 meg but im still on 1???


Griff how do i do this "Only physically checking the relevant properties of your line will tell you the real (physical) speed it can support."

thanks

 

[Griff]

By looking at your Attenuation, SNR compared against your current sync rate you can get a good idea of what speed your line will physically support.

Most decent routers "should" report these stats with a good degree of accuracy.

 

[Jonesy]

Ok tiscali can offer unlimted upto 8 meg for 17.99 a month, and they say my line can take upto 3 meg as well. Im happy with that, anyelse with tiscali are they good with customer service etc.

probably gonna cancel aol 2day, im fed up with them and going thro to india everytime i have a problem!

 

[Jonesy]

i found the Line Attenuation is downstream 47.0db and upstream is 29.0db, cant find the other settings i have a netgear dg834gt router

 

[Griff]

Suggests you line length is 2.5km - 3.0km long. Without SNR and your current sync it's impossible to say much more.

 

[Jonesy]

just spent over half hour on phone to aol, spoke to like 6 different people, cant get a mac code as someone fuked up the change over when i went from isdn to bb a few years ago, ive been with aol for 5 f**king years!!!! h8 them c***s gotta wait untill 11th july, day before next payment is due then cancel and be without bb untill i sign up and get the new provider working. FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im sure they are lying to me, they cant even check my line or anything they are useless!

 

[bladerunner]

Just a word of warning about max, it is upto 8mbps, I had a nice 2mb line, now my speedtests are around 1.4 - 1.7 mbps, i'am going back to my 2meg line, because on max it is too inconsistent. BT are gits when trying to get problems dealt with regarding ADSLMax, because your isp still has to raise a fault with them.

Try adslguide.org, to get a clearer picture on max, and also a good list of isp's on there, Zen are supposed to be good.

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.htm scroll down to netgear DG834, should tell you how to get SNR

 

[Jonesy]

thx dude i no about the max business, but id be happy with anything faster than 1 meg tbh, just looking for decent providers at the mo, gotta be fast and have unlimted downloads.

ill check out that link for snr

 

[Jonesy]

heres that page it says to go, this is where i got the Line Attenuation from, cant see any snr setting

 

[Jonesy]

any1 heared of a company called offcom, i was told by the tiscali help line that they may be able to help me get my mac code from aol.

they have a site www.offcom.org.uk.

anyone used them before, i tried ringing but they are closed gotta try back 2moro.

 

[Griff]

heres that page it says to go, this is where i got the Line Attenuation from, cant see any snr setting

You'll be ok for 3meg over IPstream and "should" be ok if for 4meg if there's a LLU supplier in your area.

(SNR is shown as "Noise Margin" on your router)

 

[Griff]

any1 heared of a company called offcom, i was told by the tiscali help line that they may be able to help me get my mac code from aol.

they have a site www.offcom.org.uk.

anyone used them before, i tried ringing but they are closed gotta try back 2moro.

Ofcom are a regulating body rather than a company.

 

[bladerunner]

Hardly anyone does truly unlimited, Tiscali say unlimited but they got fair use policy, as soon as you do a couple of gig downloads, they will cap your speed to 64k or there abouts. Go for one that has got a 50gig cap and no traffic shaping.

 

[Jonesy]

i would prefer no cap, as of lately i have been downloading probably around 50 gig maybe even more from newsgroups, its ok with aol as i dont think they care and have no caps.

So i need to find an uncapped company that has decent prices, any suggestions.

Thanks for your help guys

Allan

 

[bladerunner]

Alot of ISP's go bust or change there usage policy, because they offer no caps, because they have to pay BT per GB/MB, if they get loads of leechers downloading alot of stuff, then there main pipes will get saturated, and then speeds grind to a halt.

There is one offering unlimited atm, they are called ACE internet, check adslguide for more details m8. I think you should keep moving providers to keep with unlimited. As people will join an unlimited ISP (not tiscali or aol, one of the smaller ones), kill it and then move on.

 

[TheCake]

ACE Internet have just changed their wording on their policy after saturation mate. It was all over ADSL Guide yesterday.

 

[bladerunner]

Up to 6pm is shaped, but after that i think its ok, but i dont think anyone can consistantly have unlimited, unless you want a dedicated line, or LLU possibly.