O2 Broadband & Adsl

[Kazi]

Finaly after some near 12 months of no broadband I've decided enough is enough. Been using a 3 dongle for a couple of months which has been fine as a stop gap together with my Iphone which has been ok as a temp measure....

However, now i've set up a BT landline which I swore Id never do! And i've taken O2's broadband package as they very competitive and score very highly from users alike and Be customers. My problem is im now drawing a blank on the slow speed.

My line is maxing out at 330kps at best and a similar upload speed if not at times faster uploads. Spoken to O2 and BT to resolve this and both don't really have any definite answers of yet, but they both agree on one thing, my speed should be higher. O2 say my speed taken in to consideration the distance from exchange should be 3-4 mb but the line is only achieving 500kps to their tests. BT on the other hand is saying thats all my line will take.....

Any IT peeps that can help?

Cheers...

[Steve_D]

Try a free software called TCP optimizer (google it), it worked for my pc & sky connection :)

Also if its a wireless router you have then try connecting with the ethernet cable to see if it makes any difference?

[Kazi]

Try a free software called TCP optimizer (google it), it worked for my pc & sky connection :)

Also if its a wireless router you have then try connecting with the ethernet cable to see if it makes any difference?

Cheers fella, tried the ethernet cable...not difference. Looks like im going to have to wait for o2/BT to come up with a solution. Just wish their was cable coverage in m area!!!!

[Steve_D]

Maybe there's a problem at their exchange? I had that once with AOL.

[Kazi]

O2 are running a 24 hour test im told.....if any faults are found, which im sure they will find, they will aim to resolve them within 48 hours...

Last resort on here to see if any others had issues in the past. Im guessing from the tests ive done online its either a line fault, exchange or hardware fault with the Router.

[P4UL T]

I don't know if you have or not, but you should try AVforums for this type of help, they are very good

[Steviewevie]

My line is maxing out at 330kps at best and a similar upload speed if not at times faster uploads. Spoken to O2 and BT to resolve this and both don't really have any definite answers of yet, but they both agree on one thing, my speed should be higher. O2 say my speed taken in to consideration the distance from exchange should be 3-4 mb but the line is only achieving 500kps to their tests. BT on the other hand is saying thats all my line will take.....

Is that 330 Kbits/sec or 330 KByte/sec ? Similarly is is 3-4 Mbit/sec or 3-4 MByte/sec that O2 are expecting ? I imagine it must be 3-4 Mbit/sec, which works out at 384-512 MByes/sec. If you are getting 330 KByte/sec then that doesn't sound bad.

[Kazi]

My line is maxing out at 330kps at best and a similar upload speed if not at times faster uploads. Spoken to O2 and BT to resolve this and both don't really have any definite answers of yet, but they both agree on one thing, my speed should be higher. O2 say my speed taken in to consideration the distance from exchange should be 3-4 mb but the line is only achieving 500kps to their tests. BT on the other hand is saying thats all my line will take.....

Is that 330 Kbits/sec or 330 KByte/sec ? Similarly is is 3-4 Mbit/sec or 3-4 MByte/sec that O2 are expecting ? I imagine it must be 3-4 Mbit/sec, which works out at 384-512 MByes/sec. If you are getting 330 KByte/sec then that doesn't sound bad.

Its 0.33/0.35mbs, which works out at 330kbps.....which is slow. Very slow! My Iphone in EDGE coverage can achieve a faster speed. Without EDGE its not much slower....

[Steviewevie]

Is that 330 Kbits/sec or 330 KByte/sec ? Similarly is is 3-4 Mbit/sec or 3-4 MByte/sec that O2 are expecting ? I imagine it must be 3-4 Mbit/sec, which works out at 384-512 MByes/sec. If you are getting 330 KByte/sec then that doesn't sound bad.

Its 0.33/0.35mbs, which works out at 330kbps.....which is slow. Very slow! My Iphone in EDGE coverage can achieve a faster speed. Without EDGE its not much slower....

Sorry but that's still not clear to me. 0.33 MBit/sec would be slow, but 0.33 MByte/sec wouldn't be slow. Sorry if I appear to be insulting your intelligence here, but a byte is 8 bits. Broadband speeds are usually quoted in *bits*, e.g. where O2 are saying you should be getting 3-4 Mbit/sec (no way would you get 3-4 Mbyte/sec).

If you are getting 330 KBytes/sec then that sounds quite reasonable. If you are only getting 330 Kbit/sec then it isn't. Usually when you look at file sizes on your computer, and other such info it's rated in *bytes* which is 8 times less than the number of *bits* involved. There can be a lot of confusion given the fact that broadband speeds are rated in bits, not bytes normally.

[Mark W]

you also have to consider the overhead of the tcp/ip protocol which effectively adds another ~2 bits to each byte so rather than divide by 8 you need to divide by 10.

Go to a command prompt (start, Run, cmd) and ping a UK based site (not this forum it's actually hosted in the us) and a us site.

Post the results on here

Also do a trace route (tracert www.hmrc.gov.UK as an example) and post these results too.

[Kazi]

Figured it would be easier to post my last test up

and again

[Mark W]

that's terrible rate and ping time but please can you do as I originally asked as gives more info- 4 attempts plus I can see if you are getting dropped packets or all are just slow

Also the tracert will show me the routing and how many hops it takes to access a site

[Mark W]

forgot to add- do you know how to access the config page for your router?

If so- check what speed your line is synching at - infact post all the line stats Inc SNR levels etc

If not let me know and I'll explain how

Edited August 20, 2008 by Mark W

[Kazi]

Gonna have to check tomoz. Thanks for the help so far.

Mark W - Can't press 'Start' key as I use a apple Mac....will be back tomoz to check things. Cheers dude

[Steviewevie]

ok, Speedtest.net gives results in Kbits/sec so that is very slow. I have a 2 Mbit cable connection and on that site it shows me as 1977 kbits/sec download.

[Kazi]

ok, Speedtest.net gives results in Kbits/sec so that is very slow. I have a 2 Mbit cable connection and on that site it shows me as 1977 kbits/sec download.

Which is what I tested my existing cable connection at another property....

The 24 hour line test O2 are doing should conclude at about 2 o'clock, so will post up their findings here. Cheers fellas.

[Kazi]

Had another router delivered, installed it to no avail. Spoke to BT and the fobbed me off with this so called 10 day line period in which their systems test the line etc etc.

Think another call to O2 to see what they can do....getting very frustrating!!

[PeterH9572]

One more thing - I seem to recall some threads elsewhere about issues with certain router chipsets and certain BT Line cards... I think the Thomson was ok but may be worth a google.

[PeterH9572]

Hi Kazi

Sorry to hear you are having problems - I moved from BT to o2 this year and have been on - but then I'm only 2km from the exchange.

As someone else suggested you need to check the stats on the router to see if it's syncing ok, I don't use the Thomson o2 supply so I haven't seen what it has - I suspect it'll be minimal but it might give an idea. You need to see if the problem is the connection or not.

You don't say if you've gone through the usual checks so.... as a test I always recommend removing everything else from the phone system to test - if you have a "proper" BT master socket take out the lower panel and plug the microfilter in the hidden socket - this should cut out all your internal wiring, sometimes that and the phines can cause problems.

If this isn't possible just unplug everything except the router (make sure you remember sky boxes and fax machines (faxes cause me the greatest issues with BB) then reboot the router and see what you get. As you have such a low speed you should see if there's a difference straight away. If there is it's a process of elimination - connecting stuff until you find a fault.... last one of those I saw was a dodgy skybox - worked fine - would dial up etc but put a nasty hum on the lne when connected, so I disconnected it. Whn Sky rang the customer to say "we can't see the box anymore" she told them her BB supplier had condemned it and they tried to charge for a repair! One other thing is to change the microfilter - they DO go faulty and some are better than others (the BT ones are expensive but good - the cheapies can be just as good but quality varies so it's worth a swap or two)

Anyway - if problem is stil there then it's unlikely to be your bit. BT can test the line for simple faults but sometimes it's just the quality of the copper (or sometimes aluminium) which causes a problem - BT should be capable of finding it but will be reluctant unless pushed by o2. Have you tried picking up the phone and dialling 1 then listening - it should be pretty much silent - if there are hums or crackles they are going to induce errors, mention them to o2,BT Ask for a pair change.

If the line speed is OK there may be other issues with the PC or the network connection - I doubt that though as you seem to have done those tests and anyway they shouldn't drop it so far. One final tip is to threaten to change providers as they're not giving you adequate service, trouble with that is most ISP's use BT anyway and if it's the line......

Hope this is of some use.

[Kazi]

Thanks for the replies chaps, had my replacement router/modem installed. No difference. O2 have been brilliant, friendly, english and free 24/7. Seems its likely to be a BT fault.

O2 have said they have one more option to resolve it but don't want to to until BT look at it. I have an engineer coming round on Tuesday. Love the subtle hint that BT make.....might be chargeable....yeah right, like im paying it!

I keep getting cross line conversations. O2 have told me not to mention broadband with them as BT will fob me off, lets see what happens!

Cheers guys.

PeterH9572 - Thanks dude. Not likely to be computer as I have two apple Macs and once VISTA and XP machine to. Im all out of clues until BT turn up....just hope they dont start waving their invoice pad!!