britishtrident
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 07:33 AM |
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8 meg broadband -- think twice.
Most ISPs apart from cable providers are offerreing the BT ADSL Max 8 mbs broadband as an upgrade - but if you are already on a stable fast
connection I would strongly advise thinking twice before taking up the offer.
A lot of people have had major problems since upgrading as a result ISPs are swamped by complaints, to which BT Whosale are playing hard ball trying
to ignore and are pressing ahead with exchange conversion even though it is apparent something is going very wrong.
Here is my experience ---
Until ordering the upgrade I was on a stable 1mb/s connection, when ordered the upgrade I was put on a 2 mb/s connection while awaiting my local BT
exchange to be upgraded. This connection performed flawless giving download rates close to the maxiumum possible, then disaster struck BT upgraded the
exchange my down load rates plummeted first to 550 kb/s then to 56k/s, since complaining to my ISP speeds have increased I have seen a maxiumum of
2,780 mb/s which is around what I expected but average varies widely between 550 and 1770 mb/s and the real world down load rates are probably slower
than my previous 1mb/s connection.
My advice is if you are on a 2 mb/s or faster connection that is stable and works well don't upgrade, if you are on 1 mb/s think very carefully
before going ahead.
With a 512 mb/s connection it should be worth while.
[Edited on 23/5/06 by britishtrident]
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RazMan
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 07:50 AM |
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I have just upgraded to 8 Meg from 2 Meg with Talktalk (their recently publicised broadband & free telephone calls package) I have yet to see any
improvement in download speeds.
As a matter of interest, what test prog do you use to measure the download speeds?
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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the_fbi
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 07:54 AM |
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A lot of this doesn't make sense...
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
I was put on a 2 mb/s connection while awaiting my local BT exchange to be upgraded. This connection performed flawless giving download rates close to
the maxiumum possible, then disaster struck BT upgraded the exchange my down load rates plummeted first to 550 kb/s then to 56k/s,
2Mb/sec would have given you around 232Kb/sec, so not sure what you actually had, given you had more than 550, then you dropped to 550, then to 56.
You wouldn't have had 550 or above unless you had way more than 2Mb/sec in the first place.
Your starting point clearly wasn't what you think it was so don't really know what to make about the rest.
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
average varies widely between 550 and 1770 mb/s and the real world down load rates are probably slower than my previous 1mb/s connection.
This doesn't make a lot of sense either in terms of the numbers you are using.
If your previous 1mb/s (1Mb/sec) connection was giving you more than 118KB/sec then it probably wasn't 1Mb anyway.
Would be nice to know the correct numbers/units for what you were/are seeing.
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bimbleuk
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 08:07 AM |
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Just changed to Nildram to get an upgrade from 2Mbit to 8Mbit. there was no guarantee that the local exchange will reach that speed and also was told
BT take 5-7 days to profile the exchange, during which the connection speed will vary.
So far I'm getting a stable 450k/s on downloads and the connection speed is 5Mbit+ but that is probably limited by my 1/2 kilometer wireless
connection to a mates hoouse as we both share the line 
[Edited on 23/5/06 by bimbleuk]
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Gav
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 08:25 AM |
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One of the main reasons is adsl is limited by how far you are away from the exchange, you will only be able to reach the full 8mbit if you are within
a few 100 meters of the exchange!
With people expecting the full 8mb and complainning like hell, some of the isps are breaking the specs and trying to give you as fast as a speed as
possible, this means the line will be unstable.
I'm recieving 4mb from Bulldog which is pretty impressive given the fact the BT said that the most i could get was 1mb if the lineloss was to
stay within spec!.
I wouldnt say my ADSL line is unstable but it certianly isnt as stable as when i was with another ISP on 1mb.
However that said with the old isp i had not one single problem, with bulldog im getting lines drops once a week.
The main problem now is that somepeople who ring our phone just carnt get through, mind saying that it is the mother-in-law 
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britishtrident
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 09:18 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by RazMan
I have just upgraded to 8 Meg from 2 Meg with Talktalk (their recently publicised broadband & free telephone calls package) I have yet to see any
improvement in download speeds.
As a matter of interest, what test prog do you use to measure the download speeds?
a few different test are around the web
Adslguide.org.uk http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp
BTs own
http://speedtester.bt.com/cgi-bin/home.page.pl
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britishtrident
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 09:22 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by the_fbi
A lot of this doesn't make sense...
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
I was put on a 2 mb/s connection while awaiting my local BT exchange to be upgraded. This connection performed flawless giving download rates close to
the maxiumum possible, then disaster struck BT upgraded the exchange my down load rates plummeted first to 550 kb/s then to 56k/s,
2Mb/sec would have given you around 232Kb/sec, so not sure what you actually had, given you had more than 550, then you dropped to 550, then to 56.
You wouldn't have had 550 or above unless you had way more than 2Mb/sec in the first place.
Your starting point clearly wasn't what you think it was so don't really know what to make about the rest.
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
average varies widely between 550 and 1770 mb/s and the real world down load rates are probably slower than my previous 1mb/s connection.
This doesn't make a lot of sense either in terms of the numbers you are using.
If your previous 1mb/s (1Mb/sec) connection was giving you more than 118KB/sec then it probably wasn't 1Mb anyway.
Would be nice to know the correct numbers/units for what you were/are seeing.
From official BT Speed tester site
BT would regard the speed ranges shown below as normal service:
For 250kbps End Users speeds between 50 - 250kbps.
For 500kbps End Users speeds between 100 - 500kbps.
For 1000kbps End Users speeds between 200 - 1000kbps.
For 2000kbps End Users speeds between 400 - 2000kbps.
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phoenix70
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 10:44 AM |
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I think your terminology is a little mixed up, the BT site quotes the rate in KiloBITS per second (kbps), but the_fbi thinks you mean download rates
are displayed in IE when downloading a file, that's in kilobytes per second (KB/s).
I would however agree with you the ADSL Max is a risk, but I definately wouldn't put people off using it. I currently have a 1Mb connection and
am waiting for ADSL max to improve (too far away from the exchange for more the 1Mb).
PS. Just a thought for anyone having problems with their ADSL, you should check if the Bell wire is wired up in you house (the third wire in the BT
socket). I had major problems with the ADSL dropping, after disconnecting the bell wire, no problems at all.
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chockymonster
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 10:54 AM |
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I've had a stable 2MB zen connection for the last 2 years. I've recently upgraded to ADSL MAX and am regularly seeing download speeds of
550k a second peaking at up to 700k.
I'm happy, the line is stable and my MSR is 2MB so anything under that can be logged as a fault with BT.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 12:25 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Gav
One of the main reasons is adsl is limited by how far you are away from the exchange, you will only be able to reach the full 8mbit if you are within
a few 100 meters of the exchange!
With people expecting the full 8mb and complainning like hell, some of the isps are breaking the specs and trying to give you as fast as a speed as
possible, this means the line will be unstable.
I'm recieving 4mb from Bulldog which is pretty impressive given the fact the BT said that the most i could get was 1mb if the lineloss was to
stay within spec!.
I wouldnt say my ADSL line is unstable but it certianly isnt as stable as when i was with another ISP on 1mb.
However that said with the old isp i had not one single problem, with bulldog im getting lines drops once a week.
The main problem now is that somepeople who ring our phone just carnt get through, mind saying that it is the mother-in-law
I get 2,3M from my Bulldog connection but I've about 3-4x as far away from the exchange as you.
No problem with line drops. Hop onto the Bulldog forums- theres quite a few tips to resolve this sort of problem.
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andyharding
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 12:26 PM |
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We upgraded all of our customers to MAX free-of-charge.
Apart from one or two issues to start with everyone is now reporting much improved download rates.
Depending on how busy my local exchange is I can get over 5Mbps from our tester http://www.inetc.co.uk/speedtest/
Are you a Mac user or a retard?
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andyharding
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 12:30 PM |
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Worth noting that there is a 14 day training period when you regrade to MAX while your line learns how fast it can run at so some instability at first
should be expected.
Also note the difference between Mbps (megaBITS) and Mb/s (megaBYTES).
A transfer rate of 1Mbps is equal to 0.128Mb/s i.e. divide Mbps by 8 to get Mb/s.
Are you a Mac user or a retard?
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OX
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 05:04 PM |
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a couple of m8s have it for gaming and they wished they had stayed with the 2meg,its been 6 weeks and the line still hasnt stabled
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coozer
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| posted on 23/5/06 at 05:14 PM |
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I had a line test thinking about 8mb but despite being within a 1/2 mile of the exchange my test result was 5.5mb max.
Personnaly I didnt see much difference moving from 1 to 2mb so I'm just looking for the best 2mb deal I can find.
Anyone know when ADSL2+ will be with us?
1972 V8 Jago
1980 Z750
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Confused but excited.
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| posted on 27/5/06 at 11:11 PM |
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I have a 2M ADSL connection with Onetel as my ISP. Costs £19.99 per month, with unlimited downloads. I am approx. 3K from the exchange and have had no
problems at all. Well I did have one, but it turned out to be my fault anyway.
The main factor in choosing them, is that if I phone them someone answers straight away and technical back-up is a normal call, not 50p or £1.00 /
minute.
For a computer illiterate like me this could save me a fortune.
Tell them about the bent treacle edges!
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