Broadband speed

[Frank97]

I'm currently getting a download speed of 0.08 Mbps and an upload speed of 0.45 Mbps as confirmed by BT this afternoon. I'm 1.3km from the exhange , so I'm not expecting anything too quick but I was told when I took the contract that the line could support up 2.88Mbps.
Does this sound like there is a fault with the line, as I thought download speed was supposed to be faster than the upload speed?

[Frank97]

I should add that I'm using a wireless connection about 2m away from the home hub.

[daffy654]

That speed is really quite bad.

Have you tried unplugging and re-plugging the router?

[sir.prize]

Many speed testers are unreliable. Have you tried more than one? Compare this one

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/

[Frank97]

Yes several times, but not today, yet I still get the same sort of results.
There in an engineer coming out next week but just wondered what others thought before they arrived.

[Frank97]

Yes, Sir.Prize I've tried several, the latest being the one BT told me to use this afternoon, that is where the speeds I quoted came from.

[Frank97]

This one
http://www.speedtester.bt.com/

[bazwillrun]

That sounds dire

just done mine and its as follows
10.95 Mbps d/load
1.07 Mbps u/load

Its always a bit lower on Sat afternoons, usually its around 12
I'm 987m from the exchange
Using O2 2The Works up to 16Mbps totally unlimited service, according to all the line tests done by other isp's my line is only capable of 8Mbps ! yet I get around 12

I always connect PC's with Cat 5a ethernet cable as its faster , only use wireless for my phone and laptop

[Frank97]

It is dire, I wouldn't even say that it was broadband.

[VHG]

I am on Virgin cable and get 60 mbps (just upgraded for free from 30mbps) :-)

[bibblebub]

Have you tried plugging the internet cable that currently goes to the hub directly into the pc?

[Frank97]

No, I didn't know you could do that, I'll give it a go.

[MarkRae]

There's definitely an issue there. My guess would be packet loss.

Pop a command window and then run

ping bbc.co.uk -t

What do you see?

[Frank97]

How do I do that Mark?

[Frank97]

It says
reply from 212.58.241.131 bytes 32 time=23ms itl=241

[ChuckFickens]

let the ping for about 5-10minutes and then press CTRL + C and post the results saying how many packets sent/lost

[ChuckFickens]

I'm not really sure what help people think it is posting "I get XX Mb/s" I'm pretty sure D9 posted this as a question, not a contest!

I'm surprised nobody has given the normally accepted checking procedure for ADSL.

1) make sure the router is plugged into the master socket, not an extension phone socket on the house.

2) undo the two screws on the front of the master socket and pull the front panel off, it will reveal another phone socket behind the front panel. plug the ADSL filter into that socket and try again (this should disconnect all extensions in the house just in case one of those is a problem)

3) if you have one, try a different ADSL filter

If none of the above helps say what the make and model of router is so we can tell you where to look for the diagnostic figures for the line. because if the router is only syncing at a low speed and with a bad signal to noise ratio then it probably is a line problem.

[Frank97]

Thank you CF for your advice,
1, yes the router is plugged into the main socket
2, no I haven't tried unscrewing the front of the box, it was only replaced about three weeks ago by BT because the broadband went down completely for twelve days and this problem was there before that happened.
3, yes I have two filters, both of which give the same results.
I'm running the ping test now and will post results in 15 minutes.

[Frank97]

Ping statistics for 212.58.241.131:
Packets sent=892, Received 891, Lost 1 <0% Loss>
Approximate round trip times 1 milli-seconds
Minimum=22ms, Maximum=28967ms, Average=83ms

The router is a BT Homehub 2.1

[ChuckFickens]

That's fine, no problems showing there...

You've not actually said if you are connected wireless, or via a cable to the homehub, if it's wireless you should connect using a ethernet cable (turn off your wireless) and then try again just to see if it's a internet problem or a wireless problem.

if you are connected already by a cable then click the link below, which should open the admin pages for the home hub.

http://192.168.1.254

Then enter the admin password that should be on a sticker on the back of the hub (unless you've changed it previously, if so use the password you've changed it to). Once on the admin pages click settings in the top and then ADSL in the line below that and you will be able to see the line stats.. if you post the following...

downstream and upstream speed under connection details.

noise margin (down/up)
Line attenuation (down/up)

[MarkRae]

Aha! Well, the good news is that you're not suffering from packet loss. However, the problem is that there is a HUGE amount of latency, i.e. the time delay between your device sending a request to a remote device and getting a response back. I take Chuck's point on the "look how fast my computer is" replies but, by way of comparison, this is what I get:

Ping statistics for 212.58.241.131:
Packets: Sent = 39, Received = 39, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 11ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 13ms

A maximum response time of, say, up to 50ms would be acceptable on ADSL, but 28 seconds is ridiculous!

As Chuck says, sounds very much like a line problem.

I take it you're not in a cabled area...?