Broadband

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:09

After spending the day at a mates house who has just been upgraded to 6 meg it made me think about my own connection. At the moment I am on 512k and according to various phone number checks this is the maximum I can receive due to the distance from the exchange. However, how long will I have to put up with this speed? I am only a maximum of 4 miles from the exchange and still can't even get 1 meg.

Does anyone know of any plans that BT might have to extend the 1/2 meg services?

tolien · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:11

Er, looked at what you can get with Max?

Other than that you're mostly stuck unless you can get cable/wireless or will cough up for/can handle the latency of satellite.

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:19

tolien said:
Er, looked at what you can get with Max?

What's Max?

tolien · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:53

Up to 8Mbps download, 448 ("not Premium"/"what was Home")/832 ("Premium"/"what was Office") kbps upload, rate adaption, no attenuation-based guesswork, good probability of disconnections on marginal lines.

ADSLguide is, as always, your friend (especially their news archives). When the dust settles, I'll update the FAQ wrt Max as well.

www.bt.com/broadband should at least be using values based on Max now.

CurlyWhirly · 30 Apr 2006 at 22:54

lucasade1 said:
What's Max?

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2572 or you can browse the numerous threads in this forum like http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17538440&highlight=max+dsl for example

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:06

Thanks for the replies guys, from what I can gather then my actual ADSL max speed could vary, is there a way of finding out the max I could receive without speaking to BT?

ADSL max is enabled at my exchange, but on bt.com/broadband after entering in my details it says:

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 512Kbps. However, due to the length of your line, an engineer visit may be required, who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our test also indicates that your line should be able to support a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 500Kbps or greater.

500Kbps? This is worse that what I currently have!

tolien · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:15

lucasade1 said:
Thanks for the replies guys, from what I can gather then my actual ADSL max speed could vary, is there a way of finding out the max I could receive without speaking to BT?

Speaking to BT won't tell you either - all you'll get is what you got off the checker:

Our test also indicates that your line should be able to support a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 500Kbps or greater.

The only way of "finding out" is either a) take a guess based on your stats (attenuation/SNR margin) and one of the "calculators" floating around (see FAQ and/or search, not 100% guaranteed) or b) try it and see.

Note that if you don't get more than 1152kbps (ie "1Mbps"), you won't see any more than you've got (or your ISP will refuse to put the regrade through in the first place because you wouldn't be gaining anything) except a reduced SNR margin.
The wonders of Max and its half Mbps data rate increments.

500Kbps? This is worse that what I currently have!

To all intents, it's what you currently have. Though the BT guesstimator has been known to be pretty conservative in its estimates...

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:40

tolien said:
The only way of "finding out" is either a) take a guess based on your stats (attenuation/SNR margin) and one of the "calculators" floating around (see FAQ and/or search, not 100% guaranteed) or b) try it and see.

I have just used this and got 1655kbps.

How can I try it if I'm with a different ISP? (AOL). Would it be sensible to switch to BT and then try it?

tolien said:
Note that if you don't get more than 1152kbps (ie "1Mbps"), you won't see any more than you've got (or your ISP will refuse to put the regrade through in the first place because you wouldn't be gaining anything) except a reduced SNR margin. The wonders of Max and its half Mbps data rate increments.

So with a rough estimate of 1655kbps I should be alright?

tolien · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:44

lucasade1 said:
How can I try it if I'm with a different ISP? (AOL).

They're doing Max the same as most other ISPs (though at last count the Platinum customers were getting priority), though getting anyone that knows what MaxDSL/IPStream Max/English is might be a challenge.

Would it be sensible to switch to BT and then try it?

Probably not.

So with a rough estimate of 1655kbps I should be alright?

It's worth trying (as long as you can move back to what you've got without too much hassle).

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:46

So where to from here? An email to AOL? Phonecall? How do I word it?

tolien · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:49

Phoning's probably your best bet. How about "Gimme Max [and a Vindaloo]"?

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:52

tolien said:
Phoning's probably your best bet. How about "Gimme Max [and a Vindaloo]"?

Yeah probably be more effective. Although your right, AOL phone support is a joke =/

smids · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:53

Hello Mr. Customer Services AOL man, may I please have the DSLMax up to 8Mbits IPStream Max service please. If you should refuse, it will be at your own peril as I have just polished my black boots, nice and shiny.

It's probably worth it though - I mean even if you only get 1Mbit it will be worth it.

Luseac · 30 Apr 2006 at 23:55

smids said:
Hello Mr. Customer Services AOL man, may I please have the DSLMax up to 8Mbits IPStream Max service please. If you should refuse, it will be at your own peril as I have just polished my black boots, nice and shiny.

lol....

smids said:
It's probably worth it though - I mean even if you only get 1Mbit it will be worth it.

Exactly, i'll be extremly happy with 1Mbit

Luseac · 1 May 2006 at 19:07

Luseac · 2 May 2006 at 18:42

Hmmmm....

I've just got off the phone from AOL looking for a bit of confirmation and they can't offer me any idea as their system still says that I can only get 512k. They advised me to contact BT.

BT say that yes I can get ADSL max and their line check is saying that I could get 6Mbit and that to get it I need to get a Migration code.

What should I do? Give AOL a week and see if anything happens? Or move to BT?

csmager · 2 May 2006 at 19:19

You could move ISP, but there really are far better ISPs than BT. AOL have apparently been giving a few people hassle wrt Max (from a few threads on here) - 'you can't get it' or 'we don't do it' or similar. Not sure why they're being difficult.

Luseac · 2 May 2006 at 19:31

I just think that BT would probably be the quickest at sorting out the max ADSL, unless people can recommend another alternative who are good with ADSL max?

csmager · 2 May 2006 at 19:42

lucasade1 said:
I just think that BT would probably be the quickest at sorting out the max ADSL, unless people can recommend another alternative who are good with ADSL max?

BT Retail are just like any other ISP. They still have to put orders in with BT Wholesale. The whole company's not really got a lot in common other the name.... and shareholders... They have to act like the other ISPs to allow proper competition, or OfCom wouldn't be pleased.

BT's support team seem to be on a par with AOL from a discussion going on in another thread in this forum, and their pricing/capping isn't too favourable.

Nildram & Eclipse have been getting some praise round these parts. Other favourites are IDNet & Zen, but both of those really are up there in the price per month charts - but the service is second to none.

ADSLGuide is a good place to look around.

tolien · 2 May 2006 at 20:09

lucasade1 said:
They advised me to contact BT.

At which point the correct response is "There's no issue with my voice service."

Given you're with AOL, BT can't do anything for you, or OfCom would rip them a new one (and no doubt AOL would do plenty whinging too).