BT 8mb speeds?

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:30

I am currently on BT Broadband and I looked on their website. It says that there is 8MB speeds now available. When I checked I can recieve 6.5 MB/S.

Does anybody know what you have to do in order to get this? Do I go through with another order for my line or just tell them to upgrade? Will there be any downtime on the line and does anybody know if the speeds are reliable?

Thanks

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:33

Upto 8Mbit, they make no promises that you'll get 8Mbit.

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:38

Do you know if they upgrade my line automatically or do I have to say on the website I want it and sign up again?

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:39

I think you missed what I said, you can get upto 8Mbit - you're not guaranteed to get 8Mbit. You've already been regraded to MaxDSL if you've got 6.5Mbit and that is (I would suspect) the best you're gonna get.

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:41

no-I dont have the 6.5 mb yet, thats what they said I can recieve on the website, Im asking if they upgrade it automatically or do I have to put a new order in?

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:43

Ah, sorry, didn't read your post properly.

You'll have to contact them to request to be regraded to Max.

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:45

ok thanks-do u know if there will be any downtime like when switching from one provider to the other or will it be a smooth switchover?

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:47

There won't be any downtime as such but it sure as hell won't be a smooth switchover. Expect a couple of weeks of the connection being unstable and with varying speeds. BT quote a 10 day training period but I've had it for three weeks and only last night (when interleaving was switched on) did it stop dropping every hour after 6:30pm.

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:48

oh, so do you think it is worth it? is the download speed far better? and what is interleaving? :confused:

benjo · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:52

I've just got my line upgraded aswell. Gonne be getting 6.5mbs speeds here aswell, my dad just went onto the website, chose his option (think its only like £1 more) and we were given a date that we'll recieve the upgrade. A week this monday infact.

Sorry to change the topic slightly, but what upload speed are we looking at here? Is it the same as the current 2.2mbs lines?

Thanks

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:53

The download speed is much better, before going onto Max I was getting around 240 KBytes/sec, now I'm getting about 650 Kbytes/sec. There is also the extra upstream bandwidth which is more important to me than the downstream.

Interleaving is a process which basically makes an ADSL line more stable by doing checks on the data. The downside is that it slows down pings which can be an issue for gamers. It added about 11ms on the ping to my mail server so that's no biggy.

Had I known I was going to have three weeks of an unusable connection in the evening, I wouldn't have regraded to Max. A few other people I've spoken to have had nothing like the problems I have so your mileage may vary.

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:54

benjo said:
Sorry to change the topic slightly, but what upload speed are we looking at here? Is it the same as the current 2.2mbs lines?

448Kbit sync on Max as opposed to 288Kbit sync before. Last time I checked I could upload stuff at about 45Kbytes/sec

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:56

so the Ping slowdown-will this be permanent or a temporary thing? Also do you put interleaving on or does BT and is it left on the line permanently?

Burbleflop · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:57

If interleaving is on, then it'll always be doing its stuff so you'll always have the slighly slower pings.

Your ISP can request that interleaving be turned on or off. By default it is off but it'll be turned on if you line is seen to be unstable. I think interleaving shouldn't be on my line, I'd rather have a lower sync tbh.

Arsey · 29 Apr 2006 at 21:59

ok thanks for your help floppy, i think im gona go for it-ill try to keep you posted on the highs/lows

smids · 29 Apr 2006 at 23:31

Burbleflop said:
If interleaving is on, then it'll always be doing its stuff so you'll always have the slighly slower pings.

Your ISP can request that interleaving be turned on or off. By default it is off but it'll be turned on if you line is seen to be unstable. I think interleaving shouldn't be on my line, I'd rather have a lower sync tbh.

Same - interleaving got switched on last night for me (damn me and my router reboots). I think I caused it as I haven't had any connection problems at all! Damn - I'm checking to see how it goes with it on, and if I can't take it in games, I'll get it switched off. Damn me and my fiddling! Also, it only improved my SNR by 1dB and my sync has only gone up 300kbps roughly. My max stable rate is 5Mbp/s on my line of 53dB attn - not bad eh?!

About the interleaving - some ISPs allow you to switch it on and off as often as you like with a user tool but others don't and you have to ask your ISP to do it and they may charge a fee.

0gami · 30 Apr 2006 at 00:01

I've upgraded my Zen to 8mb from 2mb, and i've not noticed any difference, though its the same price as I was paying so who cares

marc2003 · 30 Apr 2006 at 09:12

Arsey said:
or do I have to put a new order in?

just be aware that you are locked in for a new 12months contract should you choose to upgrade yourself...

TheTiger · 30 Apr 2006 at 18:14

Burbleflop said:
If interleaving is on, then it'll always be doing its stuff so you'll always have the slighly slower pings.

Don't you mean higher pings?

saguy · 30 Apr 2006 at 18:43

I was upgraded friday and today I was booted off a bf2 server because my ping was to high. I downloaded a couple of demos and my downloads do not appear to be any faster than they were with my 2 mb connection. Are there any sites that have highspeed downloads so I can test my connection. According to the dsl status indicator I am connected at 8128 kbps. I am now locked in for 12 months - should not have bothered as my pings have got worse and there does not appear to any highspeed content to download.