BT Broadband users please read!

GSDog · 15 May 2007 at 22:47

Hi all.

I expect most BT Broadband users have noticed BT have started capping speeds at peak times recently.
On a different forum someone posted a link of a download server which he uses to test his speeds.
I tried it out earlier and was quite surpised to find I was getting 600kbps+ download speeds even at peak times.
I then tried about 15+ well known sites and tried downloading demos, games, trailers, etc. I found ALL of them were capped @ 50kbps. These sites included BT, gamedaily, gameplay, etc... that I know for a fact download at fulll speed (600kbps+) in non-peak times.
It seems that this multiplay download link (posted below) downloads at full speed even in peak times, so I suspect BT have somehow added Multiplay as an exception to the speed caps, but I want to confirm this, so can everyone here please try the multiplay link below at peak times and tell me what speeds you get, then try downloading something from other servers and see if you notice a difference.

Here is the link: http://clanservers.multiplay.co.uk/?p=/ftpfiles.php?fid=17515

This pretty much confirms that BT are capping speeds and it is not something to do with a fault on the line or poor house wiring, etc that they always seem to blame recently.

Anyway, give it a try and let me know.

Clinkz · 16 May 2007 at 01:51

I have noticed this and its an utter disgrace really. My parents have used BT for a long time and its been great but i signed up with NTL for my student house and to be honest they wipe the floor. Im planning to migrate my parents away from BT asap. How they think they can treat their customers so poorly i dont know. Slow speeds, capped transfers and overpriced service.

Simps · 16 May 2007 at 14:06

Right I will do this now and post one later at about 7pm during peak-time.

It levelled out at 730kb/s

Will see what happens later

BTW it started at over 900kb/s , was quite surprised...

Line details...

Up Speed Down Speed SNR Margin Loop Att.
448000 8128000 10.5 19.5

marc2003 · 16 May 2007 at 14:48

i've already had my little rant about bt throttling torrents, but http/ftp downloads have always been fine.

edit: i'm also getting over 700kb/s on that download. like the poster above, i will try again later during peak times if i remember.

Darren1987 · 16 May 2007 at 15:10

850kbps here. good speed

UKDTweak · 16 May 2007 at 15:14

I had similar issues a few weeks ago, but recently i have had good peak time download speeds, so its seams this could be area related, however, i will check it out tonight and see if im still getting good peak speeds.

GSDog · 16 May 2007 at 17:15

Looks like the traffic management has already started for me...

On the BT Openworld speed test I am getting 50-60kbps ( http://www.btopenworld.com/speedtest )

Gamedaily I am getting 55kbps ( http://www.gamedaily.com/canvases/gd/_a/download-command-and-conquer-3-demo/20070226180309990002 )

On the multiplay link I am getting full speed though, might be because it is FTP.
Try the BT openworld speed test as well and let me know.

All HTTP downloads I try after roughly 17:00 are about 50kbps. I am definitely going to phone BT tomorrow and ask them why. I will post here there response. They cannot blame wiring, trojans, viruses, etc because it downloads @ fullspeed on FTP.

UKDTweak · 16 May 2007 at 17:23

On BT Openworld speed test I got between 45 - 87 on the small download, however on Multiplay i got 1.11mb at the start but it settled down to around 650KB.

Im on a 6.5mb connection.

marc2003 · 16 May 2007 at 17:29

maybe i was too hasty before saying everything is fine.

i just tried the bt speedtest and downloading from microsoft and i'm capped between 200-280kb/s. not as bad as 50kb/s but still a lot slower than earlier....

using the ftp link in the first post still well over 700kb/s though. looks like you're right about this...

GSDog · 16 May 2007 at 17:29

UKDTweak said:
On BT Openworld speed test I got between 45 - 87 on the small download, however on Multiplay i got 1.11mb at the start but it settled down to around 650KB.

Im on a 6.5mb connection.

Try other normal HTTP download links too, like gamershell, or links that you know are usually fast in the morning/off-peak times.
The multiplay link is FTP, so it seems BT are not capping FTP because everyone is getting good speeds from that link.

Energize · 16 May 2007 at 17:38

Zildjian said:
Hi all.

I expect most BT Broadband users have noticed BT have started capping speeds at peak times recently.
On a different forum someone posted a link of a download server which he uses to test his speeds.
I tried it out earlier and was quite surpised to find I was getting 600kbps+ download speeds even at peak times.
I then tried about 15+ well known sites and tried downloading demos, games, trailers, etc. I found ALL of them were capped @ 50kbps. These sites included BT, gamedaily, gameplay, etc... that I know for a fact download at fulll speed (600kbps+) in non-peak times.
It seems that this multiplay download link (posted below) downloads at full speed even in peak times, so I suspect BT have somehow added Multiplay as an exception to the speed caps, but I want to confirm this, so can everyone here please try the multiplay link below at peak times and tell me what speeds you get, then try downloading something from other servers and see if you notice a difference.

Here is the link: http://clanservers.multiplay.co.uk/?p=/ftpfiles.php?fid=17515

This pretty much confirms that BT are capping speeds and it is not something to do with a fault on the line or poor house wiring, etc that they always seem to blame recently.

Anyway, give it a try and let me know.

When I used bt they capped all the speeds at peak time to 30Kb/s which is why we moved to sky. Bt were just awful.

UKDTweak · 16 May 2007 at 18:00

Well i tried to download a file from gamershell, i got started at around 50 but it dropped quickly to 15.4

I tied Tiscali's test and got 90

And BBMAX gave me 811

Seams there is shapping/capping, going on for some known sites and not for others, must be based on BT users usage of said sites.

scooby555t · 16 May 2007 at 18:51

bt sucks if i could move away i would but i cant

GSDog · 16 May 2007 at 21:45

UKDTweak said:
Well i tried to download a file from gamershell, i got started at around 50 but it dropped quickly to 15.4

I tied Tiscali's test and got 90

And BBMAX gave me 811

Seams there is shapping/capping, going on for some known sites and not for others, must be based on BT users usage of said sites.

I just tried that Tiscali test and got the following:
Your current bandwidth reading is:

192.60kbps

which means you can download at 24.08 KB/sec. from our servers.

How pathetic!
I'm getting 10kbps from BT now... :mad:

I am still getting around 700kbps from multiplay FTP servers.
I can't wait to see what they say on the phone tomorrow, I bet they will deny they are capping speeds.

Simps · 16 May 2007 at 22:16

Same speeds as my previous post at 8pm and also 10pm for me.

DavidQ · 16 May 2007 at 23:33

I'm now having the same issues as of today, I'm also a BT business user and I'm not supposed to have any FUP on my service as I've had it since January and it was only supposed to be intruduced for people who got it since May 1st. I'm getting 25kbs from most websites but I got over 800 from the Multiplay FTP, my newsgroups are also only downloading at 230kbs aswell.

Craig321 · 16 May 2007 at 23:37

Zildjian said:
Hi all.

I expect most BT Broadband users have noticed BT have started capping speeds at peak times recently.
On a different forum someone posted a link of a download server which he uses to test his speeds.
I tried it out earlier and was quite surpised to find I was getting 600kbps+ download speeds even at peak times.
I then tried about 15+ well known sites and tried downloading demos, games, trailers, etc. I found ALL of them were capped @ 50kbps. These sites included BT, gamedaily, gameplay, etc... that I know for a fact download at fulll speed (600kbps+) in non-peak times.
It seems that this multiplay download link (posted below) downloads at full speed even in peak times, so I suspect BT have somehow added Multiplay as an exception to the speed caps, but I want to confirm this, so can everyone here please try the multiplay link below at peak times and tell me what speeds you get, then try downloading something from other servers and see if you notice a difference.

Here is the link: http://clanservers.multiplay.co.uk/?p=/ftpfiles.php?fid=17515

This pretty much confirms that BT are capping speeds and it is not something to do with a fault on the line or poor house wiring, etc that they always seem to blame recently.

Anyway, give it a try and let me know.

I thought it was only P2P they were capping?

I personally haven't noticed any slow-downs... but that's because we're only on 512k anyway :/