BT taking the ****?

Lord_Kokain · 22 Jul 2007 at 19:21

At the beginning of June, I renewed a contract with BT for 8 MB broadband. Up till then, I havent had any issues but once I received this home hub device, it all started to get weird. Its not just about random disconnects here and there but also that at many occassions, I end up with a connection of about 300-400k(according to speedtest.net). It could vary sometimes but its nevertheless a figure of way less than the supposed 8mb.

When I give them a call, they respond something like "There doesnt seem to be anything wrong with your connection". And when I tell them about the lower download speed, they tell me to hold for a while and then ask me to perform a speed test again in which the download speed is normal. This however lasts for a little while until I had to go through the exactly same conversation with BT just to end up with a lower speed again.

Could this be from the PC/home hub or its from BT's side? I decided to ask here because from BT claim its all mint from their side but I dont see how could I limit the speed.

Trifid · 22 Jul 2007 at 19:26

Can you do a speedtest here: http://speedtester.bt.com/ and reply with the results including sync and throughput. The home hub will be the cause more than likely of disconnections. Replace this with the router you had before.

ADSL MAX technology is rate adaptive and upto 8Mb. This does not guarantee it.

Lord_Kokain · 22 Jul 2007 at 19:40

Its asking me to enable Java applets so Im installing it atm.

As for the old router, I didnt want to home hub at first place actually but my net doesnt seem to work with the old one for some reason.

Lord_Kokain · 22 Jul 2007 at 19:51

ok this is what I got at the test results on that site:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 7150 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8128 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5599 kbps

HomerJ · 22 Jul 2007 at 19:58

The speedtest shows you are geeting a sync rate of 8128K which is the max you can get and the IP (BRAS) profile is correct and when it downloaded a file the speed it got was 5599K.

Have you tried downloading from Newsgropus or other speed tests sites as I have found sometimes that Speedguide can be a bit flaky, if you get poor speed on speedguide try using a different server than the one you did

Lord_Kokain · 22 Jul 2007 at 20:08

I got no idea why the speedtest results between the two sites vary so much but when I try to download something from a decent site, I get about 40k/s while Im pretty sure it should be more.

benjo plz. · 22 Jul 2007 at 20:09

try using this as a speed test instead.

marc2003 · 23 Jul 2007 at 01:44

you say since you got the home hub..... have you tried your old hardware?

but don't get your hopes up. bt are throttling the crap out of loads of people nowadays and there isn't much you can do about it. you were never guaranteed 8mb and there is no comeback. why else do you think they tempt you with flashy hardware if you signup for 12months.

luckily i'm out of contract and have just 3 days left on bt. :cool:

i've been suffering throttled speeds for a few months now and enough is enough. it's no accident or fault, this is the service they expect people to be happy with and pay for. and it's not as if bt are cheap either. the prices are very uncompetitive for what you get and support? don't make me laugh...... :mad:

Lord_Kokain · 23 Jul 2007 at 02:35

Phnom_Penh said:
try using this as a speed test instead.

Thanks but do I only try to see what the D/L speed would be when getting the files or I need some program to use them?

you say since you got the home hub..... have you tried your old hardware?

but don't get your hopes up. bt are throttling the crap out of loads of people nowadays and there isn't much you can do about it. you were never guaranteed 8mb and there is no comeback. why else do you think they tempt you with flashy hardware if you signup for 12months.

the old hardware doesnt work when I tried it(dont see why not but, fact is, it doesnt). I even threw aside the home hub when it came in since I was happy with my current router, only to be unpacking it a few days later after my net stopped and was told by the BT support that I need to replace them and the net worked when I did.

As for the tempt, I did it because I was offered slightly lower monthly fee to the one I already pay with BT. I have been with BT for a good few years already and have never really had major issues with them on that so I got easily convinced, just to get into this...

Cupra · 23 Jul 2007 at 03:33

ring them up and tell them to take thre home hub back or sort it out

GSDog · 23 Jul 2007 at 12:40

marc2003 said:
you say since you got the home hub..... have you tried your old hardware?

but don't get your hopes up. bt are throttling the crap out of loads of people nowadays and there isn't much you can do about it. you were never guaranteed 8mb and there is no comeback. why else do you think they tempt you with flashy hardware if you signup for 12months.

luckily i'm out of contract and have just 3 days left on bt. i've been suffering throttled speeds for a few months now and enough is enough. it's no accident or fault, this is the service they expect people to be happy with and pay for. and it's not as if bt are cheap either. the prices are very uncompetitive for what you get and support? don't make me laugh......

Yep. BT were capping me to 200-750kbps (usually between 20-60kbps download speeds) after 4pm, and also all weekends. My connection felt like dial-up and I was syncing at 8128kbps with an IP profile of 7150.
Since moving to a different ISP, I now get 6920kbps 95% of the time - sometimes it can drop to around 3000kbps after 10:30pm, but I don't use the net after that time anyway.

It could be BT throttling you're connection.

Lonz · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:39

BT are successfully buggering up my line every 3 weeks it seems.

135k broadband (yes, a little over 2x dial-up!) for a day, then another 3 days for them to fix it after I phoned them up.

This has happened 3 times already! I can only get 3MB out here, that's the package I'm meant to be on since I "Upgraded" from 1MB, but I haven't even seen my IP profile above 2MB for a good few months now.

Interleaving is getting annoying now as well, getting ping warnings from UK servers!

Only another 8 months left on the contract my parents signed up to ¬_¬

marc2003 · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:45

Zildjian said:
Since moving to a different ISP, I now get 6920kbps 95% of the time - sometimes it can drop to around 3000kbps after 10:30pm, but I don't use the net after that time anyway.

i take it you're with an enta reseller then? i've read about them adjusting the speeds around 10pm but at least they're upfront about it and are genuinely doing it for the best interests of all their customers. :cool:

my ukfsn connection is to be activated thursday.

tolien · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:10

Lonz said:
BT are successfully buggering up my line every 3 weeks it seems.

Watch the distinction between BT Wholesale and BT Retail, who are presumably your ISP - interleaving and the IP profile are BT Wholesale's concern, not your ISP's.
If you profile's dropping to 135kbps, you need to work out why your sync rate's dropping that low - dodgy wiring, noise, modem?

Lonz · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:33

BT Are my ISP? :confused:

My router actually isn't connected to the master socket as I don't have any LAN cables running through my house. I had considered those Powerline things, but wasn't too sure on how they perform. I had vision of my internet cutting out when I turned my PS3 on!

tolien · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:46

Lonz said:
BT Are my ISP?

That's the implication I got, given this is a thread about BT the ISP...

My router actually isn't connected to the master socket as I don't have any LAN cables running through my house.

It doesn't have to be permanent, just long enough to see if it makes any difference.

ChroniC · 23 Jul 2007 at 23:26

whats the mac legal issues then, my contract ends in a month and i want to move to be*, can i ask for a mac code a week before the contract ends, or do i have to wait till after?

ElectroBlaster · 23 Jul 2007 at 23:34

I changed over from broadband classic (aka 2meg dsl) to 8meg some months ago and im on a 12months renewed contract. They sent me the home hub and phone kit (I never got the phone, also gave up trying to get the dam thing)

I chose to never install the hub and just put it in my storage room and carried on using my belkin wireless router. Ive always ran this with "UPNP" disabled and so far... touch wood! its all been ok. The bt homehub insists on having upnp enabled and I think this is where all the trouble comes from, but im not sure tbh...

Ive also had two odd occasions where the connection just died for no apparrant reason at all and then it came back fine. On my original 2meg setup I never had this problem, I wonder if that was bt trying to suss out where the homehub is? lol

C64 · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:37

don't trust a word bt tell you i was quite happy last week getting 6mb
after a phone line fault my new ip profile is 1000 they chop and change it all the time now they are saying all i can get is 1mb when it was 6mb for 6 months lol
i would dump them right now but they have me on a recent renewal of 12 month contract i wish oftel actually had power to sort this ridiculous dictating company out.

tolien · 24 Jul 2007 at 16:40

C64 said:
don't trust a word bt tell you i was quite happy last week getting 6mb
after a phone line fault my new ip profile is 1000 they chop and change it all the time now they are saying all i can get is 1mb when it was 6mb for 6 months lol

tolien said:
Watch the distinction between BT Wholesale and BT Retail, who are presumably your ISP - interleaving and the IP profile are BT Wholesale's concern, not your ISP's.

If there was a fault, odds are the profile would drop. Without sync rate, SNR margin et al it's impossible to comment about whether 1Mbps is all you'll get - and if it is, it's probably all you'll get with any ISP (barring Virgin Media cable)...

Oftel don't exist either.