Experiences with BT?

MooMoo444 · 30 Sep 2008 at 12:26

I've not had any problem with BT until recently. If I do a speedtest on my line at 8am, its bang on 7mb. If I do the same speedtest at 6pm, its less than 500kbs. Thats a hell of a drop for "peak time".. Am I being capped or something?

I've downloaded some games from steam etc recently but the contract is supposed to be "unlimited" downloads so I don't know why its going so slow :confused:

EvilDreams · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:05

Funny you should mention this as I am getting the exact same problem as you, but on adsl4less/hotchilli. I have 8mb speeds on my 8mb connection before about 10am and everything after that is about 500k speeds.

It's been happening since the 18th. ISP swears they are not capping the connection. I am on a BT line....where abouts are you?

tolien · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:07

Being on a BT line and being with BT as your ISP are two totally different things.

UniqueID · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:13

im on BT ISP, they are definatly capping p2p traffic, from 5pm-11pm p2p speed goes to 5kb/sec.
gaming and website traffic seems to do fine at this time though, but does start to get a little sluggish around 12pm.
when i do speedtests they seem to be fine at any time.
have you got your broadband line recently (in the last month)?

EvilDreams · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:17

tolien said:
Being on a BT line and being with BT as your ISP are two totally different things.

I am aware of that.

Sel · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:38

Yes exactly the same here 3.5 meg to 0.5meg, I've requested my MAC code.

For a couple of days my speed never came back even at 3.30am my maximum download speed was 20-30kB/sec.

I called India and got the scripted response and they ran the usual waste of time line tests which said it was fine.

After a couple more phone calls it started to get faster again during off peak times but still isn't like it was a month ago.

Downloading from the popular file hosting sites seems very slow.

I have a theory, last year I noticed a drop in speed when Vision took off (BT denied that was the problem).
This month Vision HD has begun and download limits relaxed for option 1,2.
They have to get the bandwidth from somewhere.

BT speedtester dosn't show this reduction in speed for me but other speedtesting sites do show it and so does real time downloading.
After seven years of BB you don't need a speedtester to know when it's not right

UniqueID · 30 Sep 2008 at 20:54

well i've been on other service providers and they all do "traffic shaping" like putting p2p traffic down at peak times.
i just figure theres no way around it so why try another provider.

the internets works like this (all i know is that between the exchange and isp traffic shaping goes on):

YOU - exchange - BT - ISP

unless your provider has a piece of networking equipment in your exchange they may be able to get around this;
check http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php
(if there are no isps highlighted, bt supplies all internet for that exchange, regardless on which isp you are on)

don't be entirely certain that another provider will solve your problem, because BT may own most of the broadband services you use to connect.

Sel · 30 Sep 2008 at 21:01

But BT weren't throttling like this last month, it was about 1.5meg not 0.5meg that it is now.
I intend to go LLU if I can get it and it's about half the price of option3 which I'm on.

When I requested my MAC Code I thought the women was going to cry she seemed very upset that I wouldn't stay even when offered Six Months free plus new hub.

tolien · 30 Sep 2008 at 21:59

EvilDreams said:
I am aware of that.

So you're seeing the same problem with a different ISP, and that's relevant to this thread, how?
It was also directed mostly at the OP, since they posted with a Claranet IP...

UniqueID said:
all i know is that between the exchange and isp traffic shaping goes on

No it doesn't. All BT Wholesale see are aggregated ATM frames from the exchange heading for all the different ISPs - they don't know and don't care what protocol you're using, who you are or how much you've downloaded.

i've been on other service providers and they all do "traffic shaping" like putting p2p traffic down at peak times.

Which ISPs? There are loads of ISPs, even ones that use BT Wholesale, who don't traffic shape.

UniqueID · 30 Sep 2008 at 22:23

i don't pretend to know the in and outs of bt wholesale.
when i was describing traffic shaping i wasn't excluding isp's of being the traffic shapers.
my main point is that if you are going to move internet providers make sure it doesn't traffic shape.
I would only move if i was sure my isp could do nothing more to help my problem.
in my experiance moving isps can prove more of a hassle then doing any good.

EvilDreams · 1 Oct 2008 at 04:18

tolien said:
So you're seeing the same problem with a different ISP, and that's relevant to this thread, how?
It was also directed mostly at the OP, since they posted with a Claranet IP...

Presumably you know that there are other factors that affect bandwidth than just which ISP you are with? Having had the same problems as the OP for the past 2 weeks I was wondering if he was in the same area as me or there was some other common factor. Either way I am desperate to find out what's wrong with my connection so was hoping for some revelation.

Right grumpy lot on these forums.

MooMoo444 · 1 Oct 2008 at 08:28

Whats a claranet IP :confused:

?

Anyway I have both a BT line and BT as my ISP. Speed was still slow 5-11pm last night after work. I think I'll have to phone up the nice indian man at their call centre to get this sorted out. I don't like leaving my PC on overnight or while at work because of power use etc, so I don't get a chance to experience the off peak hours really. It's £30 a month for the phone and internet package, what is everyone else paying for their speed?

Also I'm from Northwich in Cheshire, about 30 mins south of Manc. if thats any help to you.

tolien · 1 Oct 2008 at 17:09

MooMoo444 said:
Whats a claranet IP ?

An IP that belongs to this company.
If your ISP is actually BT Retail, my comment doesn't apply - you wouldn't have been the first poster on here to assume that because it comes down a "BT line", your ISP is BT.

Presumably you know that there are other factors that affect bandwidth than just which ISP you are with?

Er yeah, but exchange congestion doesn't really happen these days compared to Central congestion/ISP traffic shaping - which is ISP-specific.