Hi, i recently moved house and having had Virgin Media at the previous property i decided to stick with them.
However there is no cable on our new road and hence Virgin are now delivering the internet service down the BT line.
I expected it to be slower than the ~20MB I was getting previously but not this slow. I've done several speed tests but only get 0.9MB download and about half that for upload zzzzz.

I realise this is due to the BT line and I guess changing providers won't solve the issue.
I really can't believe after 8 trouble-free reasonably fast internet years that there are still old lines in place as slow as this.

Can any of you advise how I can increase the speed please (without moving house again )

Thanks, Nick

 

Vote in a government who are going to improve the infrastructure in the UK rather than just say they are?

But seriously call Virgin up and explain the problem to one of their technical staff (note I said technical not front line support). They can usually get BT to come and weave some magic in the local exchange and local connections panel to improve things, but you;l be lucky to see 20MB again soon. They should be able to make it usable for day to day surfing etc.

 

Thanks mate I'll try that. Have only had it for a week and was giving it a chance to settle as Virgin said it should get quicker..

 

They are improving the infrastructure quite quick actually, DSLAM cabs are getting more popular

 

Are you using your master socket?

 

That is true as ADSL uprates its connection speed for a week or so after it is first connected as it 'learns' the fastest speed that works, but I think you are not going to see much more than that without some intervention.

 

Yep, 36meg here in North Cardiff

 

Yep it's going swimmingly

...and left BT as the only bidder to more or less name their price

 

Yes it is actually . Do you work on the infrastructure ?

 

I can only dream of 1mb..... Best I can get is 0.5.

Should think yourself lucky!

 

No, but I have vested internest in it and can read!!! The government plan to roll out broadband to all rural areas is over budget, behind schedule and most importantly in many cases does not deliver broadband speed anyway... it will come under even more scrutiny when the National Audit Office report is publsihed imminently... it isn't expected to be good reading.

Compared to the rest of western Europe we are lagging behind... as ususal!

None of this of course detracts from the original post where less than 1MB is being seen despite being connected to a 'broadband' conenction .... and allowing another 'broadband' box to be ticked by the powers that be.

 

Try something like samknows and see what your local exchange can cope with ?

Shaun

 

Yes mate. Although it's in the most stupid of places... Under the stairs!

Nick

 

This doesnt help, but my line is only rated for 1MB but i get up to 3MB.

Although i pay for 16MB

 

Depending on the router you have,...

Go to sam knows, that will tel you the max speed you can get at your property..

Then tell VM, to get going and deliver......


depending on your router... thaere are a number of tweaks that can be perfomed to give you a free bost...
If you can telnet into your router, there are plenty of ADSL settings that may be tweakable...

(thats provided there not locked out lol)

Mart

 

Boo hoo. I live on a farm in a reasonable area of the countryside (not out in the middle of no where) and have been on 1MB for the last 5 years.

 

That mp3 should be almost downloaded by now ..

 

I have to wait for YouTube to buffer in 480p quality.

A 5mb MP3 takes around 5 minutes, sometimes longer.

Iplayer or 4OD catch up is usually out of the equation.

Loading web pages with lots of pictures or ads is a pain in the ****.

...and yet the Govt. want to get 100mb fibre optic broadband in cities and built up areas? FFS get the country reasonable Internet speed everywhere else first.

 

I feel for you. Was on 0.38mb. Now on 38mb

Have you checked when the fibre optics are getting introduced in your area via the BT roll-out ?

 

Assuming your router is wireless, is your router under the stairs too? You could try putting it somewhere more open with some extension cable, or use the wired connection instead of wireless.

I found when I moved my hub out of my lounge (to reduce clutter) and into the room under our stairs I lost 75% of the bandwidth - promptly moved it back

 

Fibre upgrade is what the country needs as a whole. The difference is amazing, as there is little you cannot do on a good fibre connection. All I can suggest is that you push for fibre and get it as soon as you can. It is what we have been doing here and makes such a difference.

75Mb download and 18Mb up. We were on something like 4Mb and ask for fibre install along with all the local businesses and houses. Took about a year, but its been worth it.

 

Are you with Virgin for ADSL? They have (had?) a terrible reputation for their ADSL (non-cable) service.

Put your phone number in the BTW checker and you'll get an idea of what your line is potentially capable of.

Cross reference that against what you are getting - you'll probably need to get your router stat's to see what speed you are sync'ing at and how that compares to the actual throughput.

 

Broadband speeds are pretty poor here in Pembrokeshire. Talk Talk are the only company that is putting its own stuff in the boxes (Is that what LLU means?) and my friend is with Talk Talk and says he gets upto 14mb. Mine is usually about 6mb but its weather dependent. Very wet and it slows to a crawl, very hot it slows to a crawl.

I bought Draytek routers for work and they are fine but our office is right next to the exchange. At my house the Drayteks (in particular the Vigor 120n) are really flakey as they struggle with line noise.

 

I was with virgin non cable and switched to bt non cable, loads better and half the price ( but that's laziness on my part I spect )
We really should be in area served by cable but aren't, be honest,can't say I'm bothered.

Can watch Internet tv, don't download much at all. - 0.9 upload, 1.4 download.

What on earth more can you do/need out of 70++ download

 

At least I can get 3G on my phone now! 3 months ago and I was unable to.

posted from inside a tractor outside a chicken shed

 

I started with Sky via BT Line at 0.7mb but the line was rated to 6mb. Had to jump through some hoops but sky got a BT engineer out and the line got up the to rated speed. Now on around 14mb since the exchange was Sky enabled.

Mum and dad in Ryde had 1mb if they were lucky, fortunately for them the exchange went Infinity in Jan so now on 40mb.

Another mate lives in a nearby village and BB there is shocking, he gets about 0.5. He never uses it now, instead using a Three MiFi dongle. Signal is pretty good so gets far better speed than it would be with wired. 15gb limit per month but he's not hammering it due to doing the house up!

 

Mine tested just now

 

No BT fibre Cabinets in the area? Not sure where you moved to but could be an option?
BT Infinity Broadband 1 or 2 perhaps.

 

Local loop unbundling (LLU) is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises. The physical wire connection between the local exchange and the customer is known as a "local loop", and is owned by the incumbent local exchange carrier. Which in the UK is BT.

So the answer is yes, that is what it means, Talk Talk are putting their kit into BT cabinets

 

They put their equipment into exchange not the cabinet.