Why is my Internet so slow?

[TapA321 0]

Hi guys,

For some reason - just since yesterday, my internet at home has been performing ridiculously slow. I get my internet from BT Service Provider and normally this works at a pretty decent speed (just recently tested at 7-8mb download speed). Now, since yesterday, my internet has been performing really slowly - downloading at an extremely fast 0.14mb/s. I've asked my dad to ring up BT or if there's anything he could do, but I know that conversations with any SP are not pleasent and that he's not working from home at the moment, and so probably won't have interest in the problem til he needs to use the internet. Is it possible that it's just a dip in the speed for my area or my line and is there anything I can do? I've deleted temporary files, history etc. but it happens on every PC in my house - so it's not just my browser.

Here's the speedtest results...

Thanks for any help!

George

[wisemanp 0]

That's about my average speed!

What we try first is simply turning off the routers for a while and it sometimes works. Other issues include our microwave interfering, and there was some pretty drastic noise from one house that put our whole road out once! If any of your neighbours are on BT you could find out if they're having problems too, the problem could then be located more easily...

[rob16584 42]

Could it be that you have used more bandwith than your fair useage policy allows?

I think that there is something in my contract that if I use an unfair amount of bandwidth my connection speed will be lowered for the remainder of the month

[mutley 4,488]

Definitely something wrong when your upload is faster than your download speed.

They should be able to check your line and tell you what speed you are connected at (That doesn't necessarily mean that's what you will achieve for downloads).

[simi_av8r 0]

ooh, not looking good there. Have your carrier pigeons gone on strike and left the postal ants to do it? I suggest talking to the union and coming to an amicable compromise, maybe more bird seed and less hours would work?

i hate to rub it in, but here's mine from a few mins ago:

[mutley 4,488]

Mines not that bad, I am watching the streaming BBC news atm about Brown just been to Buck House to resign, Dave will be there soon to take the job

[simi_av8r 0]

Mines not that bad, I am watching the streaming BBC news atm about Brown just been to Buck House to resign, Dave will be there soon to take the job

got iPlayer on watching the same thing too..... welcome to the new Prime Minister David Cameron!

[TapA321 0]

Well things are improving as you can see..

Does a fault in the line mean that BT should be able to identify and fix the problem? My dad says he'll ring them and try and find out more tomorrow.

Also glad to see David at number 10. I would love to watch it on iPlayer, but I'm too busy throwing my router out the window.

Cheers,

George

[simi_av8r 0]

depends where the problem is George... BT should be able to trace the issue from your main domestic telephone distribution point (i.e. the hook-up from your house to the street), right back through to the switch-box cabinet at the end of your road, through onto the local boost servers (nearest large town), regional server hub (very large town/city locally) all the way back to the BT main server hub for your part of the country (South East).

chances are, somewhere along the line, they'll find something... be prepared however for them to try the basics.

I'd suggest you totally unplug your router/modem from ALL connections and leave it like that for at least 10-15 minutes. Reconnect it to the main input from BT (usually this is downstairs on an outer wall) this step is very important as it rules out any internal connection problems from phone line extensions etc. Allow a further 5-10 minutes for the modem connections to re-establish and an IP address be provided. If you still get problems after that, the problem is not likely to be your modem but the line or any point in between as i noted above....

[ddavid 149]

When did you run a complete scan last - maybe your firewall is slowing things down a bit, as well. We've been with BT for a number of years, with a business land-line etc, and this happened to us last year. I followed it up with BT and, with their help, managed to get back up to speed - but it wasn't straightforward!

Good luck....

Cheers - Dai.

[mutley 4,488]

I had a problem about a month ago and rang O2. Fair do's, their first line support could not find a problem. Their second line team took it from the basics and I found I had a problem with the extension lead installed by BT. My router worked fine when plugged into the master socket. (Just like Simi mentioned)

I am still to get BT around to fix it so have a patch lead from my router upstairs to my master socket. Mrs Mutley is none too pleased and mentions it every day!

Hope you get a solution soon George.

[Sputnik421 0]

If you want the best speed Mutley keep the router in the master phone socket, and have cat 5 to the computers.

[mutley 4,488]

If you want the best speed Mutley keep the router in the master phone socket, and have cat 5 to the computers.

Yeah I would, I have some very nice colour cables purple or bright blue!

If I could get a better colour, can I run CAT5 up the side of the house? Would it be frost and weather protected?

Cheers

[Sputnik421 0]

You could run it outside but you will need to get a cat 5 crimping tool. As one end will need to be without an end to get it though the grommets in the wall for keeping the rain out. It could be better to use cable clips to secure it internally, as the crimping can be a hassle with 6 wires. If you want them hidden, why not chase the wall out and run it in conduit.or capping.

[simi_av8r 0]

If you want the best speed Mutley keep the router in the master phone socket, and have cat 5 to the computers.

Yeah I would, I have some very nice colour cables purple or bright blue!

Whats wrong with that mut? i'm sure either of those colours would complement the wall paper perfectly...

If I could get a better colour, can I run CAT5 up the side of the house? Would it be frost and weather protected?

Cheers

certainly can mut, but i'd get external CAT5e cable instead, specially made for permanent external installations and runs at about

[TapA321 0]

There's an engineer coming to fix the problem tomorrow. I dunno what that will involve though...

Cheers,

George

[TapA321 0]

Ok. The engineer came today and the problem was... they'd upgraded our line to a new "super-fast" line and the current line hardware couldn't cope. So they've now fitted a new board and necessary hardware to cope with the new super-sl ... err i mean super-fast line. They've done that but the engineer said that BT needed up to 72 hours to reset the IP profile, but he also said it is usually a lot quicker than that. 24 hours later, still nothing. If somebody knows what the IP update means can they please tell me and how long it takes (perhaps from experience).

Cheers,

George

[simi_av8r 0]

George,

The IP Profile should have been updated already, usually within a few hours of plugging in the new hardware. The 72 hour thing is there so you don't bother them before hand and gives the server engineers some leeway to actually get off their bums and sort it out.

I say give them a call and get them onto it right away!

[TapA321 0]

George,

The IP Profile should have been updated already, usually within a few hours of plugging in the new hardware. The 72 hour thing is there so you don't bother them before hand and gives the server engineers some leeway to actually get off their bums and sort it out.

I say give them a call and get them onto it right away!

Hi Simi,

I've called them just earlier (about 6pm) and they said that they'd do it straight away. Asked them "how long will that take?" ... They replied "within 48 hours"... so then I said.. "Well that's not immediately is it" ... bla bla bla... they said they'll do it, but I don't think I'll have any internet for the whole weekend to be honest. If it's not up and running tomorrow by midday (when the whole day has passed in India) I shall really get onto them.

Cheers,

George

[simi_av8r 0]

sounds about right, another great example of the customer DISservice from BT....do you want the number for Virgin Media??

[TapA321 0]

Internet still down. It's just... "another 24 hours" with them. They have to wait for the line to stabilise so that it resets itself.

Just really annoying me. It was very nice of them to tell me that the line would be down before they upgraded us, wasn't it?

Cheers,

George

[TapA321 0]

Internet is back up and working now - finally!

Only at 5mb according to speedtest.net, but it should gradually increase when the line stabilises according to BT...

Cheers,

George

[mutley 4,488]

Hi George

It's good to see the speed increasing at last.