BT or me?

[Fermentum]

Hello all,

Not been online much over the last week or so because my internet is so slow! And its starting to do my head in.

Does anyone know if BT is on a go slow at the moment? Or is it just my connection? Almost certain its not my laptop as I cleaned it the other week and also its not that old.

I will be using another connection over Christmas as I will be at my parents.

Let me know!

[Maple Leaf]

I have recently changed to BT and it is a lot faster than it used to be.

Try www.speedtest.net at different times of the day/evening to get an idea.

[martybartfast]

I would have thought that if there was a wide spread speed problem with BT we'd have heard about it.

Is your lappy speedy enough when doing non internet stuff (Word processing, spreadsheets etc)? If not then it may have a problem, if it's OK then the lappy is probably not the problem

Have a look at some speed test sites, e.g.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.ma...?1136039351860

or

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/

(there are many more, google "internet speed test")

they're not the whole solution but they will give you an idea of what line speeds you're getting, try each test a few times, you should expect the upload speed to be significantly less than the download speed. Bear in mind that these speeds are from the internet to your laptop, so if you're using wireless then that could be the source of the problem rather than BT, if possible try plugging into your router with a cable and see if things improve. Also check the signal strenght being reported on your laptop, if it's poor try sitting nearer the router.

I would suggest trying to find a BT users forum (there ought to be one) and ask on there, as they're more likely to know about any ongoing BT issues.

Edit to add: http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-in-Home/bd-p/BBinHome is where I would go and ask, it looks like there are punters and BT techies hanging out on there so you should A) get some sympathy, and B) get some help (if you're lucky!)

[ivanidea]

I am of the opinion that the internet has recently gone slow.

I have experienced this problem both at home and at work. My bosses are also complaining their home connections are slow and even losing signal on numerous occasions (not unusual in a rural location).

I suspect our telephone lines and exchanges can't cope with the current requirements, and I expect it to get worse as more people connect to the internet.

[Fermentum]

Thanks for all of the info!

I am at my parents and they are near Hull so they are on Kingston Communications and using Karoo broadband, the speed is unreal. And its on my own laptop I use at home so I am confident it is not my laptop.

ivanidea > My connection at home does keep dropping like you said.
marty > I will have a look at the forums and see if there is a problem.
Maple > will do a speed check as well.

Thanks again all.

[Ryuchan]

most likely FUP*, ie, you exceeded your allocated download allowance and are now throttled for a while. The fact you get a good connection at your parents kinda points to this.

there are reports of people being scaled down to 50k download speed for up to 3 weeks

*Fair Usage Policy

[The Wombles]

I'm now on BT Infinity which provides me about 40mbps access speed - around 10x faster than my old speed.