BT high speed broadband problems

[denzil69]

not sure this is in the right section, apologies if its not.

i was using bt broadband, and for two years was told that the fastest speed i could conect with, was 1 meg. this was because of my distance from my exchange.
when the connection started cutting out, i checked my modem, tried a wireless router, checked my system for virus' checked drivers, software, windows firewall etc, over 3 days. nothing was shown as faulty all present and correct.

i gave bt a ring and explained the fault.

they referred it to an engineer, who after a week of waiting, informed me that as with most people, i was on aluminium wiring at the exchange! i should have been on copper wiring, an appointment was made and the wiring at the exchange was changed. fantastic! it worked perfectly again.

BUT.... one thing id noticed, the transfer speed remained at 1 meg. the engineer had told me i should be getting speeds of 5.4 meg easily. so i rang bt, who informed me i was only on a 1 meg speed package, but it would be cheaper each month to transfer over to "upto 8 meg speed" broadband connection.

i was miffed, but agreed. my connection speed changed to 5.4 meg but it started to drop the signal then reconnect, which meant if i was downloading some music or films, id have to manually reconnect each time. they have been working on the fault now for over 2 months!

ive had more than 30 promised call backs ignored, i estimate that i have waited for a call back for more than 40 hours now, with none coming.
ive had random indian call centre's ringing me telling me the fault has been closed and asking if its all ok, each time ive said no, theyve checked modems lines routers sockets everything, everytime i ring them up. they wont issue a refund credit until the fault has been fixed, even tho they tell me it has been fixed!

heres the fun part:

ive now got speedtest access to my connection. bt have turned down initial connection speeds from 5.4 meg to 3.7 meg, but once i log onto the speed test, it downloads between 1.6 meg and 2.8 meg only.

they tell me now on the phone when i ring up, that bt set the rate for a fault on each line individually, mine is set at 3.2 meg (anything under this is a fault, over this is not a fault)
each time i ring up they tell me the speed is currently 3.4 meg.

today they again told me this and when i tested it whilst they were on the phone it came back with a speed of 1.6meg!

to test your speed connection, instead of logging on with yourname@btbroadband.com type in speedtest@speedtest<under score>domain you dont need a password. once logged on open a browser window and type in : Broadband Speed Tester
enter your home number and click test. (you can use this address even if you log on as normal to the net.)

this will show your ACTUAL download speed, not the speed which your modem connects at, i have yet to find the actual speed coming close to the initial log on speed.

the results are also logged on your account, which any advisor can read the results of at their end.

i tried to track the fault online, but there is of course no listing of it at all.

i hate bt, their service is extremely poor, and if i used another broadband company, as the fault is with the line that bt would hire to them, id have exactly the same problems as well.

[knoxvillain]

It's not BT who have turned down the speed, the new broadband equipment they have put you on is "rate adaptive" so it will spend the first 10 days figuring out which speed is most stable on your line and after 10 days it'll remain fixed at that speed. It doesn't always go smoothly. I was on 2MB broadband and then they switched me over. I was on 8MB that night then the next morning I had gone back to 2Mb. I raised a fault and it did take them weeks to sort out but I think it turned out BT's migration tool was faulty. My modem was reporting a download rate of 8MB but I was only ever getting 2MB. This was because they had turned my line up to 8MB but the part of BT's broadband network I was connecting to was still set to 2MB.

[ukaviator]

Hi Guys.

I had a simular problem with the Wanadoo box,a wireless unit.I eventually found that there are extra settings to tweak when setting up the box.There are about 13 channels which vary from area to area.You need to find the correct signal frequency or channel compatable to you.Mine is set at channel 7 in Leicester,and works fine.The reason i think it maybe the setup channels is you said that the wireless signal drops out.That is a channel fault.You will have to go into your Bt broadband box settings folder in the software they supplied and change the channel until you get a good signal.I used a laptop to set mine and have access in the garden as well.Hope this helps. Ukaviator

[knoxvillain]

the reason your wirless would drop out is if there is another wireless network close by on a channel near what you are using. Best strategy is to try the lower most channel, then the upper most and then the one right in the middle to try and get as much seperation between your wireless network and closeby ones as possible

[ukaviator]

Hi Guys..

That is what i was basically trying to say.The neighbour has a wireless network too and his is only 2 bars in strength,so not very good for him also.Mine is now the full 5 bars in signal with no drop out at all.

Ukaviator

[knoxvillain]

Yeah however the particular channel you use is not related in any way to where you live but to what other networks are around you.

I don't understand how it relates to the original poster's ADSL connection problems?

Densil69 - try www.btopenzone.com/speedtest and see how fast your actual download rate is.

[Rich44]

Up to 8MB refers to your synch speed to the exchange which is in theory how much bandwidth is available for you to use, however there are many other factors that come into the equation.

BT have very congested VPs in some exchanges which coupled with 50:1 contention (50 users scrapping over the same amount of bandwidth loosely speaking) is leading to some heinous drops in throughput.

Simply put a LOT of BTs exchanges were congested BEFORE Max was launched and now theyre really FUBAR and there's nothing you can do about it as you are paying for a 50:1 contended service at UP to 8Mb so sadly they are not really in breach of anything by you only getting 2.8Mb etc

Having said that line drops are most definitely a fault but the problem is proving where they are the usual steps to prove its not your end before BT will even think about doing anything are:

New Filter
New Modem/Router (Routers are far superior at holding onto high sync speeds on noisy lines)
Make sure every extension has a filter on it including things like Sky boxes

Try the BT "test" socket find the master socket in your house and remove the 2 front screws and carefully pull the face plate off behind here is the BT test socket what this does is isolate all the internal wiring in your house to prove its not your side thats causing any problems

If you do all the following and still get line drops then try to keep a log if its a time of day, when the weather is bad,is it worse when the street lights come on, whether it drops when your central heating comes on, whether it drops when your fridge compressor cuts in stuff like that it all helps build a picture