• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Testing your internet connection

billyiddo

billyiddo

Teddy Sheringham
Staff member
we've been having problems lately with our Broadband provider (talk-talk) dropping out, ridiculously slow etc etc

are there any reliable places to test our connection - general speed, downloads/uploads etc as Talk Talk seem to think we are getting the 4 meg we are paying for - but that just doesn't seem possible seeings as we're having to wait 20 minutes for a 3 minute youtube video to load and getting download speeds of only 60k whatever a second when using Fileserve or Rapidshare (used to get 300-400)
 
do you know much about this kind of thing mate ?

these are my results :

PING : 143ms
Download : 0.59mbps
Upload : 0.68 mbps

we're paying for a 4 meg (is it meg ??) broadband connection - im hard wired to the router via Solwise Power adapters and we have a laptop with similar results via wireless
 
Your results are appalling. Your ping is really bad

And I'm not sure you can even describe your connection as "broadband"

You are getting less than 1MB

My results are:
PING: 25ms
Download : 8.64 Mbps
Upload: 0.80 Mbps
 
Effectively you are getting 8 times less than the advertised speed

I'd be cancelling that service

I get Sky broadband for about ?ú3.50 a month because I'm a TV customer
 
whats your advertised speed with Sky ?

we have Sky TV but are on a contract with phone and internet with Talk Talk till next year - trying to get out of that at the moment
 
For a test connect to the router directly without the Solwise and run the test again and see what results you get, also the same too if the router's adsl is coming from a phone extension then move that to the main phone socket and test.

You can use this too to get a rough idea of the speed you should expect from the exchange
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php
 
Mine was wireless too. I'm paying for 20MB though!

Although they did tell me its unlikely I'll get more than 12-14 wind assisted
 
Trixster said:
For a test connect to the router directly without the Solwise and run the test again and see what results you get, also the same too if the router's adsl is coming from a phone extension then move that to the main phone socket and test.

You can use this too to get a rough idea of the speed you should expect from the exchange
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php
Click to expand...

thanks for the link, not quite sure what it all means though :p

green.gif
Fixed ADSL: 2048 kbps(2 Mb)
green.gif
DSL Max: 5500 kbps(5.5 Mb)
green.gif
21CN WBC :7000 kbps(7 Mb)


if im getting such poor results with talk talk - would changing provider actually change any of that ? going by what you have linked me to above im only about 1.7 km from the exchange
 
nah - but on the edge of town - rolling Kent countryside starting at the end of my road ;)

so i guess from that remark im not not in a good location to receive speedy interweb then ?
 
Well I'd say you would normally connect to the DSL Max so it aint too bad for the distance.
The UK router I use has 8mb for DSL Max and 15 for the 21cn speeds, but then it is 600 metres from exchange.

Have you had chance to change the way you connect yet? You could find that when connected direct to the router without the other odds n sods that you get a more valid reading as the ones you have posted are dire.

If the result is the same then I would bitch at the ISP as there is something wrong for sure, if it is a much better result then I'd say there may be an issue with the Solwise adapters and how they move traffic.
 
We keep doing this

What you pay for is adownload/connectivity speed from the local IP connection point (usually called a DSLAM) to the place you designated connection should be for (home?)

This is like me digging a tunnel to your house thats 10M in diameter, and telling you that you can now receive 10 million gallons a minute.

and then pointing a hosepipe down it............

speed tests will tell you that you can get 1o million gallons per minute

But when you connect to the internet, you find that you only get 50 thousand gallons a minute

Thats because your tunnel is connected to a central reservoir (DSLAM) that has 2000 other people waiting for water, all with 10 million gallon a minute tunnels.

The maths dont work - because the ISP estimates that the demand will never, ever reach the capacity they have promised.



When all the kids come home from school, your download speeds will drop alarmingly.

From 2 AM to 8AM they will be awesome

because in the quiet hours the demand will be low and you get all the water

Your ISP has oversubscribed the amount of people in your area, and has under equipped the feed and - or technology to deal with the local requirement.

However your speed test will still tell you that you can have all you were promised

its just that they never told you that you were going to have to share with 50 times more people than they had planned for.
 
Trixster said:
Well I'd say you would normally connect to the DSL Max so it aint too bad for the distance.
The UK router I use has 8mb for DSL Max and 15 for the 21cn speeds, but then it is 600 metres from exchange.

Have you had chance to change the way you connect yet? You could find that when connected direct to the router without the other odds n sods that you get a more valid reading as the ones you have posted are dire.

If the result is the same then I would bitch at the ISP as there is something wrong for sure, if it is a much better result then I'd say there may be an issue with the Solwise adapters and how they move traffic.
Click to expand...


i haven't had a chance to check directly connected to the router - thing is my pc is in my bedroom, upstairs. i could try with the laptop i guess.

i used to get decent speeds (2.3 downloads) even using the Solwise so im thinking it's a problem on their side ? especially with the connection dropping all the time (several times a week)

if i connect the laptop to the router would the wired connection override he wireless ?



Mick - that doesn't really line up with what is happeing though with my speed tests - they are showing i have poor connection speeds, much less than what i am technically provided with - in comparison to what others are getting on their speed tests mine are well below what they should be. i don't expect full speed but i do expect to be able to stream video content and download 100mb in less than an hour
 
Last edited:
Change provider, but before you sign up, ask them to do a streaming download test to your house at 4pm, to verify their promises

initially you will get some pimply 18 year old trying to flimflam you

then eventually someone will come on line and lie to you in a convincing manner

I'd be happy to conduct the conversation on your behalf............

Cable providers are the only people who can accurately match supply to advertised promises

even sky are trumpers - because their delivery is via the same DSL, copper wire to the home crock of brick. When their customer base increases, anyone on sky supply will have a gradually lowering of download speed.
 
Agree with Mick here.

My history......I was on Virgin (.net) which was provided via BT copper cable and was subject to things like trees overhanging cables and all sorsts of brick.
After months of drop-outs, and denial by BT that anything was wrong, I switched to Virgin cable. Since then, I have NEVER had a drop out, and achieve around 95% of the advertised speeds.

Simples. Virgin cable is the way to go.
 
If they have it in your area. Sadly cable has not come to my town yet so I am still on ADSL through a BT line. The connection is reliable but I only get about 2.9mb max as a download speed, which I suppose is not too bad for an upto 4mb line.
 
i have heard good stuff about virgin - was looking in to it earlier but cannot find anywhere that lets you see if they have it in your area ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back