BT broadband - anyone else suffering poor performance?

[Henrywalker]

We can't get virgin cable in our street but we are also very dissapointed with BT. Not just the service but also the extra charges. Can anyone recomend an alternative to Virgin?

[littlemissj]

Same here, really wished i never changed from Sky to BT broadband as its always freezing & so frustrating whilst i'm trying to download prgrammes. Another unhappy customer : (

[Penguin68]

I have BT Broadband (Infinity) - I really haven't had the problems you are talking about, on PCs, TV, mobiles, tablets. I did have a drop-out problem, which I finally identified as a browser clash - using a different browser sorted it (the browser was not compatible with a networking component in my PC).

Problems can exist in (your own) hardware and software and can also happen where there is wireless channel contention with neighbours. It is also possible that you have a problem with your external plant (the wires coming into your house from a BT flexibility point - this can normally be checked for, although if the fault is intermittent it can be a beast to uncover).

The underlying broadband service can also fall-over, but when it does BT is generally quick about curing it - a couple of years back they had a problem with a firmware upgrade on the exchange side which caused wide spread problems for a few hours until diagnosed and cleared, but normally outages are much more quickly sorted (other than actual physical destruction or theft of cables which can take days to sort out because of the complexity of jointing twisted pair to the (right) twisted pair).

As all the physical network (but not exchange based equipment) for residential services other than Virgin media is actually BT supplied you are anyway significantly reliant on BT - and its underlying broadband service (I can state from personal experience) is generally robust and non-problematic.

The problem is that 'getting broadband' requires a large number of equipment and software elements, from multiple suppliers, and identifying where there is a problem can be complex. Many years ago an I-Tunes software upgrade included lines of code which disabled certain routers, for instance, - it can really be that weird.

[fizzmoll]

I am running BT infinity with a fiber all the way into the livingroom down in honor oak park. We have had a rock solid service except for once when there was an issue with the exchange. At the time, I must say BT support were excellent and communicated very well throughout the hours of down time.

Are you using Apple products by any chance? I am software engineer and we are mostly running apple products at home. I found that BT is using a technology called PPP over Ethernet (nothing unusual or non-standard about that) and that this didn't work well with Apple products. When I was using the BT router, there would be intermittent disconnections, blips in file transfers, random small transmission breakups. I replaced my BT router with an Apple Time capsule and everything has been solid ever since. This may be worth trying. As far as I understand things, this is not a BT problem - more a case of Apple products being "better friends" with other Apple products.

Also, if you are using wifi, it could be a case of poor radio signals. Old victorian buildings can be very wifi-unfriendly. Try buying a wifi extender. There are also a little thing you can buy on amazon which routes your network from the router to a computer via the power lines in your house. I found this being a great solution, especially going from say the ground floor to the first floor.

[the-e-dealer]

After 3 engineer visits and paying someone to lift the floor to check cabling BT have just rung to say there is a fault at the exchange 693 - which should be fixed by tomorrow evening. it started at 30 dropped to 20 and is now 7mbs.

[DulwichFox]

I'm have BT Broadband .. Current speed as tested with BT Speed check.. 3.28mbs

That's about as good as it ever gets..

I get faster speeds at the EDT Wi-Fi

DulwichFox

[the-e-dealer]

that's a bloody terrible(BT) rip off! ring 'em and hassle them they gave me half price for underperformance!

[Jah Lush]

My BT speed test was 79.8mb. I'd have a word if I were you Dulwich Fox.

[the-e-dealer]

90 at top of Friern!

[Penguin68]

I think we are talking about ADSL and fibre services here. ADSL can be significantly impacted by the distance from the exchange (the signal attenuates over distance). Speeds will also attenuate where the access is wireless, not wired - so wireless ADSL will be less fast than direct (ethernet) connection to your router, ADSL far slower than fibre (for BT - BT Infinity). The EDT may well be connected by Infinity - and will certainly be a business service.

If memory serves 3.28 mpbs over ADSL wasn't that bad, with old(ish) equipment. If you (DF) are paying for BT Infinity however, then you need to contact BT, as something is clearly wrong.

[Bic Basher]

Sounds poor. I get 16mbps on ADSL2 using TalkTalk.

If you've got an old modem, it may need updating to ADSL2 standard if on standard broadband.

[DulwichFox]

Jah Lush Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My BT speed test was 79.8mb. I'd have a word if I

> were you Dulwich Fox.

I'm on copper twin all the way back to the Exch.

I'm using a Belking G Wireless Router.

They are trying to switch me to Infinity.

Foxy