BT Accelerator

[Soot1e]

The larger exchanges have been unbundled and companies like Talk Talk and Sky have their own equiptment located within, which do give faster speeds. However Slider,it's doubtful that your exchange has been unbundled so changing BB suplliers is not an option to faster speed for you, but what you can do is make sure your wiring is the modern type and read my 2 earlier posts.

[slider]

The larger exchanges have been unbundled and companies like Talk Talk and Sky have their own equiptment located within, which do give faster speeds. However Slider,it's doubtful that your exchange has been unbundled so changing BB suplliers is not an option to faster speed for you, but what you can do is make sure your wiring is the modern type and read my 2 earlier posts.

Ta, house is only 10 yrs old so would think internal wiring would be ok, however....... router is plugged into an extension (professionally wired)so I will try moving everything to themain socket and see if that does any good.

Not convince it will mind as neighbours are all in a similar situation.

[john-w]

With BTinternet. Live in a modern (10yrs old) village, 3 mile each way by road to nearest town but I beleive threre are about 6 or 7 miles of wiring to the exchange.

It's a "commuter " village with a laot of pepole who can or want to work from home and with some quite high value homes and theer has been lots of pressure (MP's etc) to try and improve broadband but BT just fob off the cost factor.

Don't think moving provider would do any good and BT are now refusing to even switch new home on to broadband.

Only way to lookat it is that its better than fdial up:confused:

downloading music is a pain, using online photo or document storage is a pain, downloading a film take about 10 hours, iPlayer type stuff is a waste of time and what teh hell is cloud computing:mad:

Just curious, what speed does your router say you're connected at? If it's connected at a FASTER speed than what you can currently receive, you need to talk to BT about increasing your IP Profile. I did this and it worked a treat. My neighbours can barely get 1mb and that's how my connection started out, but after noticing my Home Hub was connected at 2.8mb I phoned them and complained about increasing my IP Profile and ever since I've not seen anything less than a 2mb connection.

Defo worth a look!

[Soot1e]

Yes it's worth trying, but make sure the extention cables are disconnected, just have your main phone, router and micro filter plugged into the test socket. Once you do this it will take up to 10days for your IP profile to readjust, that controls your download speed, but if you can look into the router you will see any synch speed changes immediately, should be a page that displays up & down speeds.

Synch speed is the speed the router talks to the local exchange equiptment and varies very little.

Download speed (IP Profile)is always lower than the above and is the speed the PC talks to the WWW and is always dependent on how busy your Broadband supplier and WWW is.

As days progress the download speed will increase bit by bit, thats if there is a problem on the extention internal wiring and if no noticeable improvement then its already as good as it gets.

6 miles from the exchange in rural communities is not uncommon and the copper wire that supply the phone service are usually of a larger diameter to compensate.

[slider]

extension is hard wired and not a plug in jobbie.

How do I find what speed my router is connecting at?, I usually just check using teh speed test from thinkbroadband thinkbroadband :: The UK's largest independent Broadband / ADSL comparison & review website

getting 0.7 meg today so must be a good day - it tends to vary with the weather.

Intersetingly I did a clean install on my PC a few months a got and for the first day or so download speed seemed an awful lot faster before reverting back to "normal"

[TriggerFish]

It varies from router to router but assuming you have a Homehub then type 192.168.1.1 into the web browser, then enter user name and password (usually admin and admin by default). If 192.186.1.1 doesn't work, try 192.168.2.1

Then (on a homehub) go to advanced settings > Broadband > ADSL. Then it's the downstream value.

On other routers, it will be something simular, but just keep going through until you find it.

[Soot1e]

Or type in the address bar bthomehub.home . No www. as it's not going onto the WWW Lots of info on there. Or have a look under the router for an address sometimes printed on the label.

If you can capture it and give us a link I'll see whats possible.

[slider]

It varies from router to router but assuming you have a Homehub then type 192.168.1.1 into the web browser, then enter user name and password (usually admin and admin by default). If 192.186.1.1 doesn't work, try 192.168.2.1

Then (on a homehub) go to advanced settings > Broadband > ADSL. Then it's the downstream value.

On other routers, it will be something simular, but just keep going through until you find it.

I have a Belkin router and am familiar with accessing this via 192.168.2.1, but can see anything to check download speed.

I actually also have a brand new homehub still in the box but am reluctant to move to this as I had mega trouble getting my worl laptop (VPN) to work with teh current router and don't want to upset it!

[john-w]

I have a Belkin router and am familiar with accessing this via 192.168.2.1, but can see anything to check download speed.

I actually also have a brand new homehub still in the box but am reluctant to move to this as I had mega trouble getting my worl laptop (VPN) to work with teh current router and don't want to upset it!

The connection speed is generally on the first page you see on the Belkin router, I think anyway. Otherwise, there will be a "Status" option on the left somewhere. Otherwise, try all the options until you see a Download/Upload speed indicator. It'll look like

http://www.grimroper.com/photos/Router%20Stats.jpg

You're mainly interested in the Downstream / Upstream data rate figures, but, if you tell us your Noise Margin for the downstream & upstream that'll be helpful too in working out how best to try and improve your service.

[Soot1e]

As john-w shows, thats the synch speed off the router, whats yours?

[slider]

Ok, its all on the front page right enough, would have helped if I had scolled down:rotz:

Type - Interleave Path

Status - SHOWTIME

Down

DATA rate 256

Noise 10

Output 119

Attenuation 71

Up

DATA rate 448

Noise 13

Output 148

Attenuation 71

[Clunkclick]

Surely, all BT have got to do to reach the rural customer effectively is install repeater equipment in the relevant roadside boxes, which captures, cleans up, reforms and re-transmits the signal onwards.

Can't be that expensive, just a board or two in the rack.

Without making a substantial investment BT have managed to make Broadband work on 90 year old copper twisted-pair system. The institution that made this original investment in th residential link in the 1920s, the G.P.O, must have got their original investment on capital back by now, many times over ! And if they didn't, I suspect that this was because it was written-off by HMG when the telephones bit of GPO was hived-off to BT in the early '70s and/or when BT was privatised in 1984.

So apart from basic O&M costs, all income derived from signals running over the BT copper lines since then has been pure bunce. Am I wrong ?

So as far as substantial network investment is concerned for the residential customer, from whose largesse the business originated, nothing really has been done for 90 years - most of the investment, rather like Royal mail, has been aimed at the business customer i.e. digital exchanges and improved trunking. How stingy can you get ?

The Taliban have probably invested more in two-way radios than BT have in the residential customer

Nick

[john-w]

Ok, its all on the front page right enough, would have helped if I had scolled down:rotz:

Type - Interleave Path

Status - SHOWTIME

Down

DATA rate 256

Noise 10

Output 119

Attenuation 71

Up

DATA rate 448

Noise 13

Output 148

Attenuation 71

Well, the good news is is that you have a pretty good upload speed. The bad news is is that your actual, potential download speed, and the speed at which your router is connected at is not fantastic. The noise on the line is actually about the same as mine so it won't be that that is causing you any problems, but there's actually nothing more you can do to increase your speeds unfortunately. What do BT promise in terms of speed for your line? A chap I spoke to at BT when I signed up told me to complain on several occasions if I had trouble with my connection speed and they would eventually either adjust the pricing of my package or sort something else out.

I take it cable is not an option in your area?

[slider]

Thanks for your help, althought the amswer is as I suspected - i.e. i'm stuffed:thumbdwn: and cable isn't an option.

line is supposed to be 2 mb. A few years ago I was given a "free upgrade" to 8 Meg but it made things worse with lots of drop outs and BT had to reset it back to 2 meg to make teh service usable again.

I went throught a spell a couple of years ago when I pestered the hell out of BT to try and improve teh service and had engineers out on a few occasions but they didn't manage to get a fix.

Currently local MP is campaining to get the speed for the village improved. This is a newe village of about 300 houses that was built 10 years ago. It is very much a "commuter" village will many of the bigger houses occupied by Edinburgh professionals. Part of the ethos of the village is to reduce the need to commute by allowing folk to work at home - which is pretty well stuffed by the crap broadband speeds but remains central to our campain with BT.

[Soot1e]

256k.download is pretty woeful, have you pulled off the bellwire on connector 3 on the main socket?

[Soot1e]

Surely, all BT have got to do to reach the rural customer effectively is install repeater equipment in the relevant roadside boxes, which captures, cleans up, reforms and re-transmits the signal onwards.

Can't be that expensive, just a board or two in the rack.

Without making a substantial investment BT have managed to make Broadband work on 90 year old copper twisted-pair system. The institution that made this original investment in th residential link in the 1920s, the G.P.O, must have got their original investment on capital back by now, many times over ! And if they didn't, I suspect that this was because it was written-off by HMG when the telephones bit of GPO was hived-off to BT in the early '70s and/or when BT was privatised in 1984.

So apart from basic O&M costs, all income derived from signals running over the BT copper lines since then has been pure bunce. Am I wrong ?

So as far as substantial network investment is concerned for the residential customer, from whose largesse the business originated, nothing really has been done for 90 years - most of the investment, rather like Royal mail, has been aimed at the business customer i.e. digital exchanges and improved trunking. How stingy can you get ?

The Taliban have probably invested more in two-way radios than BT have in the residential customer

Nick

The copper cable would have been renewed once or twice over all those years.

Repeaters for analogue lines would need a small building to house all the equiptment and would not be economic. The good news is that the local copper network up to the "cabinet" will be changing over to optic fibre in the next few years, already started in in Bristol area.

The digital trunk & exchange network was updated in the 80's not just for businesses but for all users, thats why we have access to cheap and sometimes free calls.

The next 10 years will see all the exchanges upgraded again to 21CN to give even more capacity and convergence of voice and data traffic.

[slider]

Thanks for your help, althought the amswer is as I suspected - i.e. i'm stuffed:thumbdwn: and cable isn't an option.

line is supposed to be 2 mb. A few years ago I was given a "free upgrade" to 8 Meg but it made things worse with lots of drop outs and BT had to reset it back to 2 meg to make teh service usable again.

I went throught a spell a couple of years ago when I pestered the hell out of BT to try and improve teh service and had engineers out on a few occasions but they didn't manage to get a fix.

Currently local MP is campaining to get the speed for the village improved. This is a newe village of about 300 houses that was built 10 years ago. It is very much a "commuter" village will many of the bigger houses occupied by Edinburgh professionals. Part of the ethos of the village is to reduce the need to commute by allowing folk to work at home - which is pretty well stuffed by the crap broadband speeds but remains central to our campain with BT.

Got a result! - well of sorts anyway.

Eventually plucked up teh strenght to phone teh help line and suffer trying to explain teh problem in Mombai, so where ever they are. Within a few minutes a very helpful and almost understandable chap had transfered me back to the UK, who then offered to send an engineer out.

The result was that he relaced some of the internal wireing to teh main socket and "hey presto" we hav esuper fast broadnad at a whole one mb. May not sound a lot but believe me after 100kb it is a revelation!

Engineer also removed the BT Accelerator (i plate) that I had fitted as he thing they are totally useless!

[cheezemonkhai]

I might need a new ISP too... plus.net seem rather variable at the moment! Ring-ring is rather a nice feature of my house however.... :-)

Utterly sh*te for some people I know, also in Dorset

[VWD]

Gents - few years ago things like BT accelerator /fancy sockets weren't about - all we had was some olde wolrde telecomms knowledge . I wired my daughters hous first ,then mine . Take incoming line straight to PC site . Add filter to socket , plug in PC to Adsl ,AND fit telephone side to phone outlet - add mastrer socket and robert is etc etc .OLDE WORLDE TRANSMISSION THEORY -backed up by fiter manufacturers info .All theory compliment of olde worlde version of BT( post office telephojes/ GPO PHONES)

[skippy41]

Thanks for your help, althought the amswer is as I suspected - i.e. i'm stuffed:thumbdwn: and cable isn't an option.

line is supposed to be 2 mb. A few years ago I was given a "free upgrade" to 8 Meg but it made things worse with lots of drop outs and BT had to reset it back to 2 meg to make teh service usable again.

I went throught a spell a couple of years ago when I pestered the hell out of BT to try and improve teh service and had engineers out on a few occasions but they didn't manage to get a fix.

Currently local MP is campaining to get the speed for the village improved. This is a newe village of about 300 houses that was built 10 years ago. It is very much a "commuter" village will many of the bigger houses occupied by Edinburgh professionals. Part of the ethos of the village is to reduce the need to commute by allowing folk to work at home - which is pretty well stuffed by the crap broadband speeds but remains central to our campain with BT.

Would that be Oxton by any chance??

We need re wired with fiber optic especially in Langlee where the youngest phone lines are 38 years old

Edited 10 March, 2010 by skippy41

[foo]

Consider mobile (3G) broadband.

[VWD]

Looks like Virgin have finally got BT worried - I had BT BB - ALL 3mb ( more like 1,5)of it - then I moved to virgin 2mb - and it was 2 ,sometimes3 .Now I see BT are putting in fibre to match Virgin . But - when BT want a mortgage - virgin only ask coppers . I moved to Virgin from BT - GOT PHONE ( WITH FREE CALLS) and BB- for £20 less than BT wanted .And unlike what hapened to my son ( BT customer) when he moved house -NO INSTALLATION FEE .Disadvantages - call centres in foreign climes -like BT -but they do speak English ,and do care about customer care .