1mb vv 8mb

[crewmeal]

I suppose I am one of those lucky guys who managed to get broadband free when I first joined up to talk talk 18 months ago. Now the broadband world has moved on and up. This time i have received emails from talk talk to inform me that my network is now 8mb. However when I checked it out only 1mb is being piped through. On investigation a lady in Mumbai told me my line was 'unstable' and that i would never be able to have 8mb.

Talking to friends no one seems to know what that means, but reading BTs website it suggested I might need to upgrade the router. I have a Philips wireless box which has given excellent service and had no problems at all. The box is about 2 years old, now do I need to spend another £100 to upgrade or as the lady suggested 'I will never be able to have 8mb'?????

Anyone else had these problems?

[oldbeefer]

the old 1mb was a fixed speed. The new 8mb deal is using 'rate adaptive technology' (google it if you want more info). Basically, the kit in the exchange continually asseses your line, and provides a speed of connection which is stable for those conditions. If you live next door to the exchange you might (at a quiet time of day) get 8mb. If, like me, you are 6km from the exchange, you may get 3-4mb. Because of contention, the connection will be a lot less than this when the world in the local area are using the net. Extensions in the house also have a significant effect - the advice I was given was to plug my router into the main BT socket, and either go wireless or connect router to PC using and ethernet cable (the way I did it). If you wished to upgrade, a router/modem (which is fast) can be had for 25 quid or so.

[Cypherus]

Many things will affect your indicated line speed, distance from exchange. local area loading, time of day, and of course Bt's throttling of the lines which they do inspite of denials to the contrary, if you feel your line is not performing as you expected it too, BT will free of charge investigate the problem and let you know the results, but unless there is something the find that might lead to liability cliams against them, they will not make any changes to the download speed and your upload will of course remain static.
I was told quite catagorically by BT that my lines ( I have seven) would give me 8mb 'Under Optimal' conditions yet six years later I still get exactly the same rates at the same time of day as I always did, Not confined to the UK either as family members worldwide have similar problems.

Most generic routers on sale in the Uk will handle these rates with ease, some so called commercial models may give you slightly better connections and clearer signal processing, but other than that Dlink, Lynksys and Belkin are about the best you can buy for around the £30 mark.

Some of the guys in the Yahoo Computer chat lobbies will be happy to walk you through exactly why this all happens and also give you few tips as to how you might get the best from your system.

[Selfloading]

I had a similar problem, was told the router might need to be re-trained, all you have to do is switch off your router for about 5 minutes restart it and hey presto, well it worked for me anyway.

[Keef]

I just changed ISP (a different story), and the change included a switch from fixed 2mb/s to MaxADSL, with speeds anywhere from nil to 8 mb/s.

Before signing up with the new ISP, I checked on the ADSL guide site, which said I should be able to get about 3.2 mb/s. The switchover was today, and the Router says the line is connected at ...