Puzzled

[west lakes]

We've been having slow/inaccurate internet for a couple of days (it normally is between 1 & 5 mps)
So the computers, both laptops, will connect to the router via wi-fi or the LAN.
Firefox opens with no problem,. I can access my homepage (Sky the IPS) and this site (did get on Farcebook earlier but that fails now) I can even get to my email logon page but no further, YWL can get nothing.
Been on the phone to sky & after a lot of checks and failures they ask for speed tests on the BT site, which I cannot access. The call handler couldn't understand this and asked that I do them any way.

AV is McAfee (I know) and the firewall is on

I did get one speed test which showed it was OK but with a very high Ping Latency figure (211mS)
Any thoughts as to what is going on?

[mixture]

Did Sky do a line test or did they just talk you through checking DNS settings etc.

If they didn't ask about your DNS settings, might be worth checking that too.

Do you have a spare DSL filter you can try ?

[ShyTorque]

After suffering this sort of thing with Sky Broadband for a very long time, I was recently very glad to return to BT (never thought I'd say that) after they introduced a fibre optic cable system.

Sky internet just didn't work properly here. I was paying for up to 20 Mbps download but it seldom got up to 1 Mbps. 0.3 kbps was becoming more common; totally unworkable. When I complained (many times) it would sometimes improve temporarily to 1 Mbps. Sky blamed BT's line quality, BT blamed Sky's system.

Sky nonsense now gone forever, I'm getting 37 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload speeds.

[west lakes]

The filter was changed following a suggestion from them (before their customer service went down last night!!)
Oddly enough it has suddenly come back up running at 4.1 (the BT speed test was accessible)
I've signed for their unlimited service which apparently removes any BT imposed contention and is cheaper than the package I'm on

I'll see how it goes

Fibre optic, well In about 30 years perhaps!!

[ShyTorque]

Fibre optic, well In about 30 years perhaps!!

You might be surprised, we're out in the sticks and I thought the same. However, BT suddenly announced it was available, I've only had it a few weeks.

Yesterday I had a market research chap asking me on behalf of Sky to participate in a survey, seeing as I had recently cancelled my account with them. About twenty questions asked but fibre optics were mentioned more than once.

P.s. There was no change to my external line, there was only a white control box fitted, in addition to the new wireless modem supplied. They also upgraded my extension socket by the computer to become the new master socket; I can now plug my fax, my phone and the modem directly into the socket plate, much better all round at no extra cost.

[Milo Minderbinder]

Westlakes

I assume you're on the Cumbrian west coast, in which case you may get lucky - e.g. this announcement from last week
North West Evening Mail | Barrow among 10 communities to get broadband upgrade

Of course if you are really rural then you may still be out of luck
Ever thought of setting up your own broadband company? Take a look at
B4RN.Org.uk - FTTH Broadband for the Rural North : Sponsored By Carrera IT Ltd
They're putting together a gigabit cable network in the Lune Valley / Bowland at the moment

Its grown out of a project at Lancaster University
The chap behind it is Barry Forde, who seems to have done a lot of work in trying to push for rural broadband in Cumbria
Barry Forde - United Kingdom | LinkedIn

If you fancied it I'm sure they'd be able to give a lot of advice

Or if that looks too heavy to take on, how about a rural mesh network such as these guys put in at Wray
RuralConnect Living Labs
Wray Community Communications, wifi scarecrow village broadband hotspot
Relatively locally there are similar systems in place at Wennington, Backbarrow, Ingleton/Chapel-le-Dale/Dent

[west lakes]

I assume you're on the Cumbrian west coast, in which case you may get lucky

Ah thanks for that, yes we do as we're in one of the places listed

[west lakes]

They're sending an engineer.
Last night speed of 4.1 watsits, 4.05 this morning 0.93 15 minutes ago!!

[west lakes]

Then back up over 6 at 18:30

[Milo Minderbinder]

noisy line or failing router would be my guesses

which router have you got - is it a Skybox / Tiscalibox?
they don't seem to be all that compatible with newer versions of ADSL, especially if the line is noisy

PS - are these speeds what the online test is reporting, or what the router is showing as its connection speed?

[west lakes]

The speeds are from the BT online speedtest site (http\\speedtest.bt.com), router is a Sky provided Sagem. It's never been as high as 6 at this time of night

[mixture]

0.93 15 minutes ago!!

and

It's never been as high as 6 at this time of night

Yeah, there's a reason for that observation, there were other major reasons why it would be that low earlier and that high this evening.