Upgrade to 'up to 20mb' network

[reab]

Silly really - small home network running ok and never any real problems with with BT running up to 8mb, so I took advantage of the offer to upgrade to 'up to 20mb' after bt transferred me to the 'new' higher speed network now available in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

BT's website didn't make it clear exactly what steps needed to be taken such as to resign for a new contract period and what the implications were (I was on option 1).

However, I've resigned to option 2 apparently as I opted for a 12 month contract thinking the price would be the same but . .  yes its a higher cost, plus my static ip address and ip phone.

BT seem to think I'm upgraded but after several days my hub seems to be stuck on the same speed (its also got a different interface than that shown in bt's help). My ip profile also states 'up to 8mb' and that hasn't changed either.

BT say 10 days to settle down before contacting engineering support - so is this normal behaviour during an upgrade or am I expecting too much?

Ah yes . . tried the speed tester

Results are:

Download speedachieved during the test was - 7115 Kbps
 For your connection, the acceptable range of speedsis 1000-7150 Kbps.
 Additional Information:
 Your DSL Connection Rate :8124 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 448 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
 IP Profile for your line is - 7000 Kbps
The throughput of Best Efforts (BE) classes achieved during the test is - 12.9:23.07:64.03 (SBE:NBE:PBE)
These figures represent the ratio while sententiously passing Sub BE, Normal BE and Priority BE marked traffic.

The results of this test will vary depending on the way your ISP has decided to use these traffic classes.

Any help appreciated as the initial tests indicated that I should receive up tp 13mb!

Roger B

[alastair]

you rebooted the router to retrain the line?

[reab]

Thanks - yes, I restart the whole network including the router every morning and a router reboot at lunchtime to see if anything changes.

Due to an administrative error I do have a spare router as standby to try out later on if all fails !

Roger B

[alastair]

i'd suggest only rebooting the router if you absolutely have to.

If you reboot the router the exchange sees a drop in sync and will lower your sync rate. It will then take something like 8 hours of steading sync for the exchange to increase your sync speed.

I'd suggest when you replace the router leave it connected the rest of the day and be patient for the exchange to update. I think it takes 4 hours but i say 8 incase you just miss a recalculation and have to wait for the next.

[reab]

OK thanks Alistair,

That sounds a reasonable explanation of what may be happening bearing in mind I don't know how the line speed sync works.

Perhaps I should leave the router on 24/7 (if nothing else) for the next week or so, to give the best opportunity for the router to sync with the exchange and keep a watch on what happens - everything is on a UPS so its not too difficult.

Roger B

[alastair]

I think that is a good idea.

And yes it needs to be on 24/7 or the network thinks it needs to recalculate the sync speed to a lower rate.

This may or may not be your issue.

Alot of people turn their routers off at night and get slower speeds.

I can see why it is done and its a good idea. the users just need educated on it or they think there is a slow speed fault on their line while in reality it is just a lower rate.

If the rate gets too low from recalculating i think i've heard that it can cause a dropping connection.

Dont quote me on that though

[reab]

Well, its now Tuesday and no improvement - I'm about half a mile from the exchange (as the crow flies) so I would be happy with the 13mb that the line speed checker suggests I would have on this up to 20mb network.

Tried to contact BT this morning with live assistance and travelled here and there with everyone saying its not their department - including the complaints dept !!!

My broadband (on the new higher speed network) is capped at 8mb it seems and when I asked why I was impolitely disconnected. Of course I kept the transcript for later use.

Shouldn't the cap be at 20mb (I have resigned another contract) and let the router find its own level (13mbs or so) or am I wrong.

This is the first time I have experienced such irritation with BT and would normally have recommended them!

All help appreciated

Roger B

[Alun]

Hi reab,

Are you still having issues with this?

[reab]

Yes I'm afraid so - nothing has changed.

This situation is not what I expected and I'm very disappointed that I cannot get anything better on the new 'up to 20mb' network.

I signed a new contract based on BT's speed checker and it apparently got it wrong - its been corrected needless to say!

Point is I'm no better off on the new higher speed network than I was on the old network - why on earth not not?

All help appreciated

Roger B

[Alun]

I am sorry to hear this. Can you Private Message me with the Broadband telephone number and all the references you have regarding this so can get this looked into. Thank you.