Confused over adsl line checker speed

Hi all

I recently signed up with tiscali for their up-to-8meg broadband after
checking to see that I could get it - using various providers' line
speed checkers I was told that I could get the service and would be
running at between 4 and 6mb. After the 10 day settling in period I
was getting some dire speeds (under 1mb) so I spoke to customer
support to be told that the line could only support 2mb, and that I'd
be downgraded. He couldn't understand how I'd got onto the 8mb
package. I then checked online and sure enough, the max estimated
speed was now showing as 2mb. I presume these line checking websites
are just looking at a database, and if so, what could cause it to
change?

Is there any physical difference between 1 & 2 meg services and these
new 8 meg max ones, in terms of the technology used to provide them,
or are the lower speed deals just capped to that rate? I've found the
speed so far to be variable but the chap from customer services said
that once I've been put back to the 2meg deal (about 96 hours) it'd be
rock-solid at that speed. Is that plausible, or will the speed still
vary depending on the time of day, number of users etc?

Tiscali are supposedly migrating their users from ipstream, which is
what I'm currently on, to datastream in a bid to improve speeds. Is
that done on a per-exchange or a per-user basis, and is it
advantageous?

Apologies for all the silly questions but I never knew how much I
don't know about all this and from what I've read in tiscali's own
forums, I'm not sure whether to believe what I'm told by them either!

many thanks

Richard

On Feb 6, 1:15 pm, richardpstan...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I recently signed up with tiscali for their up-to-8meg broadband after
> checking to see that I could get it - using various providers' line
> speed checkers I was told that I could get the service and would be
> running at between 4 and 6mb. After the 10 day settling in period I
> was getting some dire speeds (under 1mb) so I spoke to customer
> support to be told that the line could only support 2mb, and that I'd
> be downgraded. He couldn't understand how I'd got onto the 8mb
> package. I then checked online and sure enough, the max estimated
> speed was now showing as 2mb. I presume these line checking websites
> are just looking at a database, and if so, what could cause it to
> change?
>
> Is there any physical difference between 1 & 2 meg services and these
> new 8 meg max ones, in terms of the technology used to provide them,
> or are the lower speed deals just capped to that rate? I've found the
> speed so far to be variable but the chap from customer services said
> that once I've been put back to the 2meg deal (about 96 hours) it'd be
> rock-solid at that speed. Is that plausible, or will the speed still
> vary depending on the time of day, number of users etc?
>
> Tiscali are supposedly migrating their users from ipstream, which is
> what I'm currently on, to datastream in a bid to improve speeds. Is
> that done on a per-exchange or a per-user basis, and is it
> advantageous?
>
> Apologies for all the silly questions but I never knew how much I
> don't know about all this and from what I've read in tiscali's own
> forums, I'm not sure whether to believe what I'm told by them either!
>
> many thanks
>
> Richard

Hi Richard,

The ISP checkers will say "Upto" whatever meg, its a marketing ploy.
The 1 or 2 or 8 meg is capped by the ISP depending which package you
chose (=/- about 10% ). I am suprised its going to take 96hrs to
change your speed though, should only take about 20-40 mins. The speed
will change at times depending on how many people are using your
particular exchange, so at peak usage ( during the summer holidays
when kids are downloading mp3 !! ) it will drop.
hope this helps

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Tiscali are supposedly migrating their users from ipstream, which is
> what I'm currently on, to datastream in a bid to improve speeds. Is
> that done on a per-exchange or a per-user basis, and is it
> advantageous?

This would be done a per-line basis. Datastream won't help your
situation if the low speeds are caused by your BT line. Datastream only
affects how the ISP and BT connect together, it allows the ISP greater
control.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> presume these line checking websites
> are just looking at a database, and if so, what could cause it to
> change?

The BT database updates itself every so often when an automatic
capacitance line test runs.

> Is there any physical difference between 1 & 2 meg services and these
> new 8 meg max ones, in terms of the technology used to provide them,
> or are the lower speed deals just capped to that rate? I've found the
> speed so far to be variable but the chap from customer services said
> that once I've been put back to the 2meg deal (about 96 hours) it'd be
> rock-solid at that speed.

Yes, its sound like you are on IPStream Max and they are going to
'downgrade' you to IPStream.
Do you have the SNR and line attentuation stats from your router?

>Is that plausible, or will the speed still
> vary depending on the time of day, number of users etc?

Speed will always vary depending on the number of users, and from
interference.

Hi Neil

thanks for your swift response

so it's exactly the same the product, just restricted to different
speeds? The reason for raising the query is in their blurb, tiscali
mentioned that speeds on their max speed service could be variable,
unlike their other offerings which were fixed, which sounded to me
like it was fundamentally different in some way. Unless I've
misunderstood, which is very possible!

As for them taking 20 minutes to make a change to my account instead
of 96 hours, I'd have said 96 hours was an optimistic figure judging
by some of the horror stories I've read about them! That'll teach me
to go for the cheapest and not do my homework properly!!

Richard

On 6 Feb, 13:25, neil.ni...@virgin.net wrote:
> On Feb 6, 1:15 pm, richardpstan...@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi all
>
> > I recently signed up with tiscali for their up-to-8meg broadband after
> > checking to see that I could get it - using various providers' line
> > speed checkers I was told that I could get the service and would be
> > running at between 4 and 6mb. After the 10 day settling in period I
> > was getting some dire speeds (under 1mb) so I spoke to customer
> > support to be told that the line could only support 2mb, and that I'd
> > be downgraded. He couldn't understand how I'd got onto the 8mb
> > package. I then checked online and sure enough, the max estimated
> > speed was now showing as 2mb. I presume these line checking websites
> > are just looking at a database, and if so, what could cause it to
> > change?
>
> > Is there any physical difference between 1 & 2 meg services and these
> > new 8 meg max ones, in terms of the technology used to provide them,
> > or are the lower speed deals just capped to that rate? I've found the
> > speed so far to be variable but the chap from customer services said
> > that once I've been put back to the 2meg deal (about 96 hours) it'd be
> > rock-solid at that speed. Is that plausible, or will the speed still
> > vary depending on the time of day, number of users etc?
>
> > Tiscali are supposedly migrating their users from ipstream, which is
> > what I'm currently on, to datastream in a bid to improve speeds. Is
> > that done on a per-exchange or a per-user basis, and is it
> > advantageous?
>
> > Apologies for all the silly questions but I never knew how much I
> > don't know about all this and from what I've read in tiscali's own
> > forums, I'm not sure whether to believe what I'm told by them either!
>
> > many thanks
>
> > Richard
>
> Hi Richard,
>
> The ISP checkers will say "Upto" whatever meg, its a marketing ploy.
> The 1 or 2 or 8 meg is capped by the ISP depending which package you
> chose (=/- about 10% ). I am suprised its going to take 96hrs to
> change your speed though, should only take about 20-40 mins. The speed
> will change at times depending on how many people are using your
> particular exchange, so at peak usage ( during the summer holidays
> when kids are downloading mp3 !! ) it will drop.
> hope this helps- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> Hi Neil
>
> thanks for your swift response
>
> so it's exactly the same the product, just restricted to different
> speeds? The reason for raising the query is in their blurb, tiscali
> mentioned that speeds on their max speed service could be variable,
> unlike their other offerings which were fixed, which sounded to me
> like it was fundamentally different in some way. Unless I've
> misunderstood, which is very possible!

It depends, Tiscali are getting BT to regrard the line from max to
standard. Or just changing the account to a 2mb (i.e. imposing a limit
their end) to save you money.

> As for them taking 20 minutes to make a change to my account instead
> of 96 hours, I'd have said 96 hours was an optimistic figure judging
> by some of the horror stories I've read about them! That'll teach me
> to go for the cheapest and not do my homework properly!!

thanks for your replies

I don't have the figures to hand, will post them when I get home

Richard

On 6 Feb, 13:30, Ashley <ashleypr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> richardpstan...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > presume these line checking websites
> > are just looking at a database, and if so, what could cause it to
> > change?
>
> The BT database updates itself every so often when an automatic
> capacitance line test runs.
>
> > Is there any physical difference between 1 & 2 meg services and these
> > new 8 meg max ones, in terms of the technology used to provide them,
> > or are the lower speed deals just capped to that rate? I've found the
> > speed so far to be variable but the chap from customer services said
> > that once I've been put back to the 2meg deal (about 96 hours) it'd be
> > rock-solid at that speed.
>
> Yes, its sound like you are on IPStream Max and they are going to
> 'downgrade' you to IPStream.
> Do you have the SNR and line attentuation stats from your router?
>
> >Is that plausible, or will the speed still
> > vary depending on the time of day, number of users etc?
>
> Speed will always vary depending on the number of users, and from
> interference.

I'll hope for the former, since at the moment I'm getting speeds of
around 250-450k

On 6 Feb, 13:42, Ashley <ashleypr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> richardpstan...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Hi Neil
>
> > thanks for your swift response
>
> > so it's exactly the same the product, just restricted to different
> > speeds? The reason for raising the query is in their blurb, tiscali
> > mentioned that speeds on their max speed service could be variable,
> > unlike their other offerings which were fixed, which sounded to me
> > like it was fundamentally different in some way. Unless I've
> > misunderstood, which is very possible!
>
> It depends, Tiscali are getting BT to regrard the line from max to
> standard. Or just changing the account to a 2mb (i.e. imposing a limit
> their end) to save you money.
>
>
>
> > As for them taking 20 minutes to make a change to my account instead
> > of 96 hours, I'd have said 96 hours was an optimistic figure judging
> > by some of the horror stories I've read about them! That'll teach me
> > to go for the cheapest and not do my homework properly!!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I recently signed up with tiscali for their up-to-8meg broadband after
> checking to see that I could get it - using various providers' line
> speed checkers I was told that I could get the service and would be
> running at between 4 and 6mb.


Yea those online checkers dont seem to be too accurate with lines which
aren't activated.

For example a line a work according to the various line checkers said
we'd get upto 6mbps. I found this hard to believe as the people next
door can only get 512kbps and someone just down the drive can get 1mbps.

Once the service was activated we now get between 1mbps and 1.5mbps and
the online checkers have changed to say around 2mbps - this is more
realistic considering where we are.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> thanks for your replies
>
> I don't have the figures to hand, will post them when I get home
>
> Richard

The figures will be interesting to know. Post them as soon as you can.
Also post the downstream and upstream sync rates.