Need advice following a change of ISP from PLUSNET to BT.

Hi. Need some advice here please. I was a long standing customer with
PlusNet and getting a steady and rock solid 2MB ADSL feed. Following a
combination of frustration in PlusNet's response at rolling out up to
8MB upgrades, coupled with the attraction of BT's upcoming Bt Vision
service, I jumped ship and moved to BT Total Broadband Option 3 (with
the BT Home Hub as advertised on telly). Since then (and following a
failed Home Hub), my speed never seems to go above about 1.6MB. When I
signed up, the line test said I would get at least 5MB. I have made
several calls / emails to support since this issue. I was then told
that - well actually, your line shows as only supporting up to 2MB
(convenient statement !?). My latest email from BT now says that my
line shows a max of 1MB. How is this possible? I had 2MB for a couple
of years !! Furthermore, a friend who lives just over the road gets a
full 8MB! I have also discovered that he connects to a different
exchange which is considerable further away than my exchange. Is there
anything that anybody can see that perhaps BT have setup wrong on my
account? What can i do other than accept it and live with it?

Many thanks

Gary

> my speed never seems to go above about 1.6MB. When I
> signed up, the line test said I would get at least 5MB

Imagine RADSL like this...

You're sat in a top spec BMW easily capable of 150mph, and have an itchy
right foot.

But... you're in roadworks amongst heavy traffic - the car is *capable*
of 150mph but road conditions say you're lucky to get 30mph.

Welcome to the world of advertising.

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:10:23 -0000, Colin Wilson <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>> my speed never seems to go above about 1.6MB. When I
>> signed up, the line test said I would get at least 5MB
>
>Imagine RADSL like this...
>
>You're sat in a top spec BMW easily capable of 150mph, and have an itchy
>right foot.
>
>But... you're in roadworks amongst heavy traffic - the car is *capable*
>of 150mph but road conditions say you're lucky to get 30mph.
>
>Welcome to the world of advertising.

Or the world of bare faced lying

On 20 Nov 2006, "Gazza" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I jumped ship and moved to BT Total Broadband Option 3 (with the BT Home
>Hub as advertised on telly). Since then (and following a failed Home Hub),
>my speed never seems to go above about 1.6MB.

So, how long has it been since you switched? It isn't clear from your post
just how long you have been away from PlusNet...

>When I signed up, the line test said I would get at least 5MB.

More likely suggested "up to 5.5 Mbps" or whatever the checkers actually
report... It's a really nice "get out" that with a minimum of around 400
kbps, almost any line is likely to meet the fairly low expectation, but to
be fair, it covers for the rather variable quality / wear + tear on lines
to millions of properties across the country, and some townies might get
a better speed that a country-dweller, but pay for it in other ways!

Gazza wrote on 20 Nov 2006 11:30:33 -0800:

> Hi. Need some advice here please. I was a long standing customer with
> PlusNet and getting a steady and rock solid 2MB ADSL feed. Following a
> combination of frustration in PlusNet's response at rolling out up to
> 8MB upgrades,

Did you check the announcements before you left PN? Automatic upgrades were
stopped due to the number of complaints about line speeds dropping or being
unstable, it became an free opt-in system. About four weeks ago I opted-in,
and just over a week ago I got the upgrade. I'm now on a 5Mbps BRAS profile
(although yesterday it decided to reset itself so my router was syncing at
6.6Mbps and dropping out occassionally), but due to capacity issues at the
exchange I'm still only getting 2Mbps, hopefully that'll get sorted soon.

Dan

"Spack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Gazza wrote on 20 Nov 2006 11:30:33 -0800:
>
>> Hi. Need some advice here please. I was a long standing customer with
>> PlusNet and getting a steady and rock solid 2MB ADSL feed. Following a
>> combination of frustration in PlusNet's response at rolling out up to
>> 8MB upgrades,
>
> Did you check the announcements before you left PN? Automatic upgrades
> were stopped due to the number of complaints about line speeds dropping or
> being unstable, it became an free opt-in system. About four weeks ago I
> opted-in, and just over a week ago I got the upgrade. I'm now on a 5Mbps
> BRAS profile (although yesterday it decided to reset itself so my router
> was syncing at 6.6Mbps and dropping out occassionally), but due to
> capacity issues at the exchange I'm still only getting 2Mbps, hopefully
> that'll get sorted soon.

I too "upgraded" to ADSL Max with PlusNet. Modem syncs @ ~3700kbps but
actual download speed is practically the same as before. Not measured upload
speed.

> I too "upgraded" to ADSL Max with PlusNet. Modem syncs @ ~3700kbps but
> actual download speed is practically the same as before. Not measured upload
> speed.

One of my colleagues swapped to "max" from a 2mbit service (I think they
moved away from plusnet though), and is now getting 512kbit on average,
despite syncing at around 5mbit...

He's not a very happy bunny at present, and is getting excuses from his
ISP trying to blame his equipment (he's tried different modems / routers
/ computers, same throughput)

Teddy wrote on Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:24:47 -0000:

>
> "Spack" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Gazza wrote on 20 Nov 2006 11:30:33 -0800:
>>
>>> Hi. Need some advice here please. I was a long standing customer with
>>> PlusNet and getting a steady and rock solid 2MB ADSL feed. Following a
>>> combination of frustration in PlusNet's response at rolling out up to
>>> 8MB upgrades,
>>
>> Did you check the announcements before you left PN? Automatic upgrades
>> were stopped due to the number of complaints about line speeds dropping
>> or being unstable, it became an free opt-in system. About four weeks ago
>> I opted-in, and just over a week ago I got the upgrade. I'm now on a
>> 5Mbps BRAS profile (although yesterday it decided to reset itself so my
>> router was syncing at 6.6Mbps and dropping out occassionally), but due to
>> capacity issues at the exchange I'm still only getting 2Mbps, hopefully
>> that'll get sorted soon.
>
> I too "upgraded" to ADSL Max with PlusNet. Modem syncs @ ~3700kbps but
> actual download speed is practically the same as before. Not measured
> upload speed.

My upload is definitely higher, it's around the 400kbps mark.

Dan

Gazza wrote:
> Hi. Need some advice here please. I was a long standing customer with
> PlusNet and getting a steady and rock solid 2MB ADSL feed.

PlusNet do seem to be a fairly reasonable ISP to me. They've just been
bought by BT I believe, so who knows what might happen...

> Following a
> combination of frustration in PlusNet's response at rolling out up to
> 8MB upgrades, coupled with the attraction of BT's upcoming Bt Vision
> service, I jumped ship and moved to BT Total Broadband Option 3 (with
> the BT Home Hub as advertised on telly).

Cool, but watch out for the Indian call centre. Customer service will
now be a problem.

> Since then (and following a
> failed Home Hub), my speed never seems to go above about 1.6MB. When I
> signed up, the line test said I would get at least 5MB.

You need to be careful here. Are you talking about the line speed
reported on your HomeHub's webinterface, or the speed test results on
some webpage? The first would be a local loop problem, the second would
be a result of either congestion in BT's Broadband network (as compared
with PlusNet) or others in your local area downloading or having virus
infections etc.

Assuming you are referring to speed reported by the HomeHub
webinterface...

The Home Hub is an aweful Thomson SpeedTouch rebadged. Although I quite
like the firmware, this has to be the most unreliable hardware I've
seen in a router yet (and I've seen quite a few). It's also really
difficult for a novice to adjust the router for use with services such
as Sipgate because there is an inbuilt SIP proxy which needs to be
unbound. Two ethernet ports and two USB ports - what were BT thinking?

> I have made
> several calls / emails to support since this issue. I was then told
> that - well actually, your line shows as only supporting up to 2MB
> (convenient statement !?).

What to do...

Have you tried plugging in the old router you used with PlusNet?

Also, check all the internal cabling, buy a new ADSL filter and try
BT's suggestion:

http://bt.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/bt.cf...346&p_cats=346

Unplug the router for an hour or so after adjusting the cabling and let
it reconnect. This apparently helps the DSLAM(?) re-learn what is a
sustainable line speed for your home.

> My latest email from BT now says that my
> line shows a max of 1MB. How is this possible? I had 2MB for a couple
> of years !!

As another poster suggested, be sure that ADSLMax is enabled. PlusNet
customers can do this online, but I'm unsure how a BT Broadband
Customer would do this.

> Furthermore, a friend who lives just over the road gets a
> full 8MB! I have also discovered that he connects to a different
> exchange which is considerable further away than my exchange. Is there
> anything that anybody can see that perhaps BT have setup wrong on my
> account? What can i do other than accept it and live with it?

To get the full 8Mb, I'm sorry to inform you but you probably need to
choose an ISP which invests a proper amount of money in it's network.
One which springs to mind is Zen. Looking at adslguide.org should
reveal a couple of others.

You also need decent cabling inside and outside your home.

> Many thanks
>
> Gary