Incredibly slow ADSL connection

[chonieshead]

Hello all

I've recently started an internet connection with Virgin Media (who I think get their internet connection from Telewest). The advertised speed is 8mb, though the maximum possible speed in my area is 5.5mb (according to broadband.co.uk). When I connect via the modem Virgin sent me, Windows tells me the speed is 5.3mb. However, the actual speed I get from the connection is much lower. I've done several speed tests with www.speedtest.net, and so far the highest down speed I've recorded is ~400kbs (that test was taken at around 11pm).

Usually we connect via a wireless router, and the signal gets pretty weak (around 40%) upstairs, which I initially thought might be the cause of the slowness. However, even when we are literally a few metres from the router with full signal strength the connection is still slow, and I've done speed tests with the modem provided to eliminate signal as a problem and it's still slow (downloaded a 3.2mb file in over 3 minutes).

The wireless connection is secure and I've checked the DHCP listings to see if anyone is trying to mooch internet from the router and there are no extra entries other. This connection is shared with 5 people, but it's not the others slowing the conection as I've done tests with no one else using the internet at all (and with the modem which means the wireless isn't even connected to the internet).

I plan to give Virgin Media a ring tomorrow to find out what's going on, and I suppose it could be them providing a god awful service, but I find it hard to believe that could make a 5.3mb connection effectively less than a tenth of what it should be. So is there any possible reason we seem to get such an incredibly slow internet connection? I'll do another test if I'm still awake at around 2am, and maybe again in the morning and update you then.

Thanks in advance

 

[Lemon law]

My guess would be a lot of line noise. But until test are run, its very hard to tell.

But in terms of form, you should be distinguishing between bits and bytes. And I find it hard to see what unit you are referring to. But usually KB refers to a kilobyte and a kb
refers to a kilobit. With 8 bits to the byte.

And your results can also be off if the files get compressed in transit.

Or if the speed test server is many internet hops away from your location.

 

[chonieshead]

Sorry about the confusion, I know the usual notation but was a bit slack there. The only time I'm actually referring to MB is the size of the file I downloaded.

I ran another test this morning at around 8:30am and got a 3mb down speed, which is much more in line with what it should be. The test server is in London, around 300 miles from where I live (usual ping from it is around 150-200ms). This seems to suggest to me that the reason I get such poor speeds is that Virgin really are as bad as I think and other internet traffic is slowing my connection down. Is it possible to really be that bad?

 

[Lemon law]

To chonieshead,

Depending on how co operative virgin media is, its still worth investigating why your connection is slow at times. There can be an almost infinite set of reasons, some easily correctable and some not. But you know something for sure, your connection is capable of 3mb/sec down which is none too shabby for dsl, and when you get significantly less than that, there is a reason for the slowdown. Step one is always to find the reason for the slowdown and move it out of the area of just speculation. Step two is correcting the problem which may or may not be easy.

If Virgin media is co-operative, they may well do step one and two for free, if not you may have to hire some outside expert to do step one for you.