BT Speed Test

[DigiGuru]

The phone number 01462xxxxxx is connected to the Offley exchange

According to BT's latest data the VP status of your exchange is RED.
A date of 29/12/2006 has been set by BT for the exchange to be upgraded.

GRRRRR

[Lee H]

I personally would recommend using more than 1 checker and then averaging the results because some ISP's have their own transit backbones like bethere and various other LLU providers.

Here's a quick list of the one's I use to check my line ;

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

http://specials.zdnet.co.uk/misc/ban...edtest500.html

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

Also, tracerting to your favourite game server is also a good idea as this can show where the dodgy section on the backbone is located.

[adam1701]

The other thing to check is this:

http://status.zensupport.co.uk/exchanges/

This will tell you how your exchange is performing, if its in the red, then its likely your ADSL speeds are suffering as a result. Moan at BT

Useful

[Rev_Hill]

My Exchange has now been upgraded and is back in the green.

Will be interesting to see if this resolves my connection issues, or at least improves the speed.

Have also run the speedtest a few times now but virgin insist on me phoning them to discuss. They will not take any action without me calling them!

Whatever happened to companies been proactive and providing good customer service without constant chasing from unsatisfied customers.

Rev

[Rev_Hill]

Well Virgin.net still rubbish!

Exchange is green and has been upgraded and yet my virgin broadband is useless.

Anyone recommend a good alternative?

I'm waiting on Sky to be available in my area....got sky + but apparently cannot get broadband package yet.

Will keep having a go at Virgin.net in the meantime.

Rev

[kopite]

Stay well away from sky atm. There have been loads of issues with it.

BE are supposed to be ok if they are available.

Best place to look is adslguide.org

[CrazyMonkey]

Hat's off to you, sir.

Hats on to BT, who still need to upgrade Bristol North...

Bristol's exchange sucks....

[Rev_Hill]

Have spoken to Virgin.net,

Quite a rude and obnoxious support engineer recommended that I change from Plan 1 to Plan 2 for games.

Something about been on a ADSL Max service which is no good for gaming ???? Cannot see the difference in Plan 1 and 2 apart from the 6 GB allowance and the price reduction.

Oh well, will give it a go and see.

Rev

[kopite]

The only time that max can be dodgy for gaming is if they turn on interleaving which can cause a jump in pings of about 20 -30 max

Even then turning interleaving off is a free change and only takes a quick order to Bt which takes seconds to go through.(well for the order to be accepted it can then take up to 5 working days for them to action it)

I know a lot of ppl on max who game and have no issues at all.

THe better gaming option is LLU though. In work Ppl who have LLU from us get pings to our servers of a bout 3

[wilky1107]

Hiya Rev,

I have the Exact same problem. Im also with virgin and get stupid pings between certain times (5:00pm to midnight)

They have told me the exact same as you, and have even suggested I swap to plan 2. Bollocks to that! 6GB isn't gamer friendly

However, the only way to resolve the problem is to get switched over to another ISP.

If you've done the checks and they say the connection is ****e then virgin should not charge you £50 for canceling.

Im currently in this process as I dont fancy giving them more money.

Dont bother switching plans m8, switch isp's.

If you read the reviews, there are hundreds of people having the same problem with Virgin.

We need to stick together to get it sorted out!

If only richard was here now...

Stew

[XA04]

I've been going through a right ordeal with BT and Plusnet for over a month now. I can't even be bothered typing it all out because its extremly long and complicated. But basically I'm getting 56k or slower speeds on an upto 8mb service, but it's showing that I'm connected at 7mbps.. but simply don't get that. Very confusing.

PS: I've already got my MAC code, probably going to change to Demon.net. Anyone used them?

[kidzer]

I don't (was going to, but BT's 2Mbps was more attractive than Demons 512Kbps one), but a friend does and he's never had any trouble with 'em at all.

[XA04]

OK cool.

Well unlimited 8mb broadband for £19.99 a month looks pretty good to me

I have a friend who uses it, and he is downloading mad.. he hasn't had any problems with it either, so I may switch if plusnet don't do anything.

[Rev_Hill]

Thanks for the reply, very useful to know that other people have the same problem.

They are switching my plan now...... thought I might aswell.

All my connection checks say I'm connecting at around 3 to 3.5 meg, so they say there is no issue. Had one single check at 1.5 meg but that was it.

Virgin thought this was well within bt standards but as other people have said here regardless of connection speed my ping is useless.

Anyone use IdNet - they look quite good and have had good reviews on this forum before.

Thanks all, looks like I'll be changing ISP's soon.

Rev

[merdat]

From now on it is going to be a seesaw of isp ratio's to pipe size just like it was with the old dial up service.

[Rev_Hill]

The Plot thickens!

I had an email from Virgin.net informing me of my broadband upgrade, looked like a standard email but it said my price would stay the same.

I was under the impression they were changing my plan from 1 to 2 and therefore it would be cheaper.

I therefore contacted them and they have said that my price is staying the same as they are doing a 'regrade' and that if I want to change package I can do online.

I'm still waiting for confirmation as to what exactly they are doing to my connection and what a 'regrade' is.

Rev