How long does it take 8Mb ADSL to get up to speed?

Hiya, I've just upgraded my orange broadband from 2Mbit to 8Mbit and I got a confirmation email today that the changes have occured. However upon testing it, I'm still getting 2Mbit speed (although the upload speed has pleasingly risen to 380Kbit).

Interestingly the email says "Great news, we've made the changes you asked us to make to your home package ... We can now work on getting you the best speed we can provide"

So it sounds like it's not instant. On calling my Livebox technical support they said it may take a few days to get up to speed, weird but OK as long as that's not a fob OFF.

I live under 2km from the exchange and my livebox attentuation figure is 30 meaning I should be able to get the full 8Mbit.

Thanks for any advice.

When I upgraded to my maximum connection speed (4Mbit) I noticed that the speed fluctuated then steadied out at the max speed after a period of about a week.

Dabz

Mine worked instantly and it's surprisingly faster than it should be...*pssst* :O)

You usually give it a 10 day training period, during which you'll expect wildly changing speeds - however, once that period is over, you should have a fixed speed, set at the maximum your line (or rather BT thinks) it can handle.

Aehm... may be a silly question: Did you reconnect?

In Germany we mostly use DSL - and when you connect to your ISP (once in 24hrs) your modem is handshaking with the carrier how fast they can route over the line.
Depending on SNR and other quality signals they select a appropiate connection speed.

So it may be, you only need a reconnect to your ISP.


bye MB

They do say 10 days, but I've been with a few different broadband providers and the speed I've had on day 1 is the speed I've had on day 10!

I suppose it'll all depend on how up-to-date your telephone exchange is, as well as the quality of the line...

But then I'm not a BT Engineer, so I havent got a clue!

But just give it time, thats probably the best advice...

Dabz

When I upgraded mine I noticed no difference for 4-5 days.. admitedly there was a weekend in between. It may have been a coincidence but I emailed them to say I have no increase in speed and they replied with a set of instructions to do a speedtest. It was at that time that the speed increased.
It never got to 8Mb .. when I tested it seemed like it hovered around 4Mb. Thats another gripe though.
Im paying for 8Mb but never actually gettting it.
Personnally I think as users we should pay for the bandwidth we actually get rather than what they say we can theoritically get if no-one else is using the internet!.
When I fill the car up with petrol and I pay for 8 litres I expect the 8 litres. I dont put up with 4 litres just because there were several other people filling thier cars up at the same time.

I'm the same... paying for 8Mbit, though, receiving 4Mbit speed!

Though, I imagine that when the speed ups again, I'll end up paying for a 20Mbit line, and will only get half of that at least... But what do you do?

Dabz

I've been on an 8Mbit contract for a year, but never get more than 2Mbits. The phone lines round here just don't support those speed.

Hmm, very ineresting thanks all. I didn't reconnect the livebox but I noticed that it must have done that in the night based on the length of time connected reading. Also it's internals now say max speed 8Mbit.

OK then I'll hold fire and see what happens. I know not to expect 8Mbit as most people say they never get that, but any speed increase is good providing it doesn't go LOWER :-)

I wonder if there's a way to SUPER-TRAIN it so that it thinks, OK I'll give them max speed ;-)

What the so called official response to an 8mb enabling is that in the first 10 days you are to expect your broadband speed to fluctuate while the best possible speed for you is worked out. All sounds great eh?

In reality you can be on the best speed straight away or any time in the 10 day period. Usually the first 3-4 days.

Sometimes the whole process doesn't work, so if you do a speed test a couple of times a day then mark down the speeds you get. If after 10 days your speed is still in the 2mb download range give them a call and start the complaining process.

The reason is you're stuck on a 2mb profile and it'll never change unless you complain and escalate the issue. First off you'll be fobbed off with "that's all your line supports" but most of the time it's BS.

When I was with BT I got stuck on a 2mb profile for almost 3 weeks and eventually had the issue escalated to BT wholesale who sorted out the problem inside 24hrs.

When I moved to Orange 8mb, the same thing happened again. I rang them and got the "it's the max your line can support" fob off, so pushing the fact that I had 6.5mb with BT escalated the problem and within 48hrs all was as it should be.

So if after 10 days you're still stuck at 2mb, ring and complain as you'll have all the tests results ready to show the issue.

Then wouldn't it be wise to downgrade your line subscription to a 2Mbit?

Qube: Cool thanks. Hopefully it won't come to that.

they usualy ramp it up with a speed increase every 2-3 days here till they get to your cap or the maximum that transfers reliably. I'm not in the UK though.

The ISP I'm with don't have a 2Mbit subscription, they're all 8Mbits. Besides I'm only paying for a 3GB limit when in reality I get 300GB limit, it's a long story, don't ask. Can't say I really need the extra speed so I'm not fussed.

I wish my livebox didn't have that damn annoying flashing Wanadoo logo on it. I keep turning it off but I think the automatic firmware upgrades (or something) keep turning it back on. Anyway...

My livebox has nothing on it apart from the 4 red lights. It's an ugly looking thing, kinda like a part open book. Why they couldn't of gone with a nice looking small box instead is beyond me.

I cover it with a towel if I ever sleep in my office. Yeah I wish it were more discreet and also stackable.

well it's faster now. BT's speedtester says:


IP profile for your line is - 6500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 8096 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 5875 kbps

That's 3x better than it was, wonder if it will go up more to the full speed? I say that because my router claims that it can do full speed based on the attenuation figure of 30dB.

when i upgraded from 4mb to 20mb it just needed a modem reset.

Yeah. Usually power-cycling your equipment will do it.

Just read another article on BBC's news about a survey done regarding Broadband speeds.

"A survey last month by consumer group Which found that consumers with services promising speeds of up to 8Mbps were actually getting an average speed of 2.7Mbps. "

Seems your one one the few lucky ones who is getting a reasonable service... in fact that puts me way above average too !