8Mbit is crap at the weekend!

I used to have a 2MBit connection and that seems solid at all times. I upgraded to 8Mbit and I'm getting that in the week, especially when I work in the daytime. But at the weekend I get some GODAWFUL download speeds of like 400kbps or worse! So less than 0.5BMit. This really screws with my streaming radio from Di.FM (196Kbps) so I basically can't listen to it at the weekends, and all web pages are slow and downloads stink.

I'd heard about this sort of thing from a friend but I assumed he was "scaremongering" but it's true. With 2Mbit you get a constant speed (moreorless) but with 8Mbit the ISP (Orange in my case) feels quite happy in giving you a totally crap download speed due to massive contention ratio. It's horrid...

aye they sometimes quote "maximum speed"
my brother is on virginmedia cable and bloody fast at times

myself ive only just gotten online using a mobile broadband from 3

todays recieved top is 432kbps (got bored watching that manhunt clip after 5 or so mins)
and it says its going at 3.6 Mbps

youtube is out unless i wait for it to fully buffer before playing

plus ive got a 3gb a month data alowance so im not going there much anyhows

That sucks. Glad I didn't upgrade.

I'm only on 1meg but it's constant.

You have to remember that more and more people are getting online now and bandwidth costs money. ISP's also love oversubscribing and not putting money back in to upgrading their network.

Take Virgin Media. Pre VM, Telewest was awarded consumer broadband choice year after year. When VM took over they introduced Traffic Management for broadband connection.

Basically between 4pm and midnight all broadband customers are subject to Traffic Shaping if they go over a certain quota. on the 20mb tier the allocated amount is 3gb. Once over this limit your connection is Traffic Managed, reducing its speed to 6mb and 192kb upload.

I don't think VM are the only ISP to be Traffic Managing connections during Peak times. It could also be one of the reason your connection is slow.

This is ridiculous. ISP's need to clearly specify what their packages offer and then damn-well deliver it, IMO.

Yeah it sukcs. Big10p, stay as you are. Basically I know that 8Mbit is a theoretical Maximum that some people never get due to distance from exchange but I wish there was a (almost) guaranteed minimum of say 2kbps at least (esp. as that's what I upgraded from). Otherwise you cannot watch youtube vids, stream audio or download big files at the weekend which is CRIMINAL!

I think there was some mention about this on the BBC about trading standards or some body looking into it. But I think that was only about people not getting 8Mbit, rather than a disgusting minimum speed.

It's true that Trading Standards are investigating. UK broadband is pretty crap all around, to be honest. If you go with DSL, you're often on a crappy exchange that couldn't get 8MB if you were signed up with NASA, and if you are on a good exchange, many of the DSL providers aren't providing close to the speeds they advertise as maximum.

If, on the other hand you go with cable, which is generally much more consistent, they can't afford to give you the speeds they advertise, so they do this "traffic shaping" crap instead.

The problem is really about false advertising, not the service. If they advertised two megs and you got it, it would be fine, because you're then able to make a decision on whether you want it or not. At the moment, it's practically impossible to make a decision on which broadband supplier you want because you have no idea what you'll actually get in practice until you're signed up. They need to be made to advertise honestly so that it's remotely possible to make an informed decision.

I totally agree with Traffric Management being crap. I was very dissapointed when VM came up with Traffic Shaping as a solution to their bandwidth troubles. They need to invest in getting everyone on DOCSIS 3.0 or improving the network.

The phrase "up to 8mb" really gets on my nerves because (and has been proven) only the small minority get anywhere near that.

400kbps is about 3.2MBit, still lot less than your paying for like

i was getting super fast speeds on telewest, as soon as vm took over it went shockingly slow at all times of the day, not just between 4-12pm.
Can't even watch youtube without pauses and im apparently getting 20mb!!

I'd kill for some traffic shaping on this dorm's network, it crawls down to dial-up speeds over the weekend due to too many idiots using p2p clients.
(and apparently they allow that since they have an actual port opened up for them)

Same here. When it was Telewest everything was ok.

VM have admitted anyway that they are having bandwidth issues which is one of the reasons they can't deliver any more HD content. Every Broadcast is compressed with mpeg2 but if it was all delivered via mpeg4 compression it would mean a hell of a lot more bandwidth available for HD. It's the same with VM Broadband. Everything is Docsis 2.0. The new 50mb service on trial in preston at the moment is using DOcsis 3.0. If the whole networl was Docsis 3.0 then there'd be no issues with speed as people get now.

Gabriel: interesting thanks. Yeah I'd rather pay for and know what I'm getting in terms of minimum speed.

H&K:

kbps means KiloBITS per Second, so as I said it's about 0.4Mbit :-)

Amon: Imagine all these new Web enabled TVs people are getting into these days. If they have normal broadband only you won't be able to stream anything! They'll have to have a "cache and watch later" mode for people who have a crap ISP haha.

monitor what your network is giving you real-time with this:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377018

neato!

Not in windows, or infact the majority of DL managers. Like from the top of my head steam, or Emule
MBS is always MegaBitsperSecond and KBS is allways KilloBytesperSecond.
However I accept that you posted as kilobits, sorry for contradicting your figures

Capitalization matterrs: kb = kilobit, Kb = kilobit, KB = kilobyte. MB = Megabyte, Mb = Megabit

H&K. No worries dude. Just thought I'd better clarify. Here, wiki tells all:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilobit_per_second

As xlsior says small b = bit, capital B = byte.

Usaly then ISP deliver 8mbit they deliver 4x2mbit = 4 copper pairs.

i am verry skeptic all trafic over 2mbit on copper :)

The adage "you get what you pay for" seems to be applying a lot more to ISP's since 8Mb became commonplace.

I recall paying nearly £80 a month for 2Mb internet (back when that was the fastest available) and being happy to do so. The only people getting faster speeds than me were a few on Telewest's 4Mb trial.

I'm now paying £64 a month for 8192/834 and I'm still happy. I get priority bandwidth over those on standard 8Mb and I get truly unlimited access as well.

Orange have been slated (or were being) due to their poor service. They are clearly a 'budget' ISP (unlike e.g. Zen) and they have to cram as many users as possible into a limited amount of bandwidth, whilst still allowing Mrs Cratchet from number 73 to email her daughter in Australia. She may not be able to use her webcam, but so long as the core service (email, http) works, Orange are satisfied.

I really hope my ISP don't go bankrupt or anything (though their finances are not the best, last time I looked!) because the only other one I can go to is Zen, for quite a bit more money.

SO you think I should get a business service.