Just out of interest, does anyone happen to know which areas (if any..) of Sheffield have access to 8 meg broadband connection speeds?

Down here in Meersbrook (Sharrow exchange) the maximum I can get is 2 meg according to bt.com's checking tool.

2 meg seems plenty fast enough for me at the moment, but wondered how fast Sheffield can currently go when it comes to ADSL!

Cheers - and Happy 2006 to all Forumers for as and when the time comes :smile:

check this thread out & it keeps getting updated


http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71303

Originally posted by meersbrook
Just out of interest, does anyone happen to know which areas (if any..) of Sheffield have access to 8 meg broadband connection speeds?

Down here in Meersbrook (Sharrow exchange) the maximum I can get is 2 meg according to bt.com's checking tool.

2 meg seems plenty fast enough for me at the moment, but wondered how fast Sheffield can currently go when it comes to ADSL!

Cheers - and Happy 2006 to all Forumers for as and when the time comes :smile:

You can ONLY get 2 Mb?! Think yourself lucky mate, we can only get 512k up here in Stannington, and I've tried everybody, even AOhell :rant:

UP TO 8 meg from Intake exchange. I am about a mile and half away and get touching 5 meg

We get Wadsley Bridge exchange.. Which is a bit naff as you practically have to live on top of the friggin' exchange to get anything above 512k :rant:

Originally posted by Rich
We get Wadsley Bridge exchange.. Which is a bit naff as you practically have to live on top of the friggin' exchange to get anything above 512k :rant:

Wadsley Bridge is a pretty naff exchange, I must admit - there must be loads of people on it - more than Broomhill - as the relatives were on that at the previous house, but now on WB - it's awful.

:)

Telewest Blueyonder! 4meg at present, upgraded to 10 meg in the new year for FREE!!

how can you check your current speed???

Originally posted by Rich
You can ONLY get 2 Mb?! Think yourself lucky mate, we can only get 512k up here in Stannington, and I've tried everybody, even AOhell :rant:

trying different providers wont make a difference, they all use the same lines, unless you get cable (or satelite :p) broadband

Originally posted by subliminal
how can you check your current speed???

Do a speed test on ADSL-Guide.

www.dslreports.com/stest

you can thank me later ;)

we're on Woodseats BT exchange and when the connection is initialising it always reports 8 meg speed but then seems to get throttled back to 2mb. We pay for 2 meg but I'm wondering if Woodseats is actually capable of supporting 8 meg.

Originally posted by kentboy119
Wadsley Bridge is a pretty naff exchange, I must admit - there must be loads of people on it - more than Broomhill - as the relatives were on that at the previous house, but now on WB - it's awful.

:)

<delurk, pedant mode on>

Actually Broomhill is far more contended than Wadsley Bridge is and has been for some time (leeching students most likely).

You can check to see what your speeds to the exchange are like by doing a BT speedtest (this doesn't even get as far as your ISP's network, only BT's), see instructions here:

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/27

In terms of what your line can sync at this is more to do with line length/quality than anything else - hence a lot of people in Stannington only getting 512.

In conclusion - nothing specifically "wrong" with the wadsley bridge exchange - the only way people with very long lines connected to it will get any faster service is by waiting til ADSL2 comes along. It is also one of the only exchanges in Sheff which is enabled for LLU Bulldog and Easynet services:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange.php?ecode=SLWB

Originally posted by belperite
Actually Broomhill is far more contended than Wadsley Bridge is and has been for some time (leeching students most likely).

Hiya, I did think that Broomhill would have all the students using it - but what interests me is that South Road area is further from the Wadsley Bridge exchange than Psalter Lane would be from Broomhill, but their service at Psatler was a bit iffy, but at Walkley [Wadsley Bridge] it really is dire. The length that they are from the exchange matters - can't WB (or Broomhill for that matter) have some more DSLAMs placed in it - then allow for some more connections, so the exchnage isn't 'jam packed'?

You can check to see what your speeds to the exchange are like by doing a BT speedtest (this doesn't even get as far as your ISP's network, only BT's), see instructions here:

http://usertools.plus.net/tutorials/id/27

I'll check that out - cheers - :)

In terms of what your line can sync at this is more to do with line length/quality than anything else - hence a lot of people in Stannington only getting 512.

Yes - the length of the line is pretty long from places like Walkley & Stannington - I suppose Malin Bridge-rs and Hillsborough-ers could probably get 2Mbps (or even 8Mbps of the exchange was enabled - I'm not on about 8Mbps through LLU, just 8Mb through ADSL1).

In conclusion - nothing specifically "wrong" with the wadsley bridge exchange - the only way people with very long lines connected to it will get any faster service is by waiting til ADSL2 comes along. It is also one of the only exchanges in Sheff which is enabled for LLU Bulldog and Easynet services:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange.php?ecode=SLWB [/B]

Oh - it is LLU enabled - goos stuff... Roll on ADSL2+

:)

I have telewest broadband with started off at 512k 4 years ago and has now been seamlessly upgraded in 512K increments over the months to 2Mb but the pattern is always the same - for a couple of days after an upgrade it seems faster but then invariably goes back to the same old slow-ish service - is it just me, is the speeds barely keeping up with the number of new people taking up broadband, or is my PC just slowing down for some reason - its a reasonably new 1.4GB 3 year old PC. Is there anything I can do to speed it up - also what do people recommend about these wireless gizmos - would I just be giving free broadband to my neighbours ?

Originally posted by Patrick2000
I have telewest broadband with started off at 512k 4 years ago and has now been seamlessly upgraded in 512K increments over the months to 2Mb but the pattern is always the same - for a couple of days after an upgrade it seems faster but then invariably goes back to the same old slow-ish service - is it just me, is the speeds barely keeping up with the number of new people taking up broadband, or is my PC just slowing down for some reason - its a reasonably new 1.4GB 3 year old PC. Is there anything I can do to speed it up - also what do people recommend about these wireless gizmos - would I just be giving free broadband to my neighbours ?

I am not too sure about speed problems with cable but you can try doing a full sweep for viruses/spyware on your PC - some of these can use bandwidth by constantly sending spam mail for example.

Yep go for wireless - it is fine as long as you take appropriate security measures (see http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm)

Rich

I'm in Hackenthorpe and can only get 512, really frustrating when you see the TV ads for far higher speeds! Does anyone know when faster speeds will be likely in this area?

I use a netgear router for my wireless network, very reliable and easy to set up - 128 bit WEP encryption plus i hide the network name anyway so it isn't even visible to anyone else, never mind accessible.

Hiya,

The only 8mg supplier I have been offered in Sheffield was Bulldog.

Although, as a word of warning their call centre does have a bit of a high pressure sales technique and they often try and bully you into switching your telephone supplier too!

I'm at Netherthorpe and get 8 meg with Bulldog. They had a lot of trouble over the summer because too many people subscribed and their call centres couldn't cope with the demand, but they seem to have recruited a lot more staff now.

iv got it but not in sheffield.... its not that good though. think tis a bit slow lol

Originally posted by Rob_1
I'm in Hackenthorpe and can only get 512, really frustrating when you see the TV ads for far higher speeds! Where abouts are you? I am just before Occy Lane and get a very stable 2 meg connection (even though the BT checker says I can't have one!!!!). What stats does your router give - I got my upgrade by proving to BT that their checker was wrong.
Originally posted by rashnudger
UP TO 8 meg from Intake exchange. I am about a mile and half away and get touching 5 meg Do you find you get a good, stable connection? Just interested to find out what I might get.

Originally posted by yorkiepudd
Where abouts are you? I am just before Occy Lane and get a very stable 2 meg connection (even though the BT checker says I can't have one!!!!). What stats does your router give - I got my upgrade by proving to BT that their checker was wrong.
Do you find you get a good, stable connection? Just interested to find out what I might get.

I live at the bottom of Birley Spa Lane, about 100m from the Hogshead pub. Our exchange is the Halfway one, it looks like i'm in between that exchange and the Intake one!

I've checked several times, If i check on BT it even says due to the distance from the nearest exchange i might not be able to get broadband at all (i can, but only 512). AO-Hell say the same.(don't know why they got that name, over subscribed yes but i've been with them 6 years and have never had a single problem)

Unfortunately, that explains it - should be Mosboro exchange, and the cables take the scenic route AFAIK.

Now't wrong with AOL, far better than some ISPs. Only thing I didn't like was their browser in the early days, with all the channels and keywords et al.

Im on 1MB here in Stannington, and its more than enough for me atm. When I live in Lincoln I was on 3MB cable, yes it is very nice to see high download speeds but you can still get alot of data through a 1MB link (About 8GB/day). With alot of ISP's being download-restricted what's the point in anything much faster?

Who needs to download more than 8Gb in 24 hours? Anyone?

Yes its all ivery nice but imo it's a gimmick to get people excited and sign up, but they will still hit limits imposed. My service is uncapped as I don't want to lose the connection when I am working from home.

Instead of a service that means web paged loads up in 1/4 sec.(for 2/8/20MB) compared to 1/2 sec (say for 1MB), I would rather see a consistent, reliable service.

I've got 8meg uncapped in Greystones (Bulldog). Actual speed varies between 4 and 9 when I test it.

Originally posted by dfgenius
Who needs to download more than 8Gb in 24 hours? Anyone?
Don't even do that in a bad month, but as we have several PCs on a wireless network (kids eh!) and we all tend to be online at the same time, the faster the line the better so latency critical apps aren't affected.

Originally posted by dfgenius
Im on 1MB here in Stannington, and its more than enough for me atm. When I live in Lincoln I was on 3MB cable, yes it is very nice to see high download speeds but you can still get alot of data through a 1MB link (About 8GB/day). With alot of ISP's being download-restricted what's the point in anything much faster?

Who needs to download more than 8Gb in 24 hours? Anyone?

Yes its all ivery nice but imo it's a gimmick to get people excited and sign up, but they will still hit limits imposed. My service is uncapped as I don't want to lose the connection when I am working from home.

Instead of a service that means web paged loads up in 1/4 sec.(for 2/8/20MB) compared to 1/2 sec (say for 1MB), I would rather see a consistent, reliable service.

How are you getting 1 Mb in Stannington?! Everybody I've tried can only give me 512k cos of the distance from Wadsley Bridge exchange... Who's your provider?

Originally posted by Rich
How are you getting 1 Mb in Stannington?! Everybody I've tried can only give me 512k cos of the distance from Wadsley Bridge exchange... Who's your provider?

Maybe they're the non-Sportsman end?

:)

Originally posted by kentboy119
Maybe there the non-Sportsman end?

:)

Yeah but anything lower down than Sporstman is classed as upper Malin Bridge and not Stannington.

And even if they are lower down than Sportsman, on the Liberty estate or wherever, they're still pretty far away from Wadsley exchange so they're still doing pretty well to get anything above 512k.

I'm on 8meg from Bulldog in Broomhall, iv not tested it for speed specifically but up/downstream's generally very good although the upstream kinda limits at around 50kbs/s which isnt as high as id have hoped from a 512k stream.

Bulldog did have a lot of problems in the summer though and it took them 11 weeks to activate the line!! Fortunately I wasnt in sheffield for the time although a word of warning, when wanting to cancel subscription give them at least 6 weeks. In my last residence I was on their 2meg service and asked them twice to cancel it asap July 3rd yet it took them until August 11th to turn it off!! And my monthly contract ran on the 6th too :confused:

I am on wannado,the status of my line says,1,152,000 bps,
is this good or bad and how do you convert it to megs?

That's quite good actually, it's 1 and a bit Megabits.

Originally posted by maxwell
I am on wannado,the status of my line says,1,152,000 bps,
is this good or bad and how do you convert it to megs?

1,152,000 bits ps =
144,000 bytes ps =
140.62 k ps

The speeds quoted by these companies are pretty missleading and pretty useless in the real world, you could have a 100 meg line but if the person on the other end has a 56k modem, thats the maximum speed you'll get.

I was only guaranteed 512K service but the modem connects at 1.1Mb, download speed maxes out at about 110KB/s. Normally it is around 70-80

Neighbour is sorting out 22 meg soon hopefully- have no idea who with though- wahoo!!! :D :D

You should all count yourself lucky. I live in Walkley Bank and can't get any broadband at all. Wanadoo keep telling me I can but BT confirm I can't. When will this ADSL 2 arrive and what is it?

BTW Wanadoo are probably the worst company I have ever dealt with for customer service. They're happy to take the money but useless at dealing with problems.

i live at high storrs and wanadoos service is getting progressively slower the more contended it gets, going on around 5 is pointless. Hopefully this will improve once they are seperated from BT's servers at the local exchange (the 8 meg service).

All im after is a decent upload and a reliable download around 2meg, xbox live is a nightmare during the weeknights untill later on.

Originally posted by TwoFour
You should all count yourself lucky. I live in Walkley Bank and can't get any broadband at all. Wanadoo keep telling me I can but BT confirm I can't. When will this ADSL 2 arrive and what is it?

BTW Wanadoo are probably the worst company I have ever dealt with for customer service. They're happy to take the money but useless at dealing with problems.

ADSL2+ is the next progression of ADSL - thus allowing 24Mbps services without resorting to an LLU-based service.

LLU - Local Loop Unbundling - allows the ISP to take control of everything - hence why these 24Mbps services etc a re £9.99 etc - UK Online, Bulldog, Easynet and Be (Not sure if Be's available in non-London areas).

I was thinking of going with Wandoo (apparently to be rebranded Orange - Orange (being French) are infact looking to brand al their services under the name 'Orange' - as my [new] exchange will be enabled for 8Mbps service under ADSL1...

ADSL2+ is quite a way off.

Although LLU's the way to go...