upnorthal

Just launched four downloads at the same time. a mixture of Umbuntu and Fedorua Linux distributions Getting the following (these are all at the same time) 1.0 MB per sec 1.71 MB per sec 667 KB/sec 637 KB/sec I assume this would equate to roughly nearly a 39 MB download, or am I reading the figures wrong? If so, I don't get why none of the checkers show I have a download speed faster than 26 !! Confused.

Problem is, all the packet level connection stuff presumably is held in that Cellpipe Router, - which we don't have access to. I know there are other factors relating to overall speed - such as line quality etc. Still, given a 16mb download on O2 - I don't think the copper wires can be in too back condition. Lets see what Ask4 say. Its not the end of the world if they can't improve it, but I'd at least like them to give it a go,

I appreciate the speeds will fluctuate, but I have never seen a speed faster than 2.5 Mbit on file downloads. I have never seen a download speed test results higher than 26 MB. In fact, I would expect to occasionally see nearer the 30MB number when testing direct on my ISP's own network!

Thanks for the speed test URL suggestions. I've been monitoring the speeds for a week now at different times. Not just with speed tests, but by actually doing large physical file downloads. The average speed is 26 MB down. Uploads are generally 8MB most the time. Pretty disappointing given I was on 16MB downloads with O2 legacy ADSL over the copper network!!! I am 320 meters from the DR cabinet (I know its not precise). Looking at some of the diagrams for FTTC speeds, you would not expect a drop off in speed until you were 1000 meters away from the cabinet. I've raised a call asking if Ask4 / DR can look into this. I'd be much happier with anything over 30MB download.

I've not used Usenet for years! Didn't know it still existed! Do you think Ask4 have their own Newsfeed? That would be a good test surely?

I think you are definitely correct regarding speedtest.net. I've not tested with any tracerts etc, but at the times when I'm getting crap results on SpeedTest, if I try another testing site the results are always much higher. If I exclude Speedtest.net , I would say the average of all sites today has been 26Mbit download and 8.6 Mbit upload. I have noticed that everything is a lot 'snappier' than O2 ADSL. RDPing into my Win7 PC is an awful lot faster. I guess the decent upload speed helps here. It would be nice to see nearer the magic 40Mbit, but its not the end of the world if that doesn't happen. I'm 0.2 miles (320 meters) from the Cabinet - so hopefully the speed will creep up a little. PS. The engineer advised us the previous guy had plugged our wire in the wrong hole! Also, I am the first DR customer in our cabinet. Cheers AL

We phoned BT and gave them hell last night. Engineer was promised today between 8 and 1. Engineer has turned up and we now have a working phone and internet Download speed is slower than my old O2 ADSL connection (5.71 Mb/s Download and 6.26 Mb/s Upload) Perhaps things take a little while to settle down. **update** Just ran a few more tests and getting 25 Mb/s downloads now. Looks like things may fluctuate again. Wonder if this is like ADSL where it can take 10 days for your true speed to be agreed.

Oh joy. I'm really looking forward to this now So Thales are going to most probably go out, look at their cabinet - find no fault (its brand new kit after all) and pass the call back to BT. And the line of communication for me is Ask4 --> DR --- Thales ---BT OpenReach lol, this could get painful. PS. I really hope Thales charge BT a call out fee, if there is no fault with the DR cabinet.

Phoned Ask 4 for an update. I've been advised a network card needs replacing and BT should hopefully do this by the end of the week. Slightly confused here, as I thought the BT cabinet was just effectively a 'patch panel'. I wasn't aware there were network cards inside the BT cabinet. I thought these would have been in the DR box. I assumed that my copper pair was just patched through to the NIC inside the Dr cabinet. Also, I'm not confident my voice line will get fixed at the same time so I have raised a fault with BT about this.

ah. Will BT just upgrade their existing cabinets to be FTTC? I assumed they would have to install a separate cabinet to hold the new kit. it didn't occur to me they might just upgrade the current cabinet. Cheers Al

I'd be amazed if the sales director at DR had not tried approaching the main ISPs. I'm sure they have tried selling the service on,- but for what ever reason they haven't been able to. I have a sneaking suspicion BT aren't helping matters here charge wise. With regards to other ISPs not knowing of DR, in reality I suspect it is more a matter of the information not having been passed down to support staff (but then why would senior staff do this if they had no intention of buying DR services). By the way, you might want to Google "digital region sales director" Nice salary for that job. Anyone fancy a go

Sorry, I thought you worked for ask4! I indeed meant for ask 4 to keep me updated and not DR.

Hi Rich it's not ask4s fault. must be frustrating for yourselves too I should imagine. I'm sure your company will keep me updated. Thanks Al

from reading the article, I understand BT will be laying their very own fibre in South Yorkshire. This sounds like madness. Are we going to end up with DR and BTT FTCC cabinets on our streets ! I would have thought perhaps BT should look at paying DR to use their existing fibre infrastructure. What a waste of tax payers money if we end up with BT duplicating everything.

Its not the end of the world. It would be nice to get the land line working again for voice calls, - to stop the other half's nagging. I'm being held personally responsible for the phone line outage you see, as I was the one who wanted faster broadband! Ask 4 have advised that Digital Region report the install wasn't completed yesterday due to a technical fault that has been raised with BT.