Line issues

[Trent]

My Sister has a real problem with her national broadband.

She can only get 8mb if she is lucky. She lives like 200 feet away from the exchange and should be able to get at least 14mb.

I did get told once when she was on Talk Talk that BT had limited her line to 8mb but I cant get anyone to check this out.

Further more from time to time her connection drops out. I have tried three separate ADSL Routers / modems and connected it to the Test socket thing but it doesn't help.

I struggle to help her when she is there because everytime i phone VM i get someone else and they always fob her off. She is disabled and cant really phone herself.

Does anyone have any suggestion?

[qasdfdsaq]

Try this, and tell us the results:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

(Or just list your postcode)

[Trent]

Congratulations, you are in a broadband enabled area.
Click here to compare packages available to you.
However, there is another service on your phone line (e.g. ADSL, LLU, DACS, etc) that would prevent you from ordering a new ADSL connection.
The following services are available in your location:

BT Wholesale ADSL
BT Wholesale ADSL Max
BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
AOL LLU
O2 / Be LLU
TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
Orange LLU (Formerly Wanadoo)
Please select the options on the left for more information about broadband availability at your location.

[kwikbreaks]

These three will be your best options (Easynet are just the network provider and not an ISP)...

O2 / Be LLU

Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU

The speed is probably restricted to 8Mbps because it's ADSL only. That may be because of the package or the router although it would need to be a very old router to be ADSL only and not ADSL2+.

Find and post up the stats - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

[Trent]

All three modems are ADSL2+. The exchange is ADSL2+ Enabled and we really want to stay with Virgin - any other ideas as to why the service would be so restricted?

[Trent]

ADSL
Type Interleave Path
Status SHOWTIME

Downstream *Upstream
Data rate(Kbps)
8064Kb 960Kb

Noise Margin
14 13

Output power(dBm)
0 119

Attenuation(dB)
7 4

[kwikbreaks]

With the upstream sync rate as it is it must be on some LLU service or other. I suspect that the downstream is capped as with 14dB noise margin there is scope for it to go a lot faster.

If you want to stick with Virgin and you want it to be faster then you'll need to talk to their support people. Good luck with that.

If you just want it to be faster then move to Be O2 or Sky and it will magically run at very close to their maximum advertised package speed.

[Trent]

With the upstream sync rate as it is it must be on some LLU service or other. I suspect that the downstream is capped as with 14dB noise margin there is scope for it to go a lot faster.

If you want to stick with Virgin and you want it to be faster then you'll need to talk to their support people. Good luck with that.

If you just want it to be faster then move to Be O2 or Sky and it will magically run at very close to their maximum advertised package speed.

Is there anyone on here who works for Virgin that may be able to help me get this sorted for my sister?

[qasdfdsaq]

Why would you want to stay with Virgin? There's virtually no USP on their national ADSL service.

[Chris]

My Sister has a real problem with her national broadband.

She can only get 8mb if she is lucky. She lives like 200 feet away from the exchange and should be able to get at least 14mb.

I did get told once when she was on Talk Talk that BT had limited her line to 8mb but I cant get anyone to check this out.

Further more from time to time her connection drops out. I have tried three separate ADSL Routers / modems and connected it to the Test socket thing but it doesn't help.

I struggle to help her when she is there because everytime i phone VM i get someone else and they always fob her off. She is disabled and cant really phone herself.

Does anyone have any suggestion?

It sounds like she's on Virgin's "up to 8Mb" service, which means she's getting full speed - as you would hope, if she lives on top of the exchange. It doesn't matter what speed the exchange is equipped for, if she's not subscribing to 20Mb, she's not going to get 20Mb.

My suggestion would be to phone their customer services and get them to confirm what she's subscribing to before assuming there's a problem.

[Trent]

PS we dont just want it faster but to stop crashing the ADSL modems would be good to..

---------- Post added at 19:38 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

It sounds like she's on Virgin's "up to 8Mb" service, which means she's getting full speed - as you would hope, if she lives on top of the exchange. It doesn't matter what speed the exchange is equipped for, if she's not subscribing to 20Mb, she's not going to get 20Mb.

My suggestion would be to phone their customer services and get them to confirm what she's subscribing to before assuming there's a problem.

She is on the up to 20MB package

---------- Post added at 19:38 ---------- Previous post was at 19:38 ----------

Why would you want to stay with Virgin? There's virtually no USP on their national ADSL service.

Whats a USP?

[New to cable]

PS we dont just want it faster but to stop crashing the ADSL modems would be good to..

---------- Post added at 19:38 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------



She is on the up to 20MB package

---------- Post added at 19:38 ---------- Previous post was at 19:38 ----------



Whats a USP?

I think he means Unique selling point.

[qasdfdsaq]

Yeah, that.

[Trent]

Ok so if we moved her to Sky would that definitely fix the problem?

[qasdfdsaq]

Well yes, but so would O2/Be who are better.

[Trent]

Yes but they have a very high connection charge!

[kwikbreaks]

So far as I'm aware they are all free connection.

O2 has UK TS + there is usually a cashback deal on through Quidco or TopCashBack + free months from O2 themselves. In my ADSL days my first year on O2 cost be £18 total.

Be offer more technical TS (European call centre I think) and no FUP but do cost a bit more.

Sky are good but TS is India I think.

So long as you get the LLU products (and Be are LLU only) then I'm sure you'll be pleased with any of them.