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BT throttling line speed..?

hi,

been in discussion over at dslzone,

thread

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=33092#33092

seems like a few of us are experiencing very slow speeds at peak times,bt seem to be throttling connections to make using the internet unusable with my speeds dropping from2.5-3M down to 10-20K at peak times.

as im on option 3 'unlimited' i feel this is an outrage, and downright backhanded, ive only just got out of the biscit palava only to now get this 3 months down the line.

come on Bt, get yourselves into gear, we want what we are paying for.
 
Have you checked your exchange for congestion as if the excahnge is maxed out at peak times then everyone on that exchange will slow down as the internet is a shared. Also if you do BT speed test and have three during a 24 hour period below the BT fault threshold BT have to check the line out this might make them upgrade the exchange.


http://www.speedtester.bt.com

It is no use using dslzone speedtester or any other speedtester on the internet as BT will only work from their speedtester for faults regardless of your ISP exceeeept LLU where BT have no connection with it.
 
I agree it could be "exchange congestion"...go here and they will tell you
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/
But BT Speedtest is not that useful. Both my ISP (Nildram) and 2 BT engineers told me they don't pay much attention to it. Upgrading an exchange is purely at BT's wim. My exchange has been congested since last July and has had a couple of dozen upgrade dates posted...all of which came and went and a new date was set each time. It still hasn't been done. Have a chat to your ISP. It took me 3 months of trying but I finally got it working..although both BT and Nildram said there was nothing wrong and they hadn't done anything. Somebody did something but they are not admitting it for some reason.
Since it all came back I have replaced the BT master socket with one of the new pre-split sockets so there are no dangling splitters. This has improved the signal no end. Also I now use the master socket, rather than an extension. I was loosing 1 Meg from the master to the extension.
 
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I agree it could be "exchange congestion"...go here and they will tell you
http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/
But BT Speedtest is not that useful. Both my ISP (Nildram) and 2 BT engineers told me they don't pay much attention to it. Upgrading an exchange is purely at BT's wim. My exchange has been congested since last July and has had a couple of dozen upgrade dates posted...all of which came and went and a new date was set each time. It still hasn't been done. Have a chat to your ISP. It took me 3 months of trying but I finally got it working..although both BT and Nildram said there was nothing wrong and they hadn't done anything. Somebody did something but they are not admitting it for some reason.
Since it all came back I have replaced the BT master socket with one of the new pre-split sockets so there are no dangling splitters. This has improved the signal no end. Also I now use the master socket, rather than an extension. I was loosing 1 Meg from the master to the extension.

I know for a fact it is very hard to get BT to accept faulkts if you have no bt speedtest for them to look at and it has to be 3 over a 24hour period..
 
Hi all,I have been with BT Option 1 since last June,no problems at all until last week when I began to experience a slow down at night,this has now extended into this weekend through the day as well,as I write this on Monday at 12-30pm my computer is near enough unusable,I suspect I have one or more heavy users nearby,but having read your comments am beginning to think otherwise.
 
throttling etc.

Oh the nightmare of broadband! Having lived through gastly experiences with Tiscali, E7even and EzeeDSL I switched to BT Option 3 on the recommendation of a highly technical friend. It’s been a case of out of the frying pan into the fire…

The BT salesman assured me I could expect a downstream speed of between 2 – 3 meg at my location, and the exchange checker confirms this. The best I have yet to experience is 900 kbps, but for the most part my service has been locked on 129 kbps or 250 kbps. I have spent countless hours with tech support over the last two months, so I have run all the tests, heard all the scripts and all the promises of engineer visits..and no action at all.

First I placed the hub on the test socket for 10 days as requested instead of on my office extension. This caused a deterioration in service, because the wifi connections to my 2 laptops, and PCI wireless card kept dropping completely. The only reliable connection I get is via my Ethernet link from the hub…that is if you can call 120 kbps reliable!

The drops in service from 900 to 130 kpps always occur after a night of downloading, then continues for several days, so it looks very like I am being throttled just for using my ‘unlimited service’. However, if I connect my Sagem modem, I get a line rate of 2816 kbps, but I cannot connect to the web with it.

Is there a way I can make my Sagem work meanwhile?
Is there a way I can connect to the test socket, go entirely wireless, and maintain connection and speed? My Belkin wireless G network card can’t cope, one floor away from the hub.
I plan to replace my extension line with a 25m RJ11, so I can stay wired in my office anyway. The problem is the BT Hub phone is unusable, as the audio quality is so bad, and I must have a phone in the office. Should I get my BT master box moved to the first floor, and will BT do this at a price?

Is there a broadband service out there which actually delivers what it offers?

Thanks for any ideas…I am going quietly mad here!
 
Lets see..
you have how many computers connected to your network?
Are they 'always on'?
As for 'unlimited'....there really is no such animal ...you can use as much as you like on a so-called unlimited connection...providing it doesn't spoil everyone else's Internet ride...problem is, I have yet to find an ISP that advertises 'Unlimited' that actually spell out at what point they would consider your useage excessive....If you are being throttled then you have hit that invisible 'fair useage' line...cease and desist or surf at a crawl forever!:laugh:

7. What is the Fair Usage Policy on Option 3 Unlimited?
BT Total Broadband's Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure that the very few excessive users on the Option 3 Unlimited product do not use their service at the detriment of other customers.

BT will monitor network performance and may restrict the amount of bandwidth available to very heavy users during peak time to ensure that the majority of the customer base has a good customer experience. There will be no restriction imposed outside of these peak times.

If you don't use Peer-to-Peer or file sharing software or if you don't download very large files continuously at peak times, then it is very unlikely you will be affected by this policy.
 
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I've downloaded about 30 gig over 2 months, but only during down time. Normally either one or two computers are connected at any one time, but for office work and email mainly. Is this unfair usage? My speed is now capped (i.e. a stuck profile) perminently at 120 kbps, day and night. However, if BT have deliberately throttled me, how come they have agreed to send me an engineer tomorrow (at long long last!)
 
Line throttle

Line throttling explains my 5mb/s dropping to 1.5mb/s during the day. Just had BT lifting manholes a week before the throttling started, makes me wonder

5mb/s rated line on the option 3 tariff
Connection speed test
Speed test OK
BT Broadband Desktop Help tests your connection speed by downloading a test file and measuring the speed of the download.

Your computer downloaded the file at a speed of

1.758 megabits per second.

We consider this to be within the range of acceptable speeds for your line, bearing in mind that connection speed can vary throughtout the day depending on how busy the internet and BT's network are. During peak times (typically 6-9pm), connection speed can be significantly slower than at other times.

However, it may be possible to improve your connection speed by using the BT Broadband Desktop Help Speed test wizard'. If you would like to run the wizard, please click the 'Speed test wizard' button below.
 
Last edited:
yeah come on Bt..

i got out of the biscit fiasco just in time... been with Bt since december, option 3..

speeds been ok.. but lately.. evening the connection is useless a lot of the time... why are we paying for something we cant use when we want to use it...

i have to use my belkin to stop BT from changing the settings on the crappy homehub... so cant even use the 'free' phone...

STOP THIS THROTTLING NOW...

im off when my contract ends....

who do you all recommend...
 
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i have to use my belkin to stop BT from changing the settings on the crappy homehub... so cant even use the 'free' phone...

Sounds like what you are experiencing is self inflicted then...If BT can't update your Hub how the fluff can you expect your service to be up to scratch?
Doh!
 
tracker...

i often switch to teh hub for a while to let it do its business... its got the latest firmware automaticaly upgraded... but the speed drops significantly when i switch to the hub... i was referring to bt dropping my sync speed with home hub, they must have automatic systems that play with the HH..

so off i go to belkin again... and higher speeds............

FYI home hub my speed is less than 1.5meg with dropouts, but with belkin i have had over 3meg.but usually over 2.5Meg.. and stable
 
The complaint I was referring to was your inability to use the hub phone...which if you haven't the hub connected is hardly BT's fault is it now? ;)

OK so you notice a drop in speed, I would imagine most people do at some time or another (I notice a drop in speed at around 2.30 each day until about 7 at night...exchange congestion is the likely cause here)

Since you seem to have the slow speed syndrome all the time, makes me wonder if you have actually sync'ed your hub correctly from day one?
Y'know you are supposed to leave it connected for at least 10 days without unplugging it or switching it off don't/didn't you?
If you get poor speeds during this 'training period' then they have unfortunately to be 'lived with' until the rate stabilises when the 'training' is over. You cannot swap and change modems during this period and expect everything to work properly afterwards....
If as you say you've unplugged the hub in favour of the Belkin how can it have found the sustainable rate for your line ...it isn't connected long enough?:smilet:

You may find that you need to have your profile erased and the line 're-trained' anew...if so leave the hub connected ALL THE TIME or you'll likely mess it up again.:smilet:
 
I have exactly the same problem.
I have been with BT for many years and have been on there 8MB service since it first started up roughly a year ago.
The first 7 months were fine, but the last few months it has been terrible.
In the mornings I get 700+kbps, which is excellent. After 6 pm I get a ridiculous 10-20kbps download speeds from all HTTP servers.
I know it's not conjestion at my exchange because I can download from multiplay.co.uk FTP servers at full speed (700kbps) at peak times, so it seems to be BT are blocking my port 80, and probably a few other ports.
I do not download movies, etc. I do not use P2P, so I don't know why they are capping my speeds.
I have phoned their technical supports many times about this issue and they completely deny that they are capping speeds, one guy even promised me they are not, even though it's in there terms and conditions.
I have given up with their "technical" support because they don't seem to know anything, one guy didn't even know what a mastsocket was and I had to ask if I was speaking to technical support - I thought I got through to the wrong department!
It's a shame really, but there is no way I am willing to pay for 8MB when during peak times I am getting 10-20kbps, near dialup speeds.
I am now moving to fast.co.uk or Zen.
 
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OMG I am suffering HUGE problems with speed and BT too. I was with aquiss before fixed 2MB 40 quid. Espensive but was good for me. Decided to go with BT to try and save a bit of money (what a mistake) 3PM last thursday I got activated proper and things we're going tine at first. Speedtests we're normal for a 2MB (maybe I can get 2 and a half on max but I would take 2) Was as I said downloading at normal 2MB speeds then I came to 6PM and ever since web browsing has been useless. Router's been left on and what have you and it's not made a jot of difference. From 240k down to 180K going down to 150, 100 eventually down to about 60K! I'm NOT a heavy downloader but either I am getting very very severly capped or I made the world's worst mistake joining BT. I never had a problem with aquiss and now as soon as I come to BT........no comment. I had max on AOL before and I never had problems like this.



And from BT speedtester:

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test: -provides background information.
IP profile for your line is - 500 kbps
DSL connection rate: 448 kbps(UP-STREAM) 1024 kbps(DOWN-STREAM)
Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 450 kbps

I have no idea what's going on but I never had these speed issues as I said with aquiss before and when I had AOL max before never suffered this.
 
BT Infinity Broadband Throttling

Just got my new BT infinity broadband service installed. All has been great for a few weeks. Getting speeds of 33Meg - Great! Then, rented a movie on line and also watched a program on iPlayer. Everything worked fine. Next day I noticed that my broadband speed had dropped to 2meg. Checked the BT website and it seems to say that HIGH users will have their speed cut back for 30 days between the hours of 5pm-midnight. It appears that just because I watched one movie and one program, off iPlayer, that I have been classified as a HIGH user - WHAT!. Everyday now, I have speeds of around 2meg between 5-midnight. What a rubbish service. Why sell a service that promises 40meg download speed if it is cut back once you try to make any use of? Oh, by the way, if I want to watch a film off the BT Vision service instead of the iPlayer or another online movie company, then you won't have the same restrictions. VERY UNFAIR. I have started a Facebook page to try and put pressure on BT to change this unclear, unfair policy. Please support. www.facebook.com/broadband-community/
 
That page doesn't exist?

Anyway, sorry to hear of your problems, although BT is now notorious for its heavy restrictions on video streaming. I think this is much more of a problem when you get into the realm of NGA services like you have, where capping the maximum speed to 2Mbps seems absurd.

At least Virgin Media, which also has Traffic Management, scales its speed restrictions upwards with the faster packages.
 
Dillons inifinty option 1 or 2 remember option 1 has a small usage alowance option 2 is unlimited subject ot bt,s Fup was around 300 gig last i heard they only throttle you if you go over that amount and you should have recived warning emails to your bt internet email address.
 
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