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Gadget show jumps onto the true broadband speed campaign

LOL.. it sez i can only download at 70KB/sec HAHAHHA
Try more like 900KB/sec
absolute waste of time.

Bandwidth: (Current Downstream: 909.38kb/s ¤ Current Upstream: 18.05kb/s)

HAHA now there licence has run out for the speedtest.
 
Yep I got the licence has run out error :laugh: I just tried yet again and it eventually ran, my results were rubbish too - looks like they underestimated demand "Download Speed: 823 kbps (102.9 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 14 kbps (1.8 KB/sec transfer rate)" :laugh:

The form asks for actual download speed so I guess you can ignore their results and provide a true figure if you want to take part:
Name:

Address:

Email:

Internet Service Provider:

Advertised speed (i.e. up to 8Mb):

Actual Download Speed:

Actual Upload Speed:

Any comments?
 
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would be great if it worked :p seems l have 3meg SDSL to the tester.
 
It looks to be by the same lot that developed http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/ and http://www.speedtest.net so I would think the tester itself would be ok if they had enough capacity, although perhaps the speedtest ought to be putting up a sorry the server is too busy try again later message, rather than producing duff results.

The test also neglects to tell their viewers to stop all other internet activity while the test runs to stop that affecting the results.

The results would have been far more interesting if they'd also surveyed what speed your router/modem syncs at, so they could compare the impact different ISPs have on speed and the impact of line quality/distance from exchange/your own phone wiring/etc separately.
 
it finally worked, however it said my speed was 2kbps down while up it said 258kbs, err l beg to differ as l downloaded a few things much faster than that just before.
 
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Obviously they have a network problem, or too many people wanted to test at the same time?

No excuse though, if they are going to publish a link to a tester, they should have prepared for that eventuality.

It is seriously flawed and I hope that they take it offline or invest in the necessary bandwidth before even considering any type of results comparison.

It is just not fair on any ISP whatsoever.
 
I missed The Gadget Show ... but how exactly is the ¨up to¨ speed misleading ? It's a technological restriction rather than the fault of the ISP. :hrmph:
 
I don't think "Up to 8M" is a major issue. The problem lies with BT itself. I'm on Nildram and from December 06 to March 07 had severe speed problems (100k or less). It was all down to my exchange needing upgrading. Nildram and all other ISP's have absolutely no power whatsoever to get BT to upgrade. It doesn’t matter how much they shout, or even ask nicely, they are totally in the hands of BT. Now it has been upgraded I'm getting 4-5M which is fine. I had 5 engineers out and they all said "it's in the exchange, nothing they could do". Even BT engineers could not force an upgrade, even for BT customers. Of course even if we all had 8M it's irrelevant because a web site will only send you data as fast as it wants to. So if a site wants to send at 1M then 8M is irrelevant.
The Speed Tester worked fine for me and gave a figure very close to BT’s own version.
 
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I forgot. I agree with Old Dude about data limits/capping. I have a published limit of 50M which is fine but P2P etc is very, very slow sometimes. If I have this limit why don’t they just let me use it all up and when I reach my limit then slow me down for the rest of the month. It's my fault I reached the limit after all.
 
I missed The Gadget Show ... but how exactly is the ¨up to¨ speed misleading ? It's a technological restriction rather than the fault of the ISP. :hrmph:

Your actual speed is not just a technical restriction though, the throughput you get also depends on the ISP itself - whether it uses traffic managment, how much it throttles and if it has purchased sufficient capacity to cope with its customers usage and the allowances it offers etc.

Currently you can get one ISP offering up to 8mps unlimited for over £80 a month, while another on the face of it offers the same for as little as £15.95, the difference being one actually has the capacity and provides 8mbps unlimited, but with the cheap one you'd count yourself lucky to get dial-up speeds.

As I've mentioned in the past, I would like to see ISPs publishing details of typical expected speeds for HTTP, P2P and NNTP at peak, daytime and off-peak for customers syncing at the advertised rate (IE not counting the affects of technical issues such as line quality, distance from exchange). This would make it possible to compare different ISPs without having to trawl through forums to find out what to expect.

I think ISPs should also have to inform customers of their guestimated connection speed (eg from BT's checker) before they sign up - currently the better ISPs do and the poorer ones just say you can get up to 8mbps even if your line would struggle to sync at 512kbps.

Also I think Ofcom should make ISPs advertise speeds after deducting overheads.
 
the gadgetshow made the point that most people think adsl max is an 8mb connection which it is not, they explained about line length and quality and even congestion on the contetion ratio.......

they then explained about speeds in the rest of the world but with bt not opting for cable or fibre wires then adsl will come to a slow halt

there campaing will hoprfully raise awarnes with users and possibly isp's will start delivering a faster or more accurate speed rating
 
...As I've mentioned in the past, I would like to see ISPs publishing details of typical expected speeds for HTTP, P2P and NNTP at peak, daytime and off-peak for customers syncing at the advertised rate (IE not counting the affects of technical issues such as line quality, distance from exchange). This would make it possible to compare different ISPs without having to trawl through forums to find out what to expect. ...

I've just watched The Gadget Show and felt the report was rather confused. They mention contention, line length, line quality etc which is fair enough, but they said at the beginning of the report that users are ¨promised speeds¨ and had members of the public saying things like ¨ I pay for 8Mb/s but only get 3Mb/s.¨. Nobody on consumer level ADSL is promised 8Mb/s, you'll only get 1:1 on very expensive products. All I really saw was that the general public don't understand that broadband is a contended product with technological limitations - not that ISPs are trying to rip people off.

As for typical speeds being published the best example I can think of at the moment is Enta who show a retrospective graph of central usage and estimated end user speeds http://noc.enta.net/?page_id=166 .
 
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As far as 'up to 8MB' goes, I dont think ISPs are trying to rip people off either. It doesnt actually make any difference for them, as its bandwidth data not speed that costs them.

Granted speed can make a difference to how much a user downloads, but only if they are hammering it.

I reckon that as long as they put 'up to' in clear wording, along with a easy linked explanation of why, its fine.

Again, I think the data is much more of an issue, its far too confusing for many to work out how much they need, and most often how much an ISP is actually giving them.
 
Telegraph: "Broadband users 'ripped off'"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/15/nbband115.xml

Broadband users 'ripped off'
Last Updated: 2:47am GMT 15/11/2007



Almost half of all broadband users are being ripped off by service providers as they receive less than half the connection speed they signed up for, a survey disclosed yesterday.

The moneysupermarket.com poll shows that 44 per cent of users are affected as providers are failing to deliver the speeds they advertise.

The survey shows that 55 per cent of the nation spends an average of 172 hours - or more than seven days - a year downloading music, games, films and podcasts.


Ofcom, the communications regulator, has confirmed that it is in discussions with six broadband providers.
 
As far as 'up to 8MB' goes, I dont think ISPs are trying to rip people off either. It doesnt actually make any difference for them, as its bandwidth data not speed that costs them.

If an ISP wants to provide their customers with decent speeds at peak they either need to rent enough centrals just to have sufficient capacity to cope with peak demand or else they need to limit their customers peak usage through traffic shapping or caps. So providing decent speeds (at peak) does cost them, which is why cheap "unlimited" ISPs tend to be crap :( .

Some customers are obviously being given false expectations by ISPs's advertising, but I wouldn't consider it a "rip-off", in fact I'm not sure how else ISPs could advertise a service which might provide you with an up to 8mbps connection depending on the length and quality of your line, except perhaps I think advertising as up to 7.15 mbps (the maximum data rate) would be more honest, but no ISP is going to advertise that unless they are all forced to, as any one that did would lose business.
 
The gadget show has updated its test page so you can submit a result after using another tester, they've even posted links to thinkbroadband and speedtest.net's testers :)
Due to the overwhelming response of the campaign, it might take a minute or so for your test to start. This is because we are limiting the amount of users on the speedtest at any one time, to ensure that the results are not compromised by very high usage. Thanks for your patience!
 
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