OnionTerror Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I'm currently with Pipex, but I'm suffering constant drop-outs amongst other problems...Could anyone recommend a half decent ISP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twarde Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I'm currently with Pipex, but I'm suffering constant drop-outs amongst other problems...Could anyone recommend a half decent ISP? http://adsl24.co.uk/broadband/ Not the cheapest but they are decent. That said, if your drop outs are caused by line or internal wiring problems it doesn't matter who your ISP is. Good source of info: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
up2late Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I live 2 miles from the exchange and have had to mess around a fair bit to get reliable broadband. I use Plusnet's basic 10GB package which is about £14 a month. I have it set to cut me off when I hit the limit rather than pay for more GB as I use them. I've hit the limit a couple of times and the speed is then restricted to dialup speed until your next month starts. So not as bad as being totally cut off. You can do some simple things to make broadband more reliable at your end. Having a single phone point where the wire comes into your house keeps things simple. Besides, modern twin handset phones don't need a phone line for the second handset so they're usually redundant anyway. Also, I currently have my router plugged in through 2 micro-filters rather than one. ROUTER------MF---------MF---------SOCKET oooooooooooooooooooI oooooooooooooooo PHONE If that diagram comes through ok, you will see that this puts an extra microfilter between your router and your phone. Maybe it's my imagination, but the connection seems to be more reliable like this. Finally, I had a lot of dropouts with a router that had a tendency to overheat. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 The problem isn't the ISP, the problem is the copper wire between your house and the exchange, and any wires in your house. Your going to have to wait until fibre optic broadband, or cable is rolled out to your area to get a better wire. Choose a cheap ISP or an expensive one and you wont see any improvement in maximum theoretical line speed. As previous poster says, simplify the wiring in your house, go to the master socket and disconnect all the other extensions in the house, plug your router and dect phone direct into the master socket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 The problem isn't the ISP, the problem is the copper wire between your house and the exchange, and any wires in your house. Your going to have to wait until fibre optic broadband, or cable is rolled out to your area to get a better wire. Choose a cheap ISP or an expensive one and you wont see any improvement in maximum theoretical line speed.. I've done traces on my BT line before, and they state that there's nothing wrong with the line. I've had my BB down for up to 24 hours at a time..& BT claim its not them. I'm about a mile and a half / two miles from my exchange, and I'm currently getting around 1600kbps..which is crap...I have been getting upto 3.5 to 4 meg in the recent past. As I don't live near a very large city, I doubt I'll be seeing any advances in Cable services, or anything like that for a fair while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 As already touched on, do you have microfilters on all your phone sockets where any phones or faxes are plugged in along with your router? Its also worth checking one or more of your microfilters havent packed up, thunderstorms hitting the lines can damage them so might be worth checking them out before committing to another company. I've only got one point, so switching Microfilters should be an easy thing to check. Cheers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 go into your Adsl router and find two values, what are they: SNR Margin down: 6.6db Attenuation Down: 25.0 Connection speed: 12623 We are 500m away from the exchange (in a straight line, about 1.5km of wire) but you can see its not great, i've managed to get my ADSL provider to move me down to the lower profile (6db) and get the speed upto 12megabits But as your line speed increase, the SNR decreases, an SNR below 6db on a Local Loop Unbundled Line, or below 10db on a normal adsl line you will get problems. As I understand it if you are having connection problems your connection is two fast for the quality of the line, and you can request to be moved to a higher profile and .'. a slower connection. Read these two pages: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm http://www.kitz.co.u..._speed_calc.php you could try a different router, or anything else you can think of to clean the line. Obviously the problem could be to do with the broadband providers equipment in the exchange, loose wire, coils of wires and perhaps a different provider with a different box in the exchange may help you (but only if you are LLU, if you are in a non LLU exchange changing providers will mean you will continue to use the same equipment in the exchange as before. Oh I have nothing to do with any ADSL company, looked all this info up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 go into your Adsl router and find two values, what are they: SNR Margin down: 6.6db Attenuation Down: 25.0 Connection speed: 12623 We are 500m away from the exchange (in a straight line, about 1.5km of wire) but you can see its not great, i've managed to get my ADSL provider to move me down to the lower profile (6db) and get the speed upto 12megabits But as your line speed increase, the SNR decreases, an SNR below 6db on a Local Loop Unbundled Line, or below 10db on a normal adsl line you will get problems. As I understand it if you are having connection problems your connection is two fast for the quality of the line, and you can request to be moved to a higher profile and .'. a slower connection. Read these two pages: http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm http://www.kitz.co.u..._speed_calc.php you could try a different router, or anything else you can think of to clean the line. Obviously the problem could be to do with the broadband providers equipment in the exchange, loose wire, coils of wires and perhaps a different provider with a different box in the exchange may help you (but only if you are LLU, if you are in a non LLU exchange changing providers will mean you will continue to use the same equipment in the exchange as before. Oh I have nothing to do with any ADSL company, looked all this info up... Cheers for the info AM...I'll have a rummage on my router, and see if changing these settings make a deference. Until a couple of weeks ago, I was running a wired connection. I've now gone wireless - and there's not much difference between them (speed wise). Its a BT Voyager router... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie The Tramp Returns Posted October 2, 2010 Share Posted October 2, 2010 I've done traces on my BT line before, and they state that there's nothing wrong with the line. I've had my BB down for up to 24 hours at a time..& BT claim its not them. I'm about a mile and a half / two miles from my exchange, and I'm currently getting around 1600kbps..which is crap...I have been getting upto 3.5 to 4 meg in the recent past. As I don't live near a very large city, I doubt I'll be seeing any advances in Cable services, or anything like that for a fair while. Out of interest does your line come in overhead or underground. Also did you notice whether it had been raining or very damp when your BB was down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted October 2, 2010 Author Share Posted October 2, 2010 Out of interest does your line come in overhead or underground. Also did you notice whether it had been raining or very damp when your BB was down? I'm on a newish build estate - so all cables are underground. Drop outs can happen any time of the day, lasting from five minutes to 24 hours, and in any weather conditions. Streaming can be hopeless as well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted October 3, 2010 Share Posted October 3, 2010 Virgin are pretty good, if you have the cable. Beats the pants of the ADSL connection I had in the land that taste forgot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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