Reply to: Broadband

[sidelined]

Netgear Router

I have also found that upgrading the Netgears firmware, will help stabilise the connection. On original firmware, I was getting 7mb, but regulary dropped the line, on the latest firmware, its been up for over two months with no drops.

Sidelined

[minstrel]

anyone recommended ?

This one is good:

http://www.speedtest.net/

Lots of pretty graphics and you can test with servers all over the world.

[gingerjedi]

Be warned that if you have a less than perfect telephone line you could be in for no end of trouble, I went onto 8meg ADSL max and at best got 6meg but often it just wouldn't sync at all, in the end I decided to go back to bog standard 2meg which has been rock solid.

Can you see line stats on your router? If the attenuation is < 40db and your SNR is > 6db then you should be ok.

I wouldn't bother if you're happy with what you've got.

[r0bly0ns]

the speed quoted (2MB in your case) is allways the download spead.

The upload speak is allways much slower (256K -512k is usual), unless you pay for SDSL rather than ADSL.

[Bluebird]

I did a test on my 2Mb BB connection last night - and at 6pm [ peakish time ] I got 1.8Mb download, upload was pants about 0.2Mb

[cojak]

It will definitely be better, but exactly how much of it you will notice is up for debate. I would expect you to see most improvement in streaming media etc.

When they say 8MB, I think they actually mean that the 50 people in your contention all share the 8MB. I may be wrong though so I am happy to stand corrected. Are most connections set up with a contention ratio of 50:1?

most standard residential connections are, yes. You need to pay business rates to get 10:1 or better...

[KevinS]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html will do a speedtest on your line..

[Bluebird]

Thats tells me what speed I should be getting - what I need is one that tells me what spees I am getting.

I guess I need something that downloads a set file and times it....

[DaveB]

anyone recommended ?

Try this one

[Bluebird]

8mb is the absolute maximum you *could* get, it is not your guarenteed speed. The only way you're likely to get that is if you are in an urban area a couple of hundred yards from the exchange.

Run one of the online speed testers and see what your line can actually support. You may find it's cheaper to go with a 'slower' connection.

anyone recommended ?

[DaveB]

8mb is the absolute maximum you *could* get, it is not your guarenteed speed. The only way you're likely to get that is if you are in an urban area a couple of hundred yards from the exchange.

Run one of the online speed testers and see what your line can actually support. You may find it's cheaper to go with a 'slower' connection.

[VectraMan]

I've got a Netgear DG824M which is older than your DG834G, and mine connects at 8Mb. So no need to change the router.

As for your laptop, in computing terms the internet remains very very very slow.

[KevinS]

It's unlikely that the router will be the limiting factor. Even a 'B' router (11Mbps) will be faster than anything you can get on ADSL..

As for the laptop, I seriously doubt it will cause an issue for normal browsing/streaming/downloading..

[Bluebird]

BT say max is 6.5, average is 4.

[VectraMan]

Don't forget your actual WiFi speed. I'm on 8Mb, but the testers all give me about 3Mb download, but using sad old 11Mb WiFi I suspect it's WiFi that's the bottleneck. One day I'll remember to borrow a network cable and try it direct.

MB is megabyte, Mb is megabit, but networking virtually always uses Mb not MB.