Interned speed in UK??Help!! What really is wrong with it?

[926]

Preview Your QuestionInternet speed in UK???Help!! What is really wrong with it?It's been bothering me since a few months,because i need a decent internet speed,a Decent one,and even so i Cant get it. Why in poor countries like Romania,Latvia,Bulgaria,Serbia,Ukraine,Russia etc, you can easily get over 20 mbs upload speed NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE,and here in uk u have to check IF you can even get a decent speed??? And i dont understand whats the thing with the exchange boxes,when i lived in Ukraine nobody asked me where i live,and still i was getting 20 mbs Upload speed! Why does a hugely industrialized country like England have such Low internet speeds??? I live in London and i need 1 mbs upload speed but i simply cant get it!!! Why??? Why is this? Its really really frustrating. My computer is good,i only have 1 computer in my flat,so it can be this problem. Why does the distance between the exchange boxes and my house matter? That sounds primitive to be honest. In the countries i mentioned above you can geet at least 20 mbs Upload speed ANYWHERE YOU LIVE. So,what is the problem in UK,can anybody give me a decent answer??

[EpicHwang]

Please respecify your unit for your speed and the normal speed. And what is it that you are doing that requires such a high upload speed rate? Most internet usage is downloading. Try restarting your computer, router, and modem. You may be too far from your router, or you may be using a poor ISP. You might want to suggest switching ISP if you are not satisfied with your speeds.

[Fred]

NOBODY gives you 20 Mbps upload. That is rubbish. Subscribe to a BT fibre optic service, and you get 40 or 80 Mbps DOWNSTREAM (NOT download that is totally different) and 10 Mbps upstream. Or are you too mean to pay for the service?

[Robert J]

It depends on the technology used for the connection.

If you have a 'Cable' or true fibre-optic service, the speed is pretty much fixed at whatever option you pay for. But, you have to be in an area covered by a cable provider and subscribe to their service.

Percentage area wise, not much of the UK has cable coverage.

Most internet services use ADSL. That relies in principle in sending radio frequency signals down the original copper phone cables, which were never designed or intended to be used in this way - they are very 'lossy' and the signal strength decays very rapidly with distance from the telephone exchange, limiting the speed available.

The newer version of that is FTTC - Fibre to the Cabinet.
With that, the equipment that would be in the exchange is relocated to the street junction boxes (cabinets), so the copper cable lengths are cut down from typically kilometres to more like tens or hundreds of metres.

That reduces cable losses and allow much higher speeds, the 40 - 80 Megabit range. It uses a similar but faster system to ADSL, called VDSL.

BT provide that system as their 'BT Infinity' service.


Note that most ADSL speed problems in areas that should have good speeds usually relate to problems with the phone wiring.

Either a fault on the external phone line - eg. if you can hear crackling or fizzing / hissing noises during a call even with the broadband modem/router disconnected.

Or bad wiring / mis-connected parts in the house. All telephone-related devices (eg. sky box, answering machine, alarm system as well as telephones) must be fed via ADSL filters, otherwise the interference suppression components in these shorts out part or all of the ADSL signal.

Some poorly-made flat cable telephone extension cables also cause problems, the wiring all the way to the modem/router should ideally be the proper twisted pair cable.

The best possible setup is to use a 'whole house' filter on the telephone Master socket & connect the modem/router directly to that.
That way, all the other phone wiring and equipment is isolated from the ADSL signal and cannot cause attenuation or problems.


Also, never turn off the modem/router unless absolutely vital; every time the exchange gear sees a signal failure it can 'wind down' the maximum speed for the connection, to try and improve reliability.
If you turn the modem/router off every day, you can end up with abysmal speeds on a connection really capable of many megabits.


Edit - example 'whole house' filter.

These replace the small sub-plate at the bottom of a standard master socket.
That's the 'Customer Connection Unit' - CCU , and is the only bit of the master socket you are allowed to work on, the rest is the property of the phone service provider.

Fitting a filter to the master socket yourself (if you do not already have one) is perfectly OK.

Any existing extension phone wiring connected to the CCU re-connects to the same number terminals on the back of the filter.

The ADSL modem/router connects directly to the dedicated ADSL socket & you can then remove any other ADSL filters, they are no longer required.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NTE5-ADSL-Filt...0808428004