next »

[Please Support Us!]

Please Support Us!

Please help keep (=WDG=) alive

• Server rules
• Forum rules
• Join us
  
• Clan members
• About the clan
• Server stats
• WDG YouTube Channel
• WDG Downloads
• IRC Webchat

Steam groups:

• WDG community
• WDG clan group
• WDG Battlelog Platoon

Our allies:

• [NuB] TF2 clan
• Velocity Gamers Hub
• Destination Gamer

GoG Links:

• Wix Discord
• Wix IRC channel

TF2 Links:

• Official TF2 Blog
• TF2 Steam Forum
• The Fort 2

February 2026

Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa	Su
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28
	Birthdays
Broccoli (60)
	Upcoming Events
Valentine's Day Upcoming Birthdays: Broccoli (60)

[Brahms]

Looks like I pulled 1.74GB yesterday. Spotify et al are a serious drain.

[DeadlyAvenger]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=593599352204

An interesting video comparing Be vs. BT. Guy sets up 2 internet connections using 2 virtual machines on one computer and compares the speeds and traffic management of the two.

The same guy showed me how to increase my Be speed from 12mbps all the way up to 16 He's a bit of a guru on the Be user group.

Also...using line bonding on the Be network people have been getting speeds of 46mbps down and 5.4 mbps up. Tasty.

(You may have to sign into facebook to watch?)

[egg]

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=593599352204

An interesting video comparing Be vs. BT. Guy sets up 2 internet connections using 2 virtual machines on one computer and compares the speeds and traffic management of the two.

The same guy showed me how to increase my Be speed from 12mbps all the way up to 16 He's a bit of a guru on the Be user group.

Also...using line bonding on the Be network people have been getting speeds of 46mbps down and 5.4 mbps up. Tasty.

(You may have to sign into facebook to watch?)

Nice! .... but line bonding ain't exactly a 'home-user' setup

[DeadlyAvenger]

Not to mention it's probably really expensive considering you need 2 telephone lines (which not many people have afaik) and probably incurs increased costs with the ISP as well as having to pay double BT line rental.

[Millicent Bystander]

Have just spoken to Sky and ordered their unlimited phone and broadband service.  They predict a 4-5Mb service which is double what I'm getting off Orange at the moment.  The phone service should save us a fortune too

[Vitalis]

Woo yeah! Necropost…

Sky for me have been shit (and I don't live in the sticks), I get about 3.5mbps, obviously I don't expect to get the 'upto 20mbps' but below 10? gtfo.
I talked to them about it and they gave us the whole 'is it connected to the main broadband entry point', I just tried this and it's made a negligible difference (used speedtest.net, gained 0.04mbps).
Also, for the last week and a half we've had a really intermittent service as well, from 2000 last night until ~1830 today for example. Asked them wtf was up with that and again we got 'is it connected to the main broadband entry point'. Oh fuck off.

So yeah, I guess I just wanted somewhere more relevant to rage than the shoutbox…

[DeadlyAvenger]

Erm - have you tried checking the wires connected to your BT socket?

Basically...the things that affect the speed of your broadband are as follows:
- distance to exchange (nothing you can do about that)
- the age of the copper between your house & exchange
- whether or not some wires (that are no longer necessary) are connected to your main socket (theres guides on the internet that tell you how to do this - I did it and it made my speed go up by 4-5mbps)
- the quality of the phone cables in your house if you have multiple sockets (hence why they tell you to connect it to the main socket)

If you look on your router's ADSL stats page it'll tell you the link speed that you get - which is basically dependant on all these factors (and there's also a setting that the ISP can change which is meant to make a tradeoff between speed / reliability depending on those factors).

If the link speed is poor - then there's not a lot your ISP can do about it - it's something you have to take up with BT. If on the other hand, your sync speed is good - but you still get ping/low internet speeds - then it's a problem with Sky's network and you should press the issue further with them.

[Vitalis]

Thanks Deadly,

I knew most of that, it's just that I don't get why Sky can't tell me the obvious shit like that and not just bleat on about the same crap.

But yeah-
Nearest exchange is approx 1mile away
Don't know about the age of wires etc.
Tested using the main socket


^This?
If so, that kinda sucks =/

Still intermittent service isn't really excused by that though?

Is there a next step?

[DeadlyAvenger]

Have a look at these links:
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/quietline.php
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/internalwiring.php
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/testsocket.php
also try putting your stats in here:
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/stats.php
then when you talk to your ISP you can tell them exactly what the problem is etc.

[Vitalis]

Have a look at these links:
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/quietline.php
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/internalwiring.php
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/testsocket.php
also try putting your stats in here:
http://adsl.tin2tin.net/stats.php
then when you talk to your ISP you can tell them exactly what the problem is etc.

Thanks again, will try some of that in a bit.

Edit1-
Checked stats on both the main socket and the socket we normally use, same result.
Stats checker says:
Down sync is low (35% of the theoretical maximum).
You are on ADSL2+
Very high SNR at 13 down / 16 up.
SN margins vary by too much.
Attenuation looks normal.

Edit2-
Quiet line test; sounded quiet to me.
Ring wire was connected at the master socket, at the socket we use I have the following situation:
(Numbers being the terminal)
1: x
2: Red, Blue
3: Yellow, Orange
4: x
5: Blue, White/Blue pair
6: x

So going by BlueEther, I should leave the Blues and White/Blue pair and remove all others?

[DeadlyAvenger]

Yeah - if you google it - you should get a diagram showing what should be connected to where and which wires to get rid of. I think it may look different depending on the type of master socket you have.

[Vitalis]

Ok I took out some wires, I've gained 0.2mbps up and about 4ms, which could easily be put down to the time of day =/.

Back to your first reply, as my link speed is ~4mbps does that mean I can't really get better speeds than I am getting?

[Zarf]

Ok I took out some wires, I've gained 0.2mbps up and about 4ms, which could easily be put down to the time of day =/.

Back to your first reply, as my link speed is ~4mbps does that mean I can't really get better speeds than I am getting?

If you are on a bt wholesale adsl max connection (likely if 4Mb is all you get atm), it'll take a few days for your profile to move up.

does http://www.samknows.com/old/broadband/checker2.php say sky have unbundled your exchange?

If it is unbundled 4Mb is terrible for one mile away, it's possible BT cheaped out and only used aluminium wiring rather than copper in your area though.

[DeadlyAvenger]

Ok I took out some wires, I've gained 0.2mbps up and about 4ms, which could easily be put down to the time of day =/.

Back to your first reply, as my link speed is ~4mbps does that mean I can't really get better speeds than I am getting?

If you're only 1 mile from the exchange - you *should* be getting a pretty good sync speed. Have you checked the distance from this?

What speed do you get if you try to put it in on something like the BT / Be signup page?
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=CON-TOTAL-BB-R1

What speed does it estimate for your line from that?

From the sounds of it - it's going to be one of two things:
1) The copper between your house and the exchange is crap - this is something you may have to contact BT about.
or
2) Sky have put you onto a very low/high (not sure which way round is better) noise margin profile (which usually lies between 3db - 12db). This is the setting that usually changes when you first get your broadband (i.e. when they say you get your best performance after 24-72 hours or whatever) - ask them if they can reset it, or ask them what it is at the moment, and ask if you can try a lower/higher setting.

[Zarf]

2) Sky have put you onto a very low/high (not sure which way round is better) noise margin profile (which usually lies between 3db - 12db). This is the setting that usually changes when you first get your broadband (i.e. when they say you get your best performance after 24-72 hours or whatever) - ask them if they can reset it, or ask them what it is at the moment, and ask if you can try a lower/higher setting.

A low margin will let you sync at higher speeds, but has the trade-off of being less stable.