Submitted by admin on Sat, 11/29/2008 - 17:29
Posted in
* UPDATE - 8 Jan 2010 *
I've just switched from Pipex to BT Total Broadband and am quite impressed. I have alledgedly connected at 4mb but take that with a pinch of salt. What I do know though is that I am currently doing a 650mb download and am getting a steady 420kb/s download speed. Previously on Pipex I would get 300kb/s as an absolute maximum and normally around 150kb/s.
* UPDATE - 11 Sept 2009 *
Well done to Grant Hughes, a local resident, for raising this issue at the Parish Council meeting recently. Shame the standard BT reply was given but let's hope it raises the issue with others a bit.
* UPDATE - 27 Jan 2009 *
I recently fitted a BT I-Plate to my master socket and it's substantially improved my connection speed. I now connect at 2.2-3.2mb and get a download speed maxing around 320kb/s. I think this is about the best I can expect being so far from the local exchange (Fernhill Heath).
I'd like to get some figures together of what *actual* broadband speeds people are getting around Warndon Villages. If you'd like to help out then I'd love to hear from you. When (if!) a reasonable amount of people have given stats then I'll collate them and post them here. To send in your details you can use this speed checker.
Close everything else on your PC and don't do anything else on the PC whilst the test is running otherwise it could skew the figures. Once you've got the results just send me the "Speed down" and "Speed up" figures and let me know either your postcode or what part of Warndon Villages you live in using the comment form below. Thanks! ( For reference, I'm getting a pathetic 0.9Mbps down speed and 0.4Mbps up speed - awful! )
down speed 1792kbps, up speed
down speed 1792kbps, up speed 501kbps. unable to use the speedchecker you advised as it wouldn't load so used broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk instead
This may help some - it
This may help some - it certainly helped me. It's boosted my connection and download speed by about 2-3 times. Maybe BT got fed up of people complaining about speed on their dilapidated network and released a decent home-fit filter to connect to the master socket...
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=7256
2.4mb down 400k up paying
2.4mb down
400k up
paying for 8mb connection. shocking. seems incredibly unreliable too.
We need an exchange close to the villages, or god forbid, Virgin cable?!
Yeah about the same here
Yeah about the same here these days too - was much worse before I fitted an iPlate. Why they didn't install cable when this area was built I'll never know, and why there is no local exchange is even worse!
When I first moved to the
When I first moved to the villages 5 years ago there was a local councilor looking into a new exchange for the villages, he never got voted in and nothing else was ever said.
Is there something/anything we can do to get the issue raised at some parish meeting?
I have lived in Warndon
I have lived in Warndon villages for 8 years, the broadband speed here can only be described as pathetic for a relatively modern housing estate. I currently get 1570kbps download and 347 upload (with talktalk - current ISP) I did get slighlty higher with my previous ISP (Vivaciti - 1800kbps / 417). This is all about line length. My line length is just over 7 km. As mentioned in another post we do not have a local exchange even though there are approximately 6000 house on the estate (according to BT). We are all serverd by Worcester Central Exchange (which is supposed to have been just upgraded to ADSL2+ 2CN). whether that will make a difference I am not sure, I'm not holding my breath. I asked a BT engineer why did we not have a local exchange for such a large number of houses, the engineer told me they asked the council to be allowed to build one and the council refused, so I asked the council, they told me they had never been asked - aghh! Apparently BT just added onto the existing line for Warndon villages hence as the crow flies we are not far from the exchange but as we are probably at the end of the line we get rubbish braodband speed. I suspect 12 / 15 years ago when the estate was being build broadand speeds were not an issue - they are now. Obviously I am going here on information I have been told, if anyone has different information then please update us all - thanks. In my opinion what we need a local exchange or fibre, either fibre to a local box then copper to our houses or prefferably have some enterprising company to put fibre down our streets to, there must be sufficient houses to warrent this. It seems crazy that we live in a city and get these sort of poor speeds. I support raising the issue with the parish council and if I can help in any way please post.
I'm glad I'm not alone in
I'm glad I'm not alone in having internet speed issues!
We've been here for about 18 months, and the speed can only be described as pathetic!
We're with Sky Broadband, and after replacing the not-very-good generic router they sent, our speed increased from approximately 1300kbps to 1500kbps. I then replaced the phone socket faceplate with a Clarity / BT filtered faceplate, and the standard phone-to-router cable with a performance one. Speed increased from 1500kbps to 1700kbps.
According to the Samknows website, our approximately cable distance to the exchange at Charles Street is 2.5 miles - which is well under the minimum distance for a much faster connection. The Samknows checker also gives you a load of interesting line / exchange status information.
Specifically, according to the test results, the exchange is not cable of providing speeds of 1Mb or 2Mb, which I assume means that either it's not reliable enough, or the equipment that serves Warndon Villages has not been upgraded, whereas other equipment in the exchange has.
Who knows... but if anything can be done to get a better deal for everyone in W-Villages, then I'm all for it! I'd prefer fibre to the street-boxes, and copper to the door, as Steven says!
Mike - thanks for the comment
Mike - thanks for the comment and, yes, it's not great around here. I have good success with the BT iPlate - I now get download speeds maxing out at just under 300kb/s at quiet times of day when contention is low. I use an old (buy very good quality) Draytek Vigor router. The £10 iPlate doubled my connection speed by cutting out noise on the line - maybe worth a go? The Samknows site seems quite good - I found that a while ago and it's interesting to see what providers have been allowed to install their kit at the exchange.
I tried the Iplate -
I tried the Iplate - unfortunately it made no difference to my broadband speed. I connect my router directly at the master socket. Even my sister who lives in a tiny village in the Rhymney valley in South Wales gets 6500kpbs. We need to get onto BT about this and the parish council, does anyone have any contacts for both?
Hi, Just to let you know I
Hi, Just to let you know I have emailed the Parish Council 02/08/09 and mentioned toi them the very poor broadband speeds were are suffering - it seems the nearer you are to the hospital the worse it gets. I have asked them to see BT about getting the speed increased as we are a modern housing estate with approx. 6000 houses (and maybe more if the plans go ahead for the houses alongside the A4440) all this within a City!!
Many of us are not even anywhere near the minimum the government are looking for. A correction to saying my sister who lives in the middle of the valleys in South Wales getting 6.6Mbs it is actually 8.5Mbs. She says its lightening speed - almost instant - no buffering video (unlike I have to do or go on low graphics)
I have suggested either a new local exchange, a optic cable, re-routing of the existing cable(might as well put optic down) or another method of increasing speed.
I would appreciate it if others in Warndon would back me up and email the council, their email address is on the rear of the Yellow newsletter.
Just to save you some time:
'Ray.Morris@WarndonParishCouncil.org' (Chairman)
'John.Buckly@WarndonParishCouncil.org' (Planning & Rights of Way)
'Rita.Parry@WarndonParishCouncil.org' (Leisure and Community Affair)
The more people we get together on this the better chance we have.
We could also send a mail to Virgin to see if they would put one of their 50Mbs - that would be nice and increase the value of your property - at all counts these days.
I just updated this post to
I just updated this post to include a link to a new story on the Worcester Standard web site. Well done to Grant Hughes for raising this issue with the Parish Council !
I live in warndon villages.
I live in warndon villages. My internet is currently at: DownStream Connection Speed 864 kbps, UpStream Connection Speed 416 kbps. On average i get 80k download speed and 25k upload on an 8Mb sky package. Sky have confirmed after several complaints the line physically cannot exceed speeds of 1024kbps (100K download) as the noise on the line is too high due to the state of the cabling and the distance from the exchange. Sky now refuse to set the line higher then 1 meg as it results in intermittant times outs. For such a new estate i think this is a disgrace.
Out of interest, it would be
Out of interest, it would be good to know what part of the villages people are in when knowing what speeds are got. Since fitting the BT IPlate to my master socket I am now getting a peak download speed of about 300kb/s (connecting at 3296000 down and 288000 up). I'm on Wall Meadow so closer to the exchange than a lot of Warndon Villages.
I also have had poor download
I also have had poor download speeds in Burtree Avenue, Lyppard Habington. My download speed was at best 1meg. However, rather than fit the BT iplate I just removed the wire from Terminal 3 ( orange wire with white rings )on the extension block inside my BT master socket. This has the same effect as the iplate as it isolates the ringer circuit( Main culprit for poor speed on extensions ) I now get 2300 kbps ( Yes a 230% increase ) on downloads. If fact I now get the same speed from the extensions as the test socket !! Providing you have no analogue equipment in your house removing this wire does not affect normal use, as all digital equipment has its own ring method. COST = NOTHING !!!
Just to update my previous
Just to update my previous comment. I have now decided to pay the £ 5.99 for the BT iplate ( now called a broadband accelerator by BT !! ) and fit it as I was informed that this item does more than cut out the bell wire capacitor- it makes connection more stable. So I fitted it. Result was a drop in speed from 2300kbps to 1900 kbps. Perhaps this loss is what one has to pay for stability !! At the end of the day I do not need mega speeds like 8meg / 20 meg. All I want is for BBC iplayer and ITV player to function without buffering every 5 seconds. And at 1900 kbps they both work excellently even in HD mode transfer. Hope these comments help. Regards Derek
19-20 Oct 09 Over the last
19-20 Oct 09
Over the last two days my broadband speed has dipped significantly with no changes to any of the wiring, connections or software on my machine. After fitting a BT iPlate I had been connecting at between 2-3Mb but over the last few days it is only connecting at 700k. This is after repeated reboots of the router, allowing a minute during power-off before switching on, allowing it to retrain the line correctly. I'm wondering if this will improve before I ring up BT and complain. The trouble I have though is knowing where the problem lies - whether I complain to my ISP (Pipex) or whether I complain to BT. I envisage one fobbing me off to the other.
I'm working from home tomorrow so will see if day-time speed is better when there is less contention.
Anyone else noticed a sudden drop in speed over the last couple of days? I'm in Wall Meadow, for reference.
Ha ha! Just had a salesman
Ha ha!
Just had a salesman at my door trying to flog Talk Talk. Part of his patter was that they can offer broadband that's, "Just as good as BT, up to 8megs". I had to laugh before closing the door on the poor fella - he didn't have a clue that this area is so poor for broadband.
You'd think that they'd brief them better before coming knocking on doors!
When my Talktalk speed
When my Talktalk speed dropped to 700 I first connected a BT iplate and then later removed it in favour of disconnecting terminal 3 on the wiring block ( Please see my previous comments on this page ) This has restored speeds ranging from 1825 to 2150 over the last 2 weeks. I would also recommend fitting a timer on your router so as to turn it off and then on again automatically every night ( say at 3AM when it is not being use ) This has the effect of retraining the line every day and certainly makes speeds more consistant. I no longer have any connection issues, the line is very stable and BBC iplayer works wonderfully. Hope this helps.
Hi All, Over the last few
Hi All,
Over the last few months I have been having lots of disconection problems, my speed in connecting has dropped from 1.4mb to 0.8mb. I contacted namesco my sevice provider and asked them to explain to me why my connetion had been cut by 40%+, considering I work from home, work in I.T and sell namesco's services (DOMAIN hosting, broadband etc) i was expecting a very good answer......it seems however after a number of visits by BT that we are on the perimeter of the Ferhill Heath Exchange (I live in Berkeleys). I now have been capped at 1mb because of the poor state of lines.
It is disgusting that such a large number of people are affected by the lack of interest in sorting this problem out, in this current day and age a lot more people work from home and expect to have a decent internet connection to do so.
I am known in my street for being the "Computer Man" and have nothing but complaints from neighbours and local businesses in and around the warndon villages about the poor internet connectivity (so its not just residential believe me!).
The question is who is doing any anything about this? I see everyone here is complaining about poor connectivity but is there anyone still on to BT about upgrades and how will the upgrades even effect people like me that are so far from the nearest exchange? I do believe BT should have provided a new and dedicated exchange for such a large area and number of houses, which I believe was originally the plan???
Anyone up for camping outside BT and not letting their staff in so they cant carry on business efficiently either! (sorry just frustrated with this now after being here for 3 years!!)
Hi I live down on the
Hi
I live down on the Berkeleys. Ever since broadband was first introduced to the Fernhill Heath exchange a few years back, I have been on horrendously slow speeds, ranging from 128k up to 512k. My ISP is Tiscali. I have been tempted at switching over to another ISP to see if it makes any difference to the very poor speeds. And the something strange happened. About a month ago, I noticed a video I was watching on youtube played without buffering. I did a check using speedtest.net and lo and behold, I was getting speeds of around 1mb. This has remained in this state ever since.
In one respect I am quite happy with the increase but on the other, I am in total agreement with pretty much everyone who has posted here, in that BT need to sort out the infrastructure in the area. Apparently, Worcester is one of the faster growing cities in the country, so isn't it time we had to services to cope with that. I will be mailing the council to lend my support to the cause.
Oh, I fitted the i-plate some time ago and it made no difference at all.
Cheers
I get download 2400 Upload
I get download 2400
Upload 373
As posted earlier Im also in
As posted earlier Im also in the Berkleys (Alford to be exact) and with Zen internet i get 2.5mb/418k (at the cost of £25 a month), about to switch to Sky who have thier own equipment (LLU) on the Fernhil exchange so in theory should expect identical speeds.
We need to sort a petition or sort something out to give to the council to put some preasure on them to get us a new exchange.
According to Samknows we arent due the 21CN update to mid 2011 and even then max speed you can hope for would be aorund 3.5mb down.
I'd be interested to hear how
I'd be interested to hear how you get on in the Berkeleys with Sky and whether it's any better/worse. I'm over the road on Wall Meadow, and with Pipex. With the fitting of a BY iPlate I did used to consistently get 3mb but over the last few weeks my connection has been changing quite a lot - sometimes I still get 3mb but a lot of the tme now it's only connecting at 1.5mb.
I've been keeping an eye on the SamKnows site too. I was hoping to hold off moving away frmo Pipex until the changes happen at the exchange but am really not sure. Pipex used to be good but since being part of Tiscali I'm sure there is better around for my money.
How the hell do you get 2.5mb
How the hell do you get 2.5mb in the Berkleys?
I'm in the Berkleys and using Zen and I'm currently getting 925kbps and 415kbps up. I've moaned at Zen and they've moaned at bt, all I ever get from bt is the usuall pointless "put your cable in the master socket, blah, blah, blah" What for!!! I'm not going to get an extra 6mb by removing that bit of plastic!!!
I used to live in Checketts lane and got a constant 7.9mb.......... Think I'll move back there and leave this cave.
Update : Sky Unlimited -
Update : Sky Unlimited - £15/month
Works great (so far), currently connected @ 2.6mb down and 600kb up. No traffic shaping. Unlimited downloads.
Using the Sky provided Netgear DG934 router, connected to master socket using the cheap sky provided 1m RJ11 cable & filter, then 7m network cable to my PC.
Although I do seem to be getting disconnected when my phone rings though! (wireless phone - could be on same channel maybe) - Personally I blame all the chrismas lights!
I guess it depends which end of the Berkeleys your in as well, Alford here, if your down in Pendlesham then I guess your even further away.
ps Zen & BT told me same thing RE the Master socket & it did make a slight difference (100-200kbps down)
Length of RJ11 & quality Router do seem to make a difference to the line speed also.
Originally I was using a 10m RJ11 cable and a BT Voyager Router, and getting around 1.5mb, changing to a Netgear DG834 and getting a shorter RJ11 cable and using RJ45 to run from router -> PC made a big difference.
2Mbps down and 0.4 up in
2Mbps down and 0.4 up in Lyppard Village - not as good as we'd like but I suppose it's not terrible. wE had hoped for broadband TV but not a hope at this speed! You'd have though such a collection of relatively modern housing would be better served! Just moved in a little disappointed at broadband speed, TV reception and Orange mobile signal!!!
I've just kicked off the
I've just kicked off the switch from Pipex to BT for my broadband - should be getting the kit and switching over on Friday 8th Jan. It'll be intertesting to see if there is any difference whatsoever between the two. Pipex used to be good but since Tiscali took over it's been all downhill.
As mentioned in the update
As mentioned in the update above, I've just switched from Pipex to BT Total Broadband amd am now getting 420kb/s download speeds on a big download - this is at 8:45pm on a Friday night so not at a quiet time either. Good news!
I live in Warndon Village I
I live in Warndon Village I ahve used an Iplate and still only get about 1.4mbps download. I am only 4.5km from the exchange at Fernhill Heath according to the calc on my router so ADSL max should provide about 2Meg. This suggests that the cable in the ground is poor. It is time we had fibre optic to the street cabinet. BT can fix our slow speeds with this FTTC technology.
BT plan to upgrade 92
BT plan to upgrade 92 exchanges to provide fibre to your local street cabinet giving very fast speeds across the bit of copper wire to your door. WHY are the Wocester Exchanges that supply the Warndon villages on this plan??? They are an ideal candidate for this and we know that BT can get fibre to the business park because I know folks that use it there.
We will never get faster speeds with ADSL Max because of the distance to Fernhill Heath Exchange so why not fibre to the cabinet NOW???
Which exchanges have already been enabled and if I am on one of those exchanges when can I expect to receive Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband services from Zen Internet?
BT have so far announced 92 exchanges which are expected to be FTTC enabled by late Summer 2010. Please follow this link to see whether your exchange is one of those being upgraded.
I am interested to know how
I am interested to know how many others use ZEN as ISP in the villages as they are one of the few running trials of Fibre to the Cabinet. Is it not time our parish council stepped in here and made a fuss with BT?
We need to be on the Fibre to the Cabinet testing list of exchanges NOW!
Fernhill Heath is now WBC
Fernhill Heath is now WBC (NETWORK 21) upgraded which allows ADSL2+ a newer technology of ADSL which in our case in the villages should give a more stable if not faster service. When will it be enabled for the customer. Still no where near as good as Fibre to the Cabinet but it is already done the ISP just needs to request it for you.
Sat waiting for a microsoft
Sat waiting for a microsoft download of 3.73 Gigs running in parallel with a 2.37 Gig download....stuff I needed today but still another 9 hours to go at a pathetic 1Meg donload speed or there abouts.
Come on PARISH Council time to make a noise. Time we were in 2010 with faster speeds this is killing business.
I am still waiting for a
I am still waiting for a reply from the Parish Council re bradband speeds, they don't appear very fast either. We need a load of folks to go to the next meeting and make some noise again and again and again!
Tonight my broadband speed
Tonight my broadband speed download was 64kbs according to speed checker and I am on BT total broadband..... recently moved up here from bath road and this weekend just gone has been the worst overall internet connection I have experienced since 54k dial up!!
I just found this page with
I just found this page with more information on the BT Infinity rollout (FTTC - Fibre To The Cabinet). It looks like the Fernhill Heath exchange which services me in WR4 is due to be upgraded at "end of March 2011" - although these figures are always subject to change (for the worse).
http://www.trefor.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/exchanges.htm
Let's move discussion of this
Let's move discussion of this to the new forum topic I've started on this site. Comments for this thread are now closed.
Please use the new forum topic. (You'll need to register but it's a quick and easy process)