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Lowestoft Online > Community > Strictly Lowestoft > Services & Tradesmen > Topic: Broadband in Lowestoft - if you're struggling with speeds! i.e. 2mb or below.
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Author Topic: Broadband in Lowestoft - if you're struggling with speeds! i.e. 2mb or below.  (Read 6498 times)
benbird7
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As you are reading this I assume you have an internet connection which will more than likely be broadband rather than the good ole dial up, I was recently reading an article that Suffolk is having a hard time getting up to the modern day internet speeds that are available in most other populated parts of the country. I read on that the Lowestoft exchange has recently been upgraded to "up to 24mb services". Is this cause for celebration?

Well if I lived where I used to, off the Norwich Road area of town, yes, I would be seeing speeds of about 14-16mb as I relatively close (about 600m) to the BT Telephone exchange (next to Natwest), however given that fact that 3 years ago I moved to a property on the outer regions, the distance I now am from the exchange is 4.6km. In essence I am now 8 times further away.

Given the fact that the a lot of people it serves are on a line length of over 3km a dramatic increase in speed is unlikely. The reason is that over the length of the line loss in signal gradually increases and your speeds become less. For my 4.6km line, I did see an improvement from about 1mb to 1.5mb, but the new 1.5mb speed was a bit more finicky and would be subject to disconnections in the evenings.

Why? Because of the way that the modulation is transmitted over the network, to get the “up to 24mb” it has to transmit at double the frequency of your standard ADSL connection. On longer lines, this has a negative impact and allows it to pick up more interference.  See here http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adsl_technology.htm#frequencies for the frequencies ADSL (up to 8mb), ADSL2(up to 12mb) and ADSL2+(up to 24mb) operate on.

I have however asked my ISP to change the modulation of my line to ADSL2 (not ADSL2+) this operates on a very similar way to that of the standard ADSL (up to 8mb) products and on longer lines, is a saviour. My ISP is Xilo http://www.xilo.net/adsl_broadband/ (on their Pro 16 H package) and out of the 6 ISP’s I have had, these guys have by far been the best, I pay £14.99 a month +vat (£17.61) there are no download limits or port throttling and it goes through the Cable and Wireless LLU (I’ll mention more about LLU later), I also get good ping times, which as I mentioned previously, being a gamer are important. There are other operators out there though so take a look.

I have also used various routers to see which offers the best and most stable connection, out of 5 routers, for the average user with little experience on setting them up etc, I have found that the Netgear DG834GT performs well (also very stable), along with a Thomson Speedtouch 585v6. There is also a router known as BT Business Hub, this in essence is a 2Wire router by the name of 2700HGV, this router is amazing at gaining a high speed without the need for any tweaking on the line, albeit you may need to ask for the adsl2 speeds, however I found this router was more prone to a few disconnections and being a keen gamer in my mid 20’s don’t like it when that happens! So would suggest possibly other routers.

I now achieve (BT wouldn’t guarantee 0.5mb) a connection speed of just over 2.5mb, which is the governments minimum target speed set, this has now been online for over 96hrs showing a stable connection. However what about all these poor users being served off the Lowestoft exchange that can’t get that speed? (A speed that allows the viewing of BBC IPlayer or download a file in a reasonable time.)

This http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm is a good link to see how you can check your line to try and optimise your Broadband speed, I would also suggest fitting a filtered faceplate at the master BT socket at your property as this will help reduce interference and obtain a better speed. As mentioned another tip would be to utilise the LLU from the exchange. LLU stands for Local Loop Unbundling and allows other operators to put their equipment in the exchange so you connect to the network through them. You can see the Lowestoft exchange here - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EALOW and the various LLU operators on the lower right hand side. By using LLU you do not get involved with BRAS (explained here - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/IPprofile.htm) profiling which BT uses to control the speed throughput available through your line, when I was on this at my current house my speed would vary from as low as 128kb down up to a maximum of 1mb. Be aware you still need to pay either as I do BT your line rental, or you can bundle both from the likes of talktalk or similar, please note that they do throttle speeds and congestion at the exchange can mean the quality of the service you receive will decrease, also imposing download restrictions. Also be aware that talktalk don't have too good reputation, another ISP may be worth looking at is Sky if you have sky tv, you can get a good deal with them.

I really think that the only way forward would be Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), on this heavily expanded town, this will mean replacing the traditional copper wires (that are not the best solution for Broadband) with Fibre Optic cables, that have very little signal loss over distance, these would be brought into the little green BT boxes you see on some street corners. Then the last leg would remain as it is, via the copper telephone wire that already feeds into your property from the green box.

I see various posts on exchanges that have been set in BT’s pipeline to have FTTC installed, Lowestoft, is not one of them. I also understand that a lot of more rural users within the region are finding it difficult to achieve even the very low speeds and even that is intermittent.

Anyway, hope this helps some of you, any specific questions just ask and I’ll try to help.  Wink
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Jinksy
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Re: Broadband in Lowestoft « Reply #1 Posted: 21 January 2010 at 07:48 AM »
I've just checked & I'm currently getting 7.6 Mbps, which is plenty fast enough for me. My ISP [Orange] offers a 20 Mbps Service, but I don't see the point of faster and faster Broadband.
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Gary
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KEEP LOWESTOFT CHAV FREE - Close Sportsworld!
Re: Broadband in Lowestoft « Reply #2 Posted: 21 January 2010 at 09:38 AM »
Faster broadband is always useful and the UK is way behind the rest of the world as far as broadband speeds go.
If you can download files, upload files, stream data and browse at much faster speeds then this has to be a good thing in my opinion.
My ISP "Zen Internet" are currently in the process of switching people over to the faster service ASAP and all at no extra charge!

Why settle for up to 8mbps speeds when you can have up to 20mbps or 24mbps speeds at no extra cost?
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benbird7
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Re: Broadband in Lowestoft « Reply #3 Posted: 21 January 2010 at 05:51 PM »
Quote from: Jinksy on 21 January 2010 at 07:48 AM
I've just checked & I'm currently getting 7.6 Mbps, which is plenty fast enough for me. My ISP [Orange] offers a 20 Mbps Service, but I don't see the point of faster and faster Broadband.

Good for you for living (which in most cases is luck of the draw unless where you buy your house does primarily depend on how fast the internet is) where you can receive faster broadband, if you lived somewhere that only received 512mb like I used to get and through some minor tweaking managed to enhance that to 2mb, to allow for the streaming of bbc iplayer and faster downloads then that surely is a good thing?

I do see some people on forums stating that they are only getting 12mb and their line should support up to 16/18mb and that is greedy, but then again I suppose it's human nature.

This post was aimed at people on the outer edge of Lowestoft not receiving a great broadband connection, not for those of us relatively close acheiving fairly decent speeds. I also didn't ask what speeds you were currently acheiving and whether or not you were happy with them..

Take a look here http://www.broadband-notspot.org.uk/coverage-map.html#12,52.474739,1.753642,all,2 at the number of people around the Lowestoft area getting substandard speeds, obviously this is a national thing, but for keeping on topic we are looking around the Lowestoft area.

Have changed subject to clarify.
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caz2
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this brillient info i going look into this tomorrow.my sister lives in very backward place outside downham.she had bad trouble but she using the hub now and it improved signifcantly...thanks for info
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JustStu
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According to that map my current 6meg speed is classed as a slow-spot.  icon_scratch
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Jinksy
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Quote from: benbird7 on 21 January 2010 at 05:51 PM
This post was aimed at people on the outer edge of Lowestoft not receiving a great broadband connection, not for those of us relatively close acheiving fairly decent speeds. I also didn't ask what speeds you were currently acheiving and whether or not you were happy with them.

Have changed subject to clarify.

When you post a Topic any Member is entitled to post a reply, stating anything they want (within Moderation limits). It's only Admin/Mods who decide if a reply is totally inappropriate.  evil6

I posted my speed as a comparison for any people living in Kirkley, who might want to check their speeds & chase up their ISP, if not getting what they're paying for.
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benbird7
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The way that the BT network routes means that people in theory could get wildly different speed although they are a stones through from each other - I just love using the bold too Smiley

So your post on your current speed is irrelevant, as congestion at the exchange along with different ISP's routing through different LLU will make an even bigger difference to what you or your neighbour acheive speedwise. You state your on orange, well orange LLU may be up to 24mb, but other ISP's won't offer that service or modulation, you also have the issue of the type of cabling to each property, for some years BT started using aluminium instead of copper, again this will affect overheads and overall speed.

The best place to look if you want a conservative best estimate on your lines potential is to go here - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php as this uses BT database on where the cables are routed, type where available and how long the line length is to your property.

Simply stating I live in Kirkley and get 8mb doesn't help anyone, You also made the pointless statement that you don't see the point in faster and faster broadband - of course you don't as your already on a reasonable connection speed!

Caz2 - I hope this does help you any problems just pm me.

Juststu - you lucky devil Smiley

Gary - Zen are renowned for their great service, although that does come with the price in comparison, as for sports world, I agree it is a tip Tongue
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Meryl
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How do you check your speed?
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JustStu
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Quote from: Meryl on 27 January 2010 at 06:46 PM
How do you check your speed?

http://www.speedtest.net/

just click on the yellow star and choose a location near you. It will then automatically check your connection and tell you at the end.
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I told my girlfriend I had a job in a bowling alley. She said 'Tenpin?' I said, 'No, permanent.'
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