Internet speed confusion???

Question

Yesterday my internet speed was apparently upgraded from 2MB to 8MB and BT estimated that it would operate around 5.5MB. However I've gone to several websites that can test the speed and they all test it to be around 1MB. Are BT lying to me or are these websites unreliable?

Answer 1

Speed will vary throught the day.

Also when you move to ADSLMax as you have just done, it will take about 10 days for the system at the exchange to optimise itself to the quality and characteristics of your phone line. In this time you may get quite big variations in speed.

Also bear in mind that your service in "contended", which means you share bandwidth with others at your exchange. So your neighbours surfing habits will impact your speed too.

Answer 2

8MB does not give 8MB. You have a 50/1 contention at the exchange (that means you are sharing with 50 people) and there are drops once the data hits your home.
8MB actually provides about .8 or.9, which is a damned lot faster than the 56k I used to get

Answer 3

You may have a great connection speed but the other end may be flooded. You and the site will negotiate a connection speed. E.g
Poor example but if the site can only support a 1MBit link then that's your transfer speed. You could have a16Mbits link but if the other site is slower then its their speed for transfer. Fact of life.

Answer 4

The websites could be unreliable but they shouldn't be that far out. When doing the test, is there anything else running on your pc that could be adding to the internet activity?

Answer 5

Down load a large file and see what you get. Though that will depend on how fast it uploads to your computer too.

Yuo sure it's MB and not Mb?

Answer 6

try

http://www.beelinetv.com

for a speed test..
they are usually spot on...