Why is my Talk Talk Broadband so slow?

Question

When I 1st signed up a year ago ,it was really fast... now i might as well be on dial up!! anyone know why or have any suggestions?

Answer 1

get on to your provider and start shouting at them about the slow service.

then again it could be that they are going on the FAS (fair access service) where by you can only download so much a day, my service as gone down to a maximum download of 200 megabytes a day after that might as well switch off,

so ask your ISP for an explanation on the slow speed

Answer 2

Six months ago, they bought AOL and have combined the services to save money, since then AOL has gone down the toilet, and i'm not surprised Talk Talk has too.

AOL had a history of restricting speed until you make a complaint, another tatic to save network bandwith. I sued them over this and got my whole subscription back, and then went to BT.

In the end of the day if you want a good ADSL broadband service in UK then you may as well face facts, there BT's lines, and they charge a premium for other ISP's to use them. So to get the best service you may as well go to BT.

Answer 3

It's probably down to the 'contention ratio'.

The Contention Ratio (CR) is the ratio of customers to each available connection.

Small ISPs have low CRs, maybe 10-20 customers per connection. That means you share the connection with a maximum of 19 other people. At a peak time you may experience slow traffic through your connection but you can probably time your access so that only a couple of other people are connected with you.

Larger ISPs can also have low CRs but to cut costs and increase profits, they will combine customers onto other connections and the CR can hit 100 so at peak times you share your connection with 99 other people. Even at off peak times, you may have to share with up to 50 people and that slows you down also.

One of the major selling points of any ISP is their contention ratio. Low CRs may cost more but you have a better chance of faster speeds, High CRs will cost you your time in the long run.

It's important to strike a balance between a lower CR and a decent cost.

Answer 4

Hi there

Try power cycling your modem/router. By that I mean switch off or remove the power cable from your modem/router for 30 secs and then re-connect it. It will take a couple of minutes or so to remake its connections but you should then see a big speed improvement

AJ

Answer 5

because talk talk have taken on too many customers. same as tiscali.

try moving to a smaller isp. check out http://www.ispreview.co.uk for a list of good ones.

Answer 6

Because they provide a crap service due to taking on more than they can handle and employing incompetent staff. Also it's no good complaining to them because they will either lie to you or totally ignore you.

Answer 7

Is it a WiFi connection? Is it encrypted or password protected? Someone might be "sharing" your connection with you.

Answer 8

because you don't have a computer try looking at a piece of meat that might work