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Finally in the backwaters of Essex we can have BB ordered and received my modem and have connected up 512k speed

I have found it painfully slow since installing and rang BT for help (joke) they said try the downloads on www.btopenworld.com/speedtest

my transfer rate was a miserable 34k/sec, after 40 minutes of heated discussion with the call centre they suggested a different setting on my "DNS" server this then upped my rate to 52k/sec

Is this normal?

kc

That's about right mate.

512k is actually 512kilobits per second.

8 bits to a byte, so 512kbits = 64kilobytes per second.

That would be your theoretical maximum, I tend to get 50-55k per second on my telewest broadband.

You might find, as I do, that during quiet times the speed is better and conversely at busy times it goes down

Thanks for that
kc

Why would chaning a DNS setting have anything to do with download speeds ?

I don't know but assume it gives access to a priority server somewhere?

kc

Unless you were using a really bad DNS server which was timing out a lot...depends how their download speed tools work I guess....could have been factoring in the DNS timouts.

I get 53-57kB/s from BT on a normal day.

As toasty said, the theoretical maximum is 64kB/s from a 512kb/s ADSL line. However, there is some overhead in each chunk of data transmitted, so I doubt many people would see over 60kB/s.

I have ntl cable and get 102

Nice

Wish I had the option of cable

When Yorkshire cable were cabling up Sheffield in the early 90's, they neglected our part of the city completely.
Not only that, but I can't get FreeView either, so digital TV is out unless I want to line Rupert Murdoch's pockets - no thanks!!

S'pose I should think myself lucky that my company pay for the broadband connection though

Don't be so sure about freeview mate.
My Parents live in a non-digital area supposedly, however they wanted digital and because the area they live in so far from the transmitter and has some hills, houses and the like in the way their analogue signal was awful too.

They are too tight to buy cable, and they have quite a few tellys, so it'd cost a lot to have cable on all of them.

I got them a really big aerial (bout 5' long with the X shaped dipoles on it) and the longest pole I could find (teehee!) it was about 10' I guess.

Strapped it to the top of their chimney and found the bearing of the transmitter off the web and pointed it in that direction using a compass.

http://www.wolfbane.com/articles/tvr.htm (you'll find the transmitter info here)

I reckon in total the aerial was 40' up in the air.

Then got 2 nice aerial boosters (make sure they are ok for digital, some aren't) and plugged the aerial into one and then the output of that into the input of the other (i.e double the gain) also used satellite cable rather than normal tv coax because it's better quality.

Then with my dad on the roof and me in the lounge and a couple of mobiles we fine tuned the aerial until the signal strength on the set top box was at it's best.

and it works a treat, you can tell that even with the aerial and boosters and good cable and plugs etc.. that they are still just on the fringe of reception as it took a few attempts for it to accept all the channels, but it works and has been doing so for the last year or so. Plus my Nan loves it beacause she always moaned about the reception before.

s4dreamer wrote:Wish I had the option of cable

When Yorkshire cable were cabling up Sheffield in the early 90's, they neglected our part of the city completely.
Not only that, but I can't get FreeView either, so digital TV is out unless I want to line Rupert Murdoch's pockets - no thanks!!

S'pose I should think myself lucky that my company pay for the broadband connection though

We're too far from the exchange for a broadband connection and we haven't got cable either. And it's not as though we live in the middle of nowhere but on a modern mixed residential/high tech business development. All the houses were put in with the link ready to plug cable in but the cable provider hasn't provided the service!

I have satellite broadband because despite living in Milton Keynes my house is too far away from the exchange for BT broadband.

I have seen between 40 and 165 (honest) when I download a large movie - depends on the demand - late at night early am is the best.

Cheaper and faster than BT.

Satellite is fine for simple downloading, but totally crap for anything that involves bi-directional traffic i.e. WAN, VPN, remote access, XBox Live etc.
The latency invloved in transmitting to a satellite approximate 30,000 kilometres up, then down again before you even get onto the Internet will time-out the vast majority of applications and those that don't, you'll just get piss poor performance.

Thanks Fatboy - I was just trying to offer an alternative for those that are unable to get terestrial broadband.

For me its all I need as my primary requirement is fastsurf and high speed downloads - I wasn't suggesting that its appropriate for all.

Sorry Joshie, I didn't intend for it to sound like I was having a dig.
In my business I come across a lot of people who have been sold satellite Internet connections by resellers who claim it to be the answer to everyone's prayers.
I used to a 2Mb satellite connection at my office because nothing else was available at a sensible price and we still spent a small fortune on ISDN dial-up to get a reliable 2-way connection.
I wouldn't want anyone to sign up to a long term connection thinking that it would do everything that an ADSL connection would do.
Having said all that, it is entirely suitable for "fastsurf and high speed downloads".
Cheers
Paul