I've got fibre optic broadband

[MollieO]

Installed today. Can't believe the difference in speed - it's 10 times faster than my old broadband. BT engineer was impressed at speed as it is a wireless network. Getting 34 Mb (or is it mb?).

Would looooove to surf with fibreoptics! Good for you!

Oh I'm too.
DP is dying to get hold of it so it can kill people play COD better.

I'm amazed at how quick it is. Internet stuff loads instantly. Probably not so good for getting housework done though.

Have checked - correct terminology is 34Mbps.

I've been thinking of switching to fibre optics but didn't know if it would make much difference. I think I will give it a go though! ))

A WIFI network should be able to pretty easily surpass 34Mbps, mine is ticking away at between 250 and 300. I don't know why a BT engineer would be impressed with 34Mbps unless they were just bluffing and a "oo look at the great speed you're getting" is the standard response they give to customers to try and trick them into feeling good.

34 seems to be the magic number down my road (a neighbour has the same speed). I assume that is normal for our area. I can't imagine a speed that would be 250 to 300, that would be incredible.

I'm pleased with 34. We are on the boundary of three phone exchanges so had problems with broadband. The fibre optic box is about 300 yards from the house so we should have a more stable connection, which was the main reason for changing to fibre optic.

"I can't imagine a speed that would be 250 to 300, that would be incredible."

250 to 300Mbps is the speed of the network inside my house, the speed of the broadband internet connection will be considerably less. Most people's home networks should be faster than their broadband connection.

Most people have the equivalent of a motorway between their computers and their modems inside their house (the WIFI connection) and then the equivalent of a single lane A road between the modem and the internet (the broadband connection).

Hearing that a BT engineer was surprised that the internal network could keep up with the speed of a broadband connection just sounds a bit odd, as said they're either making stuff up to create a happy customer or they could be just ill informed.

34Mbps from your home router to the cabinet in the street is pretty good. BT quote "up to 40Mbps" for their FTTC product but I don't know anyone who's actually getting that in the real world. You're getting, what, 85% of maximum rated speed? That ain't bad over 300m of dodgy old BT copper wire.

The data rate between your home router and your computer over WiFi will depend on what kind of WiFi it is. BadgersPaws must be running 802.11n WiFi that has a theoretical limit of 600Mbps but, again, I've only seen that under very controlled conditions.

Most wireless in use these days is the older 802.11g which has a maximum limit of 54Mbps. I can get that if I'm in the same room as my router but it drops off quite noticeably when there's a wall or two in the way.

How do you know what the internal network speed is? I checked the broadband speed on My Broadband website. My router is a 802.11n wifi Netgear one. The router is in the same room as the computer (which caused some hassle as he had to move the master socket from a different room at the front of the house).

If you've got a PC running Windows 7 then the wireless network speed may be available by just pointing your mouse at the network icon in the system tray. If that doesn't show it, then click on the network icon to open the "Network and sharing center", then click on the option to the right of Connections for your wireless connection.

You'll only get 802.11n speeds if both your router and your PC use 802.11n. If your PC has an older 802.11g card then you'll only get a maximum of 54Mbps.

Seems I have 150Mbps looking at that bit. Laptop is 6 months old so has a 802.11n card. Not sure I understand how you get faster internet speeds like Badger is talking about

"Seems I have 150Mbps looking at that bit"

So yes the maximum speed between your computer and your modem is much faster than the speed between the modem and the internet, which is pretty much what I would expect. Presuming that the engineer who made the comment probably knew how close your computer and router were I'm even more surprised why (s)he made that comment.

"Not sure I understand how you get faster internet speeds like Badger is talking about "

The speed I gave is the speed between my computer and my modem, it's not the speed between that modem and the internet.

So think of it likes this:

Computer Modem Internet

No matter how fast the WIFI bit of that plumbing is you'll never go faster than the Broadband bit allows.

802.11n is very sensitive to configuration, surroundings, interference, other people also using wireless nearby, phase of the moon etc etc etc. We've got it here at work but I'm lucky if my laptop can reach 80Mbps with a single interior wall between it and the router.

Badger's wireless network may well be getting a couple of hundred Mbps between laptop and router but she doesn't have that from router to Internet. For that you'd need either a cable connection (eg Virgin) or fibre all the way into your home.

As long as the speed between your laptop and your router is faster than the speed from your router to the Internet I'd not worry about it.

I very happy. It is hugely faster than I had previously

I'd LOVE fibre optic broadband but BT still haven't announced when they will do our area

Anyway, without wanting to drag the subject too much, most wifi speeds are not worth the paper they're written on. I'm amazed you can get 34Mbps even to the router.

I got it through Plusnet which, although now owned by BT, provides broadband at far cheaper prices than BT. I paid nothing for the installation and router and I'm paying £8.24 for 6 months before it reverts to £16.49 for up to 40Gb a month. They do an offer for a higher limit but as I was used to 5Gb/month I think 40 is plenty.

If I had up to 40Mbps of bandwidth, I'd probably blow 40GB in a day! lol

We are semi-rural. The main reason I changed was because of broadband being so unstable. The BT engineer that tried to fix our on-going problems said we'd have better stability with fibre optic because the box was so close to the house. We are about 200yds from the border of three phone exchanges and apparently the further from the exchange the worst the speed and connection.

I would change in a heartbeat if I could, we're far from the exchange and the infrastructure is ancient. There's just nothing better available here :(

I use 3G, and a speed test I did showed I get 1.2Mbps download and 0.8Mbps upload. Roll on 4G. Once that's up and running, with speeds of 100Mbps+...

3G? What is this '3G' of which you speak? Around here it's fixed line or GTFO, my phone struggles picking up any sort of 3G signal most of the time....

3G signal here is a bit weak and feeble. Thank heavens for fibre optic broadband

Ooh Maoko, I've been in places with no 3G reception and patchy GPRS reception. 'Tis hell.