slow internet

[staffylover]

my internet is very slow. i spoke to my supplier and they are sending out a new modem. will this help?

It might do - have you ever been to www.ThinkBroadband.com as there is a speed test (upper right, I think).

There may also be comments from others in their Broadband Forums about your ISP.

Can I be nosy and ask which ISP ?

Hello
Thanks for the reply.

Ive done the the thinkbroadband speed test and have just posted a question on their forum. My ISP is Virgin Media. Im supposed to get up to 20 but the speed test suggests well below 10? sometimes down to 2!

Ah... outside my know-how as you are (presumably) using cable.

Did the ThinkBroadband forum for VM users give any clues? Do your family do a lot of "file sharing" that might nmean your traffic levels are hight, and may have caused VM to "slow" your connection down?

I know many ISPs have equipment in place to do "traffic calming" (sometimes called "throttling" and in few users cases, it seems to be completely "choked") but am unfamiliar with what VM does as there is no cable within 20 miles.

Virgin Media do do traffic management, throttling, so if staffylover were a very heavy user then that could be happening.

Connected to that I'd also check that if you're using a wireless connection that it's secured properly, it could even be a neighbour that's taking up all the bandwidth.

Finally if you are on a cable modem then this might be somewhat out of your hands. Back in the days when it was NTL I used to know a bit about how the network was set up. Basically you had a network node that a number of cable connections shared. If one of those connections really hammered the network then the other connections would suffer. So it could be something that one of you're cable consuming neighbours is up to.

The first port of call should be to give Virgin a shout, there might well be something physically wrong with your cable connection and they should be able to check that out for you.

Thanks for the replies. I must first say I`m not heavy down loader but I do now download after 9 pm. I have the new modem and it has made a bit of a difference. Thanks again.

Also VIRGIN do "throttle" and it stays that way for 5 hours.

Fingers crossed that whatever VM send, it helps on the speed front. If it doesn't though, your options are somewhat limited without switching from cable to a normal BT line...