Varying Broadband Speeds

[PaulSB]

Within the business, rural location, we have two seperate broadband connections, one installed donkey years ago, the other within the last three years. The lines are from the same exchange. Both are with BT. On the older line the download speed is 1.2MBS and on the newer one 5.9MBS.

Is there an explanation to this? Would it be connected to our equipment?

thanks

 

[ColinJ]

I think that BT could explain it, and I would demand that they do so!

Having said that - is there a particular reason that you need two internet connections rather than just sharing the faster one?

 

[mchunt]

Are both lines directly connected into the master sockets and are you testing over wifi or cable connection? are there any other phones/faxes on the lines? Most probable cause is bad microfilter, dodgy extension cables, bad router or another device on the line causing interference.

I would try swapping the router and filter from the good line over to the bad line and see what speed you get on it, if the speed is good then you know the router or microfilter on the bad line is broke.

We have 6 connections at work provided over both BE Wholesale and BT Wholesale lines (I work for an ISP in a support office using VOIP phones) and they vary between 16Mbps and 21Mbps.

Multiple connections is a good idea if you rely on them for a business but if possible get them through different backbone providers so if one providers exchange equipment or backhaul breaks you still have internet.

 

[PaulSB]

I think that BT could explain it, and I would demand that they do so!

Having said that - is there a particular reason that you need two internet connections rather than just sharing the faster one?

Haven't quite reached the point if shouting at BT yet as I think it's probably internal.

We have a sales office and a production office 300 metres apart which operate as seperate entities for day to day business hence two broadband connections. It also provides security should one fail.

 

[PaulSB]

Mchunt yes both are directly connected to the main incoming socket. I had planned to take a spare filter to work tomorrow but hadn't thought about swapping the routers round. Good idea.

Thanks

 

[ColinJ]

I've had various internet problems over the years:

• Dodgy ADSL filter. (Fixed by replacing with a better quality filter.)
• Missing ADSL filter (I forgot to add a filter to an extension socket so I lost my connection every time the phone rang! Fixed by inserting a filter.)
• Cordless phones and neighbours' wireless routers were interfering with my Wifi (fixed by changing the Wifi channel used by my router)
• An unreliable connection. (Fixed by BT replacing a 25+ year old wall socket with a new master socket. They have a rolling programme of replacing old sockets, and will do so for nothing if you have the old type without a test socket.)