Yeah, I find it hard to believe you'd get capped using only 20GB a month when I get use several times that and not get capped. Their service can't vary that much from region to region, can it? And the O2 and Be* tariffs aren't the same, as O2's are a little cheaper, especially if you're an O2 mobile customer. To get the same service with Be* that I do with O2, I'd have to pay an extra £8 a month.
Yep, Unicorn your exchange probably hasn't been LLU'd, in which case just about every ISP just re-sells you BT, along with their horrid capping and crappy throttling.
LLU Enabled for o2 and Be. Of course I checked this before I ordered o2 broadband. And my modem is plugged into the BT master socket. No chance of interference. 20GB per month? I download no less than 30GB per week, usually a lot more. I'd be happy to pay much more for my connection if it meant getting the service I used to have. See above ^
Well...no that's not really true, some sockets are worse than others but bell wire current can still mess up stuff on the master socket. If you are utterly convinced it is not a line problem (which it is starting to sound like it is), then try a Bt i-plate if it is compatible with your master socket. Or, just switch to Be if it really is O2 being rubbish, but my understanding and experience of their LLU service is pretty much identical to Be, even though they apparently hate each other.
Definitely looks like something is wrong. I know because of all the new estates (grrr at building yet more houses on lovely green fields) around here there are some houses right next to one exchange but they're actually hooked up to one miles away. My line length is that annoying distance, 5.50km, yet the exchange is a fair bit closer than that. It's all a big mess
Agree With Julianmartin. Bell wire can cause interference. Funny story - if you have microfilters on all your Telephone sockets, you don't need the bell wire, just pull it out at each terminal. The microfilters regenerate the ringing signal that the master socket normally does.
I download plenty on my O2 LLU connection (including P2P) and I've never been throttled. And I don't think there's every been a reported case of O2 exercising their FUP on people using LLU connections either.
^This There have been occasions where i've downloaded a ton off steam in a particular month and never had any issues at all. Not had any problems with them for 3 years, so it's all good.
I would suggest getting to the bottom of your slow speeds before moving to another ISP, just in case it isn't the ISP...
Wait, what? You've lost me there. Can you elaborate on that? It just seems strange that one day I was downloading stuff at 700kbps and the next (literally, overnight) with no changes to how the connection is routed in the house, I'm down to 200 and there is a line fault. Tbqh if you lot think BT are bad over there, you ain't seen nuthin'. They are without a doubt the worst company to deal with in Northern Ireland. Bar none. I hate having to lift the phone to talk to them.
Okay so essentially, the Master socket has bells and whistles that take the ringing signal from the 2 telephone wires, and outputs it on the bell wire to any slave sockets. all this 3rd wire does is make phones ring. Microfilters also have bells an whistles in - they do the same job that the master socket does, but for the devices connected to them. This means that you don't need the bell wire running from your master socket to each extension, as each microfilter will generate a ringing signal for the device connected to it. Disconnecting the bell wire is normally used to cut down on line noise from internal extensions.
Just because you've not changed anything in your house doesn't mean that there a line fault can't have developed somewhere between your house and the exchange. Nor does it mean that wiring, a socket or a microfilter in your house may have developed a fault. Going from 700kB/sec to 200kB/sec on an O2 LLU product is very unlikely unless your line has developed a fault at some point. First things I'd do is do a quiet line test and replace any microfilters you're using.
Ah I see exactly what you mean now, thanks for clarifying. What you're saying is that each microfilter actually has a ring capacitor, surge arrester etc in it just like the master socket, and the single strand for the ringing (bell wire) can be disconnected in each extension as it's not needed. Every day is a school day! Actually some of you posting here might be able to help me in this thread, if you'd be so kind! Krazeh, a quiet line test is on the cards for later this evening if I have time. There are about 6 extensions in this house, all off one line. That's a lot, I know :/
I remember downloading every game available in my Steam account (somewhere between 250 and 300GB of data) over a weekend while I was on Be. I'd lost everything on my games hard drive after a failure. No questions asked, despite maxing the line at 1.4MB/sec for the best part of 60 hours, eheheh.
