[ubuntu-uk] What to do about black hole of broadband

[Paul Tansom]

** Gordon Allott <gord.allott at canonical.com> [2010-08-11 16:38]:
> So I'm moving house and taking a look at the broadband speeds in the
> local area shows something... suspicious.
> http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/broadband_speed_in_my_area_v2.aspx?postcode=cw26jn
> 
> namely that in the area I'm moving to there is a paltry less than 1mbit
> and often around 0.33mbit. whereas just up the road 4/5mbit is fairly
> common. 
> 
> I'm wondering if its a problem with the local lines, and if so, who I
> would call about it? is it worth asking the engineer that connecting my
> line next week to take a look? I'm not really looking for a miracle, but
> I know that I used to live in the same area and got around 3mbit, until
> it dropped to 2mbit. eventually suddenly shifting to 1mbit one day.
** end quote [Gordon Allott]

It may also be worth checking the exchanges use. Not that you can do anything
about it, but about 4 doors up from me the lines move to another, slightly
closer, exchange. This means that the facilities and speeds are different,
slightly faster unfortunately.

I also have the odd situation where I have two lines coming into the house and
the ADSL speeds on each are different, even though they come from the same
exchange, share a cable from the telegraph pole and arrive through the same
hole in the wall to points inches away from each other. The routes taken from
the exchange to the green box down the road must differ somehow, either in
cable quality or distance somewhere. That said, it may be down to the history
of the lines. The slower one came with the house as an analogue line, whereas
the faster one used to be an ISDN Home Highway line that was put in by my
previous employer back in 2001 and then switched onto the original ADSL wires
only trials by myself in early 2002 (thankfully although the line was no longer
in use it had not been re-purposed in the exchange so I had no connection fee).

You can find out about exchanges and coverage on the Sam Knows website (which
has changed greatly since I last used it, and even more since I first did!!).
http://www.samknows.com/

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