Extremely slow broadband and at the end of my tether with Sky.

[Isitme]

I am afraid you are in the position of being a long way from the exchange and the longer the line, the more chance there is that it will pick up faults and interference. There is not much Sky can do about this and even BT may not be able to isolate the cause.

Try entering your phone number on this page and see what it reports.-
BT Wholesale

[Saturday]

To echo and add to a few points already made:

Sky haven't "altered something" other than cap your line to 1024kbps to try and give you more stability.

Your line is very long. ADSL technology isn't good with long lines.

Your line condition has deteriorated in the time you've had Sky. This may be the BT line. More probably it is your home wiring.

The drop in noise margin/sync in the evenings is the router attempting to cope with additional induced noise. This is very common in the evenings and is very problematical on poor quality lines such as yours. Induced noise can be many things e.g. environmental (am rf propagation after dusk), fluorescent lighting, other electrical equipment, street lighting etc.

You have an old style BT socket which probably indicates all your wiring is old too. Not having an NTE5 makes it near impossible to isolate your home wiring and determine whether the problem is local or the BT line.

BT say there's no fault. They may be right but that's their standard initial response. They are only worried about voice faults and offer no guarantee/service level for ADSL.

You have three options:

1. Invest the time and money to improve your connection. If you can't do it yourself then you'll have to pay BT (expect ~£250 to revamp your home wiring). If successful you'll probably end up with a stable 1 meg connection but there's no certainty that your problem is fixable.
2. Get Sky to cap you down to the maximum stable rate (256/512?)
3. Decide that ADSL isn't for you. Get cable if available otherwise go back to dial-up.
   

[Isitme]

otherwise go back to dial-up.

A bit drastic, remember even capped down to 512kbps is 10 times faster than dial up. I remember when I thought it was a scorching speed.

[Saturday]

LOL - I guess so.

The OP reported earlier that the sync dropped in the evening and sometimes wouldn't connect. That means the connection must be dropping completely so it could be there is no stable speed that it can be capped to. Edited my post though to add that option.

[PaulSky]

There is another option.... moving to a house closer to the exchange. Unfortunately not the best option for some obviously.

[gwiddecombe]

Unfortunately I am not in a cable broadband area, otherwise I would have been very keen to take it up. On a side note I have read that you can now get a USB 3G dongle that you plug into your computer. The vodafone offer for example says it offers broadband of up to 7.2mbps with a 3GB cap for £15.00 a month. According to the map I'm in a 3G area. Has anybody tried these services/ are they any good? On the basis that I would cancel my BT line that would save me £11 per month so the broadband would cost me £4.00 a month effectively.

This is the response from the BT wholesale website when i input my telephone number:

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 512Kbps. However, due to the length of your line, an engineer visit may be required, who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our test also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 1Mbps or greater.

[PaulSky]

Those tests give you "ideal world" figures where the line is 100% and everything on the line works perfectly. Mobile BB is hit and miss and can often be slower than dial up if you are unlucky.

[Carl2T]

if the issue was resolved then the ticket was closed and no one would Have touched your line, if it's annoying you so much why not copy a script of generic things you have done and then email it.

although there may be a record of previous ts you may have moved the router or forgotten to swap filters.. sadly it is protocol and troubleshooting is done by every ISP.. I hear virgins dreadful..

I wish there was a wee camera in the routerjuat to say uh-huh no extensions in use let's proceed..

it's up to yourself what you'd like to do, call in again stating it is intermittent and slow so you can more than likely get to cst.. if they think it'll help they'll try and organise the engineer that you spoke of.. alternatively ring bt to get the line and sockets upgraded.

can you post stats of the connection during the day? perhaps someone else can print screen or you can do it at the weekend? I'd like to see the difference in that 8db as someone DID say previously about lines busier at night.

seen a response? maybe I missed a page, I have3g on my phone and it's alright most of the time.. depends the area and the house.. steal an iPhone to test out

[krysis]

On a side note I have read that you can now get a USB 3G dongle that you plug into your computer.

One of my friends has that and those checkers say hes capable of it... Well he would get disconnected from Msn about 5 times an hour and he has to sit in a specific spot in the house to be able to pick it up... and the area he lives in isn't that built up either... To me that sounds like a right pain in the hole.

[oxter]

Thanks - useful tool