Improving Broadband Speed

[sasuke]

I have just moved to a new house in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, area is beautiful, but the broadband is awful! I was told I would get up to 8mb broadband (not great, but usable) but right now I am struggling to get 3mb.

There are two sockets in the house, one is in the kitchen (it is very old, has an old 'T' logo on it) and there was a filter and line connected by the previous owners, so assumed that was the master socket. I connected the router and was getting 1.5mb download speeds. However, I tried what I think is the extension in the dining room, and I am getting 2.5mb. I have called up Sky's customer support to whom I have mentioned numerous times, that I think the master socket needs to be changed, I cannot stream anything (including Sky on demand). I have bought a shielded twisted cable which has helped but it is still under 3mb. Now Sky are telling me that the max the line can take is anywhere between 2.5mb-4mb. Is there a limit on speeds? I didn't think there was.

I have a Billion 8800NL which I'm hoping to install tonight, maybe tweaking the SNR may help, but would really appreciate any tips (if any) of improving the speed I am getting, it is really bad at the minute.

[seawright]

Sky do not impose speed limits on their Sky BB Unlimited. Your speed, in the main, is limited by the length of line to the exchange and the quality of wiring (both internal and external). Is there a removable lower section to your master socket? If so you can connect your router to the test socket underneath this plate to disconnect your internal wiring.

To give us a better understanding of how your line is performing could you post the connection speeds, line attenuation and noise margins as reported by your existing router as measured from the main socket and test socket if applicable.

[RUNITDIRECT]

If you are getting better speeds on the other socket then there is a wiring issue. Post up pictures of the two sockets you have. Fitting a filtered faceplate and sorting the wiring will almost certainly improve matters in your case.