Throughout the years many customers and other residents in Freuchie, and the surrounding areas of Fife, have complained about the poor performance and speed of the broadband supplied through the Falkland exchange. Very few users actually understand how their broadband connection is provisioned – a simple guide to ADSL is available from thinkbroadband.com.
They usually indicate sub 1Mbps performance at best during peak hours! Some broadband users would be better on dial-up on some occasions! What is going on?
Let’s first look at the technology available in the Falkland exchange:
- ADSL (up to 2Mbps) – Enabled as of the 27/10/04
- ADSL Max (up to 8Mbps) – Enabled as of the 31/03/06
That’s it! No SDSL, 21CN capability or Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) but then again it is a fairly small rural exchange!.
Still, residents of Freuchie should be getting somewhere around about 3.5 – 5.5 Mbps if they are on ADSL Max connection. Shown below is some proof from our own connection that demonstrates fast download speeds for a broadband connection about 3 miles away from the exchange.
Most of the people who complain don’t get anywhere near the performance out of their broadband connection that the exchange is capable of supporting! Go check your own speed by downloading from a fast download website or check it at Speedtest.net and see if you should also be complaining!
Our test above shows speeds approach 5Mbps performance on this test.
Let’s now discuss some of the reasons for the poor speeds and general performance issues!
The choice of ISP is usually the most significant factor in performance. Big boy providers who offer cheap deals usually have congested networks during peak hours.
FIX: Change to a decent ISP
Your ISP is using Traffic Shaping technologies in an attempt to balance their congested network..
FIX: Change to a decent ISP
You are in breach of your ISP’s fair usage policy and they have slowed down your connection.
FIX: Check the contract T&Cs regarding fair usage and contact your ISP to clarify anything that isn’t clear .. or change to a decent ISP
The broadband connection is plugged into the first generation ADSL equipment at the exchange thereby limiting the maximum down speed to be 2Mbps.
FIX: Ask to be upgraded or change to a decent ISP
The general configuration of user’s computer.
FIX: Get an IT professional to look at your computer.
Hardware or software problems on the computer.
FIX: Get an IT professional to look at it.
Viruses and other malware installed on the user’s computers.
FIX: Get an IT professional to look at it.
Cheap routers or modems (usually supplied free by ISPs) that aren’t up to the job and have been badly configured/set-up.
FIX: Purchase a decent quality router and have an IT Professional set it up.
Telephones being plugged into extension outlets without going through an ADSL filter.
FIX: Fit additional ADSL filters as needed.
There are many other things, but the ones above are the biggies, with the choice of ISP being the most significant factor. You can check and also rate your ISPs on the independent website thinkbroadband.com. Try their Compare Tool to check out your ISPs performance against others.
Time after time we are called out to IT support calls due to broadband problems. The improvement in broadband speed is usually very noticeable after we have moved people over to Zen Internet, installed AVG Antivirus or AVG Internet Security, performed some housekeeping and reconfigured the computers and router.
Contact us if you are interested in us visiting you to get the best performance out of your broadband experience or wish to move to Zen Internet or purchase one of the AVG security products.
A closing thought…there’s no such thing as unlimited full line speed broadband!
Technorati Tags: 21CN, ADSL, ADSL Max, antivirus, AVG, broadband, Falkland, Freuchie, Fife, IT Professional, IT Support, LLU, SDSL, ThinkBroadband, Zen Internet
