Knowing a little bit about “computers and stuff”, I get asked about Internet connections problems quite a lot. What provider should I use? What speed should I get? What should I do when it appears to slow down? Etc… So here is a brief overview of some simple stuff to check for.
Lets assume you feel you are getting poor or intermittent connectivity from your ADSL Broadband (BT phone line), follow these steps prior to raising a call with your broadband provider.
The very first thing to do is figure out how many telephone points there are in your house. Once you know this, then work out all the points that have something plugged in to them. This sounds really obvious but many people forget they have an answer machine plugged in somewhere or they have a Sky box which has the phone cable attached. Next, go round the house and unplug everything from the phone points except your broadband router.
Your router should have come with a cable that plugs into the phone point. Make sure you use this cable when testing, don’t use extension cables or cables you found lying around. Next and most importantly don’t plug the router directly into the phone point! Instead there must be an ADSL Filter or micro filter in between the router and the phone point.
Its more than likely you got a filter with your router, if not you can pick them up for a few quid from high street PC stores or eBay.
The filter is needed because your normal telephone signal and your broadband signal share the same phone line and the filter ensures they don’t interfere with each other. So plug the filter into the phone point then plug the router cable into the filter.
Phone Point <> ADSL Filter <> Broadband Router
Next we want to plug your PC or Laptop into the router. For problems with your wireless connectivity take a look at my WiFi article How to Improve Your WiFi.
Assuming its a router with 4 network ports available, plug your PC into port number 1. Again, you probably got a network cable provided with the router, if so use it for testing.
Phone Point <> ADSL Filter <> Broadband Router <> PC
Next fire up the router and leave it until the “DSL” and “Internet” lights come on. Then fire up your PC. Now assuming all is working you should at least have a connection to the internet, the same as you did when you started.
The first thing to do is to check the status of the router by going into the router’s config or status page. Doing this will vary depending on what type of router you have so check the docs or take a look on the underside of the router where it may be detailed. I use two different types of router and on both, the status and config pages are viewed by pointing my browser to the IP address of the router.
For example http://192.168.0.254
In the picture above, you can see I have a download connection speed of approx 3.8Mbps and an upload connection speed of approx 0.5Mbps. The figures are actually displayed in Kbps (Kilo bits per second) but 1024Kbps = 1Mbps (Mega bits per second) and most people understand their connection in Mbps i.e. a “2 Meg” connection.
Wow, I’m getting a 3.8 Meg broadband connection, let the downloads begin. Well not quite! Those figures indicate the “sync speed” or in other words the speed at which the router has connected to the broadband infrastructure. This may be different from the actual achievable speed.
In simple terms imagine your phone line as piece of cable that runs from the nearest telephone exchange into your house. There are many factors that will effect the final speed of your broadband for example;
How far you are from the exchange determines how long your piece of cable is, not just “as the crow flies”, but the actual length.
The quality of the cable based on the age of your phone line.
How may joints or connections there are along the way. Sub boxes and telegraph pole connections will all degrade the service.
Another key factor regarding your speed is how many other people are sharing the connection at the exchange and what they are currently doing. This is often called the Contention Ratio and is normally either 50:1 or 20:1 So if everyone you’re sharing the exchange infrastructure with all decide to watch something on BBC iPlayer or download the iOS5 upgrade at the same time, your available bandwidth and connection speed will suffer.
My house is approx 2.8km from the nearest exchange and I suspect that the cable run is quite a bit longer. Most packages offered by broadband suppliers in my area are “up to 8Mb”.
So my package is rated as “up to 8Mb” but what do I actually get? All in all I average out at about 2600Kbps or 2.6Mbps so approx just over 2.5 Meg. To answer this I use a couple of handy broadband speed tests which I use now and again to keep an eye on the speed.
The speed tests I use are;
www.speedtest.net
www.broadband.co.uk
When I run the speed tests they give me an indication of the speed I am achieving at that moment in time. Its a good idea to run the speed tests at different times of the day to get an idea of how this could effect you. The speedtest.net site is fantastic as it will log each test you do based on your IP address and give you a nice summary page showing your averages and tests over time so you can very easily spot peaks and troughs.
Ok, so what next? You have followed the advice so far, you now know what the current maximum downstream rate is and you have run a load of speed tests during different times of the day and still the connection speed is not what you expect.
What you now do is repeat everything you have done so far but ensure you are using the BT “Master” phone socket in you house, if not doing so already. The master socket is normally the phone socket nearest to where the phone cable enters your house and can be identified by the fact that the face place splits in two horizontally.
If this makes no difference you now need to systematically swap out the components that connect you to the phone socket one by one.
ADSL Filter
Router cable (router to filter)
Network cable (router to PC)
Router (borrow a friends!)
Hopefully along the way you will find the problem component that is causing you all the grief, if so replace it and get your speed back to normal.
A less obvious problem could be the network card in the PC. Most modern network cards run at one or more different speeds; 10Mbps / 100Mbps / 1000Mbps and one or more duplex, either half duplex or full duplex. The network card and the network port in the router are likely to “auto detect” the highest speed and duplex available by way of auto negotiation. If the speed and duplex differ between the network card and router port the network may run like a dog but this would have been the case from the start.
Also its worth a quick check to ensure your anti virus and “malware” packages are up to date just in case you have something nasty on your machine chewing up all the bandwidth. This may be visible by your system tray network icons or router connection lights being permanently on!
If you still have no joy get in touch with your broadband provider and have them test out the line from their end. One last thing to check prior to calling your broadband provider is whether there is a problem they are already aware of. My provider publishes a Service Status page showing any current and recently closed issues, your provider may do the same.
Your BT exchange may also have a problem, if so there is a good page to get the latest BT Exchange Status.
For a load more information regarding Broadband take a look at www.broadband.co.uk as they have some great information and advice. They also have a great Broadband Beginners Guide, a good Speed Tips page and a good guide on How to Complain to your broadband provider.
Enjoy.
