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azpiercedaz
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 40
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Way back in June, was having problems downloading on tiscali broadband. Whenever i was downloading anything, my internet connection would crash and id have to restart the pc before it would connect again. Id called the tiscali helpline numerous times and they couldnt help and told me it must be a problem with my pc or some hardware i was using. So, i cancelled my direct debits to them.
After speaking to a tiscali help guy on these forums and finding out they could just keep my ADSL line open, which would prevent me from getting another isp, i set the payments up again, and recieved my letter of thanks and conformation of this from tiscali.
Now, 5 months later i get a letter from a debt collection agency for £100 for the payments tiscali havent been taking. They tell me they cant take any less than £12.50 a week so if i set my payments up again to tiscali, i will be paying £70 a month for the 5x faster broadband. Nice, (merry xmas to you too!). Can they really do this?
One question, ive been doing the speedtests daily on ispconnect website as instructed by tiscali staff. On monday i could dl at 5.12 mb/sec from their servers,
tuesday 8.53 mb/sec, wednesday 6.65 mb/sec, thurs 7.21. Surely thats not 5x faster? I could hit 5.12 mb/sec on 56k, im sure of it. Am i looking at this totally wrong? If someone with a little more knowledge of internet speeds could enlighten me id be grateful.
Thanks for letting me whinge :/
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RobDickson
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 1659
Loc: Slough, UK
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Whinge away.
I can't quite follow your complaints about payments, so can't comment on that.
Onto your question about download speeds. Are you sure about 5.12Mb/sec? Unless I'm too tired and my brain's not working very well, 5.12Mb/sec is around 100 times a dial-up connection.
My website
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azpiercedaz
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 40
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Um, heres the result copied and pasted:
Your current bandwidth reading is:
40.96 Mbps
which means you can download at 5.12 MB/sec. from our servers.
Sometimes it takes a few minutes to open the home page though, could it be anything other than my connection thats causing the slowness?
I also play games online and usually between 5pm and 11pm and all weekend i can hardly move, my connection is certainly not 100 times faster than dial up (wish it was tho)
Can you recommend another site i can do a speedtest at for a more accurate reading?
Thanks
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RichieP
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 4721
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I'm with Tiscali 512kbps service, 10X faster than dial-up. I've just done a speed test at adslguide.org.uk and I have and actual downstream speed of 483 kbps and an upstream speed of 243 kbps.
I consider this to be good. The speed will vary from time to time and is usually slower at busy times like the evening.
I would be surprised if it is your connection that causes any crashes. You may have other issues such as spyware/malware slowing down your system. Also clearing out your temporary internet files on a fairly regular basis my help.
I have never had any problems with Tiscali, and have used the 3X and 5X broadband before moving up to my current speed.
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azpiercedaz
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 40
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Just been to adslguide.org.uk and my actual downstream is 203kbps (25.4 kb/sec) which is about 5 times faster than dial-up :) Its now 11:30 pm so i guess ill run some tests at peak times and see what it comes up with. I'll also run ad-aware and spy-bot to get rid of any spyware etc.
Thanks for your advice :)
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zoolander
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 483
Loc: United Kingdom
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join dslreports and try the test on this page http://www.dslreports.com/linequality , you may need to turn off your firewall so they can ping you.
download TCPOptimizer from here http://www.testmy.net/forumz/viewtopic.php?t=1013 and change your mtu setting to 1458.
this may help in some way.
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RobDickson
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 1659
Loc: Slough, UK
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For a country that calls 512kbps "broadband", 203kbps (although I think that it equates to 25.4 kB/second, not 25.4kb/second) sounds like a reasonable speed to me.
My website
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azpiercedaz
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 40
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Thanks for all your advice, ive done tests at various other times and I guess its just peak times it seems slower, early morning, late night and afternoon seems 'normal. Just going to wait out my subscription and change isp when it expires.
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RobDickson
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 1659
Loc: Slough, UK
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Although I wouldn't personally touch Tiscali with a barge pole, you might not find that moving ISP helps you at all.
If things are slowing down at peak times, it might be because it's a contended service (somewhere between 50:1 and 20:1), and not something that you can blame on your ISP. The contention is on your local BT network, which most ISPs use.
Unless you go to a non-ADSL supplier (cable or wireless), then you'll have to put up with BT's contention. Cable "broadband" or wireless "broadband" will also run contended services, but you might not notice it in your area.
My website
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