What an excellent business plan!!
Checked that as suggested and everything is green ( There are currently no known capacity problems on your exchange. There may still be an exchange problem, however BT are not currently reporting that they are aware of it. Please contact Support if you are having speed problems, who can advise further.
Record last updated: 12 Jan 09)
Any other suggestions please are most welcome if it helps to sort this out.
Can anyone tell me if Sky BB would solve the issue or indeed going mobile with a dongle?
Record last updated: 12 Jan 09)
Any other suggestions please are most welcome if it helps to sort this out.
Can anyone tell me if Sky BB would solve the issue or indeed going mobile with a dongle?
Those results that you quote for Speedtest and Mybroadband speed will be based upon the amount of data that is actually passing between their servers and your computer. As you saw, the three results that you have were slightly different because they were connecting to servers at different places. You also shouldn't expect the same result at even slightly different times, even to the same server, as the other traffic on the internet changes constantly and your test information may not take the same route each time.
The above results are all based upon actual data between those servers and your computer and I believe they would be nearer the truth than the figure you got from BT speedtester. Although that 3.5mb figure is a wee bit surprising as your profile (3000 kbps) should limit the speed to 3mb. Regardless of the slight inaccuracies the figures do seem to indicate that you download speed is in the correct ballpark for a good connection.
However, what you say about the speed problem is that it is specifically the "web browsing" that is slow. So, it would probably be a good idea to try and get an objective measurement of why that seems slow. Then someone may be able to home in on the exact problem.
To be fair to James he did start out by trying to work towards what type of internet use was showing the speed problem
There are quite a few factors that can make web browsing a bit slower than a simple speed test. Can you give an example of a particular web site and how long it is taking to load on your screen?
PS. "ping" really refers to the test that measures how long it takes for a small amount of information to go from your PC to the other server whereas the speed tests usually measure the volume of data that travels in a second, which is more useful in this case.
The above results are all based upon actual data between those servers and your computer and I believe they would be nearer the truth than the figure you got from BT speedtester. Although that 3.5mb figure is a wee bit surprising as your profile (3000 kbps) should limit the speed to 3mb. Regardless of the slight inaccuracies the figures do seem to indicate that you download speed is in the correct ballpark for a good connection.
However, what you say about the speed problem is that it is specifically the "web browsing" that is slow. So, it would probably be a good idea to try and get an objective measurement of why that seems slow. Then someone may be able to home in on the exact problem.
To be fair to James he did start out by trying to work towards what type of internet use was showing the speed problem
There are quite a few factors that can make web browsing a bit slower than a simple speed test. Can you give an example of a particular web site and how long it is taking to load on your screen?
PS. "ping" really refers to the test that measures how long it takes for a small amount of information to go from your PC to the other server whereas the speed tests usually measure the volume of data that travels in a second, which is more useful in this case.
It's a good idea to mention the "novice" label as there's a better chance of getting some help in english without jargon words, but it's not always guaranteed 
The simplest way to measure the how long it takes is just to note how many seconds until the page is complete on your screen (hopefully minutes are not necessary).
On my PC, for those examples that you gave, the BBC page took 14 seconds for the first parts to appear and 20 seconds for the page to be completed on my screen. The Daily mail page took 27 seconds for anything to appear on my screen and 45 seconds to finish appearing. As a comparison the Plusnet home page took 3 seconds to start appearing and 6 seconds to finish.
The variation was very likely due to the complexity of the pages, for example the Daily Mail page included a lot of pictures and other bits and pieces (generally pretty messy). As each image of that page had to be loaded separately, it meant that your browser had to make many downloads from the Daily Mail website instead of one. There is usually a gap between each download while your computer and the server with the information discuss what image to download next and all those gaps add onto the overall load time.
I'm simplifying things a bit as there is more to it, but that should give a rough idea about one reason for the slowness.
If your web page load times are similar to mine above, then the slowness is more a reflection on the inefficiency of those web pages.
As a comparison here's the equivalent pages still from the Daily Mail and BBC but with the fancy stuff left out.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/textbased/channel-1/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm
The simplest way to measure the how long it takes is just to note how many seconds until the page is complete on your screen (hopefully minutes are not necessary).
On my PC, for those examples that you gave, the BBC page took 14 seconds for the first parts to appear and 20 seconds for the page to be completed on my screen. The Daily mail page took 27 seconds for anything to appear on my screen and 45 seconds to finish appearing. As a comparison the Plusnet home page took 3 seconds to start appearing and 6 seconds to finish.
The variation was very likely due to the complexity of the pages, for example the Daily Mail page included a lot of pictures and other bits and pieces (generally pretty messy). As each image of that page had to be loaded separately, it meant that your browser had to make many downloads from the Daily Mail website instead of one. There is usually a gap between each download while your computer and the server with the information discuss what image to download next and all those gaps add onto the overall load time.
I'm simplifying things a bit as there is more to it, but that should give a rough idea about one reason for the slowness.
If your web page load times are similar to mine above, then the slowness is more a reflection on the inefficiency of those web pages.
As a comparison here's the equivalent pages still from the Daily Mail and BBC but with the fancy stuff left out.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/textbased/channel-1/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.stm
Typical Daily Mail reader wanting to blame anyone but themselves.
It's not PlusNet's or Gordon Brown's fault, we can all moan about BT not giving us a good enough service, but the evidence points at your own computer being the cause.
If your speed tests etc show your connection is working as intended, and you are in a quiet area where broadband is not contested much at your local exchange, then your web browsing is being slowed down locally by your own machine.
There could be many causes for this, from blocked fans causing overheating after being on for a while, to being infected as part of some bot net, that comes to life at certain time each day.
I'd suggest you maintain your computer, so you can understand the causes of and prevent most problems.
It's not PlusNet's or Gordon Brown's fault, we can all moan about BT not giving us a good enough service, but the evidence points at your own computer being the cause.
If your speed tests etc show your connection is working as intended, and you are in a quiet area where broadband is not contested much at your local exchange, then your web browsing is being slowed down locally by your own machine.
There could be many causes for this, from blocked fans causing overheating after being on for a while, to being infected as part of some bot net, that comes to life at certain time each day.
I'd suggest you maintain your computer, so you can understand the causes of and prevent most problems.
Hi Sunny,
Looking at your connection, you've been online solidly for 7 days, so it's not an intermittent issue.
I'm surprised that you haven't tried rebooting - this might help
Try doing it on a daily basis, does this help at all? Especially when your slowdowns occur.
Looking at your connection, you've been online solidly for 7 days, so it's not an intermittent issue.
I'm surprised that you haven't tried rebooting - this might help
Try doing it on a daily basis, does this help at all? Especially when your slowdowns occur.
Quote from: Sunny James as far as I know nothing happens at that time,
Have you knocked on the door of every single person in your town/village who uses broadband on your exchange and asked them if they start using the internet heavily around that time? If you haven't you can't make that statement.
Sorry, but would you mind saying that with more words
I'm not sure which that you are referring to?
I'm not sure which that you are referring to?