hello, i would like to ask you some advise on braodband. i live in a community of 7000 new houses. it's a new developement playa del carmen. nobody has internet but me. i get it through a microwave antena from about 6 km from my house. i am paying 70 dollars for 512 Kbs up and down. i got a netgear 2000 wireless router and rent to signal to nearby neighbors. i want to sell internet to the whole community how do i do it? if i increase my subscription to 1 mb it'll cost me 150 dollars. there is another provider with a point to point antena who sells for almost half price. what i am interested in is as you've probably already guessed is to be the provider. what are my options?
Top broadband speed tips: annotated video guide
We're doing something a little bit different for this week's blog. The chaps at BE Broadband have produced a series of web video clips giving advice and tips for getting the most out of your broadband connection. It features their very own Matt, not me.
In amongst the weirdness they actually contain some useful information, so if you're wondering why your internet is so slow and what you can do to improve things take a moment to watch these entertaining and rather surreal clips, they're only about 2 minutes each.
Filters, cheap power supplies and special places
The first port of call if you suspect any problems with your line should be the phone service provider to have them check the line noise. If this is the issue and BT actually fix it the improvement in speed can be drastic.
Cheap cabling can also affect your connection. Those nasty flat extension wires are poor quality, for the best signal you should use a round twisted pair cable. If you have to use them only ever plug directly into a wall socket, don't daisy-chain extensions.
Everyone knows about filters now, right? You should have ADSL filters on all wall sockets. To make life easier though you can filter the signal at the master socket using an attachment so you don't need the separate microfilters.
As for that thing about cheap power supplies and low voltage lighting, it's not something I've ever experienced, though I'd never recommend using a cheap power supply anyway. I'm assuming they had some technical knowledge behind that one, if you know more about this please post in the comments!
Wall sockets, I-plates and pygmy dreams
This video makes it seem far to easy to rewire a phone socket – just jam some pliers in there!
In a ham-fisted way it's actually right, you can sometimes get an improvement in speed and stability by disconnecting what's known as the ring or bell wire, which can cause interference, though you shouldn't be so blasé about it. Take a look at this incredibly exhaustive guide to UK phone wiring. Among other things it shows how to disconnect the bell wire.
If you have a newer NTE5 socket though, you can skip all this by fitting an I-Plate which can be bought for about £15 online and achieves the same thing, except it just slots on top of the socket. If your socket is around 85mm wide then it should be compatible with an I-Plate. If the socket has an Openreach logo then it will already have the I-Plate built in.
Some providers might supply you with a free I-Plate - it's definitely worth calling tech support before you splash your cash on one.
Always try the test socket mentioned in the clip as well. This is hidden behind the panel and goes directly into the phone, skipping any extensions. It will help eliminate potential problem areas: if you get a better connection using the test socket then you know that there's something amiss with your internal lines rather than the outside connection.
Wireless channels, wall sockets and pygmy porn
Okay, so BE is having a bit of a dig at BT, but the main point in this clip that switching providers won't give you a faster connection is true, and that goes for any ISP. Distance from the exchange is the main factor, and changing to another service won't affect that, so swap if you want to but do it because of the pricing or contract terms, not because a salesman has said you'll get twice the connection speed.
There are also a couple of really important tips here that you might have missed while the guy dressed as a router was talking about pygmy porn. The first is to change your wireless channel. This setting is found within the router's admin/control/management screen, and can solve lots of problems. So if your wireless won't connect or is running slow, swap to another channel because a neighbour might have their router set to the same.
The second was about connecting to the wall socket. Always do this. Extensions can degrade the signal and affect your speed. If you need to get internet elsewhere in your home do it with wireless networking, or a wired solution that comes off your main router.
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Report abuseJust had and extension built on my house and part of the build included putting extra phone lines upstairs and downstairs to facilitate satelite TV and extra phone (1 in the bedroom, 2 in the lounge making 4 overall in the house now) These extra lines are all connected from the box outside my house as opposed to just tapped off my existing phone socket. My broadband was downloading iplayer progs at 4-5mb/s and streaming HD tv was never a problem but after the extra phone lines were fitted I'm only getting up to 3mb/s (sometimes considerably less!) and streaming tv is non existant... even normal TV (as opposed to HD)....... HELP!!! lol
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Much depends on the phone wires. I live in a rural area where overhead cables often get damaged causing crackling on the phone (this will stop a dial-up internet/email connection dead in its tracks). The sea air also corrodes joints in the wires. The phone has been out of action for several days at a time here owing to cable faults but rather curiously the ADSL broadband still works as only one wire is needed. If you get into this situation of having no phone, don't waste money by using your mobile, open a Skype account instead. This will enable you to make UK calls for peanuts and the clarity is as clear as a bell. OK your telephone provider should really pay for this but it is such a small amount its hardly worth worrying about. On a slightly different topic regarding Electro Magnetic Interference I have found it worthwhile (for radio reception) to fit ferrite chokes to all my lightbulb holders as the modern low energy bulbs can create a lot of interference.
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Is it possible to change the exchange I'm connected to? Might this improve my speeds?