Broadband Speed Test

by Martin Stone
at 20:50 on 29 Jul 2009

What does download speed and upload speed mean? What should it be? Report abuse

by Ciaron Dunne | registered | 17 posts
at 07:24 on 30 Jul 2009

@Martin: your broadband provider should have told you your theoretical max download speed when you bought your package. You might want to read our guide to understanding download and upload speeds. Report abuse

by Ross Anderson
at 20:49 on 30 Jul 2009

Hi, great site, the speed test gave me download 1.05 Mbps, and upload 0.33 Mbps. Bit different to the talk talks 8meg! I do live about 4 miles from the village exchange and then another 3 from the main exchange. My PC is new and top spec.. Should talktalk still charge me full whack for this limited service? I have also just discovered that talktalk are offering for an extra £4 a month a turbo boost service that will make you even faster!!! Report abuse

by robbie
at 14:30 on 1 Aug 2009

i can never get very good connection on the playstation 3 does any one no y ?? Report abuse

by ronald Johnson
at 20:52 on 1 Aug 2009

Same as Ross, I am with Talktalk 8meg service, giving an abismal average 680Kbs.. while I appreciate that the service offered is 'up to...8meg' I feel that a better discription would be 'up to... 1meg' !
I have new Netgear, new Macbook pro and am about 3 miles from the exchange.

My question is, the line is via BT and there is no cable locally so how could this service be improved as this is the only line? I need more speed!!
Report abuse

by Mr Steven McLean
at 22:33 on 1 Aug 2009

yeah i quite agree tiscali's 8mb is funny as i am getting 0.45mb lol
and i only live 2 miles away from the exchange and we have top spec phone extention cables as well and new routers and recievers. Report abuse

by sarah
at 21:39 on 3 Aug 2009

I have Sky broadband at the moment but the upload speed isn't very good and I need it to be better. I have a new IP phone from work for home-working and its not liking my upload speed. If I change to someone else is this problem stilll likely i.e. is it just because of where I live compared to exchange or is it Sky? Report abuse

by Peter Lane
at 21:30 on 6 Aug 2009

With reference to the comments above I recommend reading Personal Computer World April 2009 issue article Boost Your Broadband. It contains useful info on telephone wiring, websites to get details on your exchange, & tweaking your PC.
I went from download & upload speeds of 0.280mb & 0.070mb to approx 5-7mb & 0.35-8mb.
Initially installing a dedicated telephone extension & not working off an extension lead reel, then contacting my ISP (Madasafish) & following their instructions ie leaving my router switched on virtually 24/7 so they could do their work at their end. It took my ISP approx 2 weeks to get my speed upto the figures listed above from my first contact with the support team.
My local exchange is only 1km away by road, 700m as the crow flies.
As a last comment it was very easy to install a extension 10m from the master BT socket, £30 for parts & one dedicated tool, & I am not a DIY enthusiast.
Report abuse

by vince
at 08:42 on 7 Aug 2009

I'm now that rare beast, a happy TalkTalk customer, now getting 10Mb having endured years of slow service. This all emerged following a total loss of broadband, prior to that I had been 'enjoying' anything from 1/4 - 1.8 Mb speeds. I spent the best part of a month speaking to TalkTalk on a daily basis trying everything, different routers, cables filters, ran it off the main test socket inside the face plate etc. Eventually decided to accept the offer of an engineers call out having been warned it would cost me £160 if the problem was found at my end. He came and discovered firstly that my home alarm monitoring system was fitted directly into the back of the main box which seriously interefered with the signal and accounted for the slow speeds. Once removed it leapt from 1.5 to 11Mb but there was still aproblem. This was eventually tracked down to a fault on a cable between my house and the exchange where the cable was touching another. Sorted. Safe in the knowledge that I potentially had higher speed available I asked TalkTalk if they would give me the 'turboboost' free of charge (normally £4/month extra), which allows you to receive the maximum speed available on your line even if over 8Mb, this as a measure of goodwill for the loss of broadband i had sufferd in the previous month. They agreed and finally they have a very happy customer who is saving a fortune over what I used to pay with BT. btw the engineer never mentioned the alarm phone cable being hung onto my telephony. Report abuse

by tony wad
at 00:08 on 10 Aug 2009

i know it might sound daft but i get 19.5 meg from virgin and i still lag every single night. i play xbox live cod5 waw. try to talk to there customer services or the tech support thats a joke - all they know is unplug your modem, wait 30secs that should solve it. NO NO for the 1000 time it doesnt solve it. might try o2 because virgin are a JOKE. Report abuse

by Marcin
at 13:29 on 16 Aug 2009

it 's all right for me. Report abuse

by Sue Aston
at 17:22 on 19 Aug 2009

So with 1.95 download and 0.23 upload, what has been gained by doing this test and is it not painfully slow? Surgest going to Sky.com for better service. Report abuse

by pete blakemore
at 19:19 on 20 Aug 2009

Close to BT's advertised speed in the test Report abuse

by matt
at 15:15 on 30 Aug 2009

8Meg service from BT! been having problems for a while though, raising it with them
Date 30/08/09 15:13:28
Download speed 326.68 Kbps (0.32 Mbps)
Upload speed 373.62 Kbps (0.36 Mbps)
Report abuse

by george thubron
at 09:40 on 7 Sep 2009

i am with Sky at the end of the line, 7 miles from the exchange. 215Kb download 108Kb up on a good day - i would be happy with 500 down and 250 up. Report abuse

by Ally
at 14:51 on 8 Sep 2009

Got 5.18 down and 0.33 up on BT and i am a fair distance from exchange. Actually surprised it was so good, especially as daughters' 3 laptops also using same wireless connection at the time. Report abuse

by phil lofthouse
at 13:18 on 27 Sep 2009

had bt,had sky, now got virgin .bt 0.7 meg,sky 0.7 meg , virgin on a bad day its 12 meg through a wireless router, straight into modem 35+meg ( had 47 meg once ) Report abuse

by Nick
at 22:09 on 27 Sep 2009

Robbie, regarding your PS3, this could be due to port forwarding. have a look on www.portforward.com. this site will help you set this up.

Tony, maybe you should also try the above for your lagging problem.
i'm getting 3.3 d/l and 0.4 u/l.not too bad i guess, i was hoping for more since my line can handle up to 5.5. i'm paying £10 a month from Sky but thats for unlimited downloads mostly! Robbie and Tony, hope this helped? another suggestion may be to try using a cabled connection to the router?? not ideal but may help. Report abuse

by Martin Joy
at 14:45 on 29 Sep 2009

Im also on Talk Talk and in fairness to them (and i am NEVER fair to them usually) they said my theoretical speed is 4.1Mbps and i get 3ish normally (p2p traffic shaping not withstanding) has anyone bought the "speed boost" on TalkTalk? does the p2p traffic shaping kill it just as dramatically? or will it actually make a difference? Report abuse

by Dave Currie
at 19:12 on 29 Sep 2009

I'm with AOL on an "up to" 8 meg package. Judging by the results (0.11Mbps download and 0.2Mbps upload) it looks as though I'm being severely ripped off. I also only live just over 400m from the exchange Report abuse

by Mc Jansky
at 15:16 on 1 Oct 2009

I was recently offered by O2 for £7.34 broadband with upto 8Mbps with 3 months free. Spoke to AOL, as I have been with them for 6-7 years already I told them about the O2 offer and that unless they can match the deal I'll be needing my MAC (Migration Code) to switch. My current package is upto 2Mbps for £14.99.
Offered me two deals, bundling my calls for £6.50 a month, I wasn't interested. They charge ridiculous connection fees per call.
Offered me another deal which was basically the same as I was getting now but for £9.99 per month (instead of £14.99) and increasing my speed to 8Mbps. The only downside, I'm on another 12 months contract but I'm quite happy with that though. But what made my day was it's free for 3 months so nothing to pay until Jan 2010.
So to all of you on AOL, try calling Member Services on 01179 191112 (I looked up the free number-connects you straight to a call center agent in Ireland) and say something like you're thinking of switching and we'll see what they've got to say. I hope I end up saying you guys some money.

Also as I was reading this thread, it is also worth noting, if you want to check the capacity of your line (i.e. you're on an 8Mbps deal and you're getting a slower service, maybe because your line is only capable of a certain speed. My line is very old apparently and can only give me a max of 3.5Mbps even though I'm on an 8Mbps deal.)
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome
Check it out!
So for those of you Report abuse

by fred
at 21:40 on 2 Oct 2009

good test pain to fill i form Report abuse

by Barry J Thpompson | registered | 1 post
at 13:44 on 3 Oct 2009

Great result, I'm with TalkTalk and yes the state up to 8Mbps and the word you should be looking at is 'UP TO SPEEDS OF'so as regularly get Download speeds of 4152.66 Kbps (4.06 Mbps) and Upload speed 764.69 Kbps (0.75 Mbps) so I am happy with the results. Try using a port other than 80 as this allows data issues when testing and may give a Slower result. BJT Report abuse

by Phil Heslop
at 20:23 on 3 Oct 2009

I am on 3 Mobile Broadband (allegedly). Overall, it's been ok, but the past 7-10 days have not been good! Frequent dropouts and being connected but unable to display web pages. 3 tech support gave me some stuff to try (straight off the help pages....Duh!). I am on contract and gave my daughter my 3 Mobile PAYG dongle. She has had the same probs as me recently. If I get a resolution, I'll let you all know (don't hold your breath!) Report abuse

by chris
at 01:36 on 5 Oct 2009

I've been with Be Unlimited for three years since moving house
I did have the 24Mb Be unlimited service but changed to the cheaper 8Mb Be value, having failed to ever exceed 2.5 Mb in practice, due to distance from the exchange
This weekend, following broadband booster instructions on the web, we disconnected the ringer wire in the phone socket and immediately jumped from 2.5 to over 6Mb download, though the upload is still Report abuse

by Eagle Feather | registered | 1 post
at 08:38 on 6 Oct 2009

I'm struggling with BT at the moment to increase my speed from 0.1261 Mbps to something nearer to the advertised 20 Mbps. Let you know the outcome. Report abuse

by Darryl Owen
at 16:34 on 9 Oct 2009

Hehe Ive been with Tiscali and had 0.17 Dwnstream! When i was supposed to get at least 1.8mbps so i switched to BT and now i run the test and getting:

Date 09/10/09 16:31:26
Download speed 72.87 Kbps (0.07 Mbps)
Upload speed 151.81 Kbps (0.15 Mbps)
-FAIL-

Looking forward to moving to my misses house as she using Virgin Cable! 20MBPS FTW Report abuse

by mat
at 16:26 on 17 Oct 2009

i feel like swearing tbh i play xbox live my internet cuts its self off all timei have top of range router and i ring them and they say dont have 2 computers on! Get f**ked, haha wot a joke i pay for 20 megs and only get 7003 on my internet test on sky and 5.2 on here - how the f**k that work out? Report abuse

by maleware
at 01:11 on 18 Oct 2009

Ofcom should be enforcing ISPs to only charge for the delivered speed. Sky gave us an estimate of 4Meg on a pre-sale test, so we signed up for "Up to 8 Meg" but can only get under 1 Meg on any speed test. Sky refuse to reduce the contract back to their 2Meg price. I think this is a clear case of mis-selling. Come on Ofcom - do something to protect the taxpayers that fund you! Report abuse

by Ljubisa
at 08:27 on 19 Oct 2009

Somehow TalkTalk become so inadequate so inspite all my effort they refused to correct download speed, which is currently 0.66Mbps??, whereas I pay for about 8Mbps. This is how TalkTalk is losing costumers, no wonder I am changing ISP. Report abuse

by Gary
at 20:01 on 21 Oct 2009

Hmmm?
Your test doesn't work, no speed is displayed.
Are you just mining addresses as the man said earlier? Report abuse

by Chris Marling | registered | 104 posts
at 10:17 on 22 Oct 2009

No, we're certainly not mining addresses, and thousands of people successfully use our speed test on a regular basis. Have you tried heading over to Thinkbroadband.com to try the test there? Ours is fed in directly from them, so if you continue to have problems on their site too I suggest you drop them an email. Report abuse

by ross hewitt
at 10:31 on 23 Oct 2009

hay my d/l speed came through at 1.3mg ( Report abuse

by Jim
at 08:46 on 27 Oct 2009

On an 8Mb BT Broadband deal. Have been happy with it for a couple of years. Up until about a year ago their site was saying my connection was 6Mb maximum (max line speed) and I was getting 4Mb which was great for the sorts of things I use it for (youtube video, email, general web browsing)

recently (last 3 weeks) its been real sluggish and the BT site is reporting a max line speed of 4Mb but I'm getting 1Mb-2Mb.

*This* site is reporting 0.6Mb.

In any case, I'm reaaly unhappy. Its not exactly a cheap deal (£17 pm or something?!!!) :-(

Hopefully its just a short term glitch and it'll pick up again ... Report abuse

by ben
at 02:22 on 28 Oct 2009

im with bt signed up a 9mb and im recieving 17 np problems here maybe im a lucky 1 lol Report abuse

by John
at 08:22 on 31 Oct 2009

I am an IT professional specialising in computer networks. Let me explain how BroadBand works. Firstly you have fundamentally two types of service SDSL (Symetrical Digital Subscriber Line) and ADSL (Asymetrical Digital Subscriber Line) On SDSL your download speed will be the same as you upload speed. On ADSL your download speed will ALWAYS we higher than your upload speed by whatever percentage your SP has configured on their DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexor). his is known as your speed profile.

So you have the profile they have asigned to the line BUT you have two other things that determine the actual throughput you will received.

1. The quality of your line which is mainly going to be determined by the distance of the phone socket in your house to the point where that cable terminates at the SP's exchange. Note this is NOT as the crow flies as cables have to go around trees, houses, follow conduits etc. The longer the line the greater the electrical resistance in that line and the greater the attenuation (reduction in signal strength)

2. Contention ratio: - Think of this like a motorway. Whilst the theoretical speed limit may be 70Mph the more cars that start traveling the the slower the average speed becomes. The exact same holds true in networks, which is WHY in the evening when every Tom, Dick and Harry are using the internet your throughput goes for a ball of chalk. Whilst try again at 4am and you will be rocking and rolling BIG Time.

Additional to the above is the ISP's financial commitment to their network. All corporations need to make profit to keep their shareholders happy. This desire is a trade of between the investment they should be making in their infrastructure to keep you the customer happy and what they save by maximising the return on what they have already deployed to keep costs down and the shareholders happy. It's a bit like train companies, keep raising prices but not spending more on new trains. What happens is customer get p***ed off and the train service becomes unreliable.

Now another thing you need to know is that there are two types of ISP. Those that own their own infrastructure and those that resell BT's ADSL services. If your ISP is asking you for a MAC code (Migration Access Code) then they are simply reselling BT's own service which is why when something goes wrong irrespective of who you are with a BT engineer comes to your house (note the cable to your house UNLESS you are with Virgin will always belong to BT).

Then you have those that have their own DSLAM's located within a BT exchange. These guys will NOT ask you for a MAC code because all they do is unplug your cable from the BT DSLAM and patch it into their own.

All of this is known as LLUB ( Local loop Unbundling) and was a system brought about world wide to break the monopoly by the old world incumbents such as BT and AT&T.

A final complication is the technical aptitude of the guys at the help desk when you call for assistance. As a a professional I can tell you these guys are my pet hate. They are IGNORANT and are only reading questions off a cheat sheet. Let me put it into perspective. A qualified and experienced IT engineer will be earning in excess of 70K per annum. Do you really think these call centre staff are earning that...NO, WHY NOT. Because if they were professionals and actually knew what they were doing they would not be working in a call centre. If you want to know why you are getting lousy service and the run around it's because the muppet you are talking to knows only marginally more than you do. They are a filter to sift out the bulk of the complaints from the actual techy guys located somewhere else.

I have designed and built global networks and take exception when I call to report and issue and get asked, is your modem turned on, what operating system are you using (huh I use Linux well that throws them into a spin.....errrm what????? )

Hope this helps your understanding

NOTE: -I do not work for an ISP but rather I am an engineer for one of the large manufacturers that sell them the actual DSL equipment. Report abuse

by vas
at 19:46 on 3 Nov 2009

Long story short this country is way back in internet tech, well connection wise.Years ago Japan had 100mb God knows what speed they have these days.Long way to go and having a fast pc is not everything really. Report abuse

by Phil
at 22:10 on 9 Nov 2009

Hi,
I pay for 8Mbps with AOL and get 0.36Mbps (as just tested). Have accepted that broadband with 0.36 Mbps makes the un-missable......un-watchable.
Welcome to Wales. Report abuse

by Jay
at 21:58 on 16 Nov 2009

Anyone wanna beat me when it comes to s**t talktalk connections? 66.23 Kbps (0.06 Mbps)

Can't wait until 2 weeks when I pay for the cancellation fee and move to sky, this connection is b******t. Report abuse

by Marek
at 08:55 on 19 Nov 2009

I'm so happy AOL change my broadband speed from 2MB to 6Mb! Test working very well. My results 5,8 MB for download 0,3 for upload. Thanks! Report abuse

by Stewpot
at 16:12 on 20 Nov 2009

Getting 8.46Mbps download and 0.39 upload form Virgin Media at 1600hrs on a Friday afternoon. Paying £20/month for size M package which they has been upgraded to a 'up to 10Mb transfer speed. Certainly good enough for browsing, email, and video clips. Report abuse

by Phil
at 15:01 on 21 Nov 2009

sorry, but 21.04 Mbps from a 20 meg connection - you should have gone to virgin. Report abuse

by leigh
at 14:05 on 22 Nov 2009

I was on Telewest 10mb service and getting speeds of 4.5 mb. Upgraded to 20 mb service and now getting 5.67 mb. Although speed sems okay could obviously be better.
Report abuse

by Terence Cox | registered | 1 post
at 10:29 on 8 Dec 2009

recently joined Post Office OKish but Jon is right, you eventually learn more by yourself than the 'technical help ' people, and I found your site most informative, get just over 1 mb, with max poss of 2, I can use this as I am no great user of the web, but one thing bugs me at weekends I can only get max of 1, which translates to an actual 0.8. Why are the lines busier at weekends. Get cut off for no apparent reason usually several times in an hour, but not all the time have whole days of continual conection, bliss. ISP says they cannot report fault unless BT lowest download is exceeded? with what seems an intermttent fault what chance have I. Will continue to put up with it unless someone tells me I can find a way round it. Thanks Report abuse

by Biggles
at 21:54 on 14 Dec 2009

Thanks to John for an honest and helpful brief on how broadband works. To add to the forum of malcontents, I have been with Pipex for the last 5 years, and had no problems until recently. For no apparent reason, my download speeds deteriorated from an average of 3 Megs to around .2 of a Meg (that is point 2 of a Meg)! Professional checks have given the all-clear inside, and I am now left with BT blaming Pipex and Pipex blaming BT. Still trying to find someone who speaks English coherently, and has sufficient knowledge/authority to address the problem without giving me smoke and mirrors! Does this buck-passing sound familiar? Report abuse

by J.YOUNG
at 19:00 on 15 Dec 2009

was with virgin rubbish
was with aol rubbish
am with bt rubbish
when contract ends going with o2 Report abuse

by Steve
at 22:01 on 17 Dec 2009

With Orange, have the 2mb package, had it for 4 years - great service...until the last 3 months, now constantly drops down to 0.1 mpbs download speeds. Lots of time talking to the helpdesk idiots (using a checklist of b.s.). Interesting discovery recently - service was restored "magically" overnight with the ISP performace going back up to 1.6mb, but I'm still only getting 100kbps ... 3 days later I'm back up to almost 1mbps... the problem - IP profile is constantly whacked (by BT) becuase of disruption on the line (new houses being built nearby??) - the issue - any interference at all and BT will reduce your IP profile after a short period of disrupted service, and not reset it until several days later - checkout www.speedtester.bt.com and you can see this in the test result - apparently if you have a low IP profile the way to "fix" it is to switch your router on/off several times then wait 24 hours...hope that helps ... Report abuse

by TempTastic
at 23:14 on 20 Dec 2009

Paying for up to 8 meg with o2. Test reveals Download: 6.1 Mbps and Upload: 1.03 Mbps. Can't really complain! Report abuse

by kabingers
at 06:56 on 31 Dec 2009

I should be on 10Mb connection from Virgin, which I was getting until this week, its now dropped to between 3.5Mb and 5Mb.

This is the first time I've used broadband genie and it seems pretty good.
What I tend to do is also use about 2 or 3 speed checks. Visualware have a good one and thinkbroadband. Report abuse

by Juvenal Montoya
at 01:46 on 17 Jan 2010

This is excellent Report abuse

by Fingers
at 22:48 on 19 Jan 2010

Just did the test @ 22:30 d/load speed 0.77Mbps upload speed 0.37Mbps Sky tell me I am "upto 8MB" no wonder I cannot watch Sky news on my iphone properly and the connection on laptop is rubbish!! Report abuse

by wicks100
at 00:20 on 21 Jan 2010

I pay £25 a month for my broadband with BT ( up to 20mb, unlimited use) I should get 7-5 to 9 Mb in the area i live in.I am 100meters from exchange but all speed checks i have done over 24hour periods give results of only 1-1Mb to 2Mb with down load speeds of 3.3kb/s at 16-00hours to 500kb/s at 04-00hours my neighbor who is with virgin up to 10Mb contract is three times faster (if not more). When i have tried to phone BT the persons i am talking to cannot speak English coherently,so i do not understand them and they do not understand me, Scottish accent maybe, and they also do not seem to have much knowledge about the subject they are there to help customers with.Because i am an old **** and only been using a computer for a few months i thought the problem may be with me,so i have been getting my neighbor to deal with BT one phone call 40min and one at 55min the last one he put the phone down on them because he was fed up repeating himself over and over again very frustrating and getting nowhere with finding out why things download so slowly.Considering i live in the center of a capital city, where and who gets this mythical up to 20Mb.I still have 8months of my contract to go but there is no way i am going to pay £25=£12 line rental for the service i am getting.As i said to a call center person at BT you can not get blood from a stone he could not speak English sufficiently to understand what i meant even when i tried to explain . Report abuse

by Ian
at 16:16 on 21 Jan 2010

Was with Tiscali until the summer paying £17 a month for about 1.9 Mbps on a good day at the right time of day. Moved to BT, paying £9.99 a month for an 8meg service but was advised my line would only give me 4Meg. To start with I was getting around 2.5Mbps but after getting an accelerator on the box I can now get speeds of 3.7Mb and once 4.3Mb. Speed tests that show a map of other users speeds show that I have the best speed in my village. Some of my friend have also changed to BT and are aqually pleased by the improvement in service.
I'm not complaining,
Ian Report abuse

by dave hall
at 01:36 on 23 Jan 2010

2840.62 Kbps (2.77 Mbps)
Upload speed 375.63 Kbps (0.37 Mbps)
from bt, terrible!!!!
1.2 miles from the exchange on option 3, give us a break!!!! Report abuse

by Simon
at 01:07 on 24 Jan 2010

I had 1.41 download and 0.45 upload. I have just ran another test on another site that suggested I was recieving 3.5 download. Bt say I can recieve 3.0. However being on Orange with free internet at no extra charge within my mobile contract from an offer 3 years ago that the speeds are okay for what i 'don't' pay, considering i will only ever recieve the same speeds in my street until june 2010 according to BT. it looks like ultra high speed isn't coming my way for a while yet. so i'm pleased with the result. guess i got a lucky deal when i did. Report abuse

by Jeff
at 18:13 on 5 Feb 2010

did your test which said download speed of 0.23 then went on your link to test the line speed which read 5.0 I am confused Report abuse