Hi, With a 1Mb connection speed, you should be getting a download speed of around 120kbps. I see from your connection history that your connection speeds have been fluctuating qite a lot and the latest downstream line rate showed a stable synch spped of only 160k. In order to determine the cause of the performance issues you are experiencing we will need you to take the following diagnostic steps: 1. Resetting Equipment. Power down your ADSL equipment and PC/Mac for 1 minute and then restart them. When both have restarted monitor your connection speed. Is your connection still slow? YES: Go to step 2. NO: There may have been a problem with your ADSL equipment. Monitor your connection for any further performance issues. 2. Connect using an Ethernet cable. Are you using a wireless connection? YES: Connect to your ADSL equipment using an Ethernet connection and disable the wireless function. Once this is done go to step 3. NO: Go to step 4. 3. Checking your connection speed using Ethernet. Check your connection speed while connected via an Ethernet cable. Is your connection back up to speed? YES: Your wireless connection was causing the slow speeds. Try the following fixes: i) Move the ADSL device closer to your PC/Mac or laptop. ii) Change the channel that you are using. You may need to consult your router manual on how best to do this. iii) Set up wireless security if you haven’t done so already. This will prevent others from using your internet connection without your permission. NO: Go to step 4. 4. Testing connection speed using a single PC/Mac. If you have more than one PC/Mac in your network please disconnect all bar one from your router. Run a full anti-virus and adware scan using the most up to date definition files. Alternatively run an online scan at one of the following sites: Symantec Online http://symantec.com/techsupp/home_homeoffice/index_virus.html Trendmicro Online Scan http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ Panda Software http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2factivescan&NRNODEGUID=%7b3B202047-35D4-4DA2-B310-B1DBEC2971F2%7d&NRCACHEHINT=Guest Retest your connection speed after running the virus scan. Is your connection back up to speed? YES: Investigate any peer to peer software, viruses or ad ware programs running on other machines. Run a full anti-virus and ad ware check on all machines. NO: Go to step 5. 5. Testing the telephone line from the master socket. Disconnect your ADSL equipment and plug an analogue phone directly into the Master Socket of the BT line without a DSL Filter. The Master Socket is the socket that is connected directly to the outside line. Your Master Socket may have a split face plate with two screws on the bottom plate. Do you hear any noise, such as crackling or buzzing, on the line? YES: There may be a problem with the voice portion of your line. It is BTs responsibility to fix your voice line. Please call 151 from your BT landline to report a fault on the voice line. NO: Go to step 6. 6. Testing your connection from the main BT socket. Take a look at your BT master socket. Does it have a horizontal line splitting the face plate roughly half way down with two screws in the bottom section of the plate? YES: Go to step 6a. NO: Go to step 6b. 6a. Remove the screws from the bottom face plate to access the BT master test socket. The master test socket is located on the bottom right of the socket. Connect a new or alternate filter to the master test socket. Reconnect your ADSL equipment in the following way: BT Master Test > Filter > Router/Modem. Is your connection back up to speed? YES: The internal wiring maybe at fault. Check with your other filters. Please consult a telephone engineer to investigate your internal wiring. NO: If you use a USB modem go to step 7. If you use an Ethernet device please go to step 8. 6b. Make sure all other telephony devices are unplugged from the line. Connect a new or alternate DSL Filter to your master socket. If possible try a different brand of DSL Filter to what you are using. Is your connection back up to speed? YES: The internal wiring maybe at fault. Check with your other filters. Please consult a telephone engineer to investigate your internal wiring. NO: If you use a USB modem go to step 7. If you use an Ethernet device please go to step 8. 7. Reinstalling USB modem drivers It is strongly recommended that you test your connection with alternate equipment. If none is available you can reinstall the USB modem drivers at a minimum. To do this you will need to disconnect your USB device from your PC/Mac and then uninstall the current drivers first. Reinstall the drivers and then reconnect the USB device to your PC/Mac. Please consult your modem manual on how best to achieve this. If you require any guidance on setting up any hardware that is currently supported by us please visit: http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/default.aspx?cNode=8L8F3J&pNodes=6A8N2N Is your connection back up to speed? YES: There is a possibility the previous drivers were corrupt. NO: Go to step 9. 8. Factory resetting the Ethernet device. It is strongly recommended that you test your connection with alternate equipment. If none is available you can factory reset your Ethernet device. Please note that by setting the Ethernet device to factory defaults you will lose all connection information. You will need to reconfigure the device to connect to Zen. You should consult your device manual on how best to achieve this. If you require any guidance on setting up any hardware that is currently supported by us please visit: http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/default.aspx?cNode=8L8F3J&pNodes=6A8N2N Is your connection back up to speed? YES: The router configuration file may have been corrupt. NO: Go to step 9. 9. Running a speed test. Open a single web browser window and type in the following URLs to conduct a speedtest: http://www.adslguide.org.uk/tools/speedtest.asp BT have their own SpeedTest website. http://speedtester.bt.com/ Follow the instructions on http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10383 to run the BT SpeedTest Tool. NOTE: If Routed-IP is being used, rather than NAT, then the router will need to be configured in NAT mode to use the BT Speed Tester, ensure no other Internet software is open or activities are taking place. Please read the guidelines for DSL Max products. The guidelines will explain the limitations associated with DSL Max. Follow the link below for the DSL Max guidelines. http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/article.aspx?id=10537 Below is a table of throughput rates for your connection. Find out what speed you are synching at. You should be able to get this information from your router/modem. Sync Rate (Kbits/s) Min-Max. Throughput Rates (Kbits/s) 160 up to 288 50-250 Above 288 up to 576 50-500 Above 576 up to 1152 100-1000 Above 1152 up to 2272 200-2000 Above 2272 up to 8128 400-7150 Does your speed lie between the limits of your connection? YES: The speeds displayed above are acceptable rates advertised by BT. Due to this reason we will not be able to raise this to BT as a speed fault. If you experience slower speeds at different times of the day, it may be due to contention at BT’s exchange. Run another speed test when your connection is slowest. If you still experience the same problem run through steps 1-8 again. If you are experiencing slow upload speeds note down your speed from the adslguide.org.uk site and go to step 10. NO: Go to step 10. 10. Measuring your download/upload speed in KB/s Open a single web browser window and type in the following URL: http://download.zensupport.co.uk Click on the file: 10MB_nonzero.bin Save the file to your hard drive and note the average download speed reported once the download is completed. If you are experiencing slow upload speeds, try uploading this file to your free web space or any other FTP site. Note down your average upload speed. Note down your results and go to step 11. 11. Checking for any packet loss. Perform a Ping to the following sites. If you use Windows, go to step 11a. If you use a Mac, go to 11b. 11a. In Windows a Ping can be performed by opening a Command Prompt (Start -> Run -> then type in cmd or command and click 'OK'), or MS DOS Prompt, and typing in the following domains and then pressing Enter. ping zen.co.uk ping google.co.uk Note the results of your Ping. Do you notice any packet loss (signified by a “Request timed out” message) or high ping times? Ping responses are displayed in milliseconds (ms). If the pings are more than 100ms this could indicate slow line speeds. YES: Note down your percentage loss and/or average ping times. Go to step 12. NO: Note down your percentage loss and/or average ping times. Go to step 12. 11b. In Mac OS X select the Ping tab in the Network Utility (Hard drive -> Applications -> Utilities -> Network Utility), type in the following domains and then click 'Ping'. ping zen.co.uk ping google.co.uk Note the results of your Ping. Do you notice any packet loss (signified by a “Request timed out” message) or high ping times? Ping responses are displayed in milliseconds (ms). If the pings are more than 100ms this could indicate slow line speeds. YES: Note down your percentage loss and/or average ping times. Go to step 12. NO: Note down your percentage loss and/or average ping times. Go to step 12. 12. Establishing what part of the network is affected. Perform a Traceroute to the following sites: www.zen.co.uk www.google.co.uk If you use a Windows, go to step 12a. If you use a Mac, go to 12b. 12a. In Windows a Traceroute can be performed by opening a Command Prompt, or MS DOS Prompt, and typing in the following and then pressing Enter: tracert www.zen.co.uk tracert www.google.com Does the traceroute complete? YES: Note the results of your Traceroute. Go to step 13. NO: Note the results of your Traceroute. Go to step 13. 12b. In Mac OS X you should open the Network Utility program and select the Traceroute tab. Type in the address and then click 'Trace'. Does the traceroute complete? YES: Note the results of your Traceroute. Go to step 13. NO: Note the results of your Traceroute. Go to step 13. 13. Changing the maximum packet size. Follow the instructions for the MTU tweak at our support site: http://www.zensupport.co.uk/tools.aspx?page=511 The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is a term for the size (in bytes) of the largest datagram that can be passed by a layer of a communications protocol. An MTU parameter is usually associated with a communications interface (Network Interface Card.). Repeat steps 9 to 12 for each MTU tweak. Have you noticed any difference in performance? YES: Changing the MTU has solved the problem. NO: Go to step 14. 14. Check exchange capacity You can check your Exchange VP capacity at: http://status.zensupport.co.uk/exchanges/ Enter your Telephone number and click 'Search'. Click the Exchange name. The VP Status and Upgrade date will be indicated on the right-hand side of the next page. Is the VP status red? YES: You can expect to experience the effects of contention on BT’s network, which will result in poor speeds during peak hours (8am to 2am). While we can continue with diagnostics and fault reporting with regard to your performance issue, it is highly unlikely any resolution will be found until after the VP upgrade has been completed. Therefore, if you wish to avoid spending time performing diagnostics, we can park this case for you until after the specified upgrade date. If problems persist we can continue to investigate this issue. NO: Go to step 15. 15. Contacting Support. Make a note of the times of day when the connection is particularly slow. Once you have completed the steps above, please contact Technical Support on the number below or through live support at zensupport.co.uk. Before you contact us please note down the following: i) When you were last able to connect without any problems. ii) When you first noticed the problem. iii) Results of your tests. iv) The make and model of the router/modem you are using. If there does appear to be a problem we can perform a line test and identify the next step required in order to find a resolution to the issues you are experiencing. If at any point you need assistance contact us again by e-mail, or call Technical Support on: 0845 058 9009 we will be happy to assist you. Please note: It is imperative that all of the above steps are carried out to ensure a swift resolution to the fault. If these tests are not carried out and an engineer visits your premises, you may be subject to a call-out fee of £50 plus VAT if a fault is identified with your equipment or configuration. Regards, John Sturrock Technical Support Zen Internet T: 0845 058 9000 F: 0845 058 9005 W: http://www.zen.co.uk/ It's arrived - the next generation in Web hosting from as little as £3.99 per month! http://www.zenwebhosting.com/ Zen Internet Limited is registered in England No. 03101568, VAT Reg No. 686 0495 01. This email is confidential, may be legally privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure, and is sent for the attention of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient of this email; please contact the sender and delete it from your system; you must not copy, reproduce, disclose to any other person, or otherwise use the contents of it or any attachment. Copyright in documents created by or on behalf of Zen Internet Limited remains vested in Zen Internet Limited If a quotation is included, it is provided for budgetary purposes only and is subject to status. Charges exclude VAT and are correct at time of quotation, but may change at any time. All transactions are subject to the appropriate Zen Internet Ltd Terms and Conditions. > -----Original Message----- > From: "Roy Bamford" > Received: 06/02/2007 21:54 > To: support@zen.co.uk > Subject: RE: Download Rate Limiting ? > > Dear Sir, > > For some time now, my ADSL line speed has been around 1Mbit down but > the actual useful data rate appears to be capped around 50kB/sec, or > around 50% of the capability of the data rate over the phone line. > > This appears to happen with sites all over the world and at all times > of day. I'm aware that I am on a 50:1 contention ratio service but I > would not expect that to manifest itself as a 24/7 speed cap. > > Has Zen or BT introduced download rate limiting for ADSL customers? > > Regards, > > Roy Bamford. > --------------------------------------------------------- The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and may also be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient then please delete forthwith. If a quotation is included, it is provided for budgetary purposes only and is subject to status. Charges exclude VAT and are correct at time of quotation, but may change at any time. All transactions are subject to the appropriate Zen Internet Ltd Terms and Conditions.