Bad D/L speed (20kB/S) in evening with BT broadband (brit telecom)

[Strontium]

Reply to my third attempt to get some sense from BT...

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I understand from your e-mail that you want to know about the best period during which you can download from the Internet. I note your concern and am here to answer your query.

Please be informed that you can download from the Internet except during the peak hours from 18:00 hours to 23:00 hours. The internet traffic would be high at this period of time. Should you have further queries related to BT Total Broadband, please respond us with the same reference number via broadbandsupport@btinternet.com. We will be happy to assist you further in this regard.

Thank you for using BT Total Broadband.

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No matter how many ways I word the questions, they just avoid the whole issue of throttling or shaping. I give up!

Cheers,

Strontium

[Muzy]

lol, all i can say is (ignorance is a bliss)

[winderdes]

Hi guys im new to utorrent,i went aol platinum receiving just over 5mbps,what speeds should i be choosing in my settings?Any advice would be greatly appreciated.winderdes@aol.com

[Switeck]

You set µTorrent based on your UPLOAD bandwidth...the 5 megabits/sec speed you quoted is ONLY for your download bandwidth. Your upload bandwidth is likely 1/10th of that...or LESS!

[Muzy]

whats the point of doing this ?

All BT torrent users are going to switch ON their downloads at night, Whats the point ? the bandwidth usage is the same at the end of the day even if BT set throttling to off. I JUST don't get it.

[Switeck]

Lots of people don't have a CLUE what their upload bandwidth max is...and either set their upload speeds too high, or even set it to unlimited. That can put a HEAVY load on the trunk lines used by ISPs. During evening hours, when more people are wanting to surf the internet/read email/etc, this further aggravates the problem because of the shared nature of cable broadband. (A/DSL is actually shared too at the internet gateway for major providers.) There is only enough real internet bandwidth typically for 1/40th to 1/100th the rated maximum speeds for most cable lines in the UK and Canada. USA's aren't so heavily oversubscribed on average except in a few major cities such as Chicago where there's lots of apartments using it.

[01dc07]

I have noticed this on BT for a couple of months now. Only problem is I have just upgraded to option 3 so I'm tied to them.

Agree pretty much with the speeds quaternions posted. I would say I get my max in the mornings, then after about lunch time it slows and I end up with about 33-34 Kb/s and after about 5pm onwards I get 10-12 Kb/s.

Incidentally, what should I set my upload limit to in torrent apps? My Max upstream speed is about 400Kb/s.

[Switeck]

Your default speed guide setup is xx/384k, you can use Scheduler to slow down or stop when you're suffering during throttled times.

[Strontium]

My speed has come back up. Downloading at 330KB/s right now 18:34 BST with BT!

Things are looking up, hope it lasts.

Strontium

[Muzy]

strontium, the same here m8, 3 days ago at 5.40pm tested a dvd file and the speed was 634kbyte for around 30mins then its gone back to 10kbyte.

[taldy]

I am so glad I came across this forum!! Been having real problems with BT over the last couple of weeks and given up downloading/uploading on my PC, then set it up on my laptop today and getting between 60-140kB/s now! Before that I was getting around 3-4kB/s during peak time (it's 11.45am now). So a bit confused. When I started using uTorrent it was ok but then after a few days it just grinded to a halt, so I'm thinking that it will happen again. I'm tied in to an 18month contract and about 6 months into that so stuck with it. I thought it was all my router set up but sounds as if it's BT that's the problem. But then being relatively new to this it's quite difficult to keep up with all the different settings etc, will have to look up some guidelines. Thanks to everyone here for posting their findings and dealings with BT. To date, out of around 7 phone calls to BT I have only spoken to 1 english guy......

[quaternions]

Whether it's on your laptop or PC won't make any difference because BT will throttle torrents on both. It only depends on the time of day. And yeah the Indian call centers are a pain in the ass!

[mclarnonray]

I'm also using bt and have had the same probs. For the last 4-5 months my d'loads speed was on average 100kb/s and anything above. Once it even peaked 450ks/s. But all off a sudden it dropped to a top of 12kb/s and wont budge. I've tried everything possible to fix it and no joy. My green light is on so my ports is forwarded properly. The only joy is that my contract is up in 2 months so i think i'm just going to have to suffer it til then.

[quaternions]

In the mean time get your torrents at night!

[stevieboi]

AHHHHHHHHHH, i just got a 18 month contract with fuckin BT, GRRRRRRRRR.

I've been through shit for the last 2 or 3 days trying to figure out why my downloads are so slow.

I've re-formated my hard drive 3 times!!!.(yeah a little excessive i know, but i like a fresh start)

I thought it was a update issue from microsoft or an update from Mcaffe.

I even thought it was utorrent.

I re-formated this morning and had a downlad speed of 300k after, thought i'd sussed it, then when i get home it's shit again.

Glad i found this thread otherwise i'd have gone mental trying to figure it out.

Cheers everyone.

[Muzy]

Well its been weeks since i posted my last comment. It seems that all ISPs in the UK are going down this way, the best thing to solve this problem is by downloading at night.

there are companies like:

bethere.co.uk or virginmedia they offer quality service with the fair usage policy on their lines too just like Bt, I will give them a go maybe....better than Bt.

to add more, it seems that not just p2p speed is getting effected by the traffic management but also the direct connection download speed during peek hours. I used to get over 700kbyte all time downloading directly from servers such as gamershell or gamespot. Now during peek hours the max I get is 180kbyte if lucky.

[Grievy]

Can anybody help?

I've been with BTBroadband since October, torrents speeds were fine until early this year. Ive tried port forwarding but I always, always have the no incoming connections warning in uTorrent.

On top of this I have had uTorrent open for three days downloading healthy torrents and have so far recieved only 1mb, I'm averaging 0k/s.

Any help or advice at all? Maybe somebody could give me a hand with this port forwarding stuff? I've been through the step by step on portforward.com multiple times and never get it to work!

[digitalkryme]

Hi all,

Ok well having read all of your posts, im in the same boat, limited to 20kb on my download at the same times as you all, however it would seem that BT does throttle its NON http trafic, meaning anything that isn't a website, so with this is mind, i set my Utorrent to use port 80 (i know your all going to say thats crazy) but i did however get an increase upto 80kb, i had encryption off, but will try again with it on, maybe a work around, and i can still browse fine, might be worth a try, in the meantime im looking around to figure out a way to keep the normal ports you would use and have it pretend to be port 80 trafic.

Good luck everyone

DigitalKryme

Breaking the web bit by bit

[anotherdude]

I have also recently signed up to BT Total BB (at least the customer service is good when you speak to someone who understands you) and I am experiencing these problems too. It certainly does suck.

I also used to work for BT in a call centre and know that the people on the end of the phone know little more than you, please do remember this when you are shouting at them. However I did not work in BB but worked in 2 other departments (obviously cannot say which but think "you report your phone line to us when it breaks" and then moved to "we do wireless broadband in McDonalds we do") and my colleagues (many of which worked on the BB Helpdesk when it was all UK based) were very certain BB throttle downloads - they all said go cable if you can.

If frustrated with speaking to non-english chaps on the other end of the line you may consider phoning another department and politely asking to speak to the British BB call centre - there definitely is one. In my first job (i.e the department with the 3-digit freephone number you dial when your phone line breaks in freak weather etc.) we had quite a number of these calls and always put the polite people through as it would have been rude not to.

Hope this helps without breaking any non-disclosure rubbish I had to sign.

And apologies for all the brackets, it is a bad habit I have

[geeza_1]

You are preaching to the choir! I too get no better than 20kB/s on any torrent. The Indian helpdesk is just an insult.

I have spoken to some people in England, who all either claim they are "not technical" or "that is a matter for the techical helpdesk" and push you from one useless twat to the next.

I have already written my letter of cancellation.

What kind of a company ties you into a 12 month contract? I'll tell you - one that knows its service is shite and needs tricks to keep you! Absolutely disgraceful.

Bunch of ignorant useless wankers!

Here is a quote from the website on BT Broadband Option 3 - "With a fast broadband connection, you can now do so much more online, like streaming video and music, making voice and video calls and playing games. Web pages load almost instantly, and sending and receiving large email attachments or downloading a music track takes only seconds."

This is a joke! I am seriously angry. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO AVOID BT LIKE THE PLAGUE!

This is the only way we can beat these useless dickheads, as Ofcom seem happy for this to continue!