VW Golf Mk2 Owners Club

General => General Chat => Topic started by: L90E on August 23, 2021, 08:30:20 PM

Title: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 23, 2021, 08:30:20 PM
This is probably going to be a form of self torture and really, really tick me off when I find out what some of the rest of you are getting, but here goes... What speed are you getting?

By way of explaination, we get a colossal 2 Mbps (on a good day) which quite often drops to below 1 Mbps.

Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Monkey on August 24, 2021, 08:08:40 AM
Wow!
I was on holiday in Cornwall last week, the local wireless claimed 5mb, but it kicked me off most of the time.
My home is around 50ish.

A friend has just moved to a brand new build and went for the super fast stuff...900Mbps!!!
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Eddypeck on August 24, 2021, 09:12:51 AM
I used to have Virgin fibre 200mbps, but dropped it down to 100Mbps to save a few quid. And you get what they promise, if not more, and not a vague 'up to' speed. I've just run a test to prove it and am currently getting bang on 100.

It's still ridiculously expensive and I'd love to leave them but the alternative is old BT copper wire, which although claiming 'up to' 70, I think I was lucky to see 20.

I've been WFH since March 2020 and the one thing in my favour is I've had zero connection issues, whilst I know others in the team have had a harder time staying connected. My Boss is always looking for things to pull me up on so I'm glad that's been stable and not anything he's been able to complain about and force me back into the office.

The kids are adults now, and I think as a family our usage is probably quite high. One is a gamer and the other always on Facetime and streaming TV. Nearly all our telly is streamed, I don't think we watch anything live these days. There was a time when I'd have to shout up the stairs to get Jacob off his Xbox so I could watch a film on Amazon without it buffering.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 24, 2021, 10:11:12 AM
I hate you!

You're right... they scam you with the 'up to' proviso.

Our contract states they're obligated to provide between 0.5 and up to 2 Mbps, so even when it refuses to work at the lower level they're covered. Doesn't stop them charging us the same as someone getting the full 30Mbps the package allows for, gangsters.

Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: t2000 on August 24, 2021, 05:58:00 PM
BT FTTC, 80 down 20 up with a 'stay fast' guarantee of 63, it always hits 80/20 but I'm lucky though as the cabinet is 50 metres away.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 24, 2021, 07:35:15 PM
You can go off people!
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Eddypeck on August 24, 2021, 08:47:14 PM
Would you get better service from a 4g connection? I know for some areas it’s a better option
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 25, 2021, 09:39:23 AM
When the house signal dies we have to hot-spot from someones mobile.

O2's the only provider we can get 4G from in this area and at best that's around 8 Mbps, but quite often that'll drop off too.

What got me thinking about this again recently was we'd an engineer out from a satelite wi-fi outfit, turns out they've several masts in the general area and one's about a mile from us.

He couldn't even pick up their mast, let alone get a signal... apparently needs to be a clear line of sight to work and too many trees around us. How many homes have nothing around them for a mile?

Paid a £100 inspection fee to find that out, despite them assuring me on the phone it was just a formality... not happy at all.

There's a possibility we're to get fibre in mid 2023, but believe that when it happens.

Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Eddypeck on August 25, 2021, 02:12:27 PM
have you thought about moving house, :-)
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: scs on August 25, 2021, 04:15:40 PM
fish out the chain saw and clear a path to the mast.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: AndyBa on August 25, 2021, 11:11:30 PM
Just done a test via wifi from my phone and getting 13MB down 1MB up. I'm still wfh and have my laptop hardwired into the router so get a better more reliable connection.
In the early days of COVID I ended up working from my Mum's house for 2 weeks. She doesn't have broadband so I was tethered to my phone for the duration (Giffgaff £20 goody bag).
I didn't do any speed tests but it was a good enough connection for Zoom video calls etc and allowed me to continue working. Funny thing is that prior to that I'd regularly have issues searching Google on my phone when I was there!
What's the performance if you tether to your phone?....just re-read your post..8MB at best.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Phill on August 26, 2021, 08:39:54 AM
We are with Virgin and I've just run a test. On my computer which is hard wired I'm getting110 down and 10 up.
My phone says its getting 150 on the wifi.
We pay £44 for just internet. We don't have a landline.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 26, 2021, 10:09:28 AM
It's nowhere near the same as water, electricity etc. and I'm not going to be melodramatic about it but so much is better done (or increasingly can only be done) with decent internet access that not having it genuinely impacts on your day to day life.

Can only download SKY films in SD and even then have to plan what we want to see in advance so it can downloaded overnight when we're asleep.

Youtube is 480p only and often less / unobtainable.

Amazon isn't so bad, but again depending on time of day, buffers like mad.

Had thought about moving, but be worried the wife might find out where I've gone!
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: Phill on August 26, 2021, 12:29:28 PM
It's nowhere near the same as water, electricity etc. and I'm not going to be melodramatic about it but so much is better done (or increasingly can only be done) with decent internet access that not having it genuinely impacts on your day to day life.

Can only download SKY films in SD and even then have to plan what we want to see in advance so it can downloaded overnight when we're asleep.

Youtube is 480p only and often less / unobtainable.

Amazon isn't so bad, but again depending on time of day, buffers like mad.

Had thought about moving, but be worried the wife might find out where I've gone!
Where are you?
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on August 26, 2021, 12:35:08 PM
County Antrim, N. Ireland... only about 6 miles from the center of Antrim town itself.

Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on September 12, 2021, 07:13:44 PM
Looks like Elon Musk is coming - the Starlink site is accepting applications in our area, projected to be available mid to late 2021.

Downside is it's a beta service with no guarantee of acceptance (limited capacity) and outages are a written in part of the deal.

Plus it's not cheap, so you're paying to be a guinea pig, but hey beggars can't be choosers.

Upside is they're promising 50 -150 Mbps from the get go with an anticipated 300 Mbps soon after, once he gets all his little satellites up and running.
Title: Re: Broadband Speeds...
Post by: L90E on February 18, 2022, 09:34:27 PM
So... Elon found himself on the naughty step for a while after postponing things from late 2021 into 2022.

Fair play to him though and we got our dish this week.

There's next to no setting up and it'll work more or less from the box, so we provisionally put it out in the garden on its ground level stand... 240Mbps straight away.

Engineer coming next week to properly roof mount it which, fingers crossed, might increase things even further.

Happy boy!