Wireless Speed - HELP!

[HelixOmnimedia]

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong board.

I'm needing help with a Belkin Wireless G Router and my PowerBook G4 with Airport Express.

The internet has been extremely slow over the last few days, last week i called BT and they said that there was a problem with the line and it was now fixed. HOWEVER... i'm still getting very slow internet.

Just got off the phone with BT and they said that it's nothing at their end, and that the Belkin Wireless G Router is getting a line speed of 8096 Kbps (I have no idea what that is in MB??) But the PowerBook is getting internet speed of 551.3kb to 972.7kb... They say that the problem is between the computer and the router and the way they communicate.
All i've done to the PowerBook is turn the Airport on and connect.

Does anyone have any idea on what's causing the low speed? and how to it fix?

 

[mad jew]

Has it just recently slowed down? Are you receiving a good signal from the router? The first thing I'd do if I thought the problem was at the router's end would be to reset it. This can generally be done by unplugging it from the power for about a minute before plugging it back in.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Does the router have an ethernet port? If so, try plugging your computer into that, to see if it really is the line speed. It shouldn't be too hard to set up; i think OS X does it automatically.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Has it just recently slowed down?

It's been up and down for the last 6 months, ever since we switched from Tiscali to BT Broadband.

Are you receiving a good signal from the router?

It's full strength, according to the Airport signal on the menu bar, and the widgets I've got on Dashboard all say the signal is full.

The first thing I'd do if I thought the problem was at the router's end would be to reset it. This can generally be done by unplugging it from the power for about a minute before plugging it back in.

Tried resetting the router on the phone with the guy from BT but didn't work, and tried again since then, and still nothing.

Also tried plugging in the Ethernet cable, and in the Belkin step-up page the line speed is still 8096Kbps but through online speed tester it's still at 789.9kbps.

Any further suggestions?

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

Does the router have an ethernet port? If so, try plugging your computer into that, to see if it really is the line speed. It shouldn't be too hard to set up; i think OS X does it automatically.

Was typing my last reply when you posted this.... tried and still nothing.
Belkin Line Rate: 8096Kbps and online speed tester: 789.8Kbps.

 

[Applespider]

I don't think that's too bad to be honest.

Bear in mind that those online speed testers are mostly Java based and that overhead may make it slightly slower. You've also got to consider other traffic going through BT's router at the exchange and other internet traffic on the routes your request is taking.

If you download a large file (say a Combo update from Apple Support) what kind of speeds are you seeing - that's a more accurate figure than a speed test since it's over a more sustained time and with a server that we know can exceed your theoretical highest speed.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

If you download a large file (say a Combo update from Apple Support) what kind of speeds are you seeing - that's a more accurate figure than a speed test.

Currently i'm download a podcast though iTunes and the size is 40.2mb and it's estimated time left is 59 minutes.

Is that still an ok speed? i have very little knowledge about this sort of thing, but since i'm paying £27 a month, i thought it would be a little faster.

 

[miniConvert]

Sounds like you're on MaxDSL. There are still big problems with MaxDSL in the UK where for a number of reasons the speed broadband sync's at and the actual throughput rate differ vastly.

The problem most likely lies with BT Broadband or BT (Openreach) - it's possible that, and I'm trying to use my fragile memory here, during the training process for MaxDSL your line was assigned a throughput that is lower than it should be. Either that or your exchange is heavily congested and there's simply not much bandwidth available on BT's backhaul.

Also there are 8 bits in a byte, so 1MB (Mega Byte) equals 1024KB (Kilo Bytes) which equals 1048576B (Bytes).
As opposed to:
1Mb (Mega bit) equals 1024Kb (Kilo bits) which equals 1048576b (bits).
So:
8096Kbps (Kilo bits per second) means your ADSL connection is sync'd at 7.9Mbps (Mega bits per second) giving you a download rate of 0.9MB/sec (Mega Bytes per second) or 1912KB/sec (Kilo Bytes per second).

Try downloading some files, best to try several at the same time, and big files at that, from somewhere like microsoft.com or a reliable, fast mirror that you've used before. Add up the total speeds of the ongoing downloads to get an idea of just how much throughput you're getting. MaxDSL doesn't respond well to speed tests - the throughput over a single connection ususally isn't a good indication of the total line speed.

I don't know if any of that will help you, but I hope it does - somehow!

 

[Applespider]

Is that still an ok speed? i have very little knowledge about this sort of thing, but since i'm paying £27 a month, i thought it would be a little faster.

But you don't know where the podcast is downloading from. Although it's coming through iTunes, it's unlikely it's sitting on Apple's servers

Once it finishes, go to the Apple Support section of the website and go to Downloads. Try downloading a couple of large (100MB plus) updates (you don't have to let them finish or install them) - and see what the download window in Safari tells you.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

Once it finishes, go to the Apple Support section of the website and go to Downloads. Try downloading a couple of large (100MB plus) updates (you don't have to let them finish or install them) - and see what the download window in Safari tells you.

Ok done that, here what information i got:

• 201.6MB at 40.2kb/sec = 1hour25min
• 293.8MB at 38.4kb/sec = 2hours9min
• 148.4MB at 44.8kb/sec = 1hour15min

Also phoned BT again, not much help there. There's nothing wrong with the line, Phones Apple - nothing wrong with the PowerBook and also phoned Belkin - nothing wrong with the router or the setting used (both ethernet and the airport). They've all drawn a blank on the issue, and have no idea what to do. Said that they'd all phone back.

 

[mad jew]

Try downloading something from your ISP's site. As Applespider said, online broadband speed testers are useless with higher speed connections because all they can do is test your machine's Java capabilities, which have nothing to do with your throughput speed.