MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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The house is approx 4-6km from the BT exchange (which is a big problem as speeds are up and down and often non existant!).
My question is will broadband ever be stable or reliable?
I know the distance is too far and having 6 BT engineers out, at least 2 of them have said it will never work.
Is it time to hang up on BT and go down the satellite broadband option?
Sadly broadband in its current state in the UK will always be hampered by distance, and at 6km you're right on the limit. If you have a good line then it may work, but otherwise it probably won't. BT are under no obligation to provide you with a working service and the cost / benefit to them is zero.
Dont suppose you have virgin media available in your area?
We were fluctuating between .5 and 1.5mb when we were in Cumbria. Just had to grin and bear it really. Whats your mobile signal like? Might be better on that.
Never seen a cable box that far from an exchange!! Not worth their while either.
As @MikeWSmith says, what is your mobile signal like?
When I moved house, my broadband didn't come online for about 6 weeks. In the interim, I used my Three broadband "MiFi" device. I was getting about 6Mb/s down and 3Mb/s upstream. Fantastic really.
My question is will broadband ever be stable or reliable?
Maybe.. check for all unfiltered devices on the line (burglar alarms etc), also try disconnecting the bell wire (google it).
I looked into mobile broadband - no-one offers unlimited download, the highest is 5Gb I think. EDIT: 15Gb in fact.
I'm about 6KM from my local exchange and get about 4Mb
I only have a master socket in my house. It has a face plate in it as opposed to a microfilter. There are no extensions. I bought a high quality modem cable from Amazon. I have a Thomson Speedtouch modem, although I believe the new BT Homehubs are pretty good at negotiating a decent connection on long lines.
I am 4km from my exchange and get 0.9Mb 🙁
As others have said, there's a couple of things you can do to improve your lot.
Main thing is, plug into the master socket, and get rid of any unnecessary extensions. Mine used to be all over the place until I disconnected an (unused) extension to another room.
Consider an [url= http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php ]ADSL Nation[/url] faceplate. This will isolate the bell wire, is a high quality microfilter, and looks a lot neater than the crappy little dongles.
I'm learning some more about this btw. Some BB providers re-sell BT's stuff, and some have their own gear (called LLU providers). As far as I can tell, at our exchange BT have ADSLmax technology, and the LLU people have ADSL2 which works better.
So I should be able to get better speeds by changing providers.
I looked into mobile broadband - no-one offers unlimited download, the highest is 5Gb I think. EDIT: 15Gb in fact.
What do you want moon on a stick!! At least on mobile you will be able to download 15gb!!
CheeZ0 = ADSL engineer
Mounty, if the speed is up and down, maybe you have an intermittent line fault?
Plug in a WIRED phone into your main socket (with the faceplate removed) and listen for crackly/ buzzy noise. (try it without router/ filter plugged in also)
Does your phone ring once and stop yet someone there?
Does the SYNCH drop when the phone rings?
Does the synch drop when you have been talking on the phone for a while?
Is the problem more noticeable with weather/ temp conditions?
How simple is your internal wiring?
Do you know how to look at your router admin page to check your connected speeds?
What are your neighbours connecting at? (assuming you are on speaking terms etc! 🙂 )
edit - I generally remove these third party 'booster' faceplates if I come across them. If you have simple internal wiring and no internal/external bell, these offer no benefit.
Not only distance that affects stability and speed
Cable conductor size and whether copper/aluminium makes a difference too
Also amount of other users on particular cable can have an effect.
FTTC is obviously a benefit, but Infinity only works up to approx 1.4km from cabinet
BT only obligated to provide line that conforms to SIN349 and have only ever guaranteed speech not data
Constant dropping out can be a feature of REIN, but would suspect distance is more of a problem in your case
To check for REIN tune a radio into MW 612kHz and if present you should hear interference
Also remember the distance from exchange is not how the crow flies and cables can take a longer route
Have you checked Infinity availability?
My wire BB was awful; but Infinity is 30Mb faster than the best I got without. Less picky about distance from exchange more distance from cabinet.