Broadband Speed

[zebo]

Other than moving, has anyone any general tips for improving broadband speeds? Ours is so slow at the moment, this site can take 5 minutes to load, it's never been good, middle of Norfolk but just recently it's really deteriorated. None of the super-dooper fast things we read about are available, we're on Sky and don't use the laptop for films, games etc, it would be impossible. Last time I spoke with Sky she couldn't believe we could use it at all!

[Buenchico]

Start by checking your actual speed. This is the official test site for connections via BT cables (irrespective of which ISP you're signed up with):
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/

However this site usually produces fairly accurate results too:
http://www.speedtest.net/

[NB: To conduct a proper speed test you should ensure that your modem is connected directly to the socket where your phone line enters the house AND that your computer is connected to the modem with an Ethernet cable, NOT wirelessly. Once you've established a 'raw' speed you can then carry out a test using wi-fi to see if there's any great signal loss there]

As a rough guide, the minimum speed for streaming videos should be around 2 Mbps (but up to around 5 Mbps might be better for some sites).

Next, check what's actually available from your exchange by entering your phone number here and then clicking on the exchange name:
https://availability.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

In particular. look under 'BT Wholesale information' to see what's available to you. Ideally you'd hope to see 'FTTC' (fibre to the cabinet) shown as 'Enabled' but your posts suggests that it might not be. However it's likely that both 'ADSL' and 'ADSL Max' will be shown as 'Enabled'. If they are, go back to Sky and ask which service they're providing you with.

The basic copper-wired service that BT Wholesale sells to other companies is 'ADSL Max' (so hopefully you won't be told that you've only got the older 'ADSL'). However if you've already got 'ADSL Max' there's a variation on it, called 'ADSL 2+' that many ISPs aren't keen to tell you about (because they have to pay BT Wholesale more to use it). ADSL 2+ effectively DOUBLES the speed available through an ADSL Max connection so, if you've not already got it (and FTTC isn't available to you) you need to push hard to get it.

It's also worth remembering that some browsers seem to work far better with slow internet connections than others do. So try some different browsers to see if pages will load quicker for you in one particular one. (If you're using Windows 10 you've already got both Edge and Internet Explorer to try but also try Firefox and Chrome, together possibly with Opera, Avant and Vivaldi).

Remember too that some anti-virus programs can slow computers to a crawl. In particular, Microsoft's own offerings (Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender) have seriously impacted upon the performance of several different machines of mine (particularly with the speed of loading web pages). Norton seems to create similar problems for a minority of people, as does Kaspersky and AVG. Try changing your anti-virus program to something else. (My own recommendation is Avast).

[Buenchico]

PS: Also run a postcode check here to see what, if anything, is currently planned for your area:
https://www.betterbroadbandnorfolk.co.uk/can-i-get-fast-broadband/

[derek-33]

also check that you have a filter on every phone socket in your house that has a phone connected to it as well as your comp

[dannyk13]

Is Virgin Media available in your area?

[sunny-dave]

How good is your mobile phone speed?

At a previous address (which had pathetic broadband speed) I binned my landline altogether and put the money towards a mobile contract with 25Gb of data - then used a mifi box to connect my computers and TV.

Worked very well - just needed to keep an eye on data usage each month.

[fender62]

may not be relivant, but in my house we used to have a phone extension box upstairs that had a cable that ran all the way to the master socket downstairs, after a storm the cable running to our house snapped open reach came round repaired outside cable and gave me a new mastersocket, while he was there, i asked is their anyway of speeding up my internet, he asked do i use the upstairs socket, i said no have cordless phone, he cut the cable for that socket, net speed improved...why ? no idea

[Buenchico]

A further thought from me:
If your computer is configured to automatically download Windows updates then, with your already slow download speed, it will become almost impossible to use the internet while those downloads are taking place. (There are a LOT of Windows updates and, over a slow broadband connection, they'll each go on for a VERY long time).

If you're using a pre-10 version of Windows (such as XP, Vista, 7 or 8) go into your computer's update settings and switch from 'automatic' to 'ask me'. You can then choose to accept those downloads only when you're not using the internet (such as overnight or when you're out at work).

If you're using Windows 10 though you can't disable Windows updates. However what you can do instead is to tell Windows that you're using a 'metered' connection, where you pay for every megabyte of data you use, even if you're not:
https://www.howtogeek.com/226722/how-when-and-why-to-set-a-connection-as-metered-on-windows-10/
You'll then still receive the most important Windows updates (keeping your computer safe) but you won't be troubled by any others.