If you are struggling with your broadband performance or reliability you may be noticing that some or all of the following anomalies:
Broadband drops connection and reconnects
Broadband download speed terribly slow
Download speed is slower than upload speed
Broadband connection drops when you make a telephone call
If you are suffering from a combination of the symptoms above, we would advise you work through the following recommendations to troubleshoot your issue. Basically your broadband provider will get you to do these tests anyway before they investigate your issues.
1) Replace the Micro filter(s)
2) Test broadband with Router is plugged into BT Master Socket
3) If you have added any internal BT wiring in your office disconnect this to rule out any internal wiring faults
4) When you have a suspected broadband issue you can usually access the router from your computer/laptop to check to see how long the router has been online and whether the broadband is connected
6) Plug in a normal analogue phone and listen to the dial tone – is it crackly / noisy line?
7) Try a replacement Router or Modem
The BT speedtester website diagnostics will need to be run at least 3 times although you can only use the website once every three hours.
Once you have completed the above speak to your ISP and report the fault. They can have a look at the diagnostics report and decide if there is a fault with either the ISP, BT Exchange, External wiring or internet to your building.
Please try all of the above before getting a BT engineer out, our experience is a BT engineer’s visit will cost you around £130 even if they do nothing and find a problem with your internal BT wiring or even a ‘no fault found’
Century IT Services – Getting IT Right
Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire
How Fast Is My Broadband Connection
April 12th, 2011
Broadband Speed Problems?
Is your broadband running slow, or perhaps you dont really know what speed your broadband is running at, or if there is a fault and were wondering what checks you can do yourself.
Your broadband speed will be dependant upon a number of factors, namely the distance from your local BT Exchange, the quality of cable from the exchange, the number of broadband users at your BT exchange, your internal telephone wiring within your building, other telephony devices within your building, faulty microfilters, throttling at the BT telephone exchange / ISP or any combination of these.
You can usually check your broadband connection speed by looking at your router connection information. You can compare the router information against these tests to Identify your actual Broadband Speed
If your broadband speed is slower than you would normally expect you can try the following troubleshooting list:-
Ensure a microfilter is fitted on each telephone socket that is in use
Try your ADSL router in the BT master socket
Ensure your router firmware is up to date
Try unplugging other telephony devices on the broadband telephone line
By comparing the BT SpeedTester results with other Broadband speed test you can get an idea if your broadband is being throttled at the local BT Telephone Exchange or by the Internet Provider (ISP)
Century IT Services – Getting IT Right Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire
VoIP Jitter & Packet Loss
November 29th, 2010
One of the biggest design and installation mistakes we come across in many other 3CX VoIP installations is perhaps the intended sharing of a single business broadband connection with 3CX VoIPtrunks and all of the other business internet activities e.g. Surfing, downloads, email, mobile and remote access etc.
Trying to ‘stuff’ everything down a single broadband connection is not a good idea, on a busy or saturated broadband connection, the first service to experience problems will typically be the VoIP Siptrunk Traffic, callers will begin to experience ‘Jitter’ (delays in the voice conversation by each party) and ‘packet loss’ (conversation drops out – parts of the conversation are not heard).
Most modern business broadband routers support a feature called QOS (Quality of Service) whereby VoIP traffic can be prioritised by the router. Basically what happens is that VoIP traffic is prioritised over other types of internet traffic i.e. Surfing & Email, basically internet traffic which does not require ‘real time’ communication over the broadband connection.
This QOS feature does help ‘share’ a broadband connection relatively succesfully but in our experience there are times again when upon broadband saturation VoIP traffic will begin to suffer Jitter and Pack Loss.
If you are suffering from Jitter and Packet Loss the other consideration is your Internet Service Provider, would your ISP know if they have a system where they prioritise VoIP Traffic over their network and the Internet? If they don’t then it doesn’t really matter that you have the right equipment and configuration, VoIP traffic problems will occur further upstream.
What do we recommend?
We would advise against sharing a broadband connection, 3CX Sip traffic with other computer network systems & services
We would recommend you select an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who specialise in VoIP and can offer a prioritised VoIP traffic service
Look at what VoIP Codec you are using and perform a mathematical calculation against your available bandwidth
Why not use a 3CX recommended VoIP SIp Trunk provider who have a dedicated VoIP Service
Speak to us about a dedicated VoIP gateway to interface your existing BT phone lines, we have solutions for PSTN, ISDN2e, ISDN30 and mobile/gsm networks
If you think you are suffering from a broadband / VoIP traffic capacity or bottleneck problem, in the first instance try this VoIP Tester
Why not give us a call to discuss how we can expertly support your 3CX VoIP Telephone System investment or make productivity improvement recommendations?
Century IT Services – Providing expert 3CX VoIP Telephone Installations & Support in Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Surrey, Sussex, & Berkshire.
Digital Britain – Broadband Speeds In Contention
June 22nd, 2009
ADSL Broadband speeds are in contention, both technically and literally. Since the arrival of ADSL in the majority of local BT telephone exchanges around April 2002 the speed of ADSL broadband has not really improved in the subsequent 7 years since.
In 2002 there was much excitement for those who were migrating from their ISDN 64K internet connections to ADSL. Back in 2002 broadband speeds began at the 2MB mark, but unfortunately a lot of people today in 2009 are only still only receiving between 2MB and 5MB download speeds, again upload speeds have also virtually remained unchanged at 400k if you are lucky.
It seems that ADSL technology has not really kept pace with other technological advances. The more seriously affected areas in the U.K are rural areas, with an even more limited connection speeds and supplier options. You will hear that broadband speed is dependant upon a number of different factors:-
Distance from local BT exchange
Quality of the connections
Faster speed with underground cooper wire, slower with cheaper underground aluminium wire
Contention ratio
ISP rating
Is the problem only going to become worse? The U.K government aims for 100% broadband penetration by 2012 with the current figure at about 65% with broadband internet access
But should it really matter? If we were talking about mobile phones, would we accept that with some suppliers or tariffs we were likely to get a sub-standard connection, or perhaps could only make quality telephone calls at optimum times of the day, I doubt anyone would call that acceptable. So why does a large proportion of U.K businesses accept a substandard ADSL broadband connection?
Is OFCOM doing enough to regulate, control and monitor ISPs? All other U.K service companies’ i.e. gas, electric and water are properly regulated and follow strict operating guidelines. As consumer we don’t generally experience problems with the supply of service from these other service or utility companies, so why should the broadband industry be any different?
Have we exhausted this current ADSL broadband technology? Has the issue become more to do with sharing the existing ADSL availability fairly amongst subscribers?
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown said digital technology was as important today as “roads, bridges and trains were in the 20th Century”. The Digital Britain Interim Report which was produced by the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform states that “A successful Britain must be a Digital Britain.”
Gordon Brown – On the subject of Digital Britain & Broadband
The average speed of a broadband connection in the UK is 3.6Mbps (megabits per second) according to new research from regulator OFCOM.
On average, consumers receive 45% of the advertised headline speed and less than their phone lines can deliver.
Why is this? I think part of the problem has to do with the basic fact that ADSL is not a guaranteed service; it is a best endeavours service. The speeds are dependent upon a number of factors, distance from local BT exchange, quality of the connections, faster speed with underground cooper wire, slower with cheaper underground aluminium wire, contention ratio, ISP rating. It is not uncommon to receive different ADSL speeds between different ISPs but still using the same physical telephone wire.
The 8MB connection speeds the ISPs advertise are difficult to achieve. Century IT Services look after many small and medium sized businesses along the south coast and have yet to see a company with a reliable ADSL connection running at the maximum advertised speed of 8MB.
There are also many techniques to share network bandwidth efficiently and the principle behind them I am not sure many people would argue with. Basically the purpose of sharing bandwidth is to prioritise certain types of internet traffic (at busy or peak times) over other types. For example, video streaming might take a higher priority than say email downloads. Someone watching a program from BBC I Player will definitely notice if the video clip they are watching cuts out whereas if someone else is checking their email it doesn’t really matter if their email takes a few extra seconds to download. This traffic prioritisation can be a good thing, although the danger here is that it is not used to throttle internet traffic at busy times.
What if Moore’s law was true for ADSL broadband connections as well as computer processor technology, where might we be now?
Well Moore’s law refers to the history of computing hardware and Moore’s Law says that every 2 years, there will be a doubling in the number of transistors in a computer processor. This doubling in the number of transistors has made the massive increases in the performance and computing power of modern computers what it is today. Moore’s Law has actually kept true with technological developments for the last 40 years.
Well even by my conservative reckoning, if Moore’s Law applied to ADSL broadband, we could be enjoying a modest 16MB ADSL download connection speeds and 6MB upload speeds with perhaps businesses having ADSL connections several times faster than that. What has gone wrong why hasn’t broadband technology kept pace with other technological and computing advances?
Interestingly now, the Federation of Small Business have taken this subject up and are battling the government on behalf of every small and medium sized business in the U.K. THE FSB says the government is “stuck in a time-warp over broadband speeds”
The FSB report warns the expected 2mbps by 2012 lacks ambition and shows the UK is in a time-warp. It also reports:
Britain has the highest proportion of internet advertising of any developed economy
By 2012 £1 in every £5 of all new commerce in this country will be online
Around 60 per cent of small businesses want a minimum broadband speed of 8mbps
More than half of small businesses rely on the internet for up to 50 per cent of their annual turnover
Simple tasks such as emailing, marketing, buying and selling, are time-consuming because their broadband speeds are letting them down.
What I think ADSL users really want is something which presently seems unattainable is broadband with the following qualities:-
Reliable connection, no drop outs
Fast broadband exceeding the 8MB sound barrier
No Contention, traffic shaping or bandwidth throttling by the ISP
ISPs more heavily regulated by OFCOM to ensure the ISPs infrastructure matches the needs of its customers
I think the points above will be a good place to start to ensure the U.K remains competitive within the global workplace. Moving forward we need to be investing more into researching the broadband technology, pushing way beyond this theoretical 8MB sound barrier. If this can’t be done with the present ADSL technology, then we need to be researching and trialling the next generation of broadband technology.
If digital technology is to be as important today as “roads, bridges and trains were in the 20th Century we need to develop and invest in tomorrow’s technology today.
Century IT Services – Getting IT Right Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire
