After noticing some of the traffic to my previous post came from some google searches, I decided to search for these terms which brought me to the I Like Fast Internet blog at https://www.fastinternetblog.uk, specifically this post on “Investigating Internet speeds in Guernsey“
So it appears im not the only one having woes. But the engineer at C&W blaming the quality of my line, then this blogs mention of distances from the exchange made me wonder. So did some investigation of my own….
So, I spoke to a good Friend of mine that used to work at Guernsey Telecoms, who told me where my St Martin’s Exchange would be (Opposite Vets for Pets at the edge of St Martins Village). So some quick trickery in Google Maps to plug everything in, and Tah-Dah!
I am a mere 1.8km from the exchange, and it is dead straight. As I said in my previous post, i always had very good connection speeds with the previous upgrades, and it is just this single 8Mb upgrade that seems to have knobbled my speeds
So, the fact im a 5 minute drive from the exchange, and I am capped at 4.5Mb. I dread to think what some of the people out in St Peter’s must be on.
And whoever writes the Villocq blog: I would be very interested to know which exchange you use? And also remind you to count yourself lucky you havent had to have been capped by C&W just yet, due to your connection not being able to hold its own for more than a few minutes.
3 replies on “Distance != Quality”
Hi,
Thanks for reading my blog! Good to know that it’s being noticed (by at least someone, anyway).
I live very close to the Castel telephone exchange (near saumerez park). I must admit I am quite lucky to be so close and get a good connection. If you live only about 2km away, you should get the full 8mb sync rate. The actual throughput though in my experience so far is about 6mbs average (with Sure as the ISP) so never the full amount.
What is your line attenuation on your router stats page? You can type this into http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php and it shows the actual distance from your exchange.
If you’re syncing at about 8, but your throughput has been limited to 4, can you not switch over to Sure broadband? I can’t think why if your line is synced up that Wave would cap it?
Henry,
My attenuation downstream shows 30dB. That tool suggests that means I am 2.2Km from the exchange.
The google map shows physically about 1.8km. So give some extra cabling etc, its probably about right.
I think the problem I experience is my signal to noise ratio, which is about 10dB, which is pretty low.
However my upstream is great, 7dB attenuation, 25dB SNR.
I have changed filters, every phone/skybox is definately filtered and working.
I was unsure why they capped it either, but apparently my line ‘cant support’ that speed. That is all they would tell me.
But it would sync at 7.9Mb, it was just a very intermittent connection.
Not really sure where to go from here.
Thanks for your comment though!
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