Viewing Thread:
"BT ADSL - the verdict"

Positives:
They activated me a day early!

60kbs download speed

Has not yet failed in any shape or form

Negatives:
The installation procedure sucks
-BT send you an e-mail with your password required for activation, but the activation program is started everytime you click on either outlook express or internet explorer.
- The installation program told me that my system did not meet the required specs. Because my C: drive didn't have at least 150MB on it, well like duh, I don't have a C: drive, my primary master HD is drive F:

Can be a little tempramental - download speeds alternate by about 20kbs either side of 60kbs.

Overall:
BT's service is perhaps a little demonised, but I've only been using it for two days so I haven't been using it enough to suffer one of BT's legendary cockups. Still it works now, it's fast and damn me if I'm ever even going to look at a dial-up modem ever again...

I downloaded a 570MB file last night... This rules :-)

OK, let's explain....

What you have to do is to differentiate between: 'kbps' (kilobits per second), and 'Kbps' (kilobytes per second). ADSL Connections are often 512kbps (512 kilobits per second). This means that the connection can download 512 kilobits every second.

1 byte = 8 bits

Therefore:

512 kilobits = 64 kilobytes

So the theoretical maximum data transfer rate for a 512kbps ADSL connection is 64Kbps (or 64 Kilobytes per second). This means it would in theory take approximately 16 seconds to download a single 1 Megabyte file.

In reality however, files are often compressed invisibly as they are transferred (e.g. they are NOT converted to a different file type, but instead the file is just 'squashed' during the download. Imagine trying to push a sponge into a bottle - it squashes going through then immediately goes back to its original size...).

There is also interference on lines, meaning that you rarely get the theoretical maximum. I hope that explains it more clearly...

Number of bits in a byte and stuff means that with 512kbps of bandwidth you get 60KB/s downloads, can't remember exact figures but my connection peaks at 60.21KB/s.

Whooo! wrote:
> the maximum possible on a 512k connection is 60kb/s

How come? (I'm not being funny, I'd really like to know!)

It was a tgz file of the Mozilla source code. It can't be compressed, as it's gzipped, which is the compression that ISPs use. Besides, I'm not sure if ADSL IS compressed.

Remember that the download speed you are told is what it *appears* to be downloading the file at. If you are downloading a file, it is often compressed during the download, so although when you have downloaded the file, it may look like it is 3MB in size, you may actually only have downloaded 2.5MB (for example...).

This means that the download speed will have shown it as though it were downloading 3MB, when actually only 2.5MB was ever downloaded.......

Someone do the maths, the maximum possible on a 512k connection is 60kb/s, anything else is being reported incorrectly. There is a margin for capping on cable, but it aint 20kb/s

Also try:

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/html/resources/ie_reg_tweak.html

and

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/html/resources/adsltips.html

To tweak your broadband connection, check out:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/ answerstips/story/0,24330,3014127,00.html

[no spaces]

I don't have broadband (yet - hopefully by end of July!), so I can't tell you if it works or not - worth a try though.

Turbonutter wrote:
> Andi you pillock, I'be have *JUST* downloaded a large file at 80kbps.

I'm getting ~80 kbps on Pipex ADSL when downloading from a decent server. Off of newsgroups the best I've got is 60 kbps. But the AVERAGE download is 50-60 kbps, from official company websites etc.

I'm not entirely sure about how to fiddle with ADSL settings to improve this significantly (or if it is even possible) but I'd appreciate any words of wisdom!

I really want ADSL but my exchange hasn't/will never be enabled, which is a shame becuase its like a stones throw from my house.