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[Technophobe]

I think I know the answer to this already, but I'll throw it open to see if others' thoughts correspond to mine.

I have an AOL up to 8 Meg service. This has been working to my satisfaction, with download speeds of between 5000 and 5500 kbps. However, over the past few weeks, principally on Sundays and evenings, the download speed has been dropping to as little as 200kbps. As I write, my router is synchronised at 7028 kbps but the download speed as measured by BBmax is only 1200 kbps.

Am I right in thinking that this is likely to be a consequence of contention - just too many subscribers trying to use the same bandwidth? I've no other problems with my PC and I don't download huge amounts, so capping is unlikely.

As ever, grateful for your thoughts.

[kitz]

I've seen mention of this on other forums by quite a few AOL users particularly over the past few weeks or so reporting that come evenings then speeds drop round to about 400kbps on average.

If you look on the ISP performance page, you'll notice that I updated the status a couple of weeks ago.
AFAIK I think the problem is far more noticeable if youre on something called AOL IPStream - which is when AOL/TT dont use LLU at your particular exchange.

I cant say for definite... but I think its more and more to do with the closer integration between AOL & TT, and more AOL users now using TT's network. 
I do know from past experience on lines in people homes that Ive visited..  that TT IPStream speeds in the evenings seem to take a dip to around 400kbps and its nothing to do with their equipment.. but the TT network

[Technophobe]

Thanks for your thoughts, Kitz.

It really is frustrating, but I've only six months left of the contract and will almost certainly decamp to either O2 or Be.

[kitz]

>> It really is frustrating,

I can well imagine     I believe theres no info coming out of AOL about this.

>> I've only six months left of the contract and will almost certainly decamp

Just a thought - If you push hard enough and make enough noise about them not fulfilling their side of the contract, they may well let you out of the contract early due to the poor speeds.

[dizzy4528]

This problem had me by the nuts for some time . I was on a fixed 1/2 meg service because of my distance from the exchange >6km
My down loads speeds at peak time were around the 100kbps mark most evenings .
I moved to Newnet last week and there has been a great improvement ,even with a number of problems created by
my bt cable from the house to pole deciding to part company with itself.
New stats below

  ADSL Link        Downstream       Upstream
Connection Speed   1408 kbps   448 kbps
Line Attenuation   63.5 db          31.5 db
Noise Margin       10.7 db           15.0 db
Speedtest Results
     Date                   Downstream      Upstream    
   07/11/08 14:07    948.08 Kbps    378.51 Kbps    

[kitz]

Thats a very good result for your line - particulary when theres a very strong possibility that your attenuation is actually more than 63.5dB. 

[broadstairs]

I was looking at the Talktalk website this morning and there are several exchanges listed where broadband is shown as running slow. Now I dont know if your AOL is the same as TT but might be worth a look at the list here.

[dizzy4528]

Thats a very good result for your line - particulary when theres a very strong possibility that your attenuation is actually more than 63.5dB. 

Tell me about it i have been stuck on the AOL 512k for over 5 years ,and it was only reading posts from this forum and thinkbroad bands
that i realised i could probably get a bit more speed ,reliability and service from some other ISP.
So thanks guys.

[kitz]

YW