I have just been looking into my broadband speeds, and find something puzzling (like many others!).
I have Virgin ADSL with a 1Mbps package, and have had for years. It works fine, but thought I might change.
I just checked on broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk and find speeds of 2072kbps down/377 kbps up.
My router (Netgear DG834 - very popular and reliable) finds 4192 kbps down/448 kbps up.

So is my speed 1, 2 or 4 Mbps??

Possibly 4mpbs?

I was out visiting friends last night and they had a supposedly 6mbps ADSL line, testing it with speedcheck said it was running at 34mbps!

Sounds like the speedtest website was playing up or the provider does something screwy...

Hi,

Have you tried here just for comparison:

http://www.speedtest.net/

Hi - thanks for the thoughts.
Today (Tues 17.15) I get:
Broadbandspeedchecker: 1750/377 kbps
speedtest.net: 1020/370 kbps
my modem: 3900/448 kbps.

Maybe the line (4.5km from exchange) can do about 4Mbps, but Virgin limit me to 1Mbps (as my contract).
I notice that when I'm downloading via firefox, it regularly shows 125 kBps (almost exactly 1Mbps).

I'm not complaining since I only have a 1Mbps contract, just interested.
thanks for comments

Well, stick around, introduce yourself in the Meeting Place thread if you want - we're a friendly bunch I assure you!

Your broadband speed is limited by the BRAS (snigger) profile BT's equipment at the local phone exchange decides your line can reliably handle. Your router shows the maximum sync speed possible. Whatever you line can handle is then being restricted by Virgin at its end to give you your contracted speed.

You might find this link useful. Scroll down to the 'How does the BRAS or IP profile limit affect me?' bit to see what sort of speed you might be able to get if you got a fasted package.

Thanks Davros, that link to Zen was useful. (Many people seem to like Zen.)
The BT tester link gave me some good info:- the DSL rate from the test is exactly what my router is showing today (1728/448 kbps); the IP profile limit is 2500 kbps; and actaul rate is 950kbps (more or less the Virgin contract figure of 1Mbps).
all very interesting
thanks

Glad to be of service.

I've been a Zen customer for several years. I can't say they are cheap, far from it, but my connection has always been rock solid and their customer service is very good (they have a UK call centre for a start).