Slow ADSL Speed Checks
What speed should you have?
First of all, you want to find out what speed the line should be capable of. The availability checker on the bottom left of aa.net.uk will give an estimate as to what your line should be capable of. If your speed is lower than what the availability checker suggests, then there is a problem to be investigated.
Finding your current Sync Rate
The sync rate is the speed that your router is connected at to the exchange. You can check the line rate of your line - this is the speed of the line as reported to us by the back-haul provider.
Example:
Here the line is at 338K. That is slow, and indicates a problem.
Testing the Speed of the Line
There are various speed test sites on the internet that can be used to see what speed your line provides. We suggest using a few different ones so as to be sure a slow report isn't due to a slow speed test server.
When using a speed test website ensure that:
- You are plugged in to your router with a cable and not using WiFi.
- That there is no other traffic happening on the line, stop other downloads, and even unplug all other devices from your router.
There are official speed test sites provided by BT and TalkTalk, these have the advantage of being logged at the supplier side which will help in fault reporting. We also run a speed test site ourselves which is positioned on our network to be as close to you as possible.
Other speed test sites which we consider to be OK are:
What next?
Having gone through the above, you should now know what speed your line is capable of, what your sync speed is, and what speed you are actually getting when using various speed tests. If the sync speed is low or the speed test results are low, then go through to the next step on the Slow ADSL Page.