Recently my internet connection has become so frustratingly slow. My provider is BT internet- pay as you go. I was wondering if they provided some kind of preferential connection for their monthly contract customers leaving the pay as you go customers at the end of the line! I have an ISDN connection and a reasonably decent pc. I get a great deal of pleasure from the various engineering forums that I belong to but the connection rate is becoming a pain. Any suggestions from the young whizz kids out there?

Is there a way to test if there was damage to the outside line? (Of course, after you're certain that all of your inside wiring is OK.)

I know that when I used to have ISDN, the BRITE cards (inside the Central Office and also once underground in a "vault") would go bad on occasion.

From my experience of Irish ISDN lines they either go at 64/128K or they just don't go at all. I've never seen a line's data rate decrease for technical reasons. However if your ISP is really mean they may be stuffing a load of 128K connections onto a totally under capacity point of presence.

Basically loads of people all connected to a very small pipe.

If there's a fault with your line, equipment or line card the usual symptom is that the connection will drop and voicecalls may turn to digital garble and drop (sounds like white noise)

At present-day data rates it doesn't take much to disrupt the signal quite significantly and bring down the speed.

Have you called BT and had them check your ISDN connection?

Yes,I have called BT, and to tell you the truth I might as well talked to the Queen of England. Polite, yes but ultimately helpful, no! They checked line which they say is ok.
My status connection shows 115200 bps. Now I live in the sticks miles from large population centres so broadband is not yet an option. I used to be on freeserve but it was so slow I changed to BT. They were a significant improvement at first but now seem to sacrafice service for profit!

BT Customer Services aren't always on the ball these days, I'm afraid.

If you're out in the N.I. boondocks, then it may well be that your ISDN line to the local CO is fine but the connections from there to the office next in line are causing the problem.

If nobody else on your own CO has complained about it, they might not have checked that.

Way Out West, it used to be that getting 128Kb/s “clear channel” data over 2B+D ISDN was guaranteed to be good for 36,000 feet of barbed wire…and now the unswitched 144KB/s IDSL version is available, but at $104/month{!}. Within generally 18,000 feet, the local carrier will give guaranteed 384-128Kb/s ADSL. First, it was $39.00/mo., then $49.95/mo., then $29.95/mo. with an option now for $26.95/mo. for a 12-month agreement.

It’s easy to routinely get test speeds of 1Mb/s dn—200Kb/s up, but it originally took 7 months for them to get the ADSL loop running on a 15,105-ft pair. Residential ADSL is considered to be a “best effort” service, with no chiseled-in-stone guarantees of performance.