Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

We have been with a well known internet provider for the last 8yrs. We upgraded to 4meg speed a while ago but rarely get that! We called them out recently to fix the problem. They did fix it but within an hour of them leaving the speed was back to between 1.5 and 2.5.
We get BBC1 and other channels through the internet to the TV, and while these speeds should stop buffering we still get some? I realise that it could be one of many reasons but my question is, why dosen't the speed stay ay 4 meg al the time, and especially if we are paying for that?
We are reluctant to change providers because we still have over year with this company.

most internet providers cannot guarantee that you will get your speed all the time, sounds like you need to call them out again no one wants to have an unhappy customer

Andrew, as you know, I am not very technical !, but out of curiosity I would like to know how you can tell what speed you are getting. I also put buffering or freezing down to the fact so many people are trying to access iplayer. In the morning's I have no problem, but the evenings I can never get a programme to play straight through, but I don't want to watch TV in the mornings.

Most internet providers cannot provide 4mbit speed to their customers, because of the technology they are using.

The reason why the speed is not reliable can be one of the many factors, type of systems used, overpopulation on basestation, saturation on links, saturation on Internet connection.

If your device has not been upgraded (for them to upgrade your device they need to upgrade basestation, links etc first) in the past 2 years, you better stick to 1mbit.

Kemal

Flash Alec, go to http://www.speedtest.net that will tell you how fast (or slow) your connection is.

Kemal thanks, in March when I renewed my contract they put a brand new reciever in the roof and changed the direction to a nearer base station, it worked fine for a while but its back to 2meg again.

I switched to Nethouse in Girne and pay 65 TL pm for 2 Mbit - hardly any cuts and always fast uploads and downloads. I can watch a movie whist the next chapter is being downloaded (many sites provide the movies in chapters rather than the whole movie in one). In fact I just done a speed test and got my download speed as 1.99 mbps and upload speed as 0.85 (upload speeds are usually half the download one with most providers). But the speed you are interested when streaming a movie or a TV station is the download one.

However, I might be lucky because my loacation is very close to one of their base station antennas (I am not sure if that gives me an advantage)

You can test your speed by logging on to http://hiztesti.ttnet.com.tr/
Just select from top, the range your connection is supposed to be providing (in your case it is the first button on top right saying "1-8 Mbit arası" and click on the furthest and busiest location from TRNC which is "Istanbul". Wait for approx 3 minutes when both download and upload tests will be done on screen, and the results will be shown in the boxes next to the speed clock.

I have found that by changing from Google Chrome to Internet Explorer I am not getting hardly any buffering now which I can't explain but it certainly is better. Its also strange if I am watching ITVPlayer on Google Chrome there are sometimes no adverts but with IE there are. Its all above my head I am afraid but do try IE.

You cannot fairly judge any internet provider by IPlayer or even a speed test. All a provider can quote to you is a speed between you and the point the at which the provider connects to the outside world.
If all the various points between a BBC host and your provider conspire to deliver data at less than your quoted speed then there is nothing your provider can do about it. Similarly, a speed test site is measuring everything between you and them - but your provider only controls a part of that.
If you cannot stream TV content why not download it and watch it later. This can be done from certain of the players themselves but also, particularly for popular programmes, via sites like Isohunt, The Box, TV Chaos UK etc. With these torrent sites you can usually download fairly quickly because there are typically hundreds of individuals from all over the world sending the content at the same time - each on a different channel so that a few hiccups or blockages will not be noticed.

Mollie the cat, If they 'fixed it' and then the speed dropped again, ring them again! and keep ringing them until they fix it - every five minutes if necessary

If you don't keep them informed of the problem, there is no chance that they'll fix it!

If they reach a point where they admit that they can't fix it, claim a refund for the unused part of your contract, and change Service providers.

Don't be shy about ringing them, most companies want to provide a good service and gain a good reputation - they really would prefer that customers with problems contact them direct, rather than complaining on an Internet Forum!

Thanks, will try that, see what happens?