I'm also having problems with my speed on BT's ADSL Max. Once every blue moon I'll get about 2 meg, but 90% of the time I'm somewhere around 100-200kbps. As I'm sure you can imagine, it's quite frustrating!

A mate of mine lives about 200 yards away and seems to get between 4-8 meg, but he uses a different ISP. Is it worth me looking elsewhere do you think, or will all providers be similar?

 

John, its down to the quality of your line and distance from exchange etc. Your mate a few hundred yards away may have a more direct route to the exchange whereas you could be routed quite differently.

If you are using a router a good starting place is to post your line stats. Also if you are using a router how is it connected to the phone line is it at the master socket etc

 

Couple of quick things to try...
Definitely try the main phone socket rather than extensions... My BT Home Hub works far faster on the main socket than on the extension.

The speed you get also depends on how much other people are using the Broadband...I get different speeds at different times of day

Finally - if you are using wireless, make sure you have a crack at changing the channels that the router is broadcasting on. Took me days to realise that my crap speeds were due to interference from a neighbour's wireless router. My signal was as strong as anything (Very good/excellent), but unless I was close to the wireless router, I kept drooping out of connection, and then was unable to get an IP address. I changed the default channel to 6 (from 1), I havent had a problem since (and download speeds are more than 10x faster over wireless). For true connection speed connect up via a ethernet cable, rather than wireless

One other thing to avoid the phone queues with BT... IF you can get an on-line connection (yes, I know it's not possible if you havent got a line working, but I thought I'd add this in anyway), try the 'chat to a support specialist' option on the website. I work in Technical Support, and lots of the techies prefer to chat on-line than to speak (sad, I know), but especially when these guys have got a Delhi accent, it can be a lot easier...and you dont have to wait the 60 mins, or pay any phone charges. Worth a go, even if it is just to type obscenities at the cr4p service they give
Good luck
SB

 

The router is plugged into a phone extension which I installed myself. It's cat5e cable, and approx 3-4 meters long (Basically straight up from the incoming phone line)

The PC is hard wired to the router using the ethernet lead supplied with the router (A BT Voyager 2091)

How do I find my line stat's fellas? I'll post them up