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I have a feeling that my DSL provider is lying to me, but I cannot find a technical rebuttal online. Can someone tell me if the following makes sense:

I have ADSL which is supposedly "up to" 16,000 kbps down and "up to" 1024 kbps up. However, my speeds are maxing out at 5,800 kbps down and, unfortunately, 330 kbps up (speedtest.net). I am mostly concerned about the upload speed here. I am not torrenting or anything.

The internet provider claims that this is just because there are a lot of people in the building who are using the internet. I don't buy it, since it never goes above 1/3 of capacity. Plus I thought that cable was shared this way, but I didn't think dsl was. If I understand dsl it piggybacks on POTS, and since each subscriber has a dedicated phone line we should each get a dedicated DSL line to the isp.

I expect that internet is simply throttled at the isp level because they don't want to improve capacity, and isn't maxing out the local phone lines. I'm not a network engineer though, so I am asking: Am I right?

Also, if it matters, I am in Germany.

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  • Try speedtest.net at 3a.m., then you will know whether your ISP is lying to you. Jul 8, 2014 at 18:45
  • It entirely depends on how they wire it. It sounds the building is sharing a single line and provisioned from that.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 8, 2014 at 18:53
  • Check if your DSL router tells you what bandwidth it agreed to with it's counterpart. Jul 8, 2014 at 19:14
  • Cable is not shared this way — i have cable internet and speeds are as advertised
    – kinokijuf
    Jul 8, 2014 at 19:50

1 Answer 1

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If you're paying for a DSL line that supposed to be up to 16Mbps down and 1Mbps up, then you should have your own line with those line speeds. You should be able to log in to the modem/router and see the actual line speed. If that's low, then the wiring is most likely the problem.

If the actual Internet speed is significantly lower than the line speed, then that points to a capacity problem with the ISP.

Update: We now have good evidence it's a line issue. That may be a problem inside your residence, in which case you can do something about it.

Here's a good test to do: Find your phone line where it enters your residence. Disconnect everything from it -- usually you can do this at the point of entry pretty easily. Connect the incoming line directly to your modem. Check the speeds. If they're the same, the problem is with the incoming line and there's not much you can do. If they're better, it's an internal wiring problem, and you can fix it.

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  • Thanks. I checked the router, and indeed it shows a connection speed. 6781 kbps down / 444 kbps up. I guess I shall have to have a chat with the provider about that. It doesn't sound then like switching providers then has any chance of helping, huh?
    – ekellner
    Jul 8, 2014 at 20:55
  • @ekellner That's a line issue. You may want to try disconnecting other devices connected to your phone line (if any). Disconnect the DSL line from the modem and reconnect it after each one. You may find a bad filter, bad splitter, bad device, or the like. Disconnecting unused outlets as close to the point of entry can help too. Jul 8, 2014 at 21:16
  • "The internet provider claims that this is just because there are a lot of people in the building who are using the internet." -- Well, we now know that's probably nonsense. :) Jul 8, 2014 at 21:19

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