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I'm having trouble with my connection since last week thursday after 8pm. I have a 10mb account, on a 4mb line, and my download speed has dropped to 0.5mb/50Kbs (512k speeds) but my upload is still 50Kbs.

I've tried the following:
Axxess reports a dip in uncapped accounts so I assume that was the problem. Switched to a capped account.
Capped account stuck out at 50kb just like the uncapped. Tried telkom guest account.
Telkom guest account also hits 50kb in speedtest.

The router reports a line speed of 4mb download and 512k upload.

Testing on an iphone also hits the same speeds on all 3 accounts. Telkom also reset my port and its reported to still be a 4mb line either way.

Am I missing something or is there really an exchange issue somewhere that is causing my max speeds to be 50kb? How do I know its not a client side thing?

*edit*

speedtest results:

Well I found my answer. I'm not the only one with internet issues for my area.

StarBound wrote:I have a 10mb account, on a 4mb line

u wot m8

SB, I have the exact same problem, 4mb line, capped account @ Afrihost.
Although, after properly setting up port forwarding and the settings of my torrent client (turns out there are actually some stuff you have to set up right... who knew...), my torrents run full 4mb line speed (reaches 400KB/s, averages around 300 - 360 mostly), even though local and international speed tests still only give me 20KB/s

hamin_aus wrote:

StarBound wrote:I have a 10mb account, on a 4mb line

u wot m8

Good question. I had the reverse some time back, which has the benefit of a 1024kbps upload speed, but this way round doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

This started happening to me about 3/4 months ago. What it is is exchange congestion. Have repeatedly called Telkom about it, only to be told: Meh, you still have internet, so not a priority, we will sort it when we sort it.

KALSTER wrote:

hamin_aus wrote:

StarBound wrote:I have a 10mb account, on a 4mb line

u wot m8

Good question. I had the reverse some time back, which has the benefit of a 1024kbps upload speed, but this way round doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It's not that hard to explain. My telkom billed account is 4-10mb (scaly ), my isp is 10mb uncapped, my exchange can dish out and sync at 4mb only.

...I have a fararri driving in the 60 lane. And jamin just shutup about that 100mb you got.

Line/exchange issue?

I had a 4meg line (line and ISP is Telkom,) was all-of-a-sudden getting 0.5megs down and 3megs up after heavy rains. It didn't get fixed even two weeks after the heavy rains. I dropped to a 2meg line and now I'm getting 1.8megs up and +-1meg down.

Try it and find out?

StarBound wrote:

KALSTER wrote:

hamin_aus wrote:

StarBound wrote:I have a 10mb account, on a 4mb line

u wot m8

Good question. I had the reverse some time back, which has the benefit of a 1024kbps upload speed, but this way round doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

It's not that hard to explain. My telkom billed account is 4-10mb (scaly ), my isp is 10mb uncapped, my exchange can dish out and sync at 4mb only.

...I have a fararri driving in the 60 lane. And jamin just shutup about that 100mb you got.

Then change your ISP account to 4Mbps. You are paying extra for no benefit whatsoever. That is the question mark, why you would do such a thing.

Plus, there are 4Mbps and 10 Mbps lines now, no longer a hope-for-the-best option. It happened with the recent speed bump.

Wrong. Telkom charges for a 4mb/10mb the same (apparently) and my exchange doesn't do 10mb yet. Already phoned them to downgrade me but the "person" on the other side said no price diff in that.

I could downgrade my ISP though.

StarBound wrote:Wrong. Telkom charges for a 4mb/10mb the same (apparently) and my exchange doesn't do 10mb yet. Already phoned them to downgrade me but the "person" on the other side said no price diff in that.

I could downgrade my ISP though.

Yes, downgrade your ISP. It is just a waste of money atm.

Please take a look here: http://residential.telkom.co.za/broadba ... _cost.html

Telkom doubled the speed on the line rentals starting the end of last year. There is now a 2Mbps, 4Mbps and 10Mbps option. You pay the same for 10Mbps as you used to pay for 4-10Mbps. If you are paying more than R299 for your 4Mbps line, then they are milking you.

You can also move your line rental to Afrihost or Axxess and pay even less. You don't need a data account in addition and you gain the ability to do port recreates when your connection is a bit dodgy. You can still log faults at Telkom if Axxess or Afrihost can't help.

4Mbps line rental at Axxess is R249 pm and the transition is seamless.

Telkom is pulling a very fast one on you lot.

Offering a 10MB line means one of 4 things

1 - they are actually giving you an 8MB ADSL1 line and lying about it being 10MB
2 - they have the capacity to offer you ADSL2 (20MB) but are limiting it for some reason (probably so they can grow the line speeds AND what you pay for them incrementally until they can charge a small fortune for a 20MB line)
3 - Same as Point 2 but they can do ADSL2+ and offer a 24MB service, but arent
4 - Profit!

They are actually slowly rolling out 20Mbps and 40Mbps services, but they have to upgrade the exchanges as they go. My local exchange can do almost 20Mbps currently, but is only 10Mbps max atm.

Telkom does suck and everybody hates them. Everything they do is to increase profits at the expense of everybody else. Their IPC costs are ridiculous.

I had been having severe line speed issues [and frequent dropped connections] until I visited a Telkom Direct Store and called from one of their service 'phones.

After about a week, I was back up and purring along at a heady 2mbps. [R99 p.m. uncapped thanks to Incredible ]