1Mb broadband problem

[marklong]

I have recently upgraded to Telewest Blueyonder's 1Mb broadband service here in the UK. On checking my bandwidth I discovered that I'm not able to attain this level of service, it's basically stayed the same at 512k. On contacting the customer services, they put it down to the fact that my Linksys BEFSR41 router was preventing the upgrade and that I would have to take each NIC individually, assign it the ISP address, and then they would be able to get each NIC up and running at the faster speed. They don't support routers (obviously), but the techie seemed to think that after this process had been followed then the router could be reinstated and that the whole lot should then work ok at 1Mb. Does anybody out there have any views/ideas - just like some more info before I take the plunge and have to alter my 2 pcs and 1 laptop and spend god knows how long on the phone going through the processes.

[aram535]

If you remove the Linksys and connect directly does the speed improve? I had the same problem and Linksys replaced my router under warrenty.

[marklong]

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl. Unfortunately my router isn't under warranty anymore so whether they'll exchange it as a faulty unit I'll have to try them and find out

[Greenstead]

Mark

I don't use Telewest so I may be wrong about this. But I don't think your problem is what customer services said, neither do I think its anything to do with your router (of course your router may be faulty but rather unlikely).

Have you tired powering down the modem and all your network for a few minutes. Then power up again, modem first, then router, then PCs.
Then check your download speed with this:
http://www.vantage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/v2/v2.htm

The reason I say this is that the speed cap for your service is controlled by a config file in the modem which is downloaded by the ISP. It sounds to me like they have not enabled your new service level yet, or the new config file has not been downloaded yet - repowering the modem may cause it to get the new config file, if the service is turned on.
You can read a little more about config files here and maybe test what config file you have:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/cmfile.html#cmfile

Worth checking before the other solutions you have been offered.

Good Luck.

[marklong]

Thanks Greenstead,
I powered everything down, waited three minutes (as instructed prior to initial upgrade by Blueyonder), then powered everything back up, but router first, then modem, then network units (as instructed by the Linksys website) and it now appears to be working! On calling Blueyonder support, they said that I am receiving the signal at 1024 speed as on testing various downloads the transfer rate was between 110-128 KB/sec, so I can't be too unhappy I suppose!?! Everything does seem faster as well, so thanks for the tip.