Broadband trouble for HMO's?

One of the most frequent issues landlord's raise with NSP Utility Consultants is that they are unhappy with the broadband connection they are getting. The problems seem to fall into two main areas.....

1) The speed they are getting is nowhere near the promised 8mb - in fact it's terribly slow. Worse, sometimes they have just paid for an "upgrade" and not only is it now not any faster, the connection keeps dropping!
2)They are a landlord with houses in multiple occupation and the connection seems terribly unstable - especially when more than one user is online at the same time.

Luckily there are some simple things which they can do to improve things.

No1 - the speed issue
This problem relates directly to how far away you are from your telephone exchange - the further away it is the slower the speed that your line can take. Changing your broadband supplier will have no effect on this and what is more there is absolutely nothing either you or they can do about it. To make matters worse, if your line speed is less than 2mb it quite often causes stability problems if you try to push an ADSL Max 8mb service down it. The reason people tend to get so frustrated is that the customer rep on the end of the line is extremely unlikely to explain this to you when telling you about the new super dooper high speed service they are trying to sell you.

So what can you do about it?
The truth of the matter is that human reactions aren't anywhere near as fast as computers so if you are able to get over 2 mb then for most things you would actually notice very little difference even if your connection speed improved. Given that the problem is with the physical lines into your house the best advice is just to check your line speed and make sure that you are not paying over the odds for anything more than you can actually get. NSP Utility Consultants will conduct a basic line test free of charge - just contact us and ask click here for contact details

It is also possible that some of the problem relates to your own hardware. Interference on the line can dramatically reduce your perceived speed and stability regardless of what a basic line speed test will tell you. A common problem is not having filters on every BT socket - you need one on every socket in the house even if you don't normally use them! You should also bear in mind that the filter supplied by your ISP is not necessarily of the highest quality. Sometimes simply changing to a better one can make a significant difference.

No 2 - multiple users causing the system to crash
This problem is unfortunately widespread. Domestic broadband is normally supplied using fairly high contention ratios - ie lots of subscribers share the same line/equipment etc. This is why almost all services seem to slow down at certain times of the day. AOL users for example can always tell when America wakes up! If, in addition to this, you have 4 or more users in a single house using the internet at the same time then the problem is multiplied and it is not uncommon for people to experience either very slow speeds or the connection dropping completely. For those HMO landlords wanting to offer broadband access as part of an executive or student let the administrational problems caused by unstable or very slow broadband can be extremely stressful. I spoke to one landlord whose tenants had got together and were ALL withholding the rent until she had the problem sorted!

So what can you do about it?
Traditionally multi user customers like businesses subscribe to dedicated business broadband services which have much lower contention ratios and are designed to handle high traffic volumes for a single address. Until recently the problem with this for very small businesses(or high volume domestic users, like landlords with multiple tenants) has been that these services come with a high price tag and cannot be connected to a domestic rated phone line.

Fortunately, Pipex, one of the first broadband supplier to specialise in the business market is now offering cost effective wireless business broadband which can be connected to domestic phone lines. This package is primarily designed for very small businesses running from home but can be equally useful for the high volume domestic user such as HMO's. In fact for domestic users it has the additional advantage that the time of heaviest traffic is 9am-5pm rather than in the evening when you are at home and wanting to get online.
Check it out at www.broadband4bis.co.uk

Even better they are now offering a very inexpensive set up service - which could be a real bonus if you don't happen to be a technical whizz yourself :)

posted by the Happy Piggybank at NSP Utility Consultants
www.nspresources.co.uk