How do I get the best out of my internet connection?

[Parky-RFC]

Alright folks, I'm just looking for advice or a few tips on improving my internet speed/connection if possible?

I'm with BT Broadband and I'm led to believe I have a 8MB Broadband cable connection. (Maximum possible for my area).

I've done a few speed tests to see if anyone can recognise whether I'm getting the correct service or not. Although I'm not positive how accurate these tests are.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/676467937.png

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/bimages/16812334.jpg

Okay I'm no Einstein but I gather I'm not receiving the 8MB speed I'm supposed to be? It's more like 5MB right?

Also while I'm at it, does anyone know what I can do to optimise my PS3 connection? Does having tabs of Mozilla Firefox open when your playing online have any affect on my connection at all?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, cheers.

 

[Trotter]

Long time no see, mate. Good to have you back around. I moved your thread here to the Networking forum as it seemed to be a better fit for it.

Yeah, you are just barely beating my speeds and I have a 5.0 connection (runs just over that, though). you could be the victim of bad cabling (either inside or outside your residence... you'd have to have them check it). Of course, BT could have just as well oversold their bandwidth (very common). I am not familiar with UK ISPs so I can't speak for certainty on that.

Someone else will have to address the PS3. Forwarding the ports it uses is about all I could suggest, but i do not own any consoles to have a working knowledge of them.

Having Firefox open, tabs or no, won't affect your bandwidth unless it is a streaming site. FF will use some memory, but not any appreciable bandwidth. I commonly leave FF open when I am gaming.

 

[Parky-RFC]

Thanks for the responce Trotter, much appreciated. Good to know that having 8 tabs open has little affect lol.

 

[lyecdevf]

I suppose you could use a faster dns then your ISP offers. You could try and ping some of the dns servers to see which ones works best for your area!