download speed issues

I recently joined sky broadband and was given a netgear adsl router DG834GT together with an 8 meg connection. The computer shows that the router is connected at 8megabits but when I go to test my download at any given site I get a response saying that my download speed is only 0.8mb i.e around 7800 kb. If I go to a UK site I get a reading of around 2Mbps, better but nowhere near the 8Mbs connection I have.

I am connected to the router via a wlan adapter which seems to be connected at 100% strength and quality.

Can anyone please help as ringing Sky doesn't help much as I feel the person I end up talking to knows as little, if not less , then I do. Incidently, they say that I should be capable of downloading at 8Mbs.

Thanks for the tip. Works a lot faster.

P.S. I wasn't looking to blame anybody although it would have helped if Sky offered the same advice as you just did. They were given the same info as was given this forum. I just wanted the issue resolved. Alls well that ends well.

P.P.S Would the length of a LAN cable adversely affect download speeds?

It should exceed your broadband speed under ideal conditions, but it is more difficult to achieve ideal conditions with a wireless than with a wired.

54Mbps is the raw bit rate of 802.11g. However, 802.11g has high overhead, so the maximum data throughput is more like 22-24Mbps. If you are not right on top of your router in an interference-free environment, your actual throughput can be much less. Less than your 8Mbps, depending on distance, walls, nearby wireless networks, etc.

All I was suggesting was if you want to test your broadband speed, use the wired connection to avoid all the side issues with wireless. Cable broadband is a shared network, so it is also possible your provider is NOT giving you the speed you should be getting at peak usage times.

Even the wired connection has to deal with the WAN to LAN thoughput performance of your router.