I suffered from throttling here in the UK with Virgin Media (was NTL). They would reduce my bandwidth if I actually used my full bandwidth. Long story short, I ditched the company and went DSL. The sad thing is, Virgin Media have the newest, and only cable network in my area, although their policies are very poor thus my jumping ship!

Google have partnered with a couple of other organisations and researchers to create a great site to test your speed and anything related to bandwidth and connection testing. I suggest you test your line during those times when you feel your are being throttled with their site M-Labs.

Good luck.

Good point. There are very few jobs at the moment. Recession doesn't help that fact, not at least under this government. I started work myself after having no work for a while. Sadly agency work. In a factory... I could go on about the problems I had with the agency, but I will say one thing. I would not have even got that work had the government not bribed my employer with a £500 back to work bonus for taking on an unemployed person. What's more the employer would get another £500 26 weeks down the line if they still have the "job seeker" on the books. It's all a con!

You hit the nail on the head. Caressing the statistics for unemployment has worked with the New Deal. Why must the government stop there? It is the culture that needs to be changed and influenced positively, not this ridiculous idea of monitoring. Technology is still proving to help divide those with money and those without. How sad that the government want to continue to separate those who have, and those who do not.

Do note we already have over crowding in our UK prisons. It is the culture in question that has caused these failed families, who are in fact victim to the poverty they have been born in to. Locking up the victims of their culture, in my eyes doesn't seem to be dealing with the problem. But nor does monitoring them like some lab experiment. There should be change. Social change. And the government does have the ability to make that change for the good.

Gordon Brown has already stated how there are plans for the "job seeker" to do mandatory work and training after a year of signing on. This would be a good move, but I wonder if this is just another trick to help massage the unemployment statistics e.g. New Deal.