Broadband recommendations

Del Boy · 22 January 2007, 18:38:19

Have good experiences with BT/NTL i think BT just edge it though

TheBoy · 22 January 2007, 18:58:21

QuoteTraffic shaping/throttling seems very unpleasant!

It is. Plusnet got it all horribly wrong (as they do most things) and pretty much killed the company...

Bo Bo · 22 January 2007, 20:04:57

I was with Pipex for years & they are very reliable but a little more expensive.
Just gone with Sky & had no problems with the line but the router froze up a couple of weeks ago, had to switch everything off for a few mins & all OK again.

supermop · 23 January 2007, 13:17:33

Quote
QuoteYou should know, all these ISP's use the same BT exchanges. If you are a fair distance from it, you will suffer from an unreliable and slower connection than most others. This is thanks to LLU (or local loop unbundling) which has opened a bandwagon that every company and their dogs are jumping on to. So no matter what ADSL provider you go with, in general you will get the same or similar service. The only difference being the customer support. Also remember this service is running through very old cabling in some areas, and old exchanges.

In short, ADSL is the worst of the 2 types of broadband available. If you want a broadband service AS ADVERTISED, you will need to go with ntl or Telewest (which are now the same company). They use cable/DOCSIS for their broadband services, and you will recieve the full line speed and reliability no matter where you are. Although it does mean uprooting driveways and drilling holes through houses to get it installed if you haven't got a hook up point already.

I have missed ntl and my 10mb connection from the day I moved out of my old flat. ADSL just isnt the same experience in any way shape or form. I have 8mb ADSL with virgin at the moment and hate it. Never get near 8mb - and I'm close to the ancient exchange we have in my town as I live in the town centre.
I do not completely agree. No ADSL service is advertised as 8Mb - those that tried it got slammed by ASA. So nobody is going to expect 8Mb (actually, maximum is around 7Mb).

I wonder whats wrong with your line (or ISP) if you get a poor sync rate (do you get poor sync?) - I am 3.5km line length from my exchange (about 2.5km road length), and sync at 6.3Mb normally. BRAS puts this as max 5.5Mb. Peak time performance isn't great (around 2Mbps download), but faster off peak. Although exchange congestion does exist in some places, its usually the loading on the Centrals that give the problem, and this is down to ISP...

As to quality of BT lines, well, ntl:Telewest ain't much better. An awful lot is still analogue, so knackered before start. Those lucky enough to be on digital can expect some real pain as traffic shaping is coming to cable. Traffic shaping a fast line is far worse than using a stable slower line. Traffic shaping was what effectively killed Plusnet (and made them ripe for takeover - which I believe BT have now/nearly completed).

My gripe is this:

I pay £24.99 per month for an "UP TO 8MBPS" connection with Virgin ADSL.
I used to pay £34.99 per month for a constant true 10Mbps with NTL. Analogue or not, it was a shit load faster.

The latter of which never dropped out, never slowed down during peak times, always got a download speed of 1.15MBps (thats megabytes, not bits). My ADSL connection syncs at around 5-6Mbps, but I rarely see speeds like that unless on P2P networks. And peak times the sync speed drops to about 0.5-1Mbps. I'm seriously not happy with ADSL, and I'm desperate to get my 10Mb download speeds back again. When NTL upgrade to DOCSIS 3, and upgrade the remainder of the lines to digital (my area is all upgraded anyway) then they'll be doing 100mb connections - according to a press release on adslguide (ironically!).

I use my connection for a lot of downloading, and got spoiled by 10meg. I dislike all this waiting malarky i get on ADSL. And I can only play games at off peak times. The latency jumps up to about 200-300ms on peak, which is appauling. I've had quicker 56k dial up (no joke).

TheBoy · 23 January 2007, 18:23:37

You obviously have a poor ISP if you are getting sub 1Mb speeds at peak times (unless your exchange is known to have congestion). Ironically enough, weren't Virgin bought by ntl:Telewest?

ntl:Telewest, as I have said a number of times now, are trialling traffic shaping, and intend to roll out nationally very soon. They cannot sustain the data throughput.

iggy21uk · 23 January 2007, 19:23:50

Quote
QuoteTraffic shaping/throttling seems very unpleasant!
It is. Plusnet got it all horribly wrong (as they do most things) and pretty much killed the company...

I'am with PlusNet on AdslMax - get a tad over 6meg - then cable wise not near the exchange
Me pesonally had no problems

Now sold out to BT - Plusnet part of BT now

TheBoy · 23 January 2007, 20:04:53

QuoteNow sold out to BT - Plusnet part of BT now

Not yet, has to go through Monopolies early Feb (6th iirc)

Admin · 23 January 2007, 21:09:58

Well I got my migration code today, so off to a decent provider (Zen) I go.

Now, I am just hoping Orange try to argue with me and want payment for the remainder of the contract (10months)

Breach of contract? Oh please... go on and try it!

TheBoy · 23 January 2007, 21:36:43

QuoteWell I got my migration code today, so off to a decent provider (Zen) I go.

Now, I am just hoping Orange try to argue with me and want payment for the remainder of the contract (10months)
Breach of contract? Oh please... go on and try it!

Zen only do monthly, so if it doesn't work out for any reason, easy to leave...

TheBoy · 25 January 2007, 21:57:00

Quote
Quote
QuoteTraffic shaping/throttling seems very unpleasant!
It is. Plusnet got it all horribly wrong (as they do most things) and pretty much killed the company...

I'am with PlusNet on AdslMax - get a tad over 6meg - then cable wise not near the exchange
Me pesonally had no problems

Now sold out to BT - Plusnet part of BT now

And now the rumour on the street is that BT are looking to buy Tiscali UK for half a billion :-?

Can't see monopolies allowing that, seeing as Tiscali have the only real LLU setup...

supermop · 26 January 2007, 10:16:32

Quotentl:Telewest, as I have said a number of times now, are trialling traffic shaping, and intend to roll out nationally very soon. They cannot sustain the data throughput.

Sad to hear, but I somewhat expected that at some point. AFAIK they are upgrading their exchanges everywhere, but not fast enough! I'm very suprised they got even this far considering the amount of strife NTL have been through as a company. Havent they gone into administration once or twice already?

Im gonna be making more complaints to Virgin, but its annoying as they wont do anything unless I wire up the crappy USB modem they sent me with the starter pack. Which means I have to unplug the router and go into the smelly pub office and set it up on the crappy pub PC (my PC is quite a way from the telephone line due to where my room is). The pub PC is way out of date and has no internet protection... but I really dont care if it contracts about 20 viruses, since no one uses it except me for troubleshooting

TheBoy · 26 January 2007, 18:59:42

Quote
Quotentl:Telewest, as I have said a number of times now, are trialling traffic shaping, and intend to roll out nationally very soon. They cannot sustain the data throughput.

Sad to hear, but I somewhat expected that at some point. AFAIK they are upgrading their exchanges everywhere, but not fast enough! I'm very suprised they got even this far considering the amount of strife NTL have been through as a company. Havent they gone into administration once or twice already?

Im gonna be making more complaints to Virgin, but its annoying as they wont do anything unless I wire up the crappy USB modem they sent me with the starter pack. Which means I have to unplug the router and go into the smelly pub office and set it up on the crappy pub PC (my PC is quite a way from the telephone line due to where my room is). The pub PC is way out of date and has no internet protection... but I really dont care if it contracts about 20 viruses, since no one uses it except me for troubleshooting

Welcome to cheap, crap ISPs!

I had a problem with my brother Zen line back last year. Rang them up, answered straight away, explained the problem (to me it looked like a username password thing). Spent about 10mins troubleshooting on phone, going through router settings (they did not supply the router, and I told them it was an ebay special), though all settings correct. He put me on told for about 5 mins whilst he spoke to 3rd line, came back saying the packets they were seeing weren't right, and my router was giving incorrect responses. So I put another router on and it fired into life, so problem with my router. Thats the kind of service I like and are prepared to pay for... ...at least they diagnosed that it was my router, rather than the normal 'must be your hardware' routine, and all in 15mins...

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Broadband recommendations