Discussion
I have finally decided to ditch aol after five years of being with them to see what other deals i can get. However i have one or two questions.
First of all i pay for 8MB broadband and only get around 4MB, Now i know that the further you live from the exchange the slower it gets but i can't help but wonder if another ISP could squeeze a bit more out of it, (i have tried 6-7 times to get them to have a look at the connection and they never really do much)
secondly i would like to know what isp you would recommend. I'm paying £29 per month for this at the moment and don't mind paying the same if I'm getting a good service but i don't really want to pay more. the one i like the look of is eclipse 8MB package.
http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=home_broadb...
right over to you.
First of all i pay for 8MB broadband and only get around 4MB, Now i know that the further you live from the exchange the slower it gets but i can't help but wonder if another ISP could squeeze a bit more out of it, (i have tried 6-7 times to get them to have a look at the connection and they never really do much)
secondly i would like to know what isp you would recommend. I'm paying £29 per month for this at the moment and don't mind paying the same if I'm getting a good service but i don't really want to pay more. the one i like the look of is eclipse 8MB package.
http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=home_broadb...
right over to you.
I'd recommend Newnet. Good service, good technical support and (very, very, very!) good customer service.
Of course you're paying for "up to" 8 Megs....
I'd also recommend a quick search of the forums, this has been debated before (many times!)...
and there's a sticky at the top..
Eclipse are supposed to be good, and idnet...
I'd look at www.thinkbroadband.com Lots of ISPs rated and all their tariffs to compare/etc..
£30 pcm?? seems excessive, looks like your paying for the cost of a wireless router (which can be bought for 30-60 anyway) and 50GB allowance - will you _really_ need that much? Of course all of those tariffs are "up to 8Meg" as well... It depends on the distance from your exchange and line quality..
Of course you're paying for "up to" 8 Megs....
I'd also recommend a quick search of the forums, this has been debated before (many times!)...
and there's a sticky at the top..
Eclipse are supposed to be good, and idnet...
I'd look at www.thinkbroadband.com Lots of ISPs rated and all their tariffs to compare/etc..
£30 pcm?? seems excessive, looks like your paying for the cost of a wireless router (which can be bought for 30-60 anyway) and 50GB allowance - will you _really_ need that much? Of course all of those tariffs are "up to 8Meg" as well... It depends on the distance from your exchange and line quality..
Edited by ginettag27 on Tuesday 20th May 09:29
Mister V said:
First of all i pay for 8MB broadband and only get around 4MB, Now i know that the further you live from the exchange the slower it gets but i can't help but wonder if another ISP could squeeze a bit more out of it, (i have tried 6-7 times to get them to have a look at the connection and they never really do much)
BT told me they refuse to investigate if you are getting anything over 750KB speed. You're way over that at 4MB, so they just wont look into it. Mind you when told to run a number of tests at different times using their speedtest site, and I pointed out my connection was so slow it timed out loading their site, they also refused to investigate as I had not run the tests.....I do a lot of ADSL speedtesting as part of my job. Going to another ISP on the basis of more speed is a misnomer. The line is the same i.e the physical copper line between your house and the exchange cannot change.
So that leaves 2 things - the DSLAM at the exchange, and the modem in your house where you could "gain speed".
This boils down interoperability and paremeters set on both ends - bascally, ADSL may be a standard, but theres still a huge amount of fine tuning to do on each end to get above the old 'guaranteed' speeds....and this gets worse/more work the longer the copper loop is.
Anyway, what im trying to say, is you could get better performance, just by using a different brand of ADSL modem/router, with the latest firmware that works better with the DSLAM in the exchange(chipset vendors are always fine tuning, at each end - and you need to be up to date)
But to be honest, at 4Mbps distances, the difference isnt going to be huge...maybe they squeezed another few hundred Kbps out of it ...its not going to be drastic
So that leaves 2 things - the DSLAM at the exchange, and the modem in your house where you could "gain speed".
This boils down interoperability and paremeters set on both ends - bascally, ADSL may be a standard, but theres still a huge amount of fine tuning to do on each end to get above the old 'guaranteed' speeds....and this gets worse/more work the longer the copper loop is.
Anyway, what im trying to say, is you could get better performance, just by using a different brand of ADSL modem/router, with the latest firmware that works better with the DSLAM in the exchange(chipset vendors are always fine tuning, at each end - and you need to be up to date)
But to be honest, at 4Mbps distances, the difference isnt going to be huge...maybe they squeezed another few hundred Kbps out of it ...its not going to be drastic
Go here: http://www.dslzoneuk.net/checker.php?
And put your details in.
It will tell you in the lower part of the screen how far from the exchange you are, and give you some idea about speeds.
The only 2 results I know of are my own (370m from exchange, always get 6-7Mb/s) and my dad (1.5KM, gets around 4Mb/s)
If you are binning AOL, why not go with a company who may be offering LLU services out of your exchange?
Use this site: http://www.broadbandchecker.co.uk/ to see what your choices are (or aren't).
I've heard good things about BE and also O2 broadband, but both require LLU service in your exchange.
Good luck!
And put your details in.
It will tell you in the lower part of the screen how far from the exchange you are, and give you some idea about speeds.
The only 2 results I know of are my own (370m from exchange, always get 6-7Mb/s) and my dad (1.5KM, gets around 4Mb/s)
If you are binning AOL, why not go with a company who may be offering LLU services out of your exchange?
Use this site: http://www.broadbandchecker.co.uk/ to see what your choices are (or aren't).
I've heard good things about BE and also O2 broadband, but both require LLU service in your exchange.
Good luck!
Mister V said:
I have finally decided to ditch aol after five years of being with them to see what other deals i can get............... I'm paying £29 per month for this at the moment and don't mind paying the same if I'm getting a good service but i don't really want to pay more.
How can you be paying £29pm with AOL, is that including a calls package?The most anyone I know on AOL pays is £14.95, have you asked them for a deal lately?
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