bt say broadband for everyone sept 7th

[samol]

I spoke to a bt broadband yesterday and he says that after september 7th Broadband will be available to 99% of the nation due to some new technology.
As I've been just 1/2 mile too far from the exchange until now this means I can get it to.

I am a mac user, now here are my questions:-
Which broadband service provider is best for the mac?
Who gives me a compatible modem, I'm on osx 10.2.8?
Am I best connecting through a usb or ethernet port?

Could not get to sleep last night dreaming of video streams, music downloads, uploading photo's, and actually being able to update my software from home rather than doing it at work and bringing it home!!!
Sad I know!!!

[arcturus]

Personally, whether Mac or PC, I would go down the ethernet route simply because you do not need drivers or any software on your machine to make it work. (Assuming your ethernet port is already set up).

You simply plug your computer in, let it get all the configuration information from the modem/router by DHCP (ask if you need to know more), open your browser and away you go.

[canam-phil]

samol said:

I spoke to a bt broadband yesterday and he says that after september 7th Broadband will be available to 99% of the nation due to some new technology. As I've been just 1/2 mile too far from the exchange until now this means I can get it to.

Mmm, Bt tried to install on my line this morning. Same as you I live just too far from exchange under the old rules. But this morning they have decided that they cannot reach our village because of signal to noise problems. They have no solution so I appear to be in the 1% that cannot get the service. Oh, I live in a congested part of Surrey less than a mile from the M25. Not really that rural then.

[Pigeon]

Metronet do me pretty well. They have a 70 quid setup charge and you don't get a free modem, but the monthly charge seems to be about half anybody else's, so it's worth it.

Modems: the word is that USB sucks, and I don't know if any of the PCI card modems are supported on the Mac. Ehternet is the way to go. Whatever you get, check on the net for reports of security holes in it - many of the cheap ones are based round a Conexant chipset which has a back door on port 254 or 255 with the default password; even if you've changed the password, the back door still uses the default one. This is another advantage of not getting a free-modem deal - you can choose what modem you get.

[neil_cardiff]

Woah there people, before you all get excited...

ADSL is rate adaptive, and what I mean by this is that the further you are away from an exchange, the slower your service is.

This means that in certain cases you'll never see a full 512Kb/sec, and may not even pass the 'Woosh' test (a test by BT to check all is working).

It's something to bear in mind also that the ADSL connection is contended, so you'll have up to at any one time, depending on your service, 50 users trying to squeeze down that line. It doesen't work quite like that, but you'll see a marked drop in speed when the 'pipe' is busy.

So add the two together and your 512Kb may well be slower than a tradition dial up connection.

This is part of the reason why BT have struggled to get ADSL out to the sticks, as they cannot guarantee the service.

Bear this in mind, country lovers

[simpo two]

neil_cardiff said:

It's something to bear in mind also that the ADSL connection is contended, so you'll have up to at any one time, depending on your service, 50 users trying to squeeze down that line. It doesen't work quite like that, but you'll see a marked drop in speed when the 'pipe' is busy.

I've noticed my connection runs at various speeds, obviously caused by the contention issue. But sometimes it just seizes up altogther: zero speed. Sometimes doing 'send and receive' seems to spur it into action, sometimes closing and reopening IE seems to work; if it's really bad I disconnect and reconnect. If I complain to Metronet, they blame either my modem or BT. I know the modem works, and as for BT, well, life's too short to bother moaning.

Wonder what's really doing it?

[_dobbo_]

Pigeon said:

- many of the cheap ones are based round a Conexant chipset which has a back door on port 254 or 255 with the default password; even if you've changed the password, the back door still uses the default one. This is another advantage of not getting a free-modem deal - you can choose what modem you get.

Oh st That's potentially 80 squids down the crapper then - I'm running a router with conexant chipset.

Wonder what sort of comeback I have against the supplier?

[roop]

As far as I am aware, BT have scrapped the line length restrictions, so this means you can have RADSL as far away as you like provided the line will support it. There's two things though that will stop it. One's fixable, one isn't. If your line test comes back and the s/n is just too poor then too bad, but if it's because of a line quality issue they are obliged to replace whatever needs replacing in order to attempt to get the service to you. Now, don't ask me how they differentiate between line quality and s/n (I'd have thougt they have been junked into the same pot) but there you go.

[Pigeon]

_dobbo_ said:

Pigeon said: - many of the cheap ones are based round a Conexant chipset which has a back door on port 254 or 255 with the default password; even if you've changed the password, the back door still uses the default one. This is another advantage of not getting a free-modem deal - you can choose what modem you get. Oh st That's potentially 80 squids down the crapper then - I'm running a router with conexant chipset. Wonder what sort of comeback I have against the supplier?

I suspect if in practical terms you could have some comeback in this kind of situation, Microsoft would have been out of business long ago...

There are workarounds, which may or may not work for you, depending on your setup - you need to be running your own NAT box behind the router; and the problem is fixable with a firmware upgrade, apparently. I've just Googled and found this:

www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~theom/security/origo.html

Worth checking the website of the manufacturer of your device, or emailing them, to see if their firmware has been upgraded yet.

Didn't, however, find anything on blocking another possible security hole, which is that (at least on the Zoom X3) the option to hide the router's web server from the outside world doesn't work.

simpo two said:

I've noticed my connection runs at various speeds, obviously caused by the contention issue. But sometimes it just seizes up altogther: zero speed. Sometimes doing 'send and receive' seems to spur it into action, sometimes closing and reopening IE seems to work; if it's really bad I disconnect and reconnect. If I complain to Metronet, they blame either my modem or BT. I know the modem works, and as for BT, well, life's too short to bother moaning. Wonder what's really doing it?

Mostly BT, I suspect. They seem to have been having problems with the routers which are supplied by BT. Recently BT did a software upgrade on these routers, which initially seemed to make things worse, but it's stabilised a bit now.