Discussion
Hi Guys
I need to get Broadband into my PC at home - Anybody got any thoughts as to which brand? I am currently on AOL which I am happy enough with but you hear so many horror stories about each type. I wondered if I should look elsewhere and maybe consider NTL or BT...
All advice and/or opinions would be very welcome
I need to get Broadband into my PC at home - Anybody got any thoughts as to which brand? I am currently on AOL which I am happy enough with but you hear so many horror stories about each type. I wondered if I should look elsewhere and maybe consider NTL or BT...
All advice and/or opinions would be very welcome
I'm with BT and they've been faultless, everything done when they said it would be, dealt with a house move with no problems as well, they reduced prices this year too, and just this week because I've been with them for a year they upgraded me to 1Mb at the same price as I've been paying for 512Kb.
If you're comparing prices make sure you are comparing like for like, in terms of connection speed and usage limits, some of the really cheap deals have slower connections or low usage limits.
As for NTL.... having used them for phone services at a previous address, I wouldn't recommend anyone to use them, service was appalling, line would go dead for days and you'd have to wait for 45 minutes to speak to their customer helpline, very frustrating!
Pauly
If you're comparing prices make sure you are comparing like for like, in terms of connection speed and usage limits, some of the really cheap deals have slower connections or low usage limits.
As for NTL.... having used them for phone services at a previous address, I wouldn't recommend anyone to use them, service was appalling, line would go dead for days and you'd have to wait for 45 minutes to speak to their customer helpline, very frustrating!
Pauly
Welcome to the 21st century.
BT are ok
, NTL are incompedant and expensive unless there is no alternative do not use them
, PIPEX are one of the best, you can use your own equipment and no extra charges for networking (all you need is standard BT line).
How do I know? I have BT,NTL, PIPEX,and Telewest (they are good but they may not be in your area).
Have a look
www.bt.com/broadband/
www.pipex.net/
BT are ok
, NTL are incompedant and expensive unless there is no alternative do not use them, PIPEX are one of the best, you can use your own equipment and no extra charges for networking (all you need is standard BT line). How do I know? I have BT,NTL, PIPEX,and Telewest (they are good but they may not be in your area).
Have a look
www.bt.com/broadband/
www.pipex.net/
PlusNet (www.plus.net) are good - 20gbp for a 512kbps connection. Even sent a new router themselves when they found out the existing supplied router was faulty.
NTL are upgrading customers from 512kbps to 768kbps for free though.
NTL are upgrading customers from 512kbps to 768kbps for free though.
Am with BTYahoo! at 1Mb, and have no complaints - speed is excellent, and for £29.99 a month, this is a pretty good deal...
There is apparently a 30Gb cap (not active now, but will be so in January) but I've yet to use that much in a month anyway, so not really an issue.
I'd recommend BT Yahoo!, but I suppose any of the "bigger" ones - AOL etc. - would be more or less the same...
There is apparently a 30Gb cap (not active now, but will be so in January) but I've yet to use that much in a month anyway, so not really an issue.
I'd recommend BT Yahoo!, but I suppose any of the "bigger" ones - AOL etc. - would be more or less the same...
I'm with Bulldog (www.bulldogdsl.com) a 2meg link for just under 30 quid, and low contention ratio as Bulldog mainly supply businesses so out of office hours the speed picks up even more !!! Mainly London, but may go as far as Heathrow ?
I also have BT 512K which work pay for, had no problems in the last year... But do understand that they will be imposing download limits on non business lines ??
I did have an NTL 600k wireless broadband for a while which I can't complain about as it was an 18month free trial, contention on that was about 2:1 as not many people were loaded on it.
NTL seem to be so bad, that they have their own anti-site www.ntlhell.co.uk/forums/
This site may be of some use www.adslguide.org.uk/
>> Edited by ws6 on Thursday 14th October 12:50
I also have BT 512K which work pay for, had no problems in the last year... But do understand that they will be imposing download limits on non business lines ??
I did have an NTL 600k wireless broadband for a while which I can't complain about as it was an 18month free trial, contention on that was about 2:1 as not many people were loaded on it.
NTL seem to be so bad, that they have their own anti-site www.ntlhell.co.uk/forums/
This site may be of some use www.adslguide.org.uk/
>> Edited by ws6 on Thursday 14th October 12:50
The main problem with NTL is that their email is unreliable. I've no problem with throughput and basic broadband service. Oh and they seemed to have cocked-up their registration process for the last few weeks. Scare yourself and have a look at their own service status page www.ntl-isp.ntl.com/ServiceStatus/
before you rush out and get broadband, consider what you will be using it for. Some companies (BT included)now have a download limit. I know BT has a 1GB limit a month 9unless you pay more - thats crap for me as I would use more than double that in a day.
I use Telewest, now £35 a month, no limit and 1.5Mb connection and no issues and no limit to the number of machines using the connections. I have been with them since beta testing broadband for them way befroe BT even had ADSL - if you have Telewest (lots of places dont) get it.
I use Telewest, now £35 a month, no limit and 1.5Mb connection and no issues and no limit to the number of machines using the connections. I have been with them since beta testing broadband for them way befroe BT even had ADSL - if you have Telewest (lots of places dont) get it.
Been with BT for ages. Cannot fault them. I am actually with BT Yahoo on Broadband althoguh no reason whay you cannot do straight BT. Straight BT seesm to be going to a monthly download limit although I am not clear if BT Yahoo is. In the process of researching thia as I want to go from 512 to 1mb
popkid said:
and just this week because I've been with them for a year they upgraded me to 1Mb at the same price as I've been paying for 512Kb.
Pauly
Just in the process of working out how to get myself upgraded. Is this something BTalways do or just a short term promotion. I have only been broadband with BT since April although I was an ISDN customer with em prior to that
popkid said:
and just this week because I've been with them for a year they upgraded me to 1Mb at the same price as I've been paying for 512Kb.
Pauly
Just in the process of working out how to get myself upgraded. Is this something BTalways do or just a short term promotion. I have only been broadband with BT since April although I was an ISDN customer with em prior to that
Don't know if they always do the upgrade offer, I've been a BT Broadband customer for nearly 18 months now but moved halfway through my first year so they reset my membership a year ago, I started off with BTOpenworld and got automatically migrated to BTYahoo when that came out, it used to be £29.99 but I've been paying £27 a month for 512 for a few months now, and because my contract is almost up they called me up and offered me 1Mb at £27 as an enticement to sign up for another 12 months (I probably would have changed provider to someone cheaper otherwise) the 1Mb option is normally £29.99 I think and has a 30Gb limit as of January (I don't get anywhere near that) The BTYahoo is a bit of a waste of money over standard BT broadband though I reckon, (I don't actually use any of the extra 'features' it has, might be worth it if you have kids or something, but I just use Broadband as a fast connection not to stream radio stations or whatever the young things are doing these days...)
Had my NTL 1mb modem for 3/4 years now never had a big fault and i have digi tv and phone with them....
Digi box locks up once every couple of weeks but thats digital for ya......They have just bought out a Samsung box works a lot quicker than the Pace ones...
And you only get one bill for all three services...
Every provider has faults somwhere down the line...
Digi box locks up once every couple of weeks but thats digital for ya......They have just bought out a Samsung box works a lot quicker than the Pace ones...
And you only get one bill for all three services...
Every provider has faults somwhere down the line...
popkid said:
... The BTYahoo is a bit of a waste of money over standard BT broadband though I reckon, (I don't actually use any of the extra 'features' it has, might be worth it if you have kids or something, but I just use Broadband as a fast connection not to stream radio stations or whatever the young things are doing these days...)
Agree. My wife likes it so I have to stump up the addional couple of pounds but I just use IE and Outlook as my iterfaces; life is too short...
popkid said:
but I just use Broadband as a fast connection not to stream radio stations or whatever the young things are doing these days...)
I listen to BBC 7 a lot on the computer as I don't have access to a digital radio as yet. Lots of good stuff on there such as the Goon Show, Navy Lark, Men from the Ministry, Hancock's Half Hour etc. Even got hooked on a Paul Temple mystery, so nice to listen to those cut glass accents for a change !
NTL- Cable - Telewest etc are all pure broadband i.e they use a dedicated upper band to transmit the data , so its faster than BT etc.
ADSL - Asynchronous Digital subscriber line modulates a normal telephone line in different directions to transmit the data, hence the need for filters etc . Its not generally as fast and you can get a hiss on your phone line (well i do)
I use Pipex ADSL 1/2 meg line for £23 a month, good service with no limits etc. Tech help used to be rubbish but is has improved !
ADSL - Asynchronous Digital subscriber line modulates a normal telephone line in different directions to transmit the data, hence the need for filters etc . Its not generally as fast and you can get a hiss on your phone line (well i do)
I use Pipex ADSL 1/2 meg line for £23 a month, good service with no limits etc. Tech help used to be rubbish but is has improved !
Hi Steve,
As you know, I work in comms & a lot of our customers use DSL of one form or another. The quality of service is dependant on the distance from the exchange (not as the crow flies, but as the copper snakes around the streets), age & condition of the copper & various other physical factors. All these affect the data rate. Then there's the protocol employed to transmit the data (which I think was touched on above, although the current ANSI std & the early implementation both use high frequencies: it's the way that they "chop it up" that's where the differences in performance are), cost, tech support, etc, etc.
People seem to think that because one provider gives a good service to their mate in the next town, then that provider will also give them a good service. Accounts, tech help & all those extras will be the same, but the actual service could be completely different due to using different copper. Best thing to do is talk to your neighbours in your exchange area & see who they use & what they think of the service. Something I've noticed is that a lot of these Broadband suppliers who keep springing up all over the place give good value, but some of them tend to ramp up their costs once you're locked in to them (one of our customers has changed provider twice in the last year due to price hikes & poor service). Another (well known) large provider invested a lot of money in laying new lines. The performance of the lines should be (and generally is) excellent as they are as good as you can get (old lines can cause degraded performance), but the provider has a well deserved reputation for diabolical customer support.
{Coincidentally, we're currently considering making a product/service to do what you're asking ie. compare the different DSL services in your local areas. If anybody here is actually involved in DSL, what services, diagnostics, tests, functions, simulators, etc would make your life easier?}
We frequently connect 2 sites together that are WITHIN the same exchange area, using the same copper that broadband providers sell. We supply eqpt to connect to each end &, unlike ADSL, give the entire bandwidth over to the customer. This isn't for Internet access, it's for a dedicated line between say, 2 offices or an office & a warehouse, & as such there's none of the variable delays associated with the Net. Broadband providers, etc try to push VPN (Virtual Private Networking over the Internet), but VPN suffers from the normal Internet delays & security risks & is also quite expensive as you're paying the service provider for their services, plus need to have private IP addresses assigned (more £'s), etc. In the same exchange area 2 sites can be connected together by existing copper wires from the exchange & is far cheaper than using VPN. We regularly sell these solutions, even though we don't actively push it (very small profit for us) & the customer gets to use all the avilable b/width as there's no Internet overheads etc. Where I'm going here is this - as we have total control on the copper we try to drive it as fast as possible. What we've found is that we can achieve speeds of 2Meg duplex (in both directions) on some lines, down to 512kbps on others, depending on the age of the copper, distance from the exchange, etc. We could push the bad lines at 2meg, but there'd be so many errors, causing retransmissions, that the overall rate would drop even further. This is proof that the overall speed of the line is wholly dependant on the quality & length of the copper. No matter what a Broadband provider promises, or has delivered elsewhere, if the copper is crap then you won't get the max possible speed.
l8r
p.s. If you ever need a private line between 2 sites in the same exchange area, give us a shout
As you know, I work in comms & a lot of our customers use DSL of one form or another. The quality of service is dependant on the distance from the exchange (not as the crow flies, but as the copper snakes around the streets), age & condition of the copper & various other physical factors. All these affect the data rate. Then there's the protocol employed to transmit the data (which I think was touched on above, although the current ANSI std & the early implementation both use high frequencies: it's the way that they "chop it up" that's where the differences in performance are), cost, tech support, etc, etc.
People seem to think that because one provider gives a good service to their mate in the next town, then that provider will also give them a good service. Accounts, tech help & all those extras will be the same, but the actual service could be completely different due to using different copper. Best thing to do is talk to your neighbours in your exchange area & see who they use & what they think of the service. Something I've noticed is that a lot of these Broadband suppliers who keep springing up all over the place give good value, but some of them tend to ramp up their costs once you're locked in to them (one of our customers has changed provider twice in the last year due to price hikes & poor service). Another (well known) large provider invested a lot of money in laying new lines. The performance of the lines should be (and generally is) excellent as they are as good as you can get (old lines can cause degraded performance), but the provider has a well deserved reputation for diabolical customer support.
{Coincidentally, we're currently considering making a product/service to do what you're asking ie. compare the different DSL services in your local areas. If anybody here is actually involved in DSL, what services, diagnostics, tests, functions, simulators, etc would make your life easier?}
We frequently connect 2 sites together that are WITHIN the same exchange area, using the same copper that broadband providers sell. We supply eqpt to connect to each end &, unlike ADSL, give the entire bandwidth over to the customer. This isn't for Internet access, it's for a dedicated line between say, 2 offices or an office & a warehouse, & as such there's none of the variable delays associated with the Net. Broadband providers, etc try to push VPN (Virtual Private Networking over the Internet), but VPN suffers from the normal Internet delays & security risks & is also quite expensive as you're paying the service provider for their services, plus need to have private IP addresses assigned (more £'s), etc. In the same exchange area 2 sites can be connected together by existing copper wires from the exchange & is far cheaper than using VPN. We regularly sell these solutions, even though we don't actively push it (very small profit for us) & the customer gets to use all the avilable b/width as there's no Internet overheads etc. Where I'm going here is this - as we have total control on the copper we try to drive it as fast as possible. What we've found is that we can achieve speeds of 2Meg duplex (in both directions) on some lines, down to 512kbps on others, depending on the age of the copper, distance from the exchange, etc. We could push the bad lines at 2meg, but there'd be so many errors, causing retransmissions, that the overall rate would drop even further. This is proof that the overall speed of the line is wholly dependant on the quality & length of the copper. No matter what a Broadband provider promises, or has delivered elsewhere, if the copper is crap then you won't get the max possible speed.
l8r
p.s. If you ever need a private line between 2 sites in the same exchange area, give us a shout
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