Broadband providers ?

[Bill Dewison]

I use the Blueyonder broadband from cable. Fast as you want it to be, its cheap but its not available in all areas. I did have BT ADSL before this (and I paid for the modem 👿 ) but that was just pants (‘cuse my French). Never tried the 2 you’ve mentioned Nigel, but as far as getting broadband, you’ll wonder how you ever managed on a 56k modem, ever! 😉

Cheers, Dewi

[Rod Gray]

I use BT Broadband both and home and at work and it is excellent. Most of my family and friends to also.

Good back up etc.

Rod

[Nicola McIntosh]

on my wish list from santa was? yes broadband!
but i live in a small community where they think it costs a fortune!!

i only need 40 names to forward to broadband! but guess what! i think i will wait till next year!! 🙄 🙄 🙄 bit tight where i am!!

Nicola

[Nigel Fraser]

thanks for your input thus far, one thing I meant to ask about was this business of “contention ratio”, particularly with regard to the bigger players like BT it seems to me that the hard sell that is currently going on will lead to more people getting a slower connection ??

I quote … “All ADSL lines – regardless of service provider – are subject to contention, meaning that the network bandwidth available is shared between a number of subscribers. The ratio to which the available bandwidth is shared between users is called the “contention ratio”. All UK providers, including BT, are subject to the same contention ratios. Services targeted at casual home users are frequently cheaper, but have a higher contention ratio. This means that the available network capacity is shared between a greater number of users. Business services have a lower contention ratio, which will provide a more consistent level of performance. A 50 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with up to 50 other subscribers, whereas a 20 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with no more than 20 other subscribers.What this means in the ‘worst case’ is that you could be sharing a 500 Kbit/s connection with up to 49 other users. So if they were all using it at the same time ‘theoretically’ you would only get 10 Kbit/s (not very fast at all – in fact quite a bit slower than a normal modem).”

anyone know anything about all that stuff then ? 😮

Nigel

[Bill Dewison]

That ‘sharing’ of lines was my problem Nigel. Only 4 months ago I lived in a small village that didn’t have cable access, hence the connection to ADSL. The problem was, one of the ppl who used the service who lived opposite me (I’ll be polite about this) kind of hogged the service by setting up his own server on it and running various websites. This effectively brought my connection to a standstill and worse still, we were being charged double what we’re be charged now, but for less that half the service we get now.

ADSL works for some, but when you’re sharing it with a veritable Hog, beware! 🙁

Cheers, Dewi

[Gordon Forbes]

I’m with Pipex and find them ok what I do find is a lot of sites tend to be slow

1 meg download 256 upload for £28.90 a month I think that they are more than that now . It was an existing user offer also if someone from pipex refers you you get a month free and so does the referee well used to be an offer haven’t checked in a while though.

[john6512]

Becuase of the BT and other national pipes – everyone will be subject to contention unless you opt for an un-contended connection which will cost a lot more as you would need a business service. I have BT Wholesale ADSL at home and office via a local company to us (who also designs all our sites) – apart from supporting local business it is only a monthly contract with 30 days termination and not a 12 month contract like the others – if you move offices – it is great value (also comes with free fixed IP address) – great for running your own email server!

I quite oftern download and transfer large files via a private VPN and have never had any problems with bandwidth – you are more likely to get problems at a remote site server end (ie web site running slow) which will be down to their bandwidth. I used to have a private T1 link and somes sites still ran slow!

If you would like the details of the company – let me know

[Martin C]

I’ve been looking around and will probably go with Tiscali, good price and heard no complaints about them. Unlike BT! 😕

[Nigel Fraser]

John,(+others)

Thanks for the info, excuse my lack of tech knowledge but what do you mean when you say-

quote john6512:

you are more likely to get problems at a remote site server end (ie web site running slow) which will be down to their bandwidth.

I have a small local network running 3 pc’s on an ethernt hub and want to get a service that will mean I can use internet access on all 3 machines through the existing network cables (no extra wires to put in). I have been told I need a broadband router and a static ip address(what ever that is!). Is this configuration going to be too slow do you think ?

How much do you pay for your service if you don’t mind me asking ?

thanks,

Nigel

[Tim Painter]

I’m with Zen here no problems so far.

Nigel

I have 2 pc soon to be 3 through a DSL Modem Router.
The modem router just connects to the network.
Mine is an Actiontec unit and was simple to confirgure.
Idiot proof installation disc.
I have one machine on 98SE & another on 2K connected will be adding the XP machine soon to the network.

Tim.

[Carrie Brown]

BT checked our line 3 times to see if we could receive broadband and three times told us we could …… great! we thought …… only to find a few days after each confirmation we would receive a call to be told: actually you are just out of reach!!!! 😮

Anyway had a visit from a sales rep for Air-band – (Serv-IT ltd) who provide a wireless broadband service and dont need BT and hey presto installed the aerial required to get it within a fortnight & its great, had free installation and although the quarterly cost is slightly more expensive than ordinary broadband, its well worth it especially when BT cant provide you in rural-ish areas as your out of range! 😀

http://www.air-band.co.uk
tel: 0800 035 00 25

[Martin Pearson]

Nigel sorry for piggybacking your post but I am looking at the same thing as yourself, ADSL will be available here at the end of January so I have already started getting calls from people like BT and AOL.
I know nothing about broadband at all except it is quicker than this 56k moden I am using at the moment.

[john6512]

Nigel

My meaning was the bottleneck is quite possibly at the other end of the connection, ie the server that hosts their web site. Everybody assumes that contention is the reason why you get slow access. In fact a lot of the slowness is down to the traffic rate to a particular site and the fact that they themselves cannot keep up with demmand.

With regard to your setup, I assume that you are currently using a hub to connect your PC’s – I would change the hub for a Netgear DG834 or similiar (Netgear is very good – I use them all the time) and that will take care of the ADSL access. Also the NEtgear unit also has a hardware firewall -which is impreeative if you are using broadband. The static IP address is not required for what you want – unless you are required to run an email server which for your application would be overkill.

We run by having oneandone.co.uk for all our webspace and email addresses, Pulse8 (0800 298 3063) for ADSL access and then one each machine email accounts are setup in Outlook for staff email. We poll the server once a minute for upto date email.

We pay £28.00 per month for the service and as I know the company (we spend a fortune with them for design) we get well looked after. Everybody I have ecommended to them has also been very pleased with their service. Let me know if youd like to talk to them and I’ll introduce you.

[David Norris]

Was in the same position myself just before christmas (went for Pipex in the end and and pleased so far).

For help in deciding try these links:

http://www.adslguide.org.uk

http://www.ispreview.co.uk

Btw I have heard a lot of people saying bulldog are the best atm.

http://www.bulldogdsl.com

Regards

[Paul Goodwin]

I have NTL 1 meg at home, no real problems with them. very fast download speeds.

I have just had BT BB put in at the workshop. Free instelation if ordered on line with free modem ext. £29.99 a month. Seems ok atm.

As some of the other guys say browsing can get slow due to internet trafic at thier end, as to downloads with BT no problems and Games run sweet as well ( well u do have downtime in between jobs 🙂 )

Also just order 1 line and use internet sharing ( don’t tell them) and everything is ok. If u go with a cable company your router will do it all, if BT just use a hub, with winXP it couldn’t be easier.

[Gordon Forbes]

Get the Net gear 4 port router a LOT of gamers say its the bees knees and these are people hosting servers for matches etc and they almost unanimously reccommend it

Goop.

[highlander68k]

I’ve been using http://www.plus.net on a BT line for nearly 3 years now. I have only had 72 hours downtime, which 70 of those was actually BTs fault.

I get a good download rate of 50k+ per second, on a 1/2mb connection, and am using a router to throw it round the house.

Their price doesn’t include a modem, and as they’re so cheap to buy now, I would recommend buying one you actually want.

[John Childs]

Out in the sticks I’ve been using one way satellite broadband, but it has its limitations and I’d prefer always-on landline.

Just for a laugh I put my phone number into BT’s availability searcher and it came up (surprise surprise) with a “YES”. That was a bit of a shock because I thought our exchange would be upgraded at about the same time as the next Ice Age. Anyway, I did the same thing with my postcode and got a “NO”

Looks like a call to BT is required.

[Nigel Fraser]

Yeah, it’s great having technology working so soothly for you isn’t it John.
I finally took the plunge and ordered my Broadband with Pipex 512K which costs £20+vat per month. When I rang to order it the guy asked for the number I wanted it on and said “oh yes you can have 2Mb or 1Mb but not 512K….!” he said it was just a computer glitch and that really I could only get the 512K service anyway due to the distance from the exchange 🙄

I got myself a wireless netgear DG834g router/firewall which I hope will be easy enough to set up.

I can’t wait now – i get so excited about new gadgets to play with !!!

Nigel