View Full Version : New Internet Please
NickyBoyJunior
26-04-2010, 17:31
Finally getting off this pathetic Sky connection. Goodbye 0.3Mbps in the evenings!
So, I've found Plusnet who seem quite good. They have a very useful download speeds table on their website;
446
Found here; https://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/download_speeds.shtml#extraSpeeds
It costs about £17 a month I think, which seems perfectly reasonable.
So could anyone give me some advice on whether this service seems good, bad or ugly? The max speed in my area is a pretty poor 4.0Mb or thereabouts. I've seen other decent deals out there but can't really find any useful tables like Plusnet's one.
Basically I want the my interwebZ for downloading big stuff overnight and for gaming, videos and general surfing during the evening when I get home from college. On my current connection I can't watch YouTube vids or stream videos of any kind because it takes literally 5 mins to load 1 minute of video. :( It's also a pain in the ass trying to log on to the college system from home in the evenings because it takes forever to get it going.
Anyway, any help/advice/suggestions are much appreciated! Thanks.
BullyBeef
26-04-2010, 18:30
Buy an O2 sim and get O2 broadband for £7.50 per month. 1st 3 months free.
Just signed the inlaws up and installed yesterday, i'll let you know how they get on. :)
Nicky, have you tried samknows?
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php?page=availability-exchange-search
just type your postcode in and all ISPs will pop up. Maybe you can choose something else
go for plus net nicky my cousin uses it and it improved his connection quite a bit over the BT standard
My neighbour got plus net and he gets faster average speeds than me and I'm on O2. He really likes it and if your local exchange hasn't been unbundled it's a good one to go for.
the issue with any phone line broad band is that it all goes through BT's infrastructure and the only things that really change are 1:- the exchange link(a 2m cable) your on and the line in if your lucky as usually you will need to get a engineer to put you on the good line if pos as all the pure copper lines are usually taken.
which terms are you lucking at? and be very carefull as i have had friends that have changed ISP to see a boost in first few month and then it becomes worse than it was before. its all about contention ratio (how many ppl on this ISP's bandwidth/how big a piece he has baught) and most importan of all the distance the cable from your house to the exchange is(not the little green boxes on the streets) as no matter who supplies you this distance will govern your max speed is as the greater distance the more noise the line will have on it thus limiting your BB speed
the thing i dont like is traffic shaping/management tbh i would look for a isp that doesnt do this which may be hard atm personally im looking forward to BT infinity :D
I must say, When it comes to broadband...I'm really happy that I'm from Sweden. My apartment has fiber from TeliaSonera, prolly one of the fastest carriers in the world.
I have 10Mbit included in my rent. If I pay 12£ I get 100Mbit...And this is the best part 1Gbit for 60£ ;)
NickyBoyJunior
27-04-2010, 17:35
Thanks guys. :)
The traffic shaping thing does bug me, but I honestly don't think any ISP out there doesn't do it, and I was glad to find one which actually shows exactly what it does.
you will need to get a engineer to put you on the good line if pos as all the pure copper lines are usually taken.
I didn't know that was possible? Does that mean that I could potentially find a line that can take more than the current 4.0Mbit we're on? I do remember when we started with Sky we were getting about 5.3Mbit outside peak times, but now outside peak times we only get about 3ish. If possible, how would I go about getting that sorted?
Btw here's the link for some info about my local exchange. It looks horrific tbh;
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WWCORS
I must say, When it comes to broadband...I'm really happy that I'm from Sweden. My apartment has fiber from TeliaSonera, prolly one of the fastest carriers in the world.
I have 10Mbit included in my rent. If I pay 12£ I get 100Mbit...And this is the best part 1Gbit for 60£ ;)
Make the spare bed, I'm paying you a visit... for a year or so. Split the £60, 50-50?
after looking at the info u have put the line you are on is fine,5mbs+ if lucky would be the max speed you would get depending on how many ppl you end up sharing it with, the reason you have prob seen a drop from 5mbs to 3mbs is that more people in your area have changed to sky broadband thus your contention ratio has droped(availible bandwith on sky's pipeline per customer).this depends on what sky package your on ofcourse. this happens with all isp providers as for me, im am on the upside as now some people have moved from bt to other isp around my area the top speed i get has gone up in recent months from 2mbs to 3mbs+ ish on avg.
i will say its interesting how you get 60g limit for a month between 8am and midnight but between midnight and 8am u can dl as much as u like with out touching the 60g u have
Make the spare bed, I'm paying you a visit... for a year or so. Split the £60, 50-50?
Hehe! I can build a shelter of a cardboard box and I'll set up a access point for you :P