Any tips on what is the best value package out there?
I just want plain and simple brodband (no massive downloads or anything) and I don't need a phoneline.
I'm not in a Cable area so it's not an option
Any advice appreciated
GHL
just moved house recently, and had sky phone line installed before they told us that they couldnt do broadband for the area we moved to ! Was a nightmare then getting someone who did broadband only. Ended up with Plusnet and so far so good - reasonably priced too, so i would give them a go.
thanks- will take a look at them
BT Infinity is pure shite.
Quote from: Cold tea on June 01, 2012, 04:26:27 PM
BT Infinity is pure shite.
I think you're wrong there. It's absolute complete 100% refined shite with a capital S
Quote from: Dougal Maguire on June 12, 2012, 06:20:43 PM
Quote from: Cold tea on June 01, 2012, 04:26:27 PM
BT Infinity is pure shite.
I think you're wrong there. It's absolute complete 100% refined shite with a capital S
As in not getting the advertised speeds?
The way phone companies charge for broadband really annoys me. I only get 2MB at most here and pay the same as someone a couple of miles closer to the exchange who can get maybe 10MB. This is like going into a BMW dealership and paying for a BMW but drivin away in a Lada. Why oh why can they not have a fee structure so that you are only charged for the actual speed that you get. c***ts.
That fine Fionn but do you not see my point. They sell the product on speed so why can't thay charge on the speed.
Quote from: Hereiam on June 13, 2012, 10:13:46 AM
That fine Fionn but do you not see my point. They sell the product on speed so why can't thay charge on the speed.
BMW doesn't give you a discount because you live in a 30 zone.
Quote from: Fionntamhnach on June 13, 2012, 11:27:45 AM
Quote from: Hereiam on June 13, 2012, 10:13:46 AM
That fine Fionn but do you not see my point. They sell the product on speed so why can't thay charge on the speed.
Because as I've said Openreach (BTs Wholesale network arm) charge ISPs on connection and data transfer, not speed. Therefore there's no room for ISPs to charge for speed other than have a 'premium' for faster speeds, not a discount for slower ones. The same seems to go for unbundled exchanges that have Sky, Talk Talk etc.
I would check with your ISP to see if your line can handle more than 2Mbps, readings from the line stats on your ADSL modems set up menus should give a good indication of what is possible. If no improvement can be made it might be worth investigating if a FTTC product like BT Infinity is available, as on a per month basis Infinity costs the same as ADSL if your broadband is with BT. Other ISPs offering a similar service charge an additional premium.
Fionntamhnach, what options do you have for fast broadband if you are a long way from the exchange and there is no FTTC or unbundling available?
I can only get just over 1 MB download speed.
What other options are there?
EDIT - it appears that my exchange is enabled for BT Infinity accoriding to their website but I am told that it is not available for me.
Thanks for that Fionn, its very comprehensive.
I should have said that 3G mobile coverage is also out of the equation due to poor reception.
I am really interested in "broadband via fibre". 5MB d/l speed would seem like lighting for me.
I did a quick google and nothing came up. Could you point me in the right direction for some more info? I just want to be forearmed in anticipation of me ringing BT about it and them stonewalling me saying they know nothing about it.
Or is there a special "broadband via fibre" department within BT?
Cheers
On the BT wholesale checker there is no mention of fibre for me, even though nibroadband.com states that the cabinet closest to me has been connected.
This is further confirmed by entering a phone number of a house that is much closer to the cabinet than I am and it talks about fibre and 18mb speed.
Based on the above is there even any point in me contacting BT and asking about broadband via fibre? All the posts on the digi spy forum state that the wholesale checker needs to mention that fibre is available for them to be offered broadband via fibre.
Spoke to them, but "Fibre is not yet available to me". :'(
The guy said that they are continually making improvements / installing boosters along the line even where it says that a Cabinet already has fibre.
Let's hope he's right.
Don't give up hope Joe. I was using a fecking satellite dish to get internet access up til about 6 months ago. It would be helpful of everyone in your area registered their interest with BT.
Where are you based?
I'm using the dish too, a nightmare.
I'm with O2, took the deal out a few years ago so not sure if it's still around, but £7 pm for uncapped ADSL on a rolling monthly contract. I'd regularly get around 1000kbps downloading torrents and would probably be hitting about 120Gb a month.
Quote from: Tony Baloney on June 15, 2012, 10:44:15 PM
Don't give up hope Joe. I was using a fecking satellite dish to get internet access up til about 6 months ago. It would be helpful of everyone in your area registered their interest with BT.
Where are you based?
My exchange is Benburb
Fionntamhnach - What is the most reliable broadband speed checker? I am on BT Infinity and signed up for the increased speeds a couple of months ago, they reckoned i could get 70mbps but it never gets much above 40mbps. I take it for the 70mpbs speeds you need a wired connection?
BT have a beta speedtester http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ but i have read there are issues with it.
Quote from: Fionntamhnach on June 16, 2012, 07:33:59 PM
1000kbps isn't much, that's 1 Meg!
It's a lot for one application to be constantly downloading at that speed i.e. if I had my torrent application downloading at my full broadband speed I wouldn't be able to do anything else, plus you are limited by the speed others upload. I have a media server connected permanently to the web downloading torrents and streaming videos to the telly. On top of that, we've laptops, mobile devices and the telly itself all connect to the web without any noticeable lag. I think the ADSL deal is 20Mb but to be honest the whole fixation with download speeds is a nonsense. The average household doesn't need anything more than 3 or 4Mb for streaming video and average downloading. IMO what's much more important is downloading capping, contention ratio, ISP blocking and traffic shaping. That's what I look out for when looking at broadband deals.
Informative post Fionntamhnach but I stand by my assertion regarding download speeds. If you have good contention ratio 3 or 4 Mb is more than adequate for streaming even HD as streaming files don't all have to arrive at the same time before playing. Sure people with wireless enabled tellys are using iPlayer HD widgets to play video files, even though there's nowhere near that kind of speed between the wireless box and the telly - they just have a little lag at the beginning while the file caches up.
1 Gig broadband is grand but in my opinion is all geared towards SaS (software as service), internetTV and at the end of the day screwing more money out of people via subscriptions. At work I've a 1Gbps pipe into SuperJanet and at home I've a 1Gbps wired ethernet network connected to the internet through the O2 ADSL router. Even though I primarily work in multimedia with large files I haven't noticed any advantage to being in the office and can work just as well from home. The average residential user is going to be asked to fork out for relatively expensive internet connections, the vast majority of whom won't come close to even using or needed a fraction of it.
Hi
Any good broadband deals to be had the the minute?
BT or Sky probably the only real options in my area.
SF
Try Plusnet, they usually have some good deals going. They're owned by BT, but you'll get a much better customer service from them. I've been with them for years and told them recently I was considering switching to BT in an effort to try & boost my line speed. To persuade me to stay, they reduced my line rental to £9.75/month, gave me a new router and sent out an engineer out to see if they could boost my speed. Now operating at a whopping 760kbs!
Quote from: Harold Disgracey on November 30, 2012, 12:52:38 PM
Try Plusnet, they usually have some good deals going. They're owned by BT, but you'll get a much better customer service from them. I've been with them for years and told them recently I was considering switching to BT in an effort to try & boost my line speed. To persuade me to stay, they reduced my line rental to £9.75/month, gave me a new router and sent out an engineer out to see if they could boost my speed. Now operating at a whopping 760kbs!
Anyone else with Sky and experiencing really slow wireless connection?
Mine wont even play a youtube video through without buffering, have changed the channels etc and has made no difference, am thinking of pulling the plug and switching to BT. Im not that far from the exchange so should have a decent speed.
Quote from: NAG1 on November 30, 2012, 02:13:59 PM
Quote from: Harold Disgracey on November 30, 2012, 12:52:38 PM
Try Plusnet, they usually have some good deals going. They're owned by BT, but you'll get a much better customer service from them. I've been with them for years and told them recently I was considering switching to BT in an effort to try & boost my line speed. To persuade me to stay, they reduced my line rental to £9.75/month, gave me a new router and sent out an engineer out to see if they could boost my speed. Now operating at a whopping 760kbs!
Anyone else with Sky and experiencing really slow wireless connection?
Mine wont even play a youtube video through without buffering, have changed the channels etc and has made no difference, am thinking of pulling the plug and switching to BT. Im not that far from the exchange so should have a decent speed.
Had that problem with Sky for a while. Between 6 and 11pm an any night the speed would dramatically fall to 7/8kbps which was a complete joke. They tried to tell me it had nothing to do with them and that they were piggybacking BT for our service so basically tough luck.
Went to BT then and haven't had any problems since.
In my old place had BT and there was no issue at all with the speed, could stream without any bother now its thats slow wouldnt even bother turning it on.
Quote from: screenexile on November 30, 2012, 02:35:12 PM
Quote from: NAG1 on November 30, 2012, 02:13:59 PM
Quote from: Harold Disgracey on November 30, 2012, 12:52:38 PM
Try Plusnet, they usually have some good deals going. They're owned by BT, but you'll get a much better customer service from them. I've been with them for years and told them recently I was considering switching to BT in an effort to try & boost my line speed. To persuade me to stay, they reduced my line rental to £9.75/month, gave me a new router and sent out an engineer out to see if they could boost my speed. Now operating at a whopping 760kbs!
Anyone else with Sky and experiencing really slow wireless connection?
Mine wont even play a youtube video through without buffering, have changed the channels etc and has made no difference, am thinking of pulling the plug and switching to BT. Im not that far from the exchange so should have a decent speed.
Had that problem with Sky for a while. Between 6 and 11pm an any night the speed would dramatically fall to 7/8kbps which was a complete joke. They tried to tell me it had nothing to do with them and that they were piggybacking BT for our service so basically tough luck.
Went to BT then and haven't had any problems since.
S.E what sort of package do you have with BT?