Bit OT broadband switch

[Dave Liquorice]

I don't see a tarrif in the table that isn't shaped, ie all services at the same "metal level".

[dennis]

By its nature there is contention on all shared networks. Even if you assign a VPN to each user they can't all send down one link at the same time. They don't even have control over the access network if they are using one of the BT services and that bit may well suffer contention. I doubt if they have the full bandwidth available to each user on the access links unless they are renting fibre, they certainly won't if they are using the BT access pipes as you couldn't a££ord it.

You had better ask them what they define as contention before accepting that they don't have any.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've been with a few suppliers over the years - including several which have been taken over and I've just stayed with them.

For my sort of use they've mostly performed ok - until something went wrong. Like no broadband. They seemed to want to try every trick in the book before passing on the problem to the company supplying the hardware - ie BT - even although it was pretty obvious (to me) that it was a fault outside my house. Like in every case the router showing a lack of incoming signal.

I changed last time after getting silly emails from TalkTalk saying they couldn't contact me by email. And deciding to start charge me for paper billing - but not sending those paper bills. And so on.

I don't like Virgin having had horror storied from neighbours, so went for BT which has fibre to the end of the road. So only about 100 metres of copper to here.

So far so good - has worked perfectly for about 2 years. The equipment was delivered and installed exactly when they said it would be and the engineer left only after everything was working. Speed tests show it to be very good - although I can't say I've notice much difference in practice. Paying for the line rental a year in advance seemed to give a reasonable deal too - I have a BT phone still.

Of course it will be only in event of a fault that I'll see if they are actually better than all the others...

[Dave Liquorice]

True enough but I wrote "A&A don't traffic shape(*), aim to never be a bottleneck and have had IPv6 for years..."

"bottleneck" is not the same as "contention".

[Dave Liquorice]

Yep, just gone for that myself "BT Line Rental Saver" £141 up front on credit card, 12 months, no refunds after 7 days, I don't think you get any "free" calls but as calls are only made over the POTS line in extremis that isn't a problem. Also took "BT Privacy with Caller ID free for 12 months", that requires a new 12 month contract (see line saver...), Caller ID even with Privacy at Home now costs £1.75/month. The free if you made a couple of calls/month stopped in January.

I have Total Care (£4.00/month) they fix things quick, not sure if Total Care covers the internet side of the service or just the POTS. All the faults I have had have been cleared on both the ADSL and POTS when the line fault has been sorted. About 50% of the time the ADSL still works (slowly) when the POTS is dead.

With FTCC the POTS side still goes how ever it used to go, it's just that the VDSL is injected at the cabinet. Also note that the fibre connecting that cabinet might not go to the same exchnage as the POTS.

The above changes have reduced my BT bill from £21.74/month to, in effect, £15.75/month. Without Total Care it would be in effect £11.75/month.

[nobody]

Not "cheap" but not the most expensive. Zen by a long shot is a clear winner. Especially now with their recent doubling of download allowance.

1 month rolling contract.

I have a fibre connection, an ADSL+ connection and transferred all 3 telephone lines to them.

I have a plusnet account too but that can be a little "variable" with regards to speeds etc. (same site as the ADSL+ connection)

Pete@

[John Rumm]

Have a look at IDNet as well - still fairly small and informal, UK based. Slightly more expensive than PN and no news server.

[Big Les Wade]

Good. But probably at some point it won't, and that's when you need support.

I used to use Demon. Worked fine until one day they upgraded me to ADSL-2+ or something and it stopped working. The Bombay support centre people were useless. They never solved the problem, which was why I went over to Be.

Separately I have also used BT broadband. So far the broadband has worked OK but one day their SMTP server stopped posting my outgoing emails. That took a couple of weeks for them to sort out even though it was obvious that the problem was a misbehaving spam filter at their end.

Do you have a Sky phone line and TV too?

[Adrian C]

Umm, me bad. I had the wrong foot in my mouth. Here, trying the other one ;-)

Plusnet DO do traffic shaping, but it's not applied equally to all accounts. I'm on Plusnet unlimited fibre, and my traffic is prioritised higher than those on the standard package and not rate limited.

Though in practical terms, I just want to download ISOs, stream TV and drink text only usenet, facebook & email. OpenVPN & SFTP is as close as I go outside what counts as standard packet use.

Plusnet works fine for that here. Basically I was paying £18/month for Be, and the move to 3 times faster FTTC was for me worth an extra couple of quid.

[John Rumm]

They normally only insist that the "big five" ISPs block stuff - often the smaller ones don't.

[tony sayer]

+1 For Zen:)...

[JNugent]

And you will get it.

We have Sky broadband, bundled with line rental (we kept our telephone number) and TV services. About £60 a month for unlimited everything, more or less (including telephone calls all around the world to landlines, and even to mobiles in the USA).

I've had cause to use the support a couple of times - it's always there and it's always helpful and effective. And free since we're calling on a Sky line.

[Jim Newman]

Can I suggest you consider BT Broadband? There may be cheaper alternatives, but AFAIK none of them give you access to free wifi hotspots throughout UK and Europe*.

I wouldn't know about the quality of their email support because I've never needed to use it - I assume you mean Broadband support by email rather than the level of support they give to their email services.

*Basically, when you connect your BT Home Hub (wifi) you assign a 512kb 'slice' to 'FON' users, and in return you get access to BT Openzone, BT-wifi and FON networks elsewhere.

Even in small towns it'll mean you're probably not too far from a free wifi.

[David D S]

I'm sorry to piggy-back a slightly different question on the back of Les's, but I have an issue that I'd like to ask about.

I'm currently using adsl24, and have no really major complaints about it, though it has recently been taken over and what happens now is unknown. I have an "local link unbundled" type of connection with them (if that is the correct term).

I'm away in China for most of the year, and usually come back for an extended holiday during the summer. I've kept the adsl link on, but obviously, it is costing money that isn't being used much (apart from email, which I can change) but I kept it on for convenience.

Is there any ISP in the UK that will do a "pay as you go" type adsl contract so that I can tell them that I am away for all but 2 months in a year, I'd still like a wired connection, and I'd only like to pay for usage when I am in the UK, but I am content to pay a small "holding" amount when I am not?

I considered dongles, but reception inside the house is not good, and I have found they are quite slow.

Any suggestions?

[Mike Ross]

I would be fascinated to hear them try to explain exactly what extra value your are getting for your premium 'supplement'!

Mike

[Charles F]

Zen have a one month minimum contract for plain ADSL - not fibre though, which is longer. If ADSL is all you need, you could phone them to see how they would feel about you hopping on and off contract each year?

Charles F

[stuart noble]

Virgin is the devil I know. A little expensive, but lightning fast and rock solid. Unlimited downloads and no traffic shaping that I've ever noticed. My son has Sky, which he describes as very flaky.

[tony sayer]

VM here at hone too pay for 30 meg and usually get 32;!..

And its going up to 60 in the summer for the same price so Sir Richard tells...

And no need for a phone line use, VoIP its cheaper too..

[Huge]

I have just moved to A&A for basic "bit shovelling", although I have no opinion on how good they are because nothing has gone wrong yet. The handover process was very slick.

I'm now going to move the huge.org website and email over to them because of the increasing unreliability of Register1, where they are presently hosted.

I use NIN for News which is a fine institution.

[Dave Liquorice]

£60 quid a month! For that sort of money I hope that the support includes men climbing poles or opening up man holes within 4 hours of you reporting a fault 24/7.