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    Broadband Recommendation

    Just been househunting with some friends and we were discussing broadband providers, could do with some help.

    We're all quite heavy users (though cost-conscious), but most importantly, we want an ISP that is unmetered, no download caps, not bitorrent throttling, and basically isn't going to be a big headache. After having to deal with the nightmare that is Virgin Media and their throttling antics, we could do without that.

    Any ideas? One of my friends also mentioned business broadband, how does that work?

    EDIT - What about this? https://www.bethere.co.uk/broadbandoffice.do
    Last edited by sj33; 07-02-2009, 11:43.

    #2
    I'm with O2 (which I believe are Be Unlimited) and they seem pretty good - just moved over to them for 20meg broadband and getting good download speeds(1.5mb\sec) either on direct download or torrents. No caps or throttling however I do find my torrents are extremely inconsistant and get a lot of 0k spikes.

    Plus I get £5 off a month for having an O2 mobile contract, so unlimited 20meg broadband for £15 is rather good!

    Business broadband - all broadband is contended, ie you share a certain amount of bandwidth with other users. Business broadband usually just means you share with less people. Home broadband is usually 50:1 and business 20:1.

    Comment


      #3
      Had a nightmare getting back on the internet recently so this may be of some help:

      Avoid Tiscali and Pipex. Both are being investigated over their insanely poor customer services. TalkTalk give you a really good price for both line rental and broadband but they cut p2p at peak hours.

      BT are £17 for unlimited with a wireless router and the added benefit that you’re speed will likely go up - when I switched from Pipex to BT I went from 3.6mbps to 5.8mbps - they’re also upgrading their infrastructure so faster speeds on the way.

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        #4
        I'd agree with going for Be (or O2), does exactly what it says it will unlike most ISP's

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          #5
          I'm on Be Unlimited for ?17.50pm and can't recommend them enough.

          24Mb line (relative to how close you are of course), great customer service/help and no caps or throittling ever.

          Best isp I've ever used.

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            #6
            I would also suggest ADSL24.

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              #7
              I have been with BE for ages and no problems until now. Just moved house and the connection is shocking bearly 2Meg when I was told it should be around 11Meg

              My 360 is constantly dropping from LIVE when left alone for 5+mins even on an ethernet connection it took pretty much a day to download the Burnout Paradise free pack I tried playing GOW2 online and that seemed to be ok for the few rounds of horde but cant be sure for certain whether it would hold a game etc.

              I have been on the phone to BE pretty much all day, and been swapping from static to dynamic IP and vise versa... As I type the 360 has again dropped after 3mins?
              Wii connection drops randomly whilst in the download store from menu to menu too.

              The laptop connections are also fammydodd, so I have Virgin comming round to see if I can get a cable connection as I have done all I can think of to establish a decent connection via BE Broadband?

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                #8
                I'm also on Be*. No probs for nearly a year so far. What isn't often mentioned is the upload speed on Be* which is usually 1.5mb which can help a lot with latency. Absolutely no live issues here.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by smouty View Post
                  I'm also on Be*. No probs for nearly a year so far. What isn't often mentioned is the upload speed on Be* which is usually 1.5mb which can help a lot with latency. Absolutely no live issues here.
                  Just changed the UPnP to off and appears to be better so far 9mins!? Whats yours set to?

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Katsujinken View Post
                    I have been with BE for ages and no problems until now. Just moved house and the connection is shocking bearly 2Meg when I was told it should be around 11Meg
                    This and the dropping problem is probably the fault of your local telephone lines rather than your ISP. Standard telephone lines get slower the further you are from the local exchange due to signal degradation. I had the same thing when I last moved (went from 5 meg down to barely over 1, and had to downgrade my package )

                    Cable should be much better but we warned that even that doesn't guarantee you'll get the speed you paid for, since most ISPs scrimp on bandwidth under the assumption that most people will never 'need' a full 20 meg or whatever they're paying for.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by MattyD View Post
                      This and the dropping problem is probably the fault of your local telephone lines rather than your ISP. Standard telephone lines get slower the further you are from the local exchange due to signal degradation. I had the same thing when I last moved (went from 5 meg down to barely over 1, and had to downgrade my package )

                      Cable should be much better but we warned that even that doesn't guarantee you'll get the speed you paid for, since most ISPs scrimp on bandwidth under the assumption that most people will never 'need' a full 20 meg or whatever they're paying for.
                      Hearing you mate, paying ?17.50 for 2Meg is not good Just hope the cable can come through literally...

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                        #12
                        As far as I'm aware cable, if available, isn't about whether or not you can get the speed they offer. Its all about how many people on your box have the connection, contention ratios and all that.

                        I'm a be* customer, have been for ages. Am very happy with their service.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Adrock View Post
                          As far as I'm aware cable, if available, isn't about whether or not you can get the speed they offer. Its all about how many people on your box have the connection, contention ratios and all that.

                          I'm a be* customer, have been for ages. Am very happy with their service.
                          Im totally pro BE when in a good area, just well pissed off with the poor connection here tbh. Dont know how they estimate the connection? But 2Meg is dramatically different to the 11Meg I was expecting out of a hopeful 24Meg

                          UPnP setting change FAIL at 23 mins

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Katsujinken View Post
                            Just changed the UPnP to off and appears to be better so far 9mins!? Whats yours set to?
                            I don't use the Bebox for routing just as a modem as it is ****e.
                            I've bridged the modem into a Draytek router and this solution is rock solid stable if a little complicated.

                            What is your line attenuation? This will determine your sync speed.
                            Mine is about 24db and I sync at about 18mb.
                            It was a little unstable though so I modified the SNR to 9db from 6db and although sync speed went down throughput went up as there is not so much error correction required e.g. resending of packets.

                            You are connecting the router to the master socket in the house and have removed all extensions during the test?
                            Last edited by smouty; 11-02-2009, 18:16.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Katsujinken View Post
                              I have been with BE for ages and no problems until now. Just moved house and the connection is shocking bearly 2Meg when I was told it should be around 11Meg

                              My 360 is constantly dropping from LIVE when left alone for 5+mins even on an ethernet connection it took pretty much a day to download the Burnout Paradise free pack I tried playing GOW2 online and that seemed to be ok for the few rounds of horde but cant be sure for certain whether it would hold a game etc.

                              I have been on the phone to BE pretty much all day, and been swapping from static to dynamic IP and vise versa... As I type the 360 has again dropped after 3mins?
                              Wii connection drops randomly whilst in the download store from menu to menu too.

                              The laptop connections are also fammydodd, so I have Virgin comming round to see if I can get a cable connection as I have done all I can think of to establish a decent connection via BE Broadband?
                              That is my world too. I started online NHL last night and dropped in the first period. I reloaded the game after reestablishing the connection and waited for VP to finish the game. We started another one straight away, I was putting in a decent performance, then - BANG - dropped again midway through the second. I could just about cope with the constant drops, if it wasn't for the LAGtastic **** being served up by my IP. NHL and Halo 3 run like diarrhoea. It's often unplayable, freezing for a second in every 3. Absolute ****.

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