Broardband selection
 

I've been on one of the broardband selection sites which tells me that that the best performance I can expect at my location is 2Mb

So, is there any point in paying for an 8Mb connection?

Cheers

Re: Broardband selection
 

Broadband is an absolute mine field and can be a right con.........

Having said that I have just changed from Orange, who were S**T to Sky, who so far are superb.

I was paying £17.99 for 8mb orange broadband and it was dropping out at peak times (the times I wanted to use it). Now I am paying £22 for a basic sky TV package + KIDS + VARIETY mixes and 8Mb sky broadband too (the broadband only comes to £5 per month). If I had gone for 2mb it would've been free.

If you already have sky it might be worth investigating?

Re: Broardband selection
 

They SHOULD automatically downgrade your subscription to a 2Mbps if you go for an 8Mbps and only get less than 2mpbs

Get them to put it in writing that you can order an 8mbps and get a downgrade if you get less than 2mbps

David

Re: Broardband selection
 

when they sell b band they say " up to 8mb connection " ive got 8 meg with tiscali but on a good day i get 6 meg and on a bad day 2 - 4 meg, its all to do with the quality of your line and how far u are away from the exchange and how many ppl are on at the time.

Re: Broardband selection
 

If you have an o2 mobile, then get thier boradband. 2meg connection, free wireless router, unlimited downloads, all for £7.50 a month, and UK call centres. bargin.

As for your question, no, but if 8mb connection is thier lowest, then it doesnt matter. You will get whatever speed at that time up to 8mb.

Re: Broardband selection
 

That's very interesting, particulary as I already have SKY

Cheers

Re: Broardband selection
 

How far are you from your exchange. I live about 4 miles away or about 400 by copper routing. BT have advised me that it is impossible for me to have an ADSL service. so I am forced into the cable modem route with all the problems of an over subscribed and under funded network.

One day we will have fibre to the door. but not I think in my lifetime.

Yet is scandanavian countries etc they have 100Mb synchronous connections etc.

Re: Broardband selection
 

I work for a company that makes routers switches and DSLAMS (the network bits that go in exchanges) and to test the ADSL2+ connections (up to 24 meg) we had 2 lines put into the office. We are no more than a mile from the exchange and on one line we could get up to 13meg connection.... the other was no more than 3 meg. It was all down to the shoddy cabling between us and the exchange.

Re: Broardband selection
 

If it hadnt been for the privatisation of BT we would have had fibre to the door (or at the very least the local cabinets) years ago.

The plans were in place for a rollout, and the budgets had been signed off, it was all good to go.

Then privatisation reared its head, and all those plans were shelved to tidy the books up.

We would have been the Telecoms envy of the world.

Re: Broardband selection
 

Is this good then?

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...terntspeed.jpg

Re: Broardband selection
 

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Running Vista is NEVER good.

Without knowing your setup I cant tell Pete.

If you are on ADSL then all that shows is a 10mbps connection to your router - which would be pretty poor unless your router or pc only does 10mbps.

I also dont know what Vista does to measure an interface with the description "The Internet" - again this could default to the adapter speeds

Goto this page, run the test then report back

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

Re: Broardband selection
 

Big caveat here!!

Sky offer the following (so long as you have Sky TV):
- Up to 2Mb with a 2Gb/month cap, free.
- Up to 8Mb with a 40Gb/month cap, £5/month.
- Up to 24Mb with no cap, £10/month.

All of the above is subject to a "setup fee" of £40, and it only counts if your exchange has been unbundled (LLU - Local Loop Unbundled). If you're not unbundled, you get the following:
- Up to 2Mb with 2Gb cap, £15.99/month.
- Up to 8Mb with 40Gb cap, £17.99/month.

Again, there is a £40 connection fee. There is no option for ADSL2 if your exchange isn't LLU'd. The reason for this is that they need to piggyback on someone else's broadband network to be able to use the phoneline (even if you move to Sky Talk, that doesn't move your line to Sky ownership).

Re: Broardband selection
 

Cheers Soulkiss,

I've run the test and it seems mine is rubbish. :smt013

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...peedresult.jpg

Re: Broardband selection
 

Fairly repectable if all you are paying for is a 2Mbps connection really

If paying for more, call customer services and ask to be re-graded to their 2mbps package.

Re: Broardband selection
 

using test sites can be dangerous

Today I got this
http://www.speedtest.net/result/242017015.png
Good?
Yet yesterday I got

http://www.speedtest.net/result/241520548.png

Pretty poo considering I pay for a 20Mb service

You only get the available speed at that point in time. Network capacity, proper monitoring/management. Capacity planning, pre emptive fixing. Call management, decent customer management etc. Are all important factors when choosing a service provider.

Re: Broardband selection
 

We were told we'd been upgraded to the 8Mbps service. Waste of time and money then. Incidentally we are with AOL.

Thanks for your help David.