adsl? need some help!

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shabazz

Guest
Got a bit of a problem.

I've got Homehighway at the minute, but my bro wants ADSL.

Now I'm unsure on what to do. ADSL will help with the phonebill, but I've heard bad things about gaming on it.

He wants it but doesn't give a shit about gaming and my parents take the same route.
Now ISDn is alright for gaming, but it aint the holy grail that some think it is...

But I don't want to get degraded performance from the current setup, regardless if i can use the net at all times (which, i must say, is tempting)

So any help, links, info will be greatly appreciated!

TA

Shab
 
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old.Paul B

Guest
Personally I'd hold off on signing up for BTs ADSL service.

On the surface it has alot of potential AND its cheap (its already £40p/m for a HH box plus £10p/m+ for 0800 net access) assuming you sign up before June 30th and get the free installation.

On the down side though
a) the modem they're supplying will be a USB device. This is fine if you're only going to use Windows 98 (or a Mac), but Windows 95, NT4, Linux and possibly Win2K users are stuffed. And knowing BT it will probably be breaking the terms of your service contract to use a 3rd party Modem/Router to get round this. Though admittedly to many game players this wont be a serious problem.
b) if you have outstanding time on your Home Highway contract BT will "buy" you out of this BUT it means that you HAVE to sign up to BT ADSL for a minimum of 2 years. Again only a problem for some. If you've only got a standard BT line or your 1 year tie in with HH is already up its not a problem.
c) [and this is the biggy] the contention ratio on the home ADSL service will be 50-1. This means that the 512Kb of bandwidth you've signed up for will actually be shared with 49 other ADSL customers. It doesnt take a genius to work out that at busy times you could well have less usable bandwidth than you get from a 56K modem. Not what you want when you're looking for the ultimate gaming experience. ISDN may only provide 64K, but its 64K thats yours and yours alone...

IMHO ADSL is good technology, but BTs version of it just plain stinks...
Wait till next year and the local loop gets unbundled, then you'll (hopefully) start to see some decent ADSL services being provided.

In the meantime I'd hunt around for a decent 0800 net access package, who knows BW could be doing one soon (please!!)

If you want a better written rant check out http://www.theregister.co.uk/000427-000020.html

Hope this helps.

------------------
Paul B
paul@pbrowning.freeserve.co.uk

"The wages of sin are death... but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic"

[This message has been edited by Paul B (edited 27 April 2000).]
 
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shabazz

Guest
Cheers for the info m8.
Ermm, I'm past the 1 year HH contract and I'm 98 with usb etc.
Like you said the only problem is the 50-1 ratio.
its a bloody joke, as i previously thought it was 20-1 (business).
Hmmm so if everyone was on the net at once then I'd get about 10.24 k to play with. since isdn gives 64 i guess thats kinda slow...

Hmmm My Bro is set on getting it and in a matter of days he's gonna sign up (cos he's a stressy arse and ALWAYS get his way).

The only reason he wants it is because he uses it all day at uni and can't cope without it at holidays etc...

Me? I rather stay with whats gonna be better, although it will lessen the call charges (since I need a 0800 in the day).,

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I just donna wanna sign up and get absolute shite cons. Dl's matter - if you aint paying who cares, but games will be screwed.
Unfortunatnly in the eyes of my parents games dont matter...........

Cheers for the info, I'll have to try and convince my bro about the 50-1 ratio

Laters

Shab
www.shabazz.co.uk
 
E

Embattle

Guest
A dirty firewall is causing considerable problems :0.
 
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old.MeddlE

Guest
Interesting about the contention ratio. Telewest are guaranteeing a minimum of 256kbps up to 512kbps. Sounds like their contention ration is far better.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
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old.TheGuyver

Guest
Had a big ol row with some peanut a few weeks back about adsl and isdn.

He based his entire arguement on 1 person using it in a trial area and his other mate with HH.

Well dur! The adsl will just a tad out perform ISDN.

I couldnt remember the ratio so cheers guys. Pretty sick aint it? mind you 10 k is enough for irc... and icq so hehe.

Also what about the actuall infrastructure? the world wide wait is slow as it is. Surely as time progresses and more people join onto adsl it will get worse? and not just for users of BT/ADSL unless a fine balance is struck it may be possible that we could be swamped!

I remember BT stating that thier network was fine and well able to cope with this new influx of data... Time will tell.

IMVHO adsl will rock for a while, until too many people join it. Thats proven by the trialists.

Go for adsl.
(out on a limb here...) You will never get a perfect connection, even ISDN has its limits, but the rewards are there to reap for like the 1st year or so. (depends where u live, population density etc)
 
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old.TheGuyver

Guest
oh and btw ADSL is very old technology now. BT 1st tryed it out 5 years ago.
 
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xane

Guest
I have HH and I am very interested in moving to ADSL also.

Personally, right now, I would wait. Although the £150 installation fee waiver is attractive, you have to use BT as the ISP, do you wamt BT as your ISP ?

Wait until other companies start announcing their plans (around July), I know my ISP Nildram is ready to announce soon. See what the competition is like.

You could wait even longer, in July 2001 the ULL takes place and you will be free to use alternative telcos with any equipment - analogue, ISDN, DSL or cable, you can kick BT entirely out of the circuit, prices will fall.

Also wait for the 0800 numbers to announce changes, maybe offering ISDN and no cut-off times. They are effectively unmetered and in direct competition.

The big attraction with ADSL is unmetered access and fast connection. If all you want is unmetered access and don't really care that much about fast connection (say for chat or email), then an 0800 number on a standard line is far cheaper.

Also note that ADSL has a high bandwidth, not a high speed. This improves download speeds considerably, but does not necessarily affect ping times. I can get 30-60 ping on most UK Quake servers with ISDN 64k, moving to 128k is a hardly noticeable affect, because all I am doing is increasing bandwidth not speed.

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camazotz
 
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