Broadbanding Providings

[MYstIC G]

Sky customer services just pissed me off, so I'm probably going to switch my broadband elsewhere.

My only requirement is no stupid fucking caps or traffic shaping so if you chaps have any recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them.

Current thinking from limited research is go with O2 (I've got a mobile so it would be cheaper than I already get with Sky, I would get 3 months for sweet FA and on top I can get £100 cashback).

 

[djpringle]

I'm on O2 at the moment, just the standard 8 meg and they allegedly throttle back torrents in the evenings now, I haven't seen it too much as my connection has been pretty much garbage at anytime now apart from 4am

I'll be leaving them in the next 7 - 8 months, god knows who to though...

 

[MYstIC G]

You got any details of where you might have read that matey? I did check here: Bad ISPs - AzureusWiki and they're not listed.

 

[djpringle]

It only applies to the Access package it seems, which is the one I'm on.

 

[MYstIC G]

Cheers for that.

 

[Ch3tan]

YouTube- Fonejacker - internet service providings - Fix your script

YouTube- Fonejacker - ISP

 

[Embattle]

Most have traffic shaping of some form, they tend to remove caps etc off higher packages.

 

[Cadelin]

I am with O2 on the 20MB/s package for the last 2 months and it has been fine. I got £50 + 3 months free and as an O2 mobile customer I get it at a reduced rate too.

A couple of things I should mention are that:
1) I don't particularly like the wireless router it comes with. My macbook seems to have problems connecting to the wireless network.
2) When I did a speed test on my line BT said I would get upto 6MB/s. O2 said I would get upto 14 MB/s (which is why I went for the 20MB/s package rather than basic 8MB/s.) So far it seems that the BT estimate is correct.

Not noticed any traffic shaping or other issues.

 

[Chilly]

phone o2 and get downgraded to 8, save you a few quid.

oh and be are fine, rather than o2. Afaik there is no throttling.

 

[MYstIC G]

Well, unless there's any other suggestions, it looks like it'll be O2 then, get paid to have broadband for 12 months -v- Sky's we're going to shaft you for another £60 a year.

Very silly on Sky's part really as I had absolutely no intention of switching ISP until they pulled this bullshit.

 

[soze]

What did Sky do? I use them and i am very happy and my connection is always a solid 18mb with no shaping and knocks BT who i used to use for 6.

 

[MYstIC G]

They want another £60 a year for fuck all inside the first 12 months and gave me a rake of shit on top when I rang up to ask what it was all about.

 

[old.user4556]

FWIW, my connection with O2 has been absolute toilet at times in the past 3 or so months and has been for a lot of other O2 users (well documented). However, it does appear to be considerably better in the past week or so than when I bl33ted about it on the techie section a month or so ago.

 

[Kryten]

O2 is great here. Plus you already have a bonus - use your Sky router (if its a Netgear 834GT) on O2 and you'll have a much better connection and rate than you would using the O2 provide kit, plus being infinitely more useable and configurable. Just need to flash it with the Netgear gubbins

On the 8mb package, LLU - absolutely no signs of traffic shaping or problems with torrents.

 

[MYstIC G]

Well Sky have got until the end of today to respond to my complain or it's MAC request time!

 

[Fweddy]

I can't get to it on this connection but IIRC Bethere are doing a half price for 12 months deal on their cheapest package on the offers section of their website. I'm not on O2 so I don't know how it compares to their prices, but it's what I plan on getting once I've got a phoneline sorted at home.

 

[Moriath]

virgin canel here 50meg and no shaping or caps ... its lovely

 

[MYstIC G]

I can't get to it on this connection but IIRC Bethere are doing a half price for 12 months deal on their cheapest package on the offers section of their website. I'm not on O2 so I don't know how it compares to their prices, but it's what I plan on getting once I've got a phoneline sorted at home.

Yeah, that's a pretty good deal. I've gotten used to more than 8meg though and it's basically £4 a month more on this deal (still less than Sky). Since I've always got that with Sky and the line is with BT I don't see any reason to doubt that I'll get it from O2.

 

[Trem]

virgin cable here 50meg and no shaping or caps ... its lovely

I was thinking of upgrading to their 50mb, is it true that they have no throttling on the 50mb package? I aren't going to upgrade my 10mb to find out that they throttle the 50mb.

 

[MYstIC G]

It is true. See under traffic management: Broadband speed - Broadband - Virgin Media

/me waits for MAC code

 

[Trem]

Thing is they still say 'fair usage policy applies' which gives them scope to fuck you over whenever they feel like it.

I need to think about it really, especially as they would be charging me £20 for a numpty to come around and plug another modem in for me.

 

[Ch3tan]

Thing is they still say 'fair usage policy applies' which gives them scope to fuck you over whenever they feel like it.

I need to think about it really, especially as they would be charging me £20 for a numpty to come around and plug another modem in for me.

I really don't have a problem on 20meg, the cap doesn't kick in that often, and if it does I just download at different times. I really don't see that 50meg is worth it, the fair use policy means Virgin will screw you over when they feel like it - they are the worst isp when it comes to bending over for the movie and music industry.

Also remember it is UP TO 50megabits, you are very unlikely to get that, and it's not a fibre optic network despite their best efforts to convince people it is.

 

[Trem]

I really don't have a problem on 20meg, the cap doesn't kick in that often, and if it does I just download at different times. I really don't see that 50meg is worth it, the fair use policy means Virgin will screw you over when they feel like it - they are the worst isp when it comes to bending over for the movie and music industry.

Also remember it is UP TO 50megabits, you are very unlikely to get that, and it's not a fibre optic network despite their best efforts to convince people it is.

You see I have a massive problem with Virgin, I was never throttled on NTL and I can't see how Virgin can justify it. They say that the some few users who exceed the download limit can ruin it for everyone but surely that is total and utter bollocks, there is no contention with cable is there? How can a dedicated line into every customers house cause contention?

Like I have said before......Eurovox ftw

 

[Moriath]

never been caught by the fair usage or anything on the 50mb cause theres not enough using it atm ...

i downloaded 100's gb over a month and not a word ..

and dl'ing from newsgroups i always get 50mb from astraweb

oh and your upload is increased to 1.5mb or something

 

[Moriath]

You see I have a massive problem with Virgin, I was never throttled on NTL and I can't see how Virgin can justify it. They say that the some few users who exceed the download limit can ruin it for everyone but surely that is total and utter bollocks, there is no contention with cable is there? How can a dedicated line into every customers house cause contention?

Like I have said before......Eurovox ftw

you get bottle necks in the cable infrastructure so ofc there is contention some place .. iether at thestreet cabinet where more cables go into fewer and anywhere from there to where virgin g oout on to the interweb as there is only finite bandwidth and most of these places ... and generally its not as wide as the sum of its parts..

so if everyone wants to dl the cap all the time then there will be contention

QED

 

[Nate]

I'm on Eclipse, not had any trouble so far but on a very poor speed so that's more then likely why.

 

[MYstIC G]

You see I have a massive problem with Virgin, I was never throttled on NTL and I can't see how Virgin can justify it. They say that the some few users who exceed the download limit can ruin it for everyone but surely that is total and utter bollocks, there is no contention with cable is there? How can a dedicated line into every customers house cause contention?

Because, lets face it, the NTL network as a whole was under-funded and fucking shite. Telewest was sweet to start with, then when things started to merging to help form the Viginmedia Hydra Monster(TM) everything went through the floor. If it hadn't been for all the fucking about (more money for less channels - buh?!?) I'd have happily stayed on Blueyonder, which was (despite the initial connection setup being horrific) the most stable broadband net connection I've ever had.

VM is essentially all the old shit with a "shiny new face" which glosses over the introduction of caps, shaping, that allow the kit to have a bit more life.

 

[soze]

I though Virgins big problem was they had over sold the capacity they have meaning they have to throttle everyone back so everyone can connect? I know that's one of the reasons i Love Sky my mate has been trying to get adsl max for over a year but they say it is sold out on this exchange.

 

[Moriath]

thats a difference between virgin cable and virgin adsl soze

 

[soze]

my bad i though the cable still joined BT's backbone and that is where it bottlenecked I know my cousin with 8 or 12 meg cable broadband has horrible speeds during peak hours.