Broadband

[Az00123]

Hi guys, atm i'm with orange broadband (worst mistake EVER)
My 12 month contract ran out in february but i didn't realise till now.

So, i'm looking for a good broadband supplier which isn't too pricy. My mum wants to go with BT because she think she'll probably get some sort of deal with bt broadband and option 3 phone. I also have sky tv so i was wondering if sky bb would be a good route as well. I use the internet mostly for gaming (css/aoe3) and torrenting (download more than 50gbs a month), using skype for calls is also a possibility for my family (my grandad made our phone bill go up to 80 quid with all his foreign calls) so i don't want a limit (apart from fair usage of course)

[TAKTAK]

Sky BB MAX is a brilliant service else look at BE*/O2, they are the best ISP around at the moment and are looking at staying that way.

If your exchange is LLU enabled for skyBB then go with them

[vrykyl]

Finally Done it......

[Az00123]

On O2s broadband checker it says i can only get the standard or premium package, what's the premium package compared to sky max like? I am willing to go PAYG with O2 to get 5 quid off their broadband, with that offer can i get their broadband just after getting a SIM and topping it up or do i need to wait a period of time?

[s_kinton]

Originally Posted by Az00123

On O2s broadband checker it says i can only get the standard or premium package, what's the premium package compared to sky max like? I am willing to go PAYG with O2 to get 5 quid off their broadband, with that offer can i get their broadband just after getting a SIM and topping it up or do i need to wait a period of time?

The standard package is 8mb, Premium is 16mb and Ultimate is 20mb (not an option for you). All are uncapped, unlimited use with a free wifi router and free connection if you sign up before the end of June.

Im pretty sure you dont need to wait any specific period of time, just get a PAYG sim, put credit on and then call them to get broadband. They'll just ask for your mobile number whilst you're on the phone to them and send you a text - you just read the number back to them and the discount is yours. You need to put £10 of credit on the PAYG sim every 3 months at a minimum, thats it!

[Zadock]

I have O2, happy so far. One or two problems with the O2 box but master reset seems to have sorted those out. You get a decent upstream with O2/Be (up to 1.3MBps), which I notice is a fair bit higher than some ISPs.

[kmac]

Another thumbs up from O2 although even after switching to the unofficial O2 forums DNS servers, BTs DNS servers were faster

The O2 DNS servers are panst so avoid. Stopped using Open DNS as they redirect Google

[mikkri]

I'm with Be for about a year now. I'm not happy with upload speed, but seems like you wouldn't get anything better for such price. Router they provide has lots of functions including VOIP support with decent sound quality, so I do use it a lot. However I'd prefer more stable model, mine has issues sometimes and require restart.

Go Be directly I believe.

[Az00123]

How many ethernet ports does the router that comes with Be have? i've recently bought a 20m ethernet cable to connect my old dell to my router so i need at least 2 ethernet ports (i hate wireless)

edit: also, if o2 say i can't get their ultimate package, how come Be offer me all their packages when i type my phone number into their system

[mikkri]

My BeBox (how they call router) has 4 ethernet ports and 2 voip ports. But it supports no more than 1 voip provider, so you can have two lines from the same voip provider if you want, but I don't see any reason why you may need that at home.

[Az00123]

ok thanks, looks like its between be and sky for me then

is be really that much better than sky to justify cost (i'm looking to go for be unlimited atm)

[mikkri]

Originally Posted by Az00123

ok thanks, looks like its between be and sky for me then

is be really that much better than sky to justify cost (i'm looking to go for be unlimited atm)

Don't know about Sky really, but I doubt it is as good as Be. For the start lots of people around recommend Be. But in fact that comes to the question how much do you value your time? Be is known to have good customer support (used twice - to get it setup and to obtain static IP) and the Internet connectivity itself is pretty solid. Last year I had 1 or 2 days down and that was because someone on BT exchange was doing some unplanned engineering works. Be itself schedule all engineering works during late night hours and send you e-mail and SMS in advance. Pretty nice.

To be fair I don't like pings I get on my connection, but I doubt I'll be able to get anything better for such price. Download speed is good, say BBC iPlayer is almost instant (sub 15 minutes per any download I saw). Windows Vista x64 SP1 (about 900Mb) took about 30 minutes yesterday.

And BeBox isn't rock solid bit of hardware - I personally have doubts that would I replace it with Linksys I'll get faster Internet connection on my notebook. But it would cost me about 150 to replace BeBox (router with WIFI + VOIP), so I'm not in rush to try.

Finally, Be lets you cancel your contract after 3 months, so you won't loose much if you don't like it.

[kopite]

Im on sky unlimited and its been great for me.

I have dled about 300+ gig a month with little problem (I only get 2.5 meg connection due to distance from the exchange) ITs been brilliant so ar.

[Pup]

Originally Posted by kopite

Im on sky unlimited and its been great for me.

I have dled about 300+ gig a month with little problem (I only get 2.5 meg connection due to distance from the exchange) ITs been brilliant so ar.

I got Sky Medium since I wasnt expecting to get much bandwidth due to my distance from the exchange. I get 2mb, but the first hop on any traceroute is 80ms, do you get the same?

[Blitzen]

Originally Posted by Az00123

is be really that much better than sky to justify cost (i'm looking to go for be unlimited atm)

No its not. Plus the SKY router (especially the Netgear V2 which they give away now), is far superior to the BEbox. In fact, i have sold 2 or 3 SKY routers to people on BE as the box BE give away is that bad.

Originally Posted by mikkri

Don't know about Sky really, but I doubt it is as good as Be. For the start lots of people around recommend Be. But in fact that comes to the question how much do you value your time? Be is known to have good customer support (used twice - to get it setup and to obtain static IP) and the Internet connectivity itself is pretty solid. Last year I had 1 or 2 days down and that was because someone on BT exchange was doing some unplanned engineering works. Be itself schedule all engineering works during late night hours and send you e-mail and SMS in advance. Pretty nice.

To be fair I don't like pings I get on my connection, but I doubt I'll be able to get anything better for such price. Download speed is good, say BBC iPlayer is almost instant (sub 15 minutes per any download I saw). Windows Vista x64 SP1 (about 900Mb) took about 30 minutes yesterday.

And BeBox isn't rock solid bit of hardware - I personally have doubts that would I replace it with Linksys I'll get faster Internet connection on my notebook. But it would cost me about 150 to replace BeBox (router with WIFI + VOIP), so I'm not in rush to try.

Finally, Be lets you cancel your contract after 3 months, so you won't loose much if you don't like it.

The only time Be is better than SKY MAX is if you want a huge upload speed.

My SKY MAX is:

12.6mb Down
768kbps UP
Its unlimited as (well...not totally....Sky MAX is 500GB per month so Tier3 told me). I doubt anyone uses that. The speeds are at a constant 24/7 without variation aswell.

For £10 a month, imo, that is better value than BE.......in fact, better value than anyone.
Sky has had a rep for bad customer service aswell. Granted, Tier 1 is awful. Tier 2/3 though is fantastic and they can alter ALL your settings in real time so call them, tell them what you want and they will set it.

They can alter ping, upload, download, noise margins ,......the lot.

[s_kinton]

I can't see the benfeits for most users to choose Be over O2. O2 is cheaper and uses the same network. The new white O2 wireless box II has solved almost all the previously mentioned issues with the old style black router. Mainly overheating and dropping the internet connection.

O2 customer service is second to none. They answer the phone within 1 ring, they're UK based 24/7 on an 0800 number. As Blitzen mentioned above the O2 rep can alter ping, upload, download, noise margins in real time whilst on the phone.

Also, how are people managing to download between 30-300+ Gbs a month? Legal torrents I assume......