ADSL advise

[r1zeek]

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/fu...l.php?exch=176
Thats my exchange, its due to get enabled on Novemeber the 24th.
I am planning to get broadband (ADSL?) i'm about 2-3 miles from the exchange and i'm gonna be sharing it between 3 people.
I am hoping to get something around 1 or 2 mbits and I really need to know if I will be able to get 1- 2 mbits straight away and who I should get it from (ISP wise)
I'm down in East Sussex here so I don't know if Blueyonder and such will give me ADSL.
Thanks

[Atomic]

If its ADSL enabled you should be able to get 2MB if you wanted straight away, depending on the quality of you line.

sharing it with 3 people? All heavy downloaders or normal use?

1MB is nice, normally ~£35 a month so not too expensive either.

ISP wise... Zen are ace. So are (were?) Nildram.

Bulldog might be worth a look also.

Have a look here:

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/summarylist.asp

[r1zeek]

sharing it with 3 people? All heavy downloaders or normal use?......ISP wise... Zen are ace. So are (were?) Nildram.

Well, the whole line is shared between 3 people. myself, my dad (who will just use it to check e-mails and e-mail alot of high res pictures around (so we need a very fast upstream aswell as downstream) and my sister who will just use IRC, MSN and surf the net.
I'm the heavy downloader in the family so I will just max out the connection overnight
I'll have a look at Zen in a moment, see what sorta up/down speeds they can give me.
Cheers

[r1zeek]

http://www.zenadsl.com/adsl.aspx
Contention 50:1 or 20:1
Would anybody care to explain?

[Atomic]

All ADSL lines – regardless of service provider - are subject to contention, meaning that the network bandwidth available is shared between a number of subscribers. The ratio to which the available bandwidth is shared between users is called the "contention ratio". All UK providers, including BT, are subject to the same contention ratios. Services targeted at casual home users are frequently cheaper, but have a higher contention ratio. This means that the available network capacity is shared between a greater number of users. Business services have a lower contention ratio, which will provide a more consistent level of performance. A 50 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with up to 50 other subscribers, whereas a 20 to 1 contention ration means the bandwidth may be shared with no more than 20 other subscribers.

Basically don't worry about it as the chances of the other 50 people your 'sharing' with using all of their bandwidth are so low.

50:1 is what most normal people are on btw.

[Lee H]

(so we need a very fast upstream aswell as downstream)

Unless you opt for SDSL which is on the whole out of EVERBODYS price range, you will get the standard upload speed of 30 Kb/s. AFAIK bulldog offer a 40 K upload on their LLU type connections, but every other provider is 30 K upload.

[Spunkey]

SDSL 8Mb up and downstream *drools*

anyways, like most have said here no major ISPs seem to care about the upload speeds as thats not what sells home broadband. 256k is about normal.
try out www.cpbb.co.uk - I've ordered they're 1mb service (also with 256k up) at 25.99 a month.

Besides that, at 256k, its still going to b 5x faster than dial up so its better than a kick in the nads.

[Purple]

I just got my Central Point 1meg connection, it took them a month, then they messed up the billing and so i ended up with 50 emails saying that my payment had been rejected.