Broadband Upgrade

[maria]

Has anyone upgraded their broadband?

I am currently with BT paying £29.99 a month for my broadband connection, which I have noticed over the last few months is not a fast as it used to be when I first had it 2 years ago now.

I am considering upgrading my system to the 1 meg option which BT have advised will cost £40.99 a month.

Can anyone out there tell me if i will notice any difference in performance, or can recommend a better package for me.

My PC is now about 2 years old 2.2GHz 60GB P4, maybe I would be better spending some more money upgrading my system.

Thanks in advance

Maria

[aido]

It all depends what you use it for to be honest - if you download a lot of large files then the upgrade will speed everything up, browsing will be snappier also which would be worth it.

If you don't tend to use the internet for much other than occasional browsing and email I wouldn't really say it's worth moving up from 512 as the benefits would be neglible unless you spend a lot of time browsing....

[ColinBarber]

The slow down is probably other people now using the same connection to the exchange as you. I think BT has a 50 to 1 contention and unless they prioritise 1Mb users it may still be as slow.

It will really only improve download speed, not browsing, and that is dependant on the server you are downloading from.

[Brettster]

I had BT adsl 512k then I moved to NTL 1meg and the difference is quite alot for everything from browsing to file downloads.

also getting rid of the USB frog modem made a huge difference to my PC's stabilty and resources. The NTL one use's its own modem that connects via ethernet to my PC. which also made it very easy to plug into a router and share the connection around the house.

I found that BT's ADSL spent more time down than up for me so im very glad i made the change. but thats just my personal experience

[ifraz]

I found that BT's ADSL spent more time down than up for me so im very glad i made the change. but thats just my personal experience

Same Here.

I have 4 months left on my ADSL broadband contract. I can't wait for it to finish so I can move away from BT.

Also, I find their customer services and technical help appauling :o

I haven't noticed any difference in the connection speed since signing up 8 months ago. It's just the reliability I'm not happy with.

I'm quite happy with 512 and will be sticking with it. :)

[Rodders_UK]

I've just ordered the 1MB upgrade from BT.

Personally, I've been delighted with ADSL - I've had 100% uptime since having it and find the customer service excellent

[Lexus Jim]

get away from BT IMO. service sucks and dead expensive. Just moving to pipex as we speak and will be upgrading to the 1 meg account as soon as I've migrated. £32 for 1 meg on pipex (i think but defo not £40) just remember that your download may be double but the upload stays the same (288 ish)

[UKPulse]

Same story here. I've had BT "OpenWoe" DSL for a couple of years now. Initially the service was ok, but it's gone steadily downhill. Specifically - link speed has fallen thru the floor, reliability is now 50/50 at best and their helpdesk is a joke.

As I have to work from home more these days, I need something reliable & in my experience BT just don't measure up. I'm switching to Zen who charge just £23.82 for their half meg offering, and will then probably upgrade to their 1Mb service, which is £34 (well, the company's paying for it)

[Rodders_UK]

OK - each to their own of course, but surely Zen, Pipex, AOL, whatever etc etc etc uses a BT local connection and BT exchange equipment same as ADSL - so if you're swapping because of technical probs how will that make any difference?

[Lexus Jim]

not sure about that, but I do know that Bt are dead expensive and cos I'm with BT broadband and not openworld I don't even get an email adress and still paying over the odd's. Why can't a massive company like BT compete with the rest?

Think the only reason why they still got business is cos people started out with them and can't be bothered to change

[ColinBarber]

All ADSL suppliers use BT infrastructure. Their local loop, equipment and also part of their core IP network until it is routed off to the ISPs connection.

BT charge more because they know many people will pay for their products and also they want to stay in business. If you lease ADSL lines from BT wholesale for £18 a month and then sell a line to a customer for £19 or £20 a month, how long is that ISP going to stay in business?

[UKPulse]

Ok, my reasoning is this - I pay £29.99 a month to BT for a 512K connection. Within any given 24hr period, the line will drop at least once, and very often 2 or 3 times (so much for an 'always on' connection). Browsing used to be quick, but now it's quite slow, comparable to what I used to get on ISDN or modem - the LOC forum home page takes a good 30-40 seconds to appear. I have given up ringing the helpdesk as the answer is always the same 1) There's nothing wrong, 2) I must have done something or 3) Power everything off then on again. They say they've tested my line and everything is normal.

I happen to have a neighbour 4 doors down the road who used to be with BT but changed to Zen because of similar problems. He pays just over £24 and hasn't had a problem since switching. On some occassions I take my laptop down to his place & he lets me use his line when I can't connect from home! Never had a problem with his connection (and he always has lots of beer in the fridge)! :winky:

Couple that with the fact that Zen seem to be well ahead of BT in the speed, reliability and service ratings, I'd be a fool not to give them a try. Yes I appreciate the local loop is on BT's wire, but there must be parts of the overall infrastructure that Zen do differently to get such good ratings. And if they go bust selling their 512K package at £24 rather than £29, and BT are the only ISP left, then (maybe) I'll consider changing back :P

I've nothing against BT personally, and I'm sure they have many happy customers out there - I used to be one! This is just my personal experience.

[aido]

connection. Within any given 24hr period, the line will drop at least once, and very often 2 or 3 times (so much for an 'always on' connection).

This could be a physical line fault - I had a similar issue a while back and the BT engineer had to rewire everything from the pole into the BT master socket - never had a problem since (touch wood!)

The kit you're using can also be an issue - I'm using an Efficient Networks router now and it's totally rock solid.

[ColinBarber]

Does sound like a physical fault and if so then the same problem will occur whoever the ISP is.

Most faults people get seem to be caused by those rubbish USB models that are supplied.

[Rodders_UK]

Most faults people get seem to be caused by those rubbish USB models that are supplied.

I agree - I swapped mine out for an Ethernet router and things have been perfectly reliable since

[LennyLexus]

The slow down is probably other people now using the same connection to the exchange as you. I think BT has a 50 to 1 contention and unless they prioritise 1Mb users it may still be as slow.

It will really only improve download speed, not browsing, and that is dependant on the server you are downloading from.

I had a feeling you were gonna say Telewest do a good line for £34.99 a month 1mb? Bison has that and its faaaaaaast.

I'm happy with my standard broadband at home, got 56k here at work and 9-5 got ISDN probably.

[ColinBarber]

I had a feeling you were gonna say Telewest do a good line for £34.99 a month 1mb? Bison has that and its faaaaaaast.

I'm happy with my standard broadband at home, got 56k here at work and 9-5 got ISDN probably.

Well if you can get Blueyonder broadband where you live then I would recommend getting that. The UBRs and core are not running near capacity and therefore you will achieve the full speeds if you can find a site that will give you that bandwidth, and at £35 per month is £5 cheaper than BT and you get a modem that works (none of this USB rubbish).

However I cannot get it so make to with BT ADSL

[whitie]

BT is well known for tampering with its connection speed (noise ratio etc), NTL is one of the best.

Your PC sounds fast enough, If your thinking of changing your broadband do that and see how you feel from there. :)

[Lexus Jim]

So are these USB ADSL modems that you get off Bt etc rubbish?

Whats the alternatives and how much can I be looking to pay.

I was thinking of getting a PCI ADSL modem just to get rid of all the cables anyway, is this right direction to go?

[ColinBarber]

The problem with the USB modems are: they are cheap, USB requires processing power from the PC and therefore the throughput is normally slower, your machine has to have a USB connection (not so good for your PS2 or XBOX etc) and you have to 'dial' to get a connection.

I guess a PCI card would be better although you are limiting the connection to only that machine.

Best option is to use a ADSL router which you connect to using an Ethernet connection.

[Lexus Jim]

I only have one machine, but would it be worth getting a router anyway incase I fancied getting another machine?

Also what sort of prices and which models, as I know people who have had a lot of problems with certain models of routers

[UKPulse]

I have the old SpeedTouch USB modem (the 'frog') on one PC (and also for the laptop) and a PCI ADSL card on another PC, but symptoms are the same on both cards. Certainly could be a physical problem with the wire to the house, but BT swear blind there's nothing wrong.

If/when I switch to Zen, I'll be looking to get the Netgear DG824M or D-Link DSL-604+ Wireless DSL router as Zen offer 8 static IPs (5 useable) with their package.

[Dobbin]

My 12 months with BT are up in April and I'll be switching to Zen faster than a fast broadband link :duh:

You are only tied into them for a month at a time and you get the added facility of having static IPs - which is great if you work from home and need permanent VPN tunnels etc.

BT have been fine but they don't offer a particularly good value for money service.

[whitie]

Net gear is a good choice of Router, quite a few ISP's are offering differnet packages, such as Static IP's Router/Firewall all-in-ones.

Have a ring around, and play them off against each other, I have a static IP address from NTL, for the same price as their standard package, all because I changed my phone to them and said it was cheaper else where.

[Fidgits]

Net gear is a good choice of Router, quite a few ISP's are offering differnet packages, such as Static IP's Router/Firewall all-in-ones.

I concur with that, recently bought a Netgear all-in-one DSL Router/firewall etc..

Great product, im well impressed..