Should I move to Virgin Media Cable?

There is approx 900 metres of cable between my PC and the exchange and I've
had the line checked and been told it is up to spec. ADSL Max is available.
However most online broadband checkers advise I can only get a maximum speed
of 2 meg on my line. This is odd, as I know someone that lives a bit further
from the same exchange than I do and they get a 6 meg connection through BT.



I've had a 1 meg ADSL service with Pipex for years. I tried upgrading to
their Business Pro package (8 meg or 16 meg where available) however this
has twice failed to work and they have now told me their system won't let me
upgrade my existing account. There have also been some recent problems such
as connection interrupts whilst gaming and periods where I can't access
peer-to-peer file sharing or Usenet (e.g. this group). Things do seem to be
worse since Tiscali bought them, so it appears to be time to move on.



I am only looking for broadband, I don't want any additional phone or TV
services.



So do I try to get an 8 meg service from another ADSL supplier or sign up to
the 4 meg cable service with Virgin Media? I have seen a lot of complaints
about Virgin media, although many of these relate to their ADSL or telephone
services or their 20 meg cable broadband service only delivering half the
advertised speed. There appear to be additional concerns posted in this
group about things VM may do next that are off-putting.



O2/BE get good reviews, however they are not available from my exchange
:-( Tiscali are (in theory) cheaper and faster than my existing deal,
however it strikes me that they may not deliver anything better than I am
receiving from Pipex.



Would a move to Virgin Media Cable be out of the frying pan and into the
fire? Does their 4 meg connection deliver and do they restrict gaming,
peer-to-peer or Usenet access? Or is there a quality ADSL supplier I should
chose?



Thank you.

Confused of Bristol wrote:

> There is approx 900 metres of cable between my PC and the exchange and I've
> had the line checked and been told it is up to spec. ADSL Max is available.
> However most online broadband checkers advise I can only get a maximum speed
> of 2 meg on my line. This is odd, as I know someone that lives a bit further
> from the same exchange than I do and they get a 6 meg connection through BT.

Yes they would. At your distance I'd expect 8128 kbps sync and 7150 kbps data
rate.


> I've had a 1 meg ADSL service with Pipex for years.

Pipex are now complete rubbish.


> I tried upgrading to
> their Business Pro package (8 meg or 16 meg where available) however this
> has twice failed to work and they have now told me their system won't let me
> upgrade my existing account. There have also been some recent problems such
> as connection interrupts whilst gaming and periods where I can't access
> peer-to-peer file sharing or Usenet (e.g. this group). Things do seem to be
> worse since Tiscali bought them, so it appears to be time to move on.
>
> I am only looking for broadband, I don't want any additional phone or TV
> services.
>
> So do I try to get an 8 meg service from another ADSL supplier

Yes. But PLEASE don't go for a botton feeder ISP if you value decent
connectivity. Idnet however are quite excellent.


> or sign up to the 4 meg cable service with Virgin Media?

Only if you're really into masochism.


> I have seen a lot of complaints
> about Virgin media, although many of these relate to their ADSL or telephone
> services or their 20 meg cable broadband service only delivering half the
> advertised speed. There appear to be additional concerns posted in this
> group about things VM may do next that are off-putting.

I tried Virgin's 4 meg service. It was OK during of-peak periods but dropped to
~ 500kbps during the evening peak.

In other words it's shite ! I still have a log of the figures.

Graham

One concern you may have with virgin media is the peer to peer. They
have a strict traffic management policy which has just got worse. You
would never download 700MB without your connecting being slowed down.
Possibly on the plus side though the chances are you current line will
have interleaving on it which increases latency and a virgin media
connection probably have less so you get better pings with game
servers. As for why you can't get 6meg, well this other guy may have a
cable running a whole different route than your and although you may
live 900m from the exchange your cable could be running for 7km before
it gets to the exchange. Another possibility is there is aluminium
joints and cabling in your area which would cause that issue. OR you
have the same problem as me, BT claim my line is only capable of
500kbps and max 512kbps on fixed rate, although I get over 3meg, may
be your case but unless you try you will never know.
Dont know how much of a technical person you are, put post your line
statistics here and we will try and give you an idea of what you line
is capable of or if you don't know how to get them post your Modem/
Routers Make and model go on from there. You should be looking for
something in the router setup along the lines of Line Attenuation and
Noise Margin or SNR.

On 27 Apr, 17:21, "Confused of Bristol" <nobodyh...@deadspam.com>
wrote:
> There is approx 900 metres of cable between my PC and the exchange and I've
> had the line checked and been told it is up to spec. ADSL Max is available.
> However most online broadband checkers advise I can only get a maximum speed
> of 2 meg on my line. This is odd, as I know someone that lives a bit further
> from the same exchange than I do and they get a 6 meg connection through BT.
>
> I've had a 1 meg ADSL service with Pipex for years. I tried upgrading to
> their Business Pro package (8 meg or 16 meg where available) however this
> has twice failed to work and they have now told me their system won't let me
> upgrade my existing account. There have also been some recent problems such
> as connection interrupts whilst gaming and periods where I can't access
> peer-to-peer file sharing or Usenet (e.g. this group). Things do seem to be
> worse since Tiscali bought them, so it appears to be time to move on.
>
> I am only looking for broadband, I don't want any additional phone or TV
> services.
>
> So do I try to get an 8 meg service from another ADSL supplier or sign up to
> the 4 meg cable service with Virgin Media? I have seen a lot of complaints
> about Virgin media, although many of these relate to their ADSL or telephone
> services or their 20 meg cable broadband service only delivering half the
> advertised speed. There appear to be additional concerns posted in this
> group about things VM may do next that are off-putting.
>
> O2/BE get good reviews, however they are not available from my exchange
> :-( Tiscali are (in theory) cheaper and faster than my existing deal,
> however it strikes me that they may not deliver anything better than I am
> receiving from Pipex.
>
> Would a move to Virgin Media Cable be out of the frying pan and into the
> fire? Does their 4 meg connection deliver and do they restrict gaming,
> peer-to-peer or Usenet access? Or is there a quality ADSL supplier I should
> chose?
>
> Thank you.

One concern you may have with virgin media is the peer to peer. They
have a strict traffic management policy which has just got worse. You
would never download 700MB without your connecting being slowed down.
Possibly on the plus side though the chances are you current line will
have interleaving on it which increases latency and a virgin media
connection probably have less so you get better pings with game
servers. As for why you can't get 6meg, well this other guy may have a
cable running a whole different route than your and although you may
live 900m from the exchange your cable could be running for 7km before
it gets to the exchange. Another possibility is there is aluminium
joints and cabling in your area which would cause that issue. OR you
have the same problem as me, BT claim my line is only capable of
500kbps and max 512kbps on fixed rate, although I get over 3meg, may
be your case but unless you try you will never know.
Dont know how much of a technical person you are, put post your line
statistics here and we will try and give you an idea of what you line
is capable of or if you don't know how to get them post your Modem/
Routers Make and model go on from there. You should be looking for
something in the router setup along the lines of Line Attenuation and
Noise Margin or SNR.

--
http://technicianspot.blogspot.com/

"Confused of Bristol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> There is approx 900 metres of cable between my PC and the exchange and
> I've had the line checked and been told it is up to spec. ADSL Max is
> available. However most online broadband checkers advise I can only
> get a maximum speed of 2 meg on my line. This is odd, as I know
> someone that lives a bit further from the same exchange than I do and
> they get a 6 meg connection through BT.
>
>
>
> I've had a 1 meg ADSL service with Pipex for years. I tried upgrading
> to their Business Pro package (8 meg or 16 meg where available)
> however this has twice failed to work and they have now told me their
> system won't let me upgrade my existing account. There have also been
> some recent problems such as connection interrupts whilst gaming and
> periods where I can't access peer-to-peer file sharing or Usenet (e.g.
> this group). Things do seem to be worse since Tiscali bought them, so
> it appears to be time to move on.
>
>
>
> I am only looking for broadband, I don't want any additional phone or
> TV services.
>
>
>
> So do I try to get an 8 meg service from another ADSL supplier or sign
> up to the 4 meg cable service with Virgin Media? I have seen a lot of
> complaints about Virgin media, although many of these relate to their
> ADSL or telephone services or their 20 meg cable broadband service
> only delivering half the advertised speed. There appear to be
> additional concerns posted in this group about things VM may do next
> that are off-putting.
>
>
>
> O2/BE get good reviews, however they are not available from my
> exchange :-( Tiscali are (in theory) cheaper and faster than my
> existing deal, however it strikes me that they may not deliver
> anything better than I am receiving from Pipex.
>
>
>
> Would a move to Virgin Media Cable be out of the frying pan and into
> the fire? Does their 4 meg connection deliver and do they restrict
> gaming, peer-to-peer or Usenet access? Or is there a quality ADSL
> supplier I should chose?
>
>

Tends to suggest your local exchange may not be LLU'd. Have a look at
www.samknows.co.uk to find out.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Here's the information on my exchange:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSBED

It's about 600 metres from me in a straight line and when I had the line
tested I was told the actual cable length is just over 900 metres.

I currently connect using a USB ADSL modem. This generally shows an
upstream/downstream rate of 448 kbps up and 7.6 Mbps down, although the down
figure can vary downwards, normally when I've had a disconnect. Pipex have
not been able to upgrade my existing 1 Mbps service, although they said that
if I cancelled my existing contract and set one up from scratch (requiring a
new email address etc.) that it should work. That was pretty much when I
decided it was time to move on!

The actual speed I get on the line according to
http://speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/ is a bandwidth around 1,000 kbps on a
good day (presumably this is what should be expected with the speed limited
by the provider rather than any technical issues). I've just run the test a
few times and my bandwidth seems to be around 980 kbps at the moment giving
an actual download rate of around 100 kbps.

The BT speedchecker on their own website reports "We've just tested your
line and can confirm your line supports the UK's most complete broadband
package, BT Total Broadband and we can confirm that you will be able to
reach a maximum download speed of 2.0 Mbps (Megabits per second)."

However http://speedtest.broadbandgenie.co.uk/ reports "According to BT
wholesale, your line should be able to support a 5.9 Mbps ADSL connection
via ADSL max" which contradicts the BT website but does seem a more logical
answer to me. Could the slower maximum speeds be reported because I've
always had a fixed speed connection?

I would be happy to get a genuine 5 Mbps connection and I suppose I'm
prepared to pay up to £25 a month for a good quality broadband provider that
will also include email, some webspace, binary newsgroup access etc.

Cheers.

"Woody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:0d4Rj.70632$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Tends to suggest your local exchange may not be LLU'd. Have a look at
> www.samknows.co.uk to find out.
>
>
> --
> Woody

It's this one:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSBED

Confused of Bristol wrote:

> Here's the information on my exchange:
> http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSBED
>
> It's about 600 metres from me in a straight line and when I had the line
> tested I was told the actual cable length is just over 900 metres.
>
> I currently connect using a USB ADSL modem. This generally shows an
> upstream/downstream rate of 448 kbps up and 7.6 Mbps down, although the down
> figure can vary downwards, normally when I've had a disconnect. Pipex have
> not been able to upgrade my existing 1 Mbps service

They are a bunch of clueless IDIOTS.

Graham

"Confused of Bristol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Woody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:0d4Rj.70632$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> Tends to suggest your local exchange may not be LLU'd. Have a look at
>> www.samknows.co.uk to find out.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Woody
>
> It's this one:
>
> http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSBED
>
>
>

Yes

"Woody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:2Q6Rj.16347$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Confused of Bristol" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> "Woody" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:0d4Rj.70632$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>
>>> Tends to suggest your local exchange may not be LLU'd. Have a look at
>>> www.samknows.co.uk to find out.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Woody
>>
>> It's this one:
>>
>> http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SSBED
>>
>>
>>
>
> Yes

So is it all just reselling BT through my exchange or would it be worth
looking at Easynet / UKOnline?

And would I actually get a better service if I went with a supplier such as
IDNET even though it's going through BT gear?

Thanks.