So whats your Broadband speed at the moment?

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  • QWERTYOPQWERTYOP Posts: 6,878
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    Amazing how people take these fast speeds for granted moaning about 20mb downloads when lots of towns we pay the same price and have to live with total garbage uploads of 4mb and next to nothing can be done about it

    give me 20mb downloads and I would snap your hand off in a heartbeat

    Hey i'm not whinging! Infinity is one of the best things I ever did!
  • IntrakotaIntrakota Posts: 155
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    Your situation is very a difficult one. Without throwing some money at the problem I cant see how it's going to improve.

    You mentioned your Vodafone account, use the link I sent to find your local mast and go to it or as close as you can and see how it performs is it better / faster, if it is you may want to look at a 3G/4G Wireless Router with a connection for an external directional "Yagi" antenna pointing at the mast.
    The problem with going to this extent is that Sod's law says as soon as you do it, something much better will appear courtesy of Alexander Graham Bell.

    Another alternative is a Wibe device from Deltenna, I have one, and they certainly do work. It's a cylindrical device with four directional antennas built in and a wireless router. You put in your Sim card, it registers on the network and scans each antenna constantly for the signal from the best direction, also taking into account reflections from surrounding objects etc - problem expensive (£350) approx.

    Another possible solution is Femtocell, all of the mobile networks provide them now, type Femtocell into Google and pick your operator, here is the Vodafone link http://www.vodafone.co.uk/our-network-and-coverage/signal-blackspots-explained/

    Cheapest and easiest option, shoes and coat on and bang on some doors or at the pub, see who's got what and what speeds they get - you might be in for a surprise.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 38
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    £27.50 a month for Virgin Cable BB

    (No other services from them)

    Rock sold at 100 down and 9.5 up 24/7

    2359599916.png
  • Party AnimalParty Animal Posts: 1,372
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    £27.50 a month for Virgin Cable BB

    (No other services from them)

    Rock sold at 100 down and 9.5 up 24/7

    2359599916.png

    Might be rock solid where you live sadly in my Town we dont have cable so speeds like that are just not an option
    believe me if we had it I would be beating there door down to sign up

    Intrakota
    grateful for your suggestions but having just been made redundant from my job of 18yrs spending so much to get a faster broadband is just not an option at the moment
    so will have to sit and grimace at you poor devils on 20 meg downloads LOL
  • HHGTTGHHGTTG Posts: 5,941
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    This is mine at the moment.

    http://speedtest.net/result/2359864312.png

    Please tell me the advantage of so much higher speeds.
  • Central cakeCentral cake Posts: 5,618
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    HHGTTG wrote: »
    This is mine at the moment.

    http://speedtest.net/result/2359864312.png

    Please tell me the advantage of so much higher speeds.

    Bragging rights.

    Most people I expect who are on fast speeds probably dont use half of it.
  • d'@ved'@ve Posts: 45,431
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    Bragging rights.

    Most people I expect who are on fast speeds probably dont use half of it.

    You are probably right, but...

    Let's say you noticed on Friday night that Basic Instinct was on ITV1 HD and you'd missed half of it but you are in the mood for it and anyway, the video quality on ITV1 HD is a bit naff.

    With fast fibre e.g. BT Infinity 2 you could have it in glorious blu-ray all 32GB of it before the ITV film had finished. In less than an hour. You'd be watching it the same evening instead of tomorrow. I just hope I can afford BT's 300Mbps FTTH service when it starts (OK, probably not!).

    Or download Windows 8 in 4 minutes. Or upload a full HD video to Youtube in a few minutes.

    Impulse really, it's great for doing stuff "now" on impulse. Changes the way you use the internet if you like doing heavy stuff and have the computers to handle it.
  • HHGTTGHHGTTG Posts: 5,941
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    d'@ve wrote: »
    You are probably right, but...

    Let's say you noticed on Friday night that Basic Instinct was on ITV1 HD and you'd missed half of it but you are in the mood for it and anyway, the video quality on ITV1 HD is a bit naff.

    With fast fibre e.g. BT Infinity 2 you could have it in glorious blu-ray all 32GB of it before the ITV film had finished. In less than an hour. You'd be watching it the same evening instead of tomorrow. I just hope I can afford BT's 300Mbps FTTH service when it starts (OK, probably not!).

    Or download Windows 8 in 4 minutes. Or upload a full HD video to Youtube in a few minutes.

    Impulse really, it's great for doing stuff "now" on impulse. Changes the way you use the internet if you like doing pheavy stuff and have the computers to handle it.

    Yes, granted but to do all that you need unlimited bandwidth and how many of us want to pay for that? I don't buy am probably in the minority. Nothing on TV is that important, is it?
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    Amazing how people take these fast speeds for granted moaning about 20mb downloads when lots of towns we pay the same price and have to live with total garbage uploads of 4mb and next to nothing can be done about it

    give me 20mb downloads and I would snap your hand off in a heartbeat

    Yep, you hit the nail on the head, I know of a couple who is on dial up and can not get broadband at all. Next year they should be able to get broadband, because allpay the company I am with is updating their network to that area, so a local company is doing something that Bt and other companies are not doing.

    i also know a few people who could not get anything faster than 2-3Mb/s, but now with fibre they can if they want to.

    The reason I went to Allpay was because I wanted something a bit faster than the measly 3.5 Megabits I could get, ok I could and did push it to 4.5, but that was not so reliable.

    So yes I agree, these people complaining because they got 20mb/s instead of say 25, or they got 35, instead of 38.

    I got a mate to get in touch with Plusnet yesterday since he was on Mad as a fish and fibre have just been enabled where he lives, so hopefully before Christmas he should be getting a a nice 76Mb/s or around that, a bit better than the 5 he is getting now. Saying that he is more interested int he 20Mb/d upload :)
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    HHGTTG wrote: »
    This is mine at the moment.

    http://speedtest.net/result/2359864312.png

    Please tell me the advantage of so much higher speeds.
    Bragging rights.

    Most people I expect who are on fast speeds probably dont use half of it.

    For a lot of people I doubt there is any need for anything faster. A mate of mine is getting about 16, a different mate than the the one above and he is happy with what he have got, fibre should be enabled where he lives by now or it got to be pretty close, but he is not sure if he needs to go for it or not.
    He play games, he is a big games player.

    The only advantage is that it may cost him less as he would bundle it in with Sky, instead of using a separate ISp he is using now.

    Some of it is bragging, but I suppose if you got a family the higher speeds are useful.
  • HHGTTGHHGTTG Posts: 5,941
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    noise747 wrote: »
    For a lot of people I doubt there is any need for anything faster. A mate of mine is getting about 16, a different mate than the the one above and he is happy with what he have got, fibre should be enabled where he lives by now or it got to be pretty close, but he is not sure if he needs to go for it or not.
    He play games, he is a big games player.

    The only advantage is that it may cost him less as he would bundle it in with Sky, instead of using a separate ISp he is using now.

    Some of it is bragging, but I suppose if you got a family the higher speeds are useful.

    Surely it's not the speed but rather the monthly allowance that's important. I'm with BT's basic package that costs £13 per month and gives me 10gig/mth.
    Compared with what I had previously i.e. a Mobile broadband dongle with Vodafone with 2gig a month for £15 and a flaky connection, then my BT BB is a revelation although I'd like a bit more bandwidth but frankly can't be bothered as I'm not greedy and don't have a family to consider. My download speeds are more than enough as I'm only 800 metres from my telephone exchange.
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    HHGTTG wrote: »
    Surely it's not the speed but rather the monthly allowance that's important. I'm with BT's basic package that costs £13 per month and gives me 10gig/mth.
    Compared with what I had previously i.e. a Mobile broadband dongle with Vodafone with 2gig a month for £15 and a flaky connection, then my BT BB is a revelation although I'd like a bit more bandwidth but frankly can't be bothered as I'm not greedy and don't have a family to consider. My download speeds are more than enough as I'm only 800 metres from my telephone exchange.

    Both to be honest. You need the speed if lots of people are using the net at the same time, so there is enough bandwidth for each device on he network to. You then need enough data allowance to do the things you want to do.

    Imagine if some one in one room was say watching Netflix in HD and another in another room was watching Iplayer in HD, then you got someone else listening to a online radio station, and someone else using their xbox, Ps3 or computer to play a game. You need the speed for all that to happen at the same time, but you also need a good data package so they can keep doing that for the month.

    My mate who have just requested fibre from Plusnet, will have 250Gb at his disposal, that is at peak times, I think it is unlimited at off peak, it is only his son and him that uses it so it should be fine, but since they have got a new so called Smart TV his wife is now starting to use Iplayer.
    The speed will be good as he should be able to upload his music and videos at the same time his wife is watching something on Iplayer and at the same time his son is doing what ever he does.
    the good thing for him is that it is only costing him just over a quid more per month and he is getting more data and faster speed.

    I will be interested to see the speed, i never seen broadband at that speed before, the fastest i seen is around 20Mb/s.

    But it still don't make me feel I am losing out, I made my choice to go wireless with a local company and yes I knew at the time that Fibre was not that far away, i still got another 18 months in my contract. Will I change to fibre after 18 months? I have no plans to change to fibre. but anything can happen in 18 months.
    I must admit, the six months since I have had my wireless broadband have flown by.
  • JulesandSandJulesandSand Posts: 6,010
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    I have BT Infinity and find the faster speed very handy for downloading On Demand HD content from Sky.

    The biggest benefit for me is the upload speed, at 17Mbps compared to 0.4Mbps I previously got means that my Slingbox finally delivers decent quality video when I'm away.
  • The SackThe Sack Posts: 10,324
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    HHGTTG wrote: »
    This is mine at the moment.

    http://speedtest.net/result/2359864312.png

    Please tell me the advantage of so much higher speeds.

    Given it costs the same for BT FTTC as it does for standard BT ADSL why wouldn't you get it?

    But in answer to your question we can have everyone streaming catchup or on demand services in HD without our broadband missing a beat. My daughter can upload her seemingly never ending stream of photos to Flickr, tumblr etc. and it no longer effects anyone playing COD etc.

    Infinity for us was the best thing to ever happen to broadband, we have gone from having a 4Mbit internet service to having an entertainment delivery platform.
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    The Sack wrote: »
    Given it costs the same for BT FTTC as it does for standard BT ADSL why wouldn't you get it?

    At the moment it does, but no doubt that is just to get people onto it, once they got enough people they will either put the price up or put the price of ADSL down. Bloated toad is doing it for a reason, certainly not out of the kindness of their heart.

    The other thing that may put people off is the cost of activation, but BT even seems to have dropped that for the higher packages, but then they stick you on a 18 month contract and maybe some people don't want a long contract.

    Also maybe they got a reliable connection at a speed which suits them and they think that changing may cause problems.

    I know of one person who won't change because their phone service is not with BT, but their broadband is and if they changed to infinity they would have to change their phone service to BT, which they don't want to do.

    So there could be many reasons why people want to stay with ADSL.

    I have no idea what I would do if I went back to fixed line broadband. Talk Talk i would not use, Bt I would also not touch, Plusnet is part of BT and I ran away from them once before, so I doubt I would ever go back to them.

    That leaves sky that offer fibre at a price I would pay and to be honest, I really don't want to give Murdoch and his cronies any of my money.
    So really the only choice would be to go back to ADSL24 and back to normal ADSL, but that is not going to happen for a while if it ever did as I am happy with the service I get now,

    But in answer to your question we can have everyone streaming catchup or on demand services in HD without our broadband missing a beat. My daughter can upload her seemingly never ending stream of photos to Flickr, tumblr etc. and it no longer effects anyone playing COD etc.

    Infinity for us was the best thing to ever happen to broadband, we have gone from having a 4Mbit internet service to having an entertainment delivery platform.

    How long have you had Infinity? i was chatting to someone online a few days back and they have been on Infinity for a few months now and all been fine until the last few weeks and they keep getting drop outs and speed slowing down. the last time we was chatting their speed was down to around 11Mb/s and BT seems to be dragging their feet to sort it out.

    They went from Virgin cable to Bt infinity as they was told it was better, now it seems they having more problems with BT than they ever had with Virgin in all the years they was with them.
    Only what I been told, Bt could have sorted it by now as i have not chatted to them for a week or so.

    i have seen on forums a fair few people having problems with fibre, I certainly hope my mate don't or I will never hear the last of it.
    Then as been said before, people only post the complaints and not the good things.
  • The SackThe Sack Posts: 10,324
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    noise747 wrote: »
    The Sack wrote: »
    Given it costs the same for BT FTTC as it does for standard BT ADSL why wouldn't you get it?

    At the moment it does, but no doubt that is just to get people onto it, once they got enough people they will either put the price up or put the price of ADSL down. Bloated toad is doing it for a reason, certainly not out of the kindness of their heart.

    The other thing that may put people off is the cost of activation, but BT even seems to have dropped that for the higher packages, but then they stick you on a 18 month contract and maybe some people don't want a long contract.

    Also maybe they got a reliable connection at a speed which suits them and they think that changing may cause problems.

    I know of one person who won't change because their phone service is not with BT, but their broadband is and if they changed to infinity they would have to change their phone service to BT, which they don't want to do.

    So there could be many reasons why people want to stay with ADSL.

    I have no idea what I would do if I went back to fixed line broadband. Talk Talk i would not use, Bt I would also not touch, Plusnet is part of BT and I ran away from them once before, so I doubt I would ever go back to them.

    That leaves sky that offer fibre at a price I would pay and to be honest, I really don't want to give Murdoch and his cronies any of my money.
    So really the only choice would be to go back to ADSL24 and back to normal ADSL, but that is not going to happen for a while if it ever did as I am happy with the service I get now,




    How long have you had Infinity? i was chatting to someone online a few days back and they have been on Infinity for a few months now and all been fine until the last few weeks and they keep getting drop outs and speed slowing down. the last time we was chatting their speed was down to around 11Mb/s and BT seems to be dragging their feet to sort it out.

    They went from Virgin cable to Bt infinity as they was told it was better, now it seems they having more problems with BT than they ever had with Virgin in all the years they was with them.
    Only what I been told, Bt could have sorted it by now as i have not chatted to them for a week or so.

    i have seen on forums a fair few people having problems with fibre, I certainly hope my mate don't or I will never hear the last of it.
    Then as been said before, people only post the complaints and not the good things.

    I have had infinity for 13 months and its never missed a beat, even the home hub, which i was so adamant i was going to replace has been brill, great range and more reliable than any router i have owned in the last 10 years.

    My speed before hand was 4Mbit with a noise margin of 6db, if there was lighting within 20 miles my DSL was on and off like a brides nighty, my connection now is a 120Mbit sync with loads of noise margin to spare so electrical storms no longer are a problem, just one example of improved reliability.

    Not much point being picky about what ISP you choose as they are all reselling the same BT Openreach product and any faults will be dealt with the same BT Openreach engineers.

    I am not suggesting it is perfect for everyone as i know people have problems but out of all the people i know that have it they are all delighted.
  • d'@ved'@ve Posts: 45,431
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    HHGTTG wrote: »
    Yes, granted but to do all that you need unlimited bandwidth and how many of us want to pay for that? I don't buy am probably in the minority. Nothing on TV is that important, is it?

    The unlimited bandwidth comes 'free' with BT Infinity 2, which doesn't cost much more than Infinity 1 or unlimited adsl. Important? No. Convenient? Very much so (even more so now with Sky's catch-up TV services including iPlayer).

    And it's half the monthly cost of my first 512kbps broadband connection 11 years ago, which had a £256 set-up charge to boot!
  • QWERTYOPQWERTYOP Posts: 6,878
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    It's not about "bragging rights", it's genuinely much better in every respect. I can now upload full HD vids to YouTube in mere seconds rather than hours for one thing. It's hugely useful in all sorts of ways.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 122
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    3.5mb down

    .8 up

    going Sky fiber on the 21st so should get 40 down and the 1 or 2 up
  • Central cakeCentral cake Posts: 5,618
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    DaddyKev wrote: »
    3.5mb down

    .8 up

    going Sky fiber on the 21st so should get 40 down and the 1 or 2 up

    You get 9mb up on the 40mb with sky fiber
  • rjb101rjb101 Posts: 2,689
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    BTW it's Fibre in this country, not Fiber, no mater what your spell checker tells you.....
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    The Sack wrote: »
    I have had infinity for 13 months and its never missed a beat, even the home hub, which i was so adamant i was going to replace has been brill, great range and more reliable than any router i have owned in the last 10 years.

    Got to agree with you about the home hub, my next door neighbour got the HH3, the one with the WAN port for Fibre, but they got ADSL and it seems to be reliable and considering it is upstairs in their house I can pick it up downstairs in my house at a good signal.

    The wireless turns off and turn back on when it should to as it is set to go off at 10pm and come back on at 9am.

    So yes for once it seems like Bt have got a decent router. As for reliability of other routers, the only one I had any real problem with was a Belkin. I have had my TP-link now for about 7 months as I had it before I changed to wireless, i connected it to my old Netgear for a month. Been using it for six months with my wireless service and it be A1 and if I ever went for fibre, I would use it for fibre. Saying that by the time I get to use fibre we may be seeing combined router/modems.
    My speed before hand was 4Mbit with a noise margin of 6db, if there was lighting within 20 miles my DSL was on and off like a brides nighty, my connection now is a 120Mbit sync with loads of noise margin to spare so electrical storms no longer are a problem, just one example of improved reliability.

    To get 4Mb/s I had to put my SNR down to 3, which as you can imagine was not idea, saying that my old Netgear held it pretty good most of the time. Shows how good Cable and wireless system was.
    Not much point being picky about what ISP you choose as they are all reselling the same BT Openreach product and any faults will be dealt with the same BT Openreach engineers.

    I think that is one of the reason why I went against fibre, I had enough of BT network when I was on ADSL, changing to cable and wireless was a good thing, just a shame it took me a while to realise how much better it was, I should have changed months before I did.

    Now is a different thing as for the last six months I been wireless, I don't need to worry about silly profiling and SNR or any other stuff like that, not that I can do much about it anyway. but if I have a problem they are just a local call away.


    TBH, I am pleased to be away from BT network.

    I am not suggesting it is perfect for everyone as i know people have problems but out of all the people i know that have it they are all delighted.

    You seem to be suggesting that it is perfect for everyone, ok everyone who can get it as you said "Given it costs the same for BT FTTC as it does for standard BT ADSL why wouldn't you get it?"
  • noise747noise747 Posts: 30,645
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    QWERTYOP wrote: »
    It's not about "bragging rights", it's genuinely much better in every respect. I can now upload full HD vids to YouTube in mere seconds rather than hours for one thing. It's hugely useful in all sorts of ways.

    It is for some people.
  • -GONZO--GONZO- Posts: 9,624
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    noise747 wrote: »
    Imagine if some one in one room was say watching Netflix in HD and another in another room was watching Iplayer in HD, then you got someone else listening to a online radio station, and someone else using their xbox, Ps3 or computer to play a game. You need the speed for all that to happen at the same time, but you also need a good data package so they can keep doing that for the month.

    Not quite that excessive, but for me I had issues of not even being able to watch a YouTube video without constantly buffering while my wife was on FarmVille.
    Now with Infinity I can be watching Netflix, wife's on FarmVille, daughters are doing whatever they're doing online and I get no buffering.
  • Party AnimalParty Animal Posts: 1,372
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    Here's my bragging rights :mad:

    been uploading about a dozen images to my website for nearly two hours and got about half of them uploaded

    http://eventphotographer.smugmug.com/photos/i-M2kk5nz/0/M/i-M2kk5nz-M.jpg
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