Which ADSL2 provider
 

I have finally given up on VM and the non existant 20M service. My problem is that I am some way away from the exchange. BT reckon I will only get 3Meg with them. Other ADSL2 providers are saying 16 Meg no problem.

Can anyone recommend a reliable ADSL2 provider and what sort of ADSL2speeds are realistic based on the BT standard ADSL figure above.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

See what that says for where you live.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Stick your postcode into SamKnows Mapper and then select your road, and you'll find an indication of your likely connection speed for the ADSL and ADSL2 providers available on your exchange.

Many people are switching to O2 (cheap if you use their mobile phone services), Sky (very cheap if you use their TV service) and Be (expanding very, very rapidly -- sooner or later they are almost bound to have problems).

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

To be fair if ADSL can only give you 3mb I doubt you will get 16mb on ADSL2+

Take a look at this graph https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2008/05/5.jpg

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Quite. I'm on Be Unlimited (upto 24 MB) and I get about 16-17MB, and I'm 500 meters from the exchange. How providers can tell say 16Meg no problem to someone who's 3 miles from the exchange is beyond me.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

When I was on Be I used to get 23 mb :D but I am 200 metres away. I now get full 16mb on Sky.

Best bet for the OP if you have a BT number you can ring up Be or O2 and they will give you a estimate. But dont raise your hopes for full speed or even 16mb

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

i was 3 mile from exchange and nev er got more than 1 meg.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Well I've done, new O2 bits arrive monday, customer service nas been unbelievably good so far. There is a 50 day "return if not not satisfied with service" guarantee. They said speed would be 13.9 ( a bit optimistic me thinks). Going to run O2 and VM cable head to head for a month to see how they fare. O2 is only £10 a month!

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

For O2 mobile customers. £15 for others :)

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

I wouldnt pay too much attention to the distance from exchange, its the line attenuation you need to pay attention to, i'm getting 30db and get around 14meg which is what I expected.

Edit, check this http://www.beforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8152 about removing the ring wire on the main bt socket, it made 3meg ish difference in download speeds for me.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

bethre have a nice 2.5mbit upload no other isp i have seen offer such a good upload

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Erm line attenuation is based on line length. Its how they work out the distance :D

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Well according to samknows i'm 665m from the exchange, i know thats in a straight line but i'm getting around 30db attenuation, which according to the chart is 2.1km, i dont think the cable is that curly, we're on a new estate too so the cabling on here is pretty good, i know that if you've got old cabling that can make a big difference to your actual attainable speeds as you get more noise on the line, so going on my own experience i'd ignore the line length and check against the attenuation reading.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

You dont know what route your line takes back to the exchange. Line attenuation is based on legth and not noise.
Just to confirm this
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats_explanation.htm
And
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/linestats.htm
This bit here

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Exactly so you cant rely on line length as you dont know what it is, the only thing you can see or measure is the attenuation on your modem, thanks for the links too mate, nice read up there ;)
and if i'm only 600ish metres from the exchange its very tempting to run my own cable in to knock it down from 2.1km,

/runs to get soldering iron....

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

If there is any Aluminium cable in the loop does that not affect attenuation?

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

I'd have thought so as it conducts differently to copper, so at 30db I could estimate that my cable length is 2100m but if there are any crappy connections or corroded wires then the actual length could be shorter.
If you did it the other way around and knew that the cable length was 2100m but the attenuation was greater than 30db then you know there is a problem with the cable somewhere.
That makes sense doesnt it?

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

I am pretty sure if there was aluminium in the loop he would not be able to get Broadband

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

I know the lead in to my property is Ally, at one time the whole estate was Aluminium in armoured buried cable, about 10 years ago BT dug up the all the pavements, put in ducting & footway boxes & re-cabled but didn't replace the cable up to the houses. Maybe it's such a short run it doesn't have much effect. I get around 6 Mb/s on an 8 Mb/s service at 3Km.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Well heres the results of the change.

The equipment arrived as promised. Came with 2 filter and a g modem/router. Disconnected inside of house wiring at the input to the house. With the filter and one fitted the speed achieved was a 14.5. Went and purchased some more filters for inside house (double filtered sky box) and reconnected house wiring. Consistant speed of 10. I still have to sort out the rats nest of house wiring, but the results of tonights speedtest head to head with VM 20Mb cable is :-

£37 VM 20Mb-------3
£10 O2 16Mb-------10.9 (1.4 km from exchange!!!)

Going to continue the head to head over the next couple on months to get a consistant view before binning VW.

Only problem is when attempting to download using Iplayer , IP address is seen as not being in UK. O2 super tech support, I button to press and 1 ring till it was answered diagnosed as a newely registered address that was still in process of being notified as being a uk number.

So far all is good, lets see if it continues.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

o2 and Be* use the same infrastructure anyway, o2 bought be* out a while back.


Modem Status Connected
DownStream Connection Speed 24574 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 2597 kbps

Mind you i do live near my local exchange :p:

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Latest update:-

VM cable 20MB--- 666k
O2 ADSL2:- 11.9M

Conclusion-- VM is a joke!--quantitively proven.

still going to run in //ll for a while to make sure things remain ok. PS dont move to O2 you might slow me down! :)

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

I was answering the original question: "Which ADSL2 provider?" with my opinion of the popular ISP's offers.

I can't recall a single ISP that has ever managed to maintain high connection speeds for long after attracting large numbers of "heavy" downloaders, let alone one that's charging next to nothing!
The closest I got was with Pipex before GX Networks took over in 2003 but that was hardly cheap.

---------- Post added at 21:33 ---------- Previous post was at 21:28 ----------

You're proving nothing if you don't make a reasonable effort to get your evidently 'broken' cable connection fixed.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

The cable is not "broken". I have spent months investigating, power ok , snrs ok etc etc. I eventually got it in writing from VM, via broadband medic, that the area I'm in is totally overloaded and the hardware cannot cope. They could give me no date when it would be resolved and suggested I apply for compensation from customer services in the mean time.

I can get good speeds on cable, 16-17 meg but its not a lot of use @ 3am on a sunday morning!!

So which ever way you look at it the VM service is not fit for purpose (at this point in history).

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

if you hava Sky Digital go 4 Sky Broadband that whiat i did i wood recomeand it:D

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

that sucks that you have had bad virgin media experience, i am with 20meg and i get full 20 meg anytime of day or night i use it, but the smt cap thing is still annoying 3GB all day of usage, what different things did you try to get ful 20megs from your vm? maybe your modem? your router? when i had my router plugged in i was @ 10meg but when straight to the modem i get full 20 all the time, adsl i think bethere is the best though 2.5meg upload and 24 meg down for 20?

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Tried everything, straight into modem, new modem, 5 different pcs, 4 different operating systems, visits by engineers etc etc etc.

Might be synical but when 50Mb bb arrives--wonder if we will be able to get 20 out of it--so many people might have left VM by then that the service jumps back into life.

Then they renage on previous compensation because their new billing system cant handle it.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

the 50meg with a 1.3upload i think its not good i would not upgrade o that unless they increase upload and there is no caps or dl limits, i caNT put up with the 3GB cap atm i keep going over without realising and du meter doesent help.

you should drefinatly go with bethere, espesially that u have tried everything must be a over loaded neetwork in ur area, what are ur download speeds like?

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

i would get in touch with o2 support, i'm with o2 now after ditching vm bb. my attenuation is 23dB up and 43dB down giving me an effective 1.3mb up and 12mb down, my overall line length is around 2.5km (about 1.6 with the crow).

you could also have a look and ask http://www.beforum.co.uk/index.php, there are some good peeps in there and can give some good advice regarding o2 and be.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Well- dirty deed done-VM binned-asked me why I was wanting to leave-silly question-tried to bribe me to stay ha ha-poor rep seemed to be resigned to people leaving.
Final 2 week averages:-
VM-3.2
O2-11.9

Please ensure you all stay with the wonderful VM people (I dont want you clogging up my ISP! :) )

Byeeee:wavey:

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

how have you found o2 so far, i've found it to be nothing but rock solid (much like the old 10mb was untill the fannied around with it).


can say that it is the best thing i've done for a while, on the downside vm couldn't even get the disconnection right, all i wanted to keep was the tv, so the bb has gone but the phone is still there - even after tellin them about it (final day was supposed to be friday), they'd better not be tryin to charge me for it.

Re: Which ADSL2 provider
 

Course you'll get charged for it, after leaving VM myself and going through their customer care service because I wasnt happy, I was assured that I wouldnt have to pay any early leaving charges (6 weeks into a 12 month contract), a few days back I got a letter saying I owed them around 180 quid for early cancellation. I phoned them up and it was on the account that I left early with no fees to be charged but it hadnt gone through to the finance dept who carried on regardless, all sorted now though.