From NTL to ADSL - advice please...

[mutty_w4rez]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

You will have to pay the activation fee, because ntl is cable, and plusnet is adsl.

You will not need a second phone line, but you will need filters so to connect to your phone sockets.

Also, you will need an adsl modem, some providers supply these, but they are usually usb versions, not ethernet. If you want to share the connection you can either connect your existing cable router to a standalone ethernet adsl modem, or purchase a combined adsl modem and router. It is advisable that you check first that any equipment you buy is compatible with your adsl provider.

ok thanks.

[DrAwesome]

Its also a good idea to look/shop around for the best deal when buying any Adsl hardware dont just accept the first price you see.

Dont be put off if you find that the Adsl modem you have choosen has an inbult Router for the price your willing to spend as some Adsl/Router modems marry very well with stand alone Routers + some Adsl/Router modems have an internal option to turn off the Router side of the hardware.

If you decide to buy any Adsl hardware from Amazon its always good to use the Cable Forum Link

[DeadKenny]

With the prices of ADSL routers I'm tempted to just bin my existing self-build router (time to retire the old Pentium 133 perhaps ) and the old hub and get a modem/router/switch. The price of standalone ADSL modems can be higher than an all-in-one!!

I'm not getting wireless built in too though as it's a moving target in terms of standards and I don't want to keep replacing the modem and router just because I go upgrade the wireless stuff at some point. Anyway, I've got wires all over the house and they're dirt cheap and 100Mbps so that'll do me


Still undecided what modem or router/modem to get though and activation is on Thursday.

I need something that's not restrictive in configuration, is reliable, good for gaming, works with VPN, and future proof (ADSL2 support seems a nice idea, and apparently Westell modems have this as well as features that enhance downloads and supposedly cope with poor quality lines better than others, but I've never heard of them except from from the favourable things people at adslguide say).

[DeadKenny]

Activation occured a day earlier than they quoted .

PlusNet 2Mbps uncapped, no proxies, static IP, 250mb web space with CGI/PHP/MySql, newsgroups, email with POP3 and IMAP access with webmail, and some excellent online control panel stuff and great customer service... all for £39 a month (even cheaper if I decide I'm not using it so much and drop to a capped limit with PAYG for anything over the cap).


Went with a Westell router in the end.

[DeadKenny]

WOW!


Dead easy to set up, everything working, but the thing I'm truly amazed about is just the sheer browsing speed!!!

I now realise just how slow my browsing was under NTL!!

Looking at pings and traceroutes it would seem that PlusNet just have some damn good connectivity, and that combined with no transparent proxy and the no crap pings like I was getting before (i.e. between me and UBR), just seems to make a heck of a difference!!

Sites that used to crawl along taking 5 seconds or more to load a page in some cases just load instantly now.

I've not even tried out downloads at 2mbps yet, I'm just impressed by the simple flow of internet packets actually being fast for once!!

This was definitely the right decision