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Want ADSL?-Read on....
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Old 06-12-2003, 13:41   #91
gt94sss2
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrAwesome
The confussing part for me was if Bulldog can offer a connection speed for Business (national exchanges) surely they can off you the same connection on home/residential service. it must be they can milk more money from this service from business than offering it to residential customers.
Its because of the way the traffic goes from the exchange to Bulldog.

BT Wholesale sell something called BT IPStream to ISP's which is available at:

512K and 1MB (50:1 contention) - basically "home" products
512K/1MB/2MB (20:1 contention) - business products etc

These are the ones virtually all ISP's use (24/7 etc) and are available nationally.

Then there is something called BT DataStream which lets the ISP choose what services and contention to offer (hence why Bulldog can offer Primetime and Tiscalli can offer 150K services) - however this is set up per ISP/exchange - hence its limited availability as its more expensive than IPStream below a certain number of users for that ISP per exchange.

As you will see BT IPStream doesn't offer 2MB at 50:1 which is what Alltime 2000 would be etc - while Bulldog can do it via their DataStream exchanges etc - in the same way Bulldog can't offer "time of day"/Primetime products on IPStream either.

However, Alltime 1000 at 50:1 is available on IPStream and hence available nationally (and its 40:1 if you are on a DataStream exchange ss Bulldog control it then)

Whichever service you choose, even the IPStream ones - your contontention ratios are actually a lot less than the quoted figures


Quote:
I wonder if you will get anything if everyone who accesses the link and filled in the required information and quoted your referal code in the section Where did you hear about Bulldog? part
lol - you mean bdol 87431 ?

In theory, yes I am supposed to get something - though I have referred a couple of friends in the past and not received anything yet so will have to chase that up at some stage..

Unfortunately, the person joining doesn't get anything but I think thats the way Pipex's scheme worked as well (:
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Old 06-12-2003, 13:53   #92
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bifta
Do Nildram still cap their connections?
yes their 1meg & 2meg service
dsl1000 (1024Kbps) capped 150GBytes a month. subscription £39.99 a month
dsl2000 (2048Kbps) capped 150GBytes a month. subscription £58.00 a month
dsl500 (512Kbps) No Cap. subscription £26.49 a month
dslSurf500 (512Kbps) No Cap. Subscription £22.99 a month

I did hear a rumour that pipex will be soon intrducing a cap because they are having big problems keeping their news service (binaries) running too many customers leeching.

As far as i can see/read Bulldog doesnt have a cap.
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Old 06-12-2003, 14:20   #93
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrAwesome
I did hear a rumour that pipex will be soon intrducing a cap because they are having big problems keeping their news service (binaries) running too many customers leeching.
*Checks*

Nope all fixed as they promised, best it's been for months, downloading headers and individual posts is maxing this 512k line.

I am impressed though that they keep upgrading it, 6 days retention and full speed of line is astonishing performance for an ISP's news server. Only Telewest that I've seen are as good

EDIT: Applying caps to news server bandwidth and to service usage as a whole are 2 very different things, though I would say that some people use Pipex just because the news servers are good most of the time, and no doubt some do cane the service. Hopefully at some point soon all / most DSL ISPs will start to take notice of those who up or download full pelt 24x7, though it's not happening yet, I know of someone who has been serving MP3s on their DSL line, maxing upload solidly for over 3 years now, no doubt there are thousands more (about 10,000 on dsl going by the law of averages).
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Old 06-12-2003, 14:23   #94
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrAwesome
yes their 1meg & 2meg service
dsl1000 (1024Kbps) capped 150GBytes a month. subscription £39.99 a month
dsl2000 (2048Kbps) capped 150GBytes a month. subscription £58.00 a month
dsl500 (512Kbps) No Cap. subscription £26.49 a month
dslSurf500 (512Kbps) No Cap. Subscription £22.99 a month

I did hear a rumour that pipex will be soon intrducing a cap because they are having big problems keeping their news service (binaries) running too many customers leeching.

As far as i can see/read Bulldog doesnt have a cap.
I hope that they don't introduce a cap, as I'm now with them

Quote:
so whats your choice of adsl hardware do you buy adsl wireless = dearest or choose to stick to ethernet = cheapest or do you avoid usb adsl modems
Avoid USB modems at all costs. Go down the ethernet modem route (which is what I did) if you only intend to connect 1 compuer/network device or if you need to connect mutliple computers/network devices then go down the ethernet/wifi router route, depending on what you want.

But avoid USB like the plague!
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Old 06-12-2003, 14:34   #95
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by ntl customer
I hope that they don't introduce a cap, as I'm now with them
i hope they dont introduce it as i have many friends using the service and it would just crush them if they was a restriction imposed

Quote:
Originally Posted by ntl customer
Avoid USB modems at all costs. Go down the ethernet modem route (which is what I did) if you only intend to connect 1 compuer/network device or if you need to connect mutliple computers/network devices then go down the ethernet/wifi router route, depending on what you want.

But avoid USB like the plague!
so which ethernet adsl modem did you choose and did you have a second choice? The only decent ethernet adsl modem i could find when i did my search was the D-Link DSL-300G+.
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Old 06-12-2003, 14:39   #96
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mantrid
Got BT on the case yesterday to change over my NTL line to BT. 18th December is the earliest time.

Tempted by Bulldog ADSL unless anyone recommends otherwise.
I can thoroughly recommend Pipex, they were superb at sign up (mind you-aren't most companies?) They were also very profesional in all my following dealing by phone/email.

The other nice thing, is that when you phone up with a query/fault etc, you will get an email sent to the email address you signed up with, with a ticket number so that you can track the fault-I'd like to see ntl offer something like that!
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Old 06-12-2003, 14:49   #97
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

I can only really think of three large UK ISPs that CAP there customers Virgin, BT and good old NTL.
Even AOL NTLs partner does not CAP .
If you hear of any others contact me at the site in my Sig
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Old 06-12-2003, 22:59   #98
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by th'engineer
I can only really think of three large UK ISPs that CAP there customers Virgin, BT and good old NTL.
Even AOL NTLs partner does not CAP .
If you hear of any others contact me at the site in my Sig

Unfortunately its a thing we will see more and more of in the future. The UKs networks simply cannot cope with everyone being on Broadband. Without serious investment we will see dial up speeds through a cable modem of ADSL Modem.

For those who make the switch, Final Word of Warning dont get a 'free' USB modem or any USB modem for that matter.....they are ****e pure and simple!! Go for Internal or Ethernet...Or a router is more logical.

Will agree Pipex are a pretty good provider, use them at work. Not many problems the ones we have had are BTs issues with the curcuit, which has had to be replaced 2 times already. BT Connect is utter tripe (BT Openworld for business) we had before.

Personally at home ive been pretty happy with ntls broadband service, for me it has an extra bit of umph! for downloading, its slightly let down by slow uploads, but On our pipex connection we average 56-60k download speeds on ntl I get around 85k on 600k downloading. If its working well its great......I guess if it aint your better switching.
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Old 06-12-2003, 23:58   #99
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by themelon
The UKs networks simply cannot cope with everyone being on Broadband. Without serious investment we will see dial up speeds through a cable modem of ADSL Modem.
Looking at the majority of exchanges the trigger levels are quite high and it looks as if they are filling up fast as prices become more and more competitive i noticed some adsl ip's offering low price or free dialup accounts.

Quote:
Originally Posted by themelon
For those who make the switch, Final Word of Warning dont get a 'free' USB modem or any USB modem for that matter.....they are ****e pure and simple!! Go for Internal or Ethernet...Or a router is more logical..
I'm still waiting for someone to suggest a good alround cheap adsl ethernet modem or ethernet modem/router & firewal etc..

Spoilt for choice? here are just some of the adsl modems on offer i found hunting via Google

D-Link DSL-300G+ Ethernet ADSL Modem priced at £68.14 inc vat

Netgear DG834 LAN Starter Kit comes with DG834 ADSL Router, 2 x network cards and 2 x cables priced at £97.51 inc vat

Netgear DG834 on its own priced at £93.99 Inc vat
The info i have read on the DG834 suggests that it is ethernet on the router side but fails to mention weather its a usb or ethernet on the modem side (usually usb modems dont come packaged with a small transformer (external power adapter) so thats a sign that it is a ethernet adsl modem).

SMC SMC7401BRA £76.36 inc vat

Zoom Hayes 5560 X3 £82.24 inc vat

Solwise ADSL Modem/Router (SAR130) £70.44 inc vat

NetGear DM602 ADSL-Modem (ethernet/ usb) from £53-70 depending where you buy this model

Actiontec USB/Ethernet DSL Modem priced around £53-58 depending where you buy it.

Binatone ADSL 2000 High Speed ADSL Router Modem priced at £49.35 inc vat.

Above are just a few ethernet adsl modem.. modem/routers on offer if you choose adsl BB to connect to the internet so many choices which one do you choose?
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Old 07-12-2003, 02:03   #100
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Two things..

1. If you don't want to go with Bulldog.. there are several other good ISP's I would consider (in no particular order):

Pipex (as already mentioned)
Plusnet
Zen
Metronet (only if you are a low user <-- may not be relevant to anyone here!)
Nildram
Freedom-2-Surf
NDO
www.aaisp.co.uk (esp if you are a techie)
www.hi-velocity.it (excellent customer service imv)

All depends on what services/price you want to pay but they all have a decent reputation

2. For a cheap ethernet router try the models Ebuyer sell as their own brand. There is a 1 port version (Quickfind code 48448) and a 4 port version (QuickFind code: 48449)

You would think that as they are cheap they would come with no support etc - actually they are Origo routers and come with full UK support, a user forum and firmare updates via http://adsltech.com/ who are their UK distributers - I know several ppl who are using them quite happily

btw DrAwesome: you are right the Netgear DG834 is an ethernet modem
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Old 07-12-2003, 11:10   #101
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by gt94sss2
lol - you mean bdol 87431 ?

In theory, yes I am supposed to get something - though I have referred a couple of friends in the past and not received anything yet so will have to chase that up at some stage..

Unfortunately, the person joining doesn't get anything but I think thats the way Pipex's scheme worked as well (:
I have registered my interest in a 4mb (my local exchange is only 2meg) connection, probably along time off like maybe 10yrs lol. I have added bdol 87431(in the in the section Where did you hear about Bulldog? part) so fingers and toes crossed hopefully you might get something.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gt94sss2
Nildram <-- v expensive (i think anyway)
www.hi-velocity.it (excellent customer service imv)<--- Powered by Bulldog
I think its a 2 horse maybe 3 horse race Bulldog and Pipex the 3rd isp i have heard very little of im hoping to recieve a reply from a few people that have their service, looking around the isp's adsl forums there is always someone complaining that they have had or having problems at one time or another so its a misconseption/no isp is completely free of problems. so if you decide to leave NTL depending on which isp you pick you might go from bad to worse.

Those of you reading and are wondering who is the 3rd isp i will reveal the 3rd name of the adsl isp in a few days (if anyones interested) as the prices are v. competitive (looking at their web page) and also noticed they do have their own customer forum setup aswell just waiting for some feedback on the avarage connection speed service, customer service and faults.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gt94sss2
btw DrAwesome: you are right the Netgear DG834 is an ethernet modem
thought so each supplyier selling it could give a better discription of the DG834.
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Old 07-12-2003, 12:49   #102
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

It is possible to have as many problems if not more with ADSL.

At work we have had numerous problems, in fairness mainly with BT and their exchanges. If we could get cable we would probably have that because we are getting rather sick of BT in general, I honestly dont see how they need to rebuild the curcuit twice between us in the exchanged, obviously it was botched the first time. Also it resulted in a crackly hissing line to the present day.....to which BT Insist we try 4 handsets on each extension....around 35!! Then they 'might' consider investigating a clear fault. The CS rep even asked why the line was crackling when we rang..insisted our phone was at fault..yes BT have excellent customer service! NOT. The ADSL line which is seperate doesnt have the crackles!?!

Honestly most companies customer service are a joke after you get past a certain size, the smaller the company the better, the same goes for ISPs.

Think its a matter of luck and dependant on where you live!

If you live in a over subscribed cable area that could be very poor! Undersubscribed your Ok. If you live in an area using 50:1 contention on your connection where all users to your exchange are maxing their connection it can be as fast as a one legged horse, you might as well yank it out and plug in the modem......except that will only run at about 36kbs after you convert you line.nightmare!!
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Old 07-12-2003, 13:32   #103
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

I have to agree think that Cable is good but the cable companies need to keep up.
Online gaming is getting more popular especially with my kids but they keep on whinging about upload.

Its a shame that the upload can not match the ADSL connections at this time.

I know go 1meg to get this is the answer but for the cost my own view is that adsl is for gaming at this time.

I myselfover the coming months are having to weigh up if the answer to the upload problem is to go ADSL.

I must admit have alkways been a supporter of cable, to the point of being very laid back about the problems sometimes. And not a great lover of BT really
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Old 07-12-2003, 14:17   #104
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

They should do something like a 600k Professional or something for £27 with a quicker upload speed, I for one would definately be interested. I agree the 1Meg doesnt justify the extra 10 quid, when faster upload is the only extra i require at the current time.

Its almost gonna be tempting to have the freedom ADSL Sevice from ntl next year as that will offer quicker upload presumably at similar prices. The only issue is...I dont want 2 telephone lines (1 free with TV) and dont want Sky (previous issues) so looks like i gotta keep the slower uploads.

I may re evaluate the TV situation after the Sky price hikes come in on ntl in March/April. Im not paying 40 quid plus for repeats repeats repeats! Ill just have to by some DVD Rs and record everything I like 1st time round!
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Old 07-12-2003, 14:23   #105
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Re: Want ADSL?-Read on....

Quote:
Originally Posted by themelon
They should do something like a 600k Professional or something for £27 with a quicker upload speed, I for one would definately be interested. I agree the 1Meg doesnt justify the extra 10 quid, when faster upload is the only extra i require at the current time.

Its almost gonna be tempting to have the freedom ADSL Sevice from ntl next year as that will offer quicker upload presumably at similar prices. The only issue is...I dont want 2 telephone lines (1 free with TV) and dont want Sky (previous issues) so looks like i gotta keep the slower uploads.

I may re evaluate the TV situation after the Sky price hikes come in on ntl in March/April
I think that is a good idea and me and you agreeing on something must be a good idea
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