Want ADSL?-Read on....

[gt94sss2]

Originally Posted by DrAwesome

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..

lol - I won't get anything unless you sign up

It may also be worth you registering an interest in Primetime 2000 - its what I did to get it to my exchange.

Alltime/Primetime 2000 use 2MB

The 4MB lines are only available on 35 exchanges in Central London where Bulldog have their own equipment - so you are unlikely to see that kind of speed anywhere apart from the big cities for years..

Also as a side note Hi-Velocity "resell" Bulldog but they also resell various other telco's/ISP's products so are able to offer services in many more exchanges, if not nationally..

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)

Do tell
If its Fast 24 though - avoid though

They had a support forum on their web site (well they still do) but due to the number of unhappy ppl they limited it to subscribers only!

[poolking]

I'm going to persuade my mum to sign up to broadband, apparently her exchange is enabled, just got to get a line test arranged if she agrees.

She's having terrible trouble with her dialup connection, but then again, she's still running Windows 95 on a 14 yr old 500mb HDD that I gave her.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by poolking

I'm going to persuade my mum to sign up to broadband, apparently her exchange is enabled, just got to get a line test arranged if she agrees.

She's having terrible trouble with her dialup connection, but then again, she's still running Windows 95 on a 14 yr old 500mb HDD that I gave her.

14 year old? Are you sure?

[poolking]

Originally Posted by Bifta

14 year old? Are you sure?

Very sure I had the comp for 8 years then gave it to my mum about 6 years ago.

[DrAwesome]

Originally Posted by gt94sss2

lol - I won't get anything unless you sign up

Im changing ISP again soon (hence the chasing around to see whats on offer) and all the looking/searching around i have done these past few weeks i have half made my mind up. when i have further looked at this other competitive/cheap adsl isp i will have fully made my mind up. I was a bit suprised that alot of adsl isp's dont have customer/technical support on a sunday.

Originally Posted by gt94sss2

It may also be worth you registering an interest in Primetime 2000 - its what I did to get it to my exchange.

Alltime/Primetime 2000 use 2MB

yup ive already done that.

Originally Posted by gt94sss2

Also as a side note Hi-Velocity "resell" Bulldog but they also resell various other telco's/ISP's products so are able to offer services in many more exchanges, if not nationally..

I dont really see the logic in that all its doing is spreading the money gathered in/workload and they dont undercut Bulldog price wise.

I have always wondered why cant BT just upgrade the trigger level to number were it will take more than 6 months to exceed instead of adding the exchanges again to a list to be upgraded.

Originally Posted by gt94sss2

Do tell
If its Fast 24 though - avoid though

I will reveal all soon, i will be phoning them up tomorrow to see how long the wait is before i get to speak to customer support and to also see what advice they give me, a few of my friends that have moved/migrated from well known adsl isp's are already using the service they have promissed to send me email on mon/tues so i will have a better idea what the service is like from inside.

plus points are so far its cheap and there is no fee imposed if you switch service tier and theres No Cap

Its not Fast 24 although Plusnet did look atractive if you wanted a 1meg service at £32.99 a month but i then discovered if you find/decided the service was crap the cancellation fee is a whooping £129.99 out of all the adsl isp's i have reviewed this must be a record, unless anyone can find another isp to top it?

Originally Posted by poolking

Very sure I had the comp for 8 years then gave it to my mum about 6 years ago.

And i wonder did she donate it to NTL Teeside UBR because it would certainly answer alot of questions at peek times in my area

[rodd]

Originally Posted by gt94sss2

If its Fast 24 though - avoid though

They had a support forum on their web site (well they still do) but due to the number of unhappy ppl they limited it to subscribers only!

Sounds a bit like what Community will-be/would-have-been, where none of the gripes of present ntl customers will/would be visible to potential customers.

Originally Posted by downquark1

Great, we'll end up with a NTL forum with no NTL customers :p

No you won't.I'm happy with what I've got except for the DTV and even that's a minor irritation.

Oh I forgot the exorbitant phone bill I had last month of £3.19.: D

[trebor]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

No you won't.I'm happy with what I've got except for the DTV and even that's a minor irritation.

Oh I forgot the exorbitant phone bill I had last month of £3.19.: D

are you sure you wont be the only one here
I've just placed an order with pipex so with luck NTL can goodbye to my
£75 a month.
pipex= faster service cheaper price what have I been waiting for
I'm going to have a with the money I save.

[Chrysalis]

I used to have ADSL and had it for 3 years, having since moved to ntl cable (forced to by landlord) I have not really has bandwidth problems but the email is terrible and the dns servers are the same, obviously the dns servers have a big impact on the service making everything perform poorly. Also my tv I feel is below par because ntl are effectively offering a different service depndong on where you live, my area is analogue tv only meaning I am getting a reduced service for the same price.

Ok now onto ADSL

there are a few different types of adsl services, starting with the 2 major ones.

20:1 ipstream adsl (commercial usually but not always the case now, more below)
50:1 ipstream adsl (residental service)

Both these are the standard type of ADSL service available in all ADSL enabled exchanges provided by BT wholesale, the 50:1 service is aimed at residental customers and is cheaper than the 20:1 service, currently the 50:1 service is available at 512kbit and 1mbit (trial). The 20:1 service was originally only for commercial customers with a very high price tag but it has since dropped dramatically allowing some isp's to resell it to residental customers, plusnet and nildram are two that I know off doing this, 20:1 is available at 512kbit,1mbit and 2mbit speeds. All ipstream services have 256kbit upload and are actually contended much lower than advertised by BT wholesale, users on the 50:1 service are yet to have any real contention issues any contention is normally caused by the ISP side of things.

next we have datastream, this is a new type of connection emerged recently and this is probably what caused BT to drop their prices for the 20:1 ipstream service, the difference between ipstream and datastream is that ipstream mixes different isp's customers together on a BT wholesale managed pipe and contends them, whilst datastream is just a pipe used by 1 isp's customers only. Datastream allows the isp to sell services at their own specification speeds, contention ratios etc. but because of the lower amount of customers on the pipe it is more expensive to provide and as such contention is usually much more noticeable on datastream services.

Isp's I know off using datastream are tiscali and bulldog. Datastream isnt available in all exchanges but is available in a lot more exchanges than LLU. Datastream is available in speeds upto 2mbit like 20:1 ipstream.

LLU is another type of adsl when the Isp installs their own equipment in the exchange and has a lot more control over the connection and exchange equipment.

This is allowing them to sell services at very flexible specification eg. 8mbit adsl.

Bulldog and easynet use LLU.

LLU is only available in some london exchanges and is been expanded to some major cities at the moment.

So there you have it this might not be 100% accurate but I hope it answers some questions, generally I wouldn't reccomend datastream I would defenitly go with an Ipstream service but with the drop in price on 20:1 ipstream you can get affordable 2mbit adsl on every exchange.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by poolking

Very sure I had the comp for 8 years then gave it to my mum about 6 years ago.

I think you're mistaken, sorry, 14 years ago I got a spanking new 486 and 500 meg drives back then were the stuff of fantasies.

[MadGamer]

You can also get Broadband modems that are PCI slot modems as well. They look much neater and are hidden inside the PC.

[Chrysalis]

Well I reccomend a speedtouch 510 V4 its very impressive has many functions like dhcp spoof and has a firewall function as well, it also looks cool.

[handyman]

Originally Posted by Bifta

I think you're mistaken, sorry, 14 years ago I got a spanking new 486 and 500 meg drives back then were the stuff of fantasies.

[trebor]

well now, my pipex account is working and it wasn't even supposed to be activated until the 22nd.
for the first time since I had ntl 600k broadband I have been able to watch streaming video without a pause while the download catches up, it's a shame it took a pipex adsl account to do it.

LOL goodbye ntl

[Neil]

Originally Posted by trebor

well now, my pipex account is working and it wasn't even supposed to be activated until the 22nd.
for the first time since I had ntl 600k broadband I have been able to watch streaming video without a pause while the download catches up, it's a shame it took a pipex adsl account to do it.

LOL goodbye ntl

Welcome to the world of decent surfing speeds/reliable email/ & general all round good customer service.

A wise move Trebor, you won't regret it IMO.