Reading: Virgin or BT, which one is best?

bradshaw · 19-08-2007, 18:04

This is my first post, so Hi to everyone. Just wondering whether to opt for Virgin or BT broadband in Reading. Installation will be for 4-students who will be sharing a house just East of the Royal Berkshire Hospital for 12-months starting end of Sept . I've heard that the service from Virgin in the area is not that good. Any personal experiences either way to help me decide which way to go would be greatly appreciated.

gianfrancoliam · 19-08-2007, 18:14

I live in Reading and have had the full 20meg for the past month. Before that i was maxing out at 10. So in all the service i've benn getting is good.

19-08-2007, 19:34

all depends vm is unlimited and BT is but I here they stm all the time and vm is only peak hours and if they is 4 ppl best off with vm Ã‚Â£29 20mb bb all good

and welcome to cf

dragon · 19-08-2007, 20:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by darthlinux

all depends vm is unlimited and BT is but I here they stm all the time and vm is only peak hours and if they is 4 ppl best off with vm Ã‚Â£29 20mb bb all good

and welcome to cf

BT tend to cap my HTTP to around 0.5mbit/s 4pm - midnight.
They also thorttle torrents heviliy

No idea why the picked to shape HTTP and not other proticals.

19-08-2007, 20:07

really hate bt bb as I had 1.1mb and it kept disconnecting and they wouldnt help

dragon · 19-08-2007, 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by darthlinux

really hate bt bb as I had 1.1mb and it kept disconnecting and they wouldnt help

8128kps sync here with a 11.3db SNR.

Mind you I live down the road from my local exchange so its not surprising really

19-08-2007, 20:24

well i would love to live near my exchange

reggplant · 20-08-2007, 16:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragon

BT tend to cap my HTTP to around 0.5mbit/s 4pm - midnight.
They also thorttle torrents heviliy

No idea why the picked to shape HTTP and not other proticals.

Apparently they're supposed to shape all ports other than http but their traffic management system sucks so bad I got around 0.4Mbit after 6pm, torrents get shaped to around 30Kb/s and they tend to create an unsolvable NAT error. :P
I moved from BT to virgin and so far virgin have been a dream

I've yet to hit the 3GB cap too.

If you want to go with ADSL try Be they're supposed to be quite good.

20-08-2007, 17:24

most new adsl complanies let you get away with loads until they get massive and then the ****t starts

winterstorm · 20-08-2007, 18:32

I'm on VM 20Mb and can't complain, it performs well most of the time and does everything I want it to, probably not quite the same area as you as I'm to the west of the RBH so probably not the same uBR, but I'd expect similar performance.
I've no experience of BT, however I don't think the exchange is too far away so you should get reasonably performance on ADSL too, although judging by other comments you probably don't want BT's offering :-)

Pushkar · 21-08-2007, 06:19

Virgin for sure, although you'll find around 95 percent of this forum is against VM or theres no point in this forum.

dragon · 21-08-2007, 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by TaiLZ

Virgin for sure, although you'll find around 95 percent of this forum is against VM or theres no point in this forum.

Thats kinda true people usually come here becuase they have a problem they need some help with.

bradshaw · 21-08-2007, 20:50

Thanks for the responses.
Seems that people are more in favour of VM than BT ... I'll probably go for the VM 4Mb package. Looking at their web site, there's a Ã‚Â£17 pm offer for 12-months if you sign-up before end of August ... is this a really good deal or just inline with the competition?

22-08-2007, 13:11

yeah its good but I would go with 20mb mmmm nice and fast 20mb here

dragon · 22-08-2007, 17:36

There are many more ISPS out there than just virgin and BT