Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?

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jamcc
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PostBest ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by jamcc » Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:42 pm

Sorry, this has probably been asked a thousand times but I am due to move into a new place in a couple of weeks and need to get broadband. It's a 2-bed flat, and there will be two of us living there.

I guess we'll both be pretty heavy users (streaming, Neflix etc). The place is in London so I have a choice of ADSL or fibre optic and there are so many options I really don't know what to do!

Price is important because I want to keep m costs down but I also want quick, reliable internet. I don't need a landline, so I'm erring towards fibre optic (which I read that only BT, Sky, Virgin and Talk Talk ( :dread: ) provide?). I see BT have a price drop at the moment, which looks tempting.

You hear good/bad stories about all the big providers, so I kind of think your speed and reliability are more about your location relative to the exchange and the quality of the cables in your area? Is that true, in that the provider themself doesn't make that much of a difference?

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

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coldspice
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by coldspice » Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:56 pm

jamcc wrote:Sorry, this has probably been asked a thousand times but I am due to move into a new place in a couple of weeks and need to get broadband. It's a 2-bed flat, and there will be two of us living there.

I guess we'll both be pretty heavy users (streaming, Neflix etc). The place is in London so I have a choice of ADSL or fibre optic and there are so many options I really don't know what to do!

Price is important because I want to keep m costs down but I also want quick, reliable internet. I don't need a landline, so I'm erring towards fibre optic (which I read that only BT, Sky, Virgin and Talk Talk ( :dread: ) provide?). I see BT have a price drop at the moment, which looks tempting.

You hear good/bad stories about all the big providers, so I kind of think your speed and reliability are more about your location relative to the exchange and the quality of the cables in your area? Is that true, in that the provider themself doesn't make that much of a difference?

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

If you can get Virgin Media Cable (152mbps) get that.

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KK
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by KK » Sat Jul 04, 2015 5:59 pm

Sky's really good if you don't care about the WiFi as their router is appalling.
BT has the best router but continually the worst customer service. You'll also get BT Sport free.
Virgin offer the best speeds in the country, and they've just recently upgraded their router. Downside being you need to live in a cabled area.

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jamcc
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by jamcc » Sat Jul 04, 2015 6:23 pm

Thanks for the replies and that's a nice summary, KK.

BT Sport would be good. I'm getting Sky, so I wonder if I could get the free BT Sport through my Sky box... I'll ask them.

Virgin Media were avertising in the Metro the other day about their new generation of fibre optic cables, which looked beastie. That said 152Mb just seems unecessarily fast... I'd rather have slower internet which was reliable and consistent (i.e. no annoying-as-fuck slowdown during evening peaks).

WiFi is important - who the strawberry float doesn't use it? - but I am getting ethernet ports in both bedrooms and in the lounge, for my Sexbox One etc.

I'll see if BT can do BT Sport through my Sky box and compare BT and Virgin Media packages once I've had that query answered.

Thanks!

PS Just remembered, do any of the providers have strict controls on torrent sites or can you always use proxies to get around them?

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by systematic » Sat Jul 04, 2015 6:29 pm

jamcc wrote:I don't need a landline, so I'm erring towards fibre optic (which I read that only BT, Sky, Virgin and Talk Talk ( :dread: ) provide?).


You still need a landline with everyone except Virgin, because the data is actually delivered through via. your telephone socket.

so I kind of think your speed and reliability are more about your location relative to the exchange and the quality of the cables in your area? Is that true, in that the provider themself doesn't make that much of a difference?


Kinda. It also depends on the equipment the ISP has installed at the exchange and whether or not they're oversubscribed with users at that particular exchange.

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KK
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by KK » Sat Jul 04, 2015 6:34 pm

All the big torrent sites are now blocked whoever you go with. Parental controls are turned on as default too.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Green Gecko » Sat Jul 04, 2015 6:43 pm

Sky don't do any traffic shaping or download limits but their router is gooseberry fool and has massive problems uploading and downloading at the same time. I do sometimes get dropouts but it's usually resolved quickly or rebooting works, and generally the speed is good and stable for adsl+ (I get 18mbps). Calling their engineers was good (british), they sent out a free router but it didn't solve my issues. Basically I'll need to get a decent router at some point. I wish I didn't send the old O2 Thompson router back, which was fine and had 2 antennae.

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coldspice
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by coldspice » Sat Jul 04, 2015 7:35 pm

jamcc wrote:Virgin Media were avertising in the Metro the other day about their new generation of fibre optic cables, which looked beastie. That said 152Mb just seems unecessarily fast... I'd rather have slower internet which was reliable and consistent (i.e. no annoying-as-fuck slowdown during evening peaks).

PS Just remembered, do any of the providers have strict controls on torrent sites or can you always use proxies to get around them?


I've had 2 drop outs in 2.5 years with Virgin. Both resolved fairly quickly too.

As someone who worked for a BT based ISP, cable is far more reliable than copper, which you rely on whether you have ADSL or Fibre.

Most big ISPs now block torrent sites etc, but I personally find that Tor browser is the easiest and most user friendly way of getting round this.

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by HSH28 » Sat Jul 04, 2015 11:43 pm

I haven't heard anyone who has BT broadband who had a good word to say about them, generally pretty terrible all round.

Seem to be overpriced too in comparison with just about everyone else.

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Wiggy G32
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Wiggy G32 » Sun Jul 05, 2015 10:06 pm

I have BT and its perfectly fine. only had one issue in like 4 or so years. I think its a decent price especially as its all unlimited now. As for the router i really would buy your own either way i have a tp link one

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by HSH28 » Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:09 pm

Wiggy G32 wrote:I have BT and its perfectly fine. only had one issue in like 4 or so years. I think its a decent price especially as its all unlimited now. As for the router i really would buy your own either way i have a tp link one


No it isn't.

The unlimited superfast BB packages are £10+ a month more than TalkTalk for example.

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Lagamorph
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Lagamorph » Sun Jul 05, 2015 11:23 pm

If you get Virgin Media, be sure to get your own router. The new one might be better, but the Homehub 1 and 2 were ungodly awful as routers. Work far better in modem only mode and plugging your own wifi router in instead.

BT is ok as long as you never have a problem. If you ever have to call them to fix an issue, you're utterly strawberry floated.

If you're already getting Sky TV though, then you can probably negotiate a discounted rate for the broadband as part of the deal.


As for blocked torrent sites, they'll be the same whatever the provider as they were ordered blocked via court order. The ISPs generally wont voluntarily block something, only when they're told to.

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jamcc
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by jamcc » Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:08 pm

Lagamorph wrote:If you ever have to call them to fix an issue, you're utterly strawberry floated.


:lol: That made me laugh.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and sorry for taking so long to respond.

It sounds very much as though Virgin Media fibre optic is the best internet in the country. A couple of weekends ago, I drew up a spreadsheet* to compare BT and VM and when you factor in cashback (look at Top Cashback; you can get up to £124 for signing up through them!) and little bonuses (BT offered - and probably still do - a £125 Sainsbury's voucher for signing up), there isn't much difference between the two. I was minutes away from signing up for the frankly ridiculous 152Mb VM Pavkage but I really wanted BT Sport, (for £5/month extra, as opposed to £20 normally) so I went with them.

And, yes, if you get BT Internet you can get BT Sport for £5/month extra through your Sky box. Ace.

* :shifty:

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Errkal » Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:32 pm

Green Gecko wrote:Sky don't do any traffic shaping or download limits but their router is gooseberry fool and has massive problems uploading and downloading at the same time. I do sometimes get dropouts but it's usually resolved quickly or rebooting works, and generally the speed is good and stable for adsl+ (I get 18mbps). Calling their engineers was good (british), they sent out a free router but it didn't solve my issues. Basically I'll need to get a decent router at some point. I wish I didn't send the old O2 Thompson router back, which was fine and had 2 antennae.


Uploading and Downloading at the same time isn't a Sky Router issue that is adsl+

I'm on Sky Fibre Pro (80mbps) and can upload and download with no issues at all.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Green Gecko » Thu Jul 16, 2015 2:49 pm

This is really bad. It's especially when my phone does uploads of videos. Literally the entire network dies until it's finished. It's like the router can't do any QoS / packet management at all, surely if it's mostly uploading I should still be able to browse the Web?

Literally everything else dies on the network, services can't even connect. I've never had this problem before with previous routers or ISPs all on ADSL. Basically if I want to upload a quick video from my phone I can't do any work and it really cheeses me off.

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Errkal
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Errkal » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:06 pm

Usually not. ADSL isn't synchronous (hence the name) and so if you max out the upload (about 1 - 2 mbps) with a video or something your download is dead near enough until it is done. When you get into the fibre world however that goes away.

it may be worth checking if you can access resources from other devices within your network, they should work fine, it will only effect web resources.

The wiress is a bit spoddy on the Sky Hubs and Routers so it may be worth getting a wireless AP, that will improve the wireless but on 18mb you will always see a drop off when uplaoding. I use the 150mb modle of this AP http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WA90 ... b_title_ce and get great wireless.

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Green Gecko » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:10 pm

Interesting. Yes it is Asynchronous in the name :slol:. I'll guess I'll just have to live with it. For now, I've disabled uploads of videos with Dropbox camera upload, so at least it's not bloody automated.

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Errkal » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:15 pm

haha is there no fibre in lewes then?

I've got so used to a massive upload speed i don't think about it any more, I have people streaming from my Plex server HD films and dont see an noticeable drop off.

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Green Gecko
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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Green Gecko » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:17 pm

There is, but when you add line rental it is that much more per month.

Also BT do traffic shaping and download limits, which I find much more annoying than a slower overall speed. For my use, everything else is fine, even if it takes a while to upload a video, I can just transcode and automatically upload it over night. I think Sky is an extra tenner a month but maybe I can get a few months free or something.

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PostRe: Best ADSL/fibre optic broadband?
by Errkal » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:19 pm

Fair enough. I don't know how I would get on with slow web now, all my backups are online so uploads would kill it for days and if I need to restore it already takes 2 weeks to restore everything (I had to do it a few months back) I dread to think how long it would take!


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