Broadband speeds - Lesson learned

Hi all

Been away for three weeks and just got back....
Man that was a blessed break!

AAAAAnyway, I thought I should share a leeson learned in broadband speeds.

I have started my broadband exprerience with Demon and have stuck with them ever since. At first I got the Home500, unlimited service at 512Kbps.
After about a year I have received a letter announcing that I have been upgraded for no additional charge to Home2000, unlimited service at 2Mbps.
I thought, WOW that's nice but my speed only moved up a notch to 1.1Mbps.
Still a wicked speed in my opinion
Today I have received another letter - this time I was informed that I am now a proud owner of the Home8000, you guessed it, unlimited service at a staggering 8Mbps!!!!
Not bad hey?
And my true speed? That's right 1.1Mbps -

So WTF???

Here is what I have learned from Demon's tech support:
As I have banged on before - ISP's can promise you zillionMbps but at the end of the day, a major factor in the connection speed is the distance (or the physical length of the line) from BT's nearest exchange. There are other factors to conceder such as hardware, connection point in the house etc. However by far the most important contributer is the one factor mentioned firstly.

BT have been upgrading their systems lately thus enabling ISP's to offer greater speeds. This is good news in any case but it is extremely important to bear in mind this distance to the exchange!

Bottom line, Demon have notified me that in December when my line will finaly be upgraded by BT the absolute maximum connection will not go above 4Mbps!!

So.... lesson learned - do not be dazzled by mega speed offers! Do your homework and check with BT that your line can actualy support the speeds you are offered, find out if and when the line is likely to be upgraded and make sure you have the right equipment.

All this is by no means criticism of Demon and/or its products.
I have to commend Demon for their reliability and support for the last two years!

Hope this little post will be of use and help to ADSL noobs everywhere (at least in the UK....).

 

Thanks for the pointer saba, I was thinking of switching to ADSL soon, Sky Broadband is offering 16mbps for Sky customers. £10 a month.

 

Welcome Back Subashu

I think I should better move to UK coz it will gonna save me for the long run.... 16mbps just for 10Pounds(I dont have a pound key on my keyboard)...

 

Bt is crap though. ADSL max is enabled where I live but its a max of 3.5mbps.

 

[ot]

Hey Saba, welcome back! Have a good holiday?[/ot]

 

Had a very very good holiday.....thanks!

Addis - I was thinking the same thing....
Although I will never see 16Mbps, the deal will still be half the price of what I am paying now and will future-proof me for a mighty long time...

Zeus, I do not think the quality of the line or speed is effected by BT.
I think, and I can be horribly wrong, that at the end of the day it is down to where you are and how much physical sruff there is between you and your ISP's servers. I know people like to slate BT but I never had a problem with them. I think they always gave me a good service . I heard much more bad feedback about NTL for example....

Karan - Broadband in the UK is by no means cheap. A lot of these so called 'deals' are capped (a certain GB limit of traffic each month) and the unlimited deals can sometime climb to staggering tarrifs (for me anyway...).

By the way - the Sky Broadband deals mentioned here lately are for existing Sky customers only!!

 

Yeah the Sky deals are good if you're an existing customer.

I know I'm still stuck on 512kbps because BT can't upgrade me, they keep telling me "In the near future more technologies will be available to you to allow us to provide you with a faster connection" but it never happens, I'm waiting to hear from Sky as to what they can offer (realistically non of this 'up to' business).

Not that it will matter as I should be off to Uni in a few weeks time and I won't be using this connection anymore

[ot]Hey sabashuali - glad to hear you had a good holiday [/ot]

 

I am on AOL's crappy 8mbps package, BT says my line can have 3.5mbps max, but WTF i am only getting 2.1mbps (290kbps download), if only we could get internet through sky dishes

 

No, you do not want to do that!!!
The speeds are delirious but the price is sky high (boom boom hah: ).
I have looked into it as soon as I learned that at the back of your dish there should be a connection for that purpose.
Also I am not sure how secure it is…

 

so over a dish, what speeds would you be able to get? (over a modern sky digital dish)

 

There would also be huge ping because of the satellite transmissions wouldn't there? Forget about gaming with satellite, or even VoIP.

 

BT isnt my ISP, pipex is. I think BT are crap because they wont spend money on our exchange. Plus our immediate area continuously disconnects. Its not just us, I know 4 people within 100 meters of my house who all have the same problem.

Anyway, could satellite work? I thought upload was required to use the net, or am I wrong?

 

Well yea upload is required, when you're making a post on the forum first, the page is downloaded to your comp, you do your post, click post, and its uploaded to the server.

 

try looking for a freeware key remapper

 

wow off topic, but i just realized how many people on this forum are from the UK. ON topic though thats prettt crazy 16mbs service for $20 thats crazy, for twice that amount for 3mbs service i have to pay $40, durn living in the sticks. Also it depends on what the web site can hanlde, for example for might be able to upload 500mbs per second but the website can only handle 10mbs per sec.

 

But dont you send a request to view the page in the first place?

 

Dunno, maybe, i think in the buttom of the browser i seen something saying request before.

 

Program Cancel..lol
Actually, Its much more expensive in NZ...According to my plan, I m paying $40 NZD for landline rental and $40 NZD for Internet connection, which includes $10 of free tolls...And do you know, what my plan is..... It is the cheapest one from all other plans in NZ, chech here my one is 256mbps, 3GB plan [link=http://slingshot.co.nz/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=999&tabid=11&subnav=3]Slingshot[/link]. They are showing $30 but if you dont do $10 tolls then they will charge you for that as well..... I found this connection as a cheapest amongst all other companies in the NZ....

I give you one example of [link=http://www.telecom.co.nz/content/0,8748,203096-200840,00.html?link=hpm]Xtra Broadband Rates[/link]. Look at the cost and compare.....you will be amazed.

I thought nobody will notice this but you did hah: Thanks...
As per the problem, I dont know which key you are refering to when you are saying Freeware Key Remapper??

 

what i was refering to was "keyboard remapping software" bassically you can setup a custom keystroke to recreate a £, like this or this

Edit: similar to adding a keystroke for a charector in MS word :ill:

 

Thanks for the links Dave ...