UK Internet

[tuxsheadache]

I am trying to choose my Internet for my new house, in the S6 area of Sheffield in UK.

Anyone recommend any good services? It's for 3 people, 2 heavy downloaders and one WoW player, so we would need some pretty heavy stuff...

I'm quite impressed by what plus.net hold if we buy business Internet, as business seems the best way to get a high upload rate as well for our little WoWer.
http://www.plus.net/business/broadband/business.shtml

[ibutho]

I live in S2. We use Virgin Media broadband (20Mb) and we are generally very happy with the service. We've had very little downtime over the years. I'd highly recommend it, if its an option for you.

[xpod]

We`re also Virgin users on the 20Mb and while we dont have any real issues with their traffic management policies (http://abcde.co.uk/virginmedia/broadband-faq.php#q49) your heavy downloaders and WOW players might not be so fortunate.
I`d have a look at BE (https://www.bethere.co.uk/).

EDIT:If you do your "heavy downloading" during the wee small hours then the STM shouldn`t be an issue at all.

[Mehall]

As has been said, Virgin is great if it's an option, but only if your heavy DLers can do it after midnite or so. (Virgin doesn't throttle WoW traffic too much, AFAIK)

If you want to be able to do it daytime, then either Sky or o2 home broadband.

O2 is a reseller of the aforementioned be, but generally cheaper, especially if you have o2 for your mobile (even a PAYG)

Sky is good because they have no fair use limiter. Their "unlimited" means it.

[steeleyuk]

www.bethere.co.uk

No caps, as long as you don't download high amounts every day.

[ice60]

i heard AOL is pretty good :D

everytime i see comparisons zen always does well, i don't know about the download speeds though.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=105129&pn=13

i'd always thought it would be a good idea to ask neighbours, but most people are so clueless they won't know the difference between a virus and a slow ISP! so maybe not.

[tuxsheadache]

We decided to go with Virgin XL package, which is okay, but has caused quite a few debates between housemates.

I am impressed by the download speeds, I have seen it to up to 2MBps, which makes some good progress on the torrent front.

However we think they seem to be throttling the Internet on Friday or Saturday nights. I think it seems around the same, but the WoWer's computer in our house grinds to a halt.

Is there anyway to split up the Internet connection fairly between computers on a network, or is it just a PC power battle. I run Ubuntu, and the other two housemates run Windows XP. The none WOWer is feeling no physical decrease in speed, but speed tests shows she is getting half what I am. Our WoWer is only getting >1kb/s, so is not too pleased.

Is it due to our OS choice, or more than likely due to computer speed? E.g. My pc is slightly faster than none WoWers, but I think WoWers is slowest in house.

[Muppeteer]

Another vote for Virginmedia 20Mb. I can leave downloads running all night, and wake up to 50GB+ of crap. Though during the day i tend to take it easy and download only what i need, updating linux etc. Haven't had a single day downtime in over a year. Couldn't be happier with them tbh :)

[tuxsheadache]

Another vote for Virginmedia 20Mb. I can leave downloads running all night, and wake up to 50GB+ of crap. Though during the day i tend to take it easy and download only what i need, updating linux etc. Haven't had a single day downtime in over a year. Couldn't be happier with them tbh :)

50GB?? Highest I have got so far is 5.6GB for one night's work...

[Muppeteer]

50GB?? Highest I have got so far is 5.6GB for one night's work...

Newsgroups my friend. Full 2.6MB/s speed all night :popcorn:

[gletob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn2sVTs9uo4

Go with internet service providings.

It's a 42 megabytings! Is better than your current providings.

No downling limiting, free wirings, modeming.

Only 80 pound a month!

But if you sing up in the next 3 daysings you get it for forty pounds a month

Are you temptedings?

[nomnomnom]

i heard AOL is pretty good :D

..................http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/images/smilies2/lolup.gif

[mintochris]

www.bethere.co.uk

No caps, as long as you don't download high amounts every day.

+1
Be broadband is excellent

[speedwell68]

I use Sky Unliimited, no DL limits and upto 20mb/s. I only get 5mb/s, but I am in a rural location miles from the exchange.

[raydator]

One point to note about Virgin Media (which I use); the current traffic management policy means that you can download as much as you like between 9pm and 10am as detailed here (http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management.php).

However, I believe they are planning to change these times to those as detailed here (http://www.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management-trial.php) (they are currently trialling this in selected areas), meaning that you won't be able to download completely uncapped until 11pm.

[Baneblade]

Il be moving to Oxford next week and Im also looking at providers.
I was looking at BE from what i can tell they are the best as they also allow you to use your own router (Im running an entirely Gigabit + 802.11N home network, so that's important for me). They do however implement the so called "Fair Use" policy which they refuse to state the data limit for.
So considering that, and previous posters claiming that Sky doesnt do this, i may be changing my mind to Sky unlimited and saving 2 quid

[xpod]

Is there anyway to split up the Internet connection fairly between computers on a network, or is it just a PC power battle. I run Ubuntu, and the other two housemates run Windows XP. The none WOWer is feeling no physical decrease in speed, but speed tests shows she is getting half what I am. Our WoWer is only getting >1kb/s, so is not too pleased.

Is it due to our OS choice, or more than likely due to computer speed? E.g. My pc is slightly faster than none WoWers, but I think WoWers is slowest in house.

If your using the basic Netgear(?) router that Virgin supplied you could always sack that thing and get yourself one with some QOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_service) options.
You could even find a cheap second hand one capable of having some kind of custom firmware installed to do the same job.

I currently use the Virgin supplied Netgear myself although i also use a separate Linksys WRT54G, purely as a wireless access point.
It has the QOS options although i`ve never had any need to restrict bandwidth thankfully....not that any of the kids would be hammering torrents all day of course.:)

Surely the best bet for starters is speaking to all parties concerned, especially if you all share the bill.

[steeleyuk]

Il be moving to Oxford next week and Im also looking at providers.
I was looking at BE from what i can tell they are the best as they also allow you to use your own router (Im running an entirely Gigabit + 802.11N home network, so that's important for me). They do however implement the so called "Fair Use" policy which they refuse to state the data limit for.
So considering that, and previous posters claiming that Sky doesnt do this, i may be changing my mind to Sky unlimited and saving 2 quid

The FUP limit is stupidly high, under most circumstances you won't hit it. Ever.

That being said, if you maxed out 24Mbps seven days a week then they wouldn't be too happy.

[Baneblade]

The FUP limit is stupidly high, under most circumstances you won't hit it. Ever.

That being said, if you maxed out 24Mbps seven days a week then they wouldn't be too happy.

While my downloading isn't extreme (i follow a few US TV shows, the odd movie now and again, and I test linux distros) Im big into multiplayer games and host an FTP server for my friends and i to swap data on projects (and media..hehe). Plus my brother seems to live on Skype these days.
Now while I wouldn't call our usage heavy (tell me if it is?), it's pretty constant and mostly non-http.
But if that isn't going to get me near this "FUP" ceiling, then Il go with BE :D

[Earl_Maroon]

Be or O2 would be my suggestion too.
I had Virgin for a period and found their throttling to be awful.

[Jesus_Valdez]

Wow, I do live in a 3rd World Country. The max speed that I can get its like 2 Mb. 20 Mb sounds like another Planet.

But well, I know that some countries have like 2Mb for the entire population or something like that.

[steeleyuk]

Wow, I do live in a 3rd World Country. The max speed that I can get its like 2 Mb. 20 Mb sounds like another Planet.

But well, I know that some countries have like 2Mb for the entire population or something like that.

24Mbps ADSL is pretty rare over here to be honest, you need to be very close to the telephone exchange. The average connection speed is between 3 and 4Mbps (depending on which source you read). The government is pushing to get everyone on at least 2Mbps.

Click (a BBC tech news show) tested a connection from some new apartments in London a few months back, and the base connection speed was 50Mbps. There was also a 'boost' option which enabled 100Mbps for a price (for about 15 minutes). Funnily enough, they tested the speed by downloading an Ubuntu ISO.