Telephone Exchange - Broadband

[Virtual_Unknown]

Ok ive been looking for a new broadband provider and i found one i was happy with and was in the process of signing up when i noticed it said my expected speed was 4mb even though i was signing up for an 8mb connection.
After doing a bit more research it seems this is beause i am 1.39 miles from the nearest telephone exchange.

My question is, am i actually likely to get over 4mb or is going for 8mb package actually pointless when i could get the virgin 4mb package instead?

 

[rustybolt]

try getting cable in your area, it will allow better speeds over an ADSL connection.

Im with Virgin.

 

[Tom]

try getting cable in your area, it will allow better speeds over an ADSL connection.

Im with Virgin.

Cable does not use ADSL?

 

[Virtual_Unknown]

I can get cable in my area, thats not a problem but with my phone lines maximum speed being 4mb then will i be able to get a faster speed than that if i get an 8mb connection?
Or am i better getting the Virgin 4mb connection?

 

[Tom H]

Normally BT's estimated speeds are pretty reliable, so i would say you wont see much more than the 4mb

 

[steelee]

I can get cable in my area, thats not a problem but with my phone lines maximum speed being 4mb then will i be able to get a faster speed than that if i get an 8mb connection?
Or am i better getting the Virgin 4mb connection?

Cable uses fibre, ADSL uses copper so not the same thing you can get 20mb or even 50mb in some places with cable and a max of 8mb with ADSL if you live next door to the exchange, Cable is a much better bet than ADSL, you can keep you BT phone line and also have cable installed by virgin or whoever you choose

 

[rustybolt]

try getting cable in your area, it will allow better speeds over an ADSL connection.

Im with Virgin.

Cable does not use ADSL?

eh, you need to read my post again tom.

Cable allows better speeds over an ADSL connection (i mean instead of not meaning it will come down the ADSL connection, LOL)

Like - i choose the R26 over the R27. blah blah.

you know what i mean.

 

[Adam]

Thats not true. Cable is upto 20Mbps and you can get ADSL 2 upto 24Mbps. BT can only offer upto 8Mbps at present untill they release their next gen network. So this means any ISP that use IP Stream (BT equipment in the exchange) I.e AOL then all you will get is "upto" 8Mbps. ISP's who use LLU means that their equipment is in the BT exchange and can put you on their ADSL 2 speeds which as far as I am aware is the highest of 24Mbps at present.

Obviously your distance from the exchaage does matter alot. 1.39 miles is quite a distance so what BT have told you is probably correct. There are a couple of things you can do internally to improve your connection but in this instance it wouldnt make a great deal.

Where as Cable/Fibre it doesnt matter the distance as you will be connected to their local DP and the fibre connection is always strong and bandwitdh doesnt get lost along the way. Unfortunatly for me when I was on cable Virgin took over and they are a load of s**te lol.........:evil:

I am now with Be there enjoying around 21/22 Mbps via ADSL 2

 

[Adam]

Also Virgin do have an ADSL product aswell.

I would call up a few ISP's (Be There has had a recent price drop ) and get them to advise you on maxium possible speed on your line due to distance.

 

[D1CKY]

I Think get 100mbps when i plug the Network (Lan cable) thing into my Laptop that comes out my Talk Talk Modem. (It flashes down bottom right of screen then goes away after being plugged in).

The modem is plugged into phone socket with phone cable and modem phone cable plugged into a ADSL Filter if this mean anything.

Is this Good ? :S

As a lot of this computer stuff is going over my head ?

Another thing is mbps related to Mb in any way ?

E.g. 100mbps

and 4mb etc etc

 

[Tom H]

100 is your lan speed not your net speed unless your in [SIZE=-1]Malaysia or wherever it is that have it now
[/SIZE]

 

[D1CKY]

100 is your lan speed not your net speed unless your in [SIZE=-1]Malaysia or wherever it is that have it now[/SIZE]

Ah ok what does that mean Lan Speed ?

Sorry i'm quite Pc iliterate when it comes to stuff like this

Any ideas how i can check my net speed ? ?

 

[Noodle999]

Cable uses fibre, ADSL uses copper

You might be able to get a "cable" connection presented to you as fibre in your area, but I'd think that's extremely rare...

Cable Internet is so-called because it is designed to run over Cable TV networks, and is generally presented to the end user as a coax with a copper conductor. This can of course provide more bandwidth to start off with than a pair of copper wires. ADSL then works by using some fairly clever tricks to get more bandwidth out of the technology it's transmitted over.

For now at least, if you live in a cabled area then you will definately be able to achieve higher speeds from using that, than getting ADSL, even if you do live right next door to the exchange, unless there's an LLU provider at your exchange offering 24Mbit but I should think that'd be a lot more expensive than 20Mbit cable!

Also, when calculating distance from exchange, remember this is not "as the crow flies", but instead following the route of the cables. This will most likely be the route from the exchange to your house following the major roads.

I Think get 100mbps when i plug the Network (Lan cable) thing into my Laptop that comes out my Talk Talk Modem.

That's the speed of the LAN (Local Area Network) connection betweeen your laptop and your ADSL modem. The modem is then connecting you to the Internet at the speed of your ADSL line, whatever that may be. So sorry to disappoint but no you haven't been the surprise recipient of a super-duper 100Mbit ADSL line

Another thing is mbps related to Mb in any way ?

E.g. 100mbps

and 4mb etc etc

When people talk about a "4 Meg" or "4Mb" or "4 Megabit" connection, that refers to a connection capable of downloading at 4 Megabits per second. Mbps is another way of denoting it. Megabits shouldn't be confused with Megabytes, there are 8 bits in a byte and thus 8 Megabits in a Megabyte.

Thus to give you a real world example, it should in theory take 2 seconds to download a 1 Megabyte file on a "4 Meg" connection. Hope this helps D1CKY :approve:

 

[Noodle999]

Any ideas how i can check my net speed ? ?

There ought to be a way to access some kind of diagnostic information from your modem to find out what speed it's connected to the exchange at, but if you want to find out the actual speed you're achieving from "the Internet", try using this (make sure you're not downloading anything before you start the test):

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html (Formerly "ADSL Guide")

 

[J203425]

lol

 

[172.com]

100 is your lan speed not your net speed unless your in [SIZE=-1]Malaysia or wherever it is that have it now
[/SIZE]

A lot of Japanese people have 100mbps connections.

 

[rustybolt]

Cable doesnt loose bandwidth like an ADSL line over distance, obly on how many connect at once in your area.

Ive had 3 ADSL and 2 cables ISPs in my life wherever ive lived (Home & Uni)

I can say with confidence that i will never get an ADSL connection again.

You have to dial up, the connection is rubbish, you have to have a phone line, usually BT.

Ive had a NTL (now Virgin) cable connection for nearly a year. I can download whole albums in an hour or so, never have problems and always record a 19,000+ kbps download speed on speed test.

My ADSL connections (BT, AOL, Pipex) all couldnt match the reliability, speed and performance of cable.

 

[KDF]

Thats not true. Cable is upto 20Mbps and you can get ADSL 2 upto 24Mbps.

They are already testing 50Mb/s in some places on Virgin.



Having said that I barely ever see anywhere the stated 20Mbps.. soo...

 

[Noodle999]

The only potential problem I see with Virgin is appalling customer service. I've been phoning up and listening to recorded messages about how they're going to be different to NTL and then getting no joy with the numpty who answers, if anything my experience with them so far is that they're worse than they were when they were NTL! :S

It took a monumental battle to get my gf's Uni connection reconnected (she already had the coax and modem, just had it cut off over the summer). They wouldn't reactivate it with the existing modem, claiming it "wouldn't work". When she questioned them about how existing NTL customers' modems were working with Virgin they just made up some bulls**t. She was told a modem would be delivered for "self install" and waited in all day that day to instead receive a letter telling her the date her engineer install would be... upon phoning them she was told she needed to wait another 7 days before they *could* do installs due to a "problem with the system", and another 5 days before she could "change the order to a self install", despite the fact it was a self install all along and it was an error on the part of Virgin that changed it. She called back after those 5 days to be told by a different person that the work being done on their system had been completed some days previously, and there was no block on installs.

In the end when the modem did arrive, it was identical to the existing one apart from colour and branding, it was even the same model number. Unfortunately it was accompanied by a letter stating a separately-posted PIN is required, and there's a postal strike on! :dapprove: Three more angry phone calls saying we're sure as hell not waiting for the PIN due to the delays she's suffered already, and they eventually cough it up.

To top it all off since NTL became Virgin Media, I've noticed that on my connection at home at any given time only about 75% of the world's web sites are available. Basically if I didn't already have Virgin I'd be very wary about ordering it right now

 

[KDF]

^^ agreed. Virgin is s**t..


Bring back Telewest/Blueyonder.. never had any trouble with them !

 

[Noodle999]

Bring back Telewest/Blueyonder.. never had any trouble with them !

Yeah, as an NTL customer when I heard they were doing a merger with TW/BY I hoped some of the better customer service I'd heard about would rub off on NTL... but unfortunately it went the other way :dapprove: