Tiscali

[spinaltap]

I checked these details, our exchange has no upgrade date. On the o2 site, they say I can get Home Broadband Access at £22.03/month (non customer) If I was an o2 customer the rate would be £17.13

That's for their 'Pro' package. The 'Premium' package that I use is better value. The primary difference between the two is the router that is supplied - an 'N' rather than 'G' router. Since I already use my own 'N' router, the Premium package is better value for me.

At the higher 'Pro' price, you would be better opting for Be Unlimited (O2 sister company) - an up to 24Mb service for £17.50.

 

[Thmsshaun]

Thats interesting that you cant get a good deal out of AOL.

I currently contacted them as I am an O2 customer and was looking at changing to their broad band.

I am on AOL platinum and now pay £6.99 a month with the AOL talk package added. All I had to do was accept another 12 month contract :bannana:

Then about 2 years back when I was looking at going to a sky package they slashed it to £9.99 I never use the AOL software but have always had a good fast reliable connection.


My sister however uses Tiscali and just got a deal including the BT line rental and calls.

 

[Antharro]

I checked these details, our exchange has no upgrade date. On the o2 site, they say I can get Home Broadband Access at £22.03/month (non customer) If I was an o2 customer the rate would be £17.13

That's for their 'Pro' package. The 'Premium' package that I use is better value. The primary difference between the two is the router that is supplied - an 'N' rather than 'G' router. Since I already use my own 'N' router, the Premium package is better value for me.

At the higher 'Pro' price, you would be better opting for Be Unlimited (O2 sister company) - an up to 24Mb service for £17.50.

Incorrect I'm afraid. o2's Access package is available for people whose exchange isn't o2 enabled. Only people who have o2 enabled exchanges can have the Standard/Premium/Pro packages. The other differences (tho these would be of varying importance to different people):

- 'N' router as stated, although N STILL isn't a finalized standard!
- 2.5Mb upload as opposed to 1.3Mb
- 5 licenses for McAfee Security as opposed to 3 (I wouldn't use them anyway!)
- 500 free web texts as opposed to 200
- Static IP is free as opposed to £4.89/mo

And compared with the "Access" package which imo is overpriced...
- 'G' router
- 448kbps upload (0.4Mb)
- 3 licenses
- 100 web texts
- Static IP not available

 

[Antharro]

BT claim I can receive up to 8megs. Actual speed is 0.5megs.

"Up to 8Mb" is their blanket term covering all ADSL connections. When ADSL is enabled on your line, the exchange tries to work out the most stable rate for your line conditions. Therefore, if the line is noisy, then it will reduce the speed until the connection is more stable. If you're on a new line or live next door to the exchange, you'll be seeing higher speeds. If you're at the end of the line and far away from the exchange then you'll be seeing lower speeds.

That said, 0.5Mb is abysmally slow and I would be kicking up a fuss about it. It is possible for the exchange to set the speed too low if something went wrong during the learning period or if there has been a fault on the line since (or even BT doing maintenance), and the exchange hasn't pushed the speed back up again.

Your internet provider can request that BT tells the exchange to "re-learn" your line which should improve things. They can even ask BT to manually set the line speed (0.5Mb, 1Mb, 2Mb etc), however this may not guarantee a stable connection as the amount of errors at a set speed may actually reduce the speed overall! However, a lot of tech support people at ISPs have no idea of this and will tell you that what you're experiencing is perfectly normal when it actually isn't.

So it depends a lot on your ISP. You can't talk to BT Wholesale/OpenReach, the departments within BT that deal with selling and supporting the actual line and exchange, so they have to do it for you.

I'm with PlusNet who have tech support guys who know what they're talking about and as they're owned by BT, things usually get done!

What ISP are you on, and how far are you from your exchange? You can find out the latter by going to SamKnows, punching in your phone number then "Check", then clicking "BT ADSL" which will give you the name of your local exchange and the rate your line should support. Click on the name of the exchange for further details and a map so you can see how far you are.

 

[spinaltap]

Slightly off-topic, but related to download speed: while this solution won't provide you with ultimate download speed, it will make a significant improvement.

When I initially signed-up with Be three years ago I only achieved 7Mb download instead of the suggested 14Mb.

By installing a filtered faceplate on the telephone master socket (a ten minute job) my download speed increased to an acceptable 14Mb - and it only cost £12.

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

 

[oldcro]

"Up to 8Mb" is their blanket term covering all ADSL connections. When ADSL is enabled on your line, the exchange tries to work out the most stable rate for your line conditions. Therefore, if the line is noisy, then it will reduce the speed until the connection is more stable. If you're on a new line or live next door to the exchange, you'll be seeing higher speeds. If you're at the end of the line and far away from the exchange then you'll be seeing lower speeds.

That said, 0.5Mb is abysmally slow and I would be kicking up a fuss about it. It is possible for the exchange to set the speed too low if something went wrong during the learning period or if there has been a fault on the line since (or even BT doing maintenance), and the exchange hasn't pushed the speed back up again.

Your internet provider can request that BT tells the exchange to "re-learn" your line which should improve things. They can even ask BT to manually set the line speed (0.5Mb, 1Mb, 2Mb etc), however this may not guarantee a stable connection as the amount of errors at a set speed may actually reduce the speed overall! However, a lot of tech support people at ISPs have no idea of this and will tell you that what you're experiencing is perfectly normal when it actually isn't.

So it depends a lot on your ISP. You can't talk to BT Wholesale/OpenReach, the departments within BT that deal with selling and supporting the actual line and exchange, so they have to do it for you.

I'm with PlusNet who have tech support guys who know what they're talking about and as they're owned by BT, things usually get done!

What ISP are you on, and how far are you from your exchange? You can find out the latter by going to SamKnows, punching in your phone number then "Check", then clicking "BT ADSL" which will give you the name of your local exchange and the rate your line should support. Click on the name of the exchange for further details and a map so you can see how far you are.

Thanks Antharro for that information. So running a speed test with BT will always say "up to 8megs". I just did a test and the result was "We estimate your maximum download speed to be 8.0 Mbps (Megabits per second)." That's like saying I'll give you up to £500,000 for your 1999 Mondeo.

I am about 1 1/2 miles from the exchange (Skellister) and am with Tiscali my neighbour who is with Virgin also gets 0.5mgps. I like the idea of asking them to ask BT to set the line speed higher, but would be concerned that it would result in an unstable service. I'll have to check others further down the line to see What speeds they are getting before taking any action.

 

[Piff]

Slightly off-topic, but related to download speed: while this solution won't provide you with ultimate download speed, it will make a significant improvement.

When I initially signed-up with Be three years ago I only achieved 7Mb download instead of the suggested 14Mb.

By installing a filtered faceplate on the telephone master socket (a ten minute job) my download speed increased to an acceptable 14Mb - and it only cost £12.

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

Is this the same as removing the bell wire?
Removing the bell wire at the master socket prevents interferance from other phone wiring/sockets in your house. Bell wire isn't needed for modern phones.

 

[masher_uk]

Is this the same as removing the bell wire?
Removing the bell wire at the master socket prevents interferance from other phone wiring/sockets in your house. Bell wire isn't needed for modern phones.

Correct - and for a lot less than £12! . Just disconnect pin 3 of the extension wiring at the master socket - should be coloured orange with white band. Also, it may take a couple of days until the exchange equipment adjusts itelf and you see the speed increase.

 

[masher_uk]

I am about 1 1/2 miles from the exchange (Skellister) and am with Tiscali my neighbour who is with Virgin also gets 0.5mgps.

That's because they're both delivered over the same BT lines. Your neighbour will be a Virgin 'offnet' customer (ie non-cable).

 

[oldcro]

That's because they're both delivered over the same BT lines. Your neighbour will be a Virgin 'offnet' customer (ie non-cable).

Yes I realise that, I ownly mentioned it to show the slow speed was not down to a problem in my house.

 

[Antharro]

Thanks Antharro for that information. So running a speed test with BT will always say "up to 8megs".

No, a proper speed test should give you the speed your line managed at the time of that particular test. I use (amongst others) the ThinkBroadband test, which can be found here.

I am about 1 1/2 miles from the exchange (Skellister) and am with Tiscali my neighbour who is with Virgin also gets 0.5mgps. I like the idea of asking them to ask BT to set the line speed higher, but would be concerned that it would result in an unstable service. I'll have to check others further down the line to see What speeds they are getting before taking any action.

At 1 1/2 miles you should be getting a much higher speed than 0.5Mb. Do you have any noise on your line? Pick up the receiver, dial a single number then listen to the silence. Also, try a couple of phones if you can, some tend to be good at cutting out line noise!

Otherwise, BT can run some troubleshooting on the line for you - old copper can often cause problems. We had massively corroded copper where it joined the box on the side of the house, that wasn't helping the broadband any although there was only line noise when the corrosion was really bad.

The faceplate trick can often work very well too!

 

[spinaltap]

Is this the same as removing the bell wire?
Removing the bell wire at the master socket prevents interferance from other phone wiring/sockets in your house. Bell wire isn't needed for modern phones.

The added benefit of installing the ADSL Nation faceplate is that you can remove all the micro filters you may have from around the home.

 

[gary350]

I have been with tiscali for ages can not fault them if I were to change it would be to sky for the full package, tv, phone, broadband.

gary