UKOnline Broadband - 22mbps

[scotth_uk]

Installed yesterday. Requested a MAC code from Plusnet, and used it in the UKOnline ordering process. Took about 10 days in total to change. Seamless transfer with downtime of about 1 hour.

Details: £29.99 per month, plus a mandatory modem purchase of about £80 (Netgear DG834GT). 12 month contract (unfortunately).

General use of the link feels like a 2mb connection, which at first is a little disappointing. Where it really flies is when you have multiple downloads running in parallel, and all of them behave like their own 2mb connection!

I had a few 200k per second downloads last night, while Azureus was pulling in 400k per second.

Happy bunny.

UKOnline's website is total crap, and their call centre take forever to answer calls - hopefully I won't need to use either.

 

[Mambo]

What rate are you actually getting? My mate has just switched across to be who advertise up to 24Mbps but due to his location he is only getting around 6Mbps... Still a lot better than my 2Mbps though

 

[scotth_uk]

My sync speed is 21.5mbps on the new firmware. On the firmware that came with it, I was getting about 22.2mbps.

Outbound speed is 768.

 

[Mambo]

My sync speed is 21.5mbps on the new firmware. On the firmware that came with it, I was getting about 22.2mbps.

Outbound speed is 768.

Lucky Lucky Man! Maybe its time I moved out of Docklands!

 

[Ashley]

At present when using my FTP client I have to go off and make a drink I would love a upload exceeding 1mb.

 

[Flyer]

Blimey Scott, 22Mbps ... and I was made up when mine went to 1Mbps!!

Paying the same as you are with Eclipse, but looking at moving away after their major SNAFU last week AND the fact that as a business customer, there are no extra benefits over being a residential customer.

UKOnline (LLU) isn't available in my area yet, but hopefully other ISPs will be spurred on now.

Expect other services now that UKOnline's parent, Easynet, has been swallowed up by BSkyB

 

[BTB 500]

Allegedly I can't have higher than 512 kbps!

 

[Satch]

I am deeply suspicious of some of the claimed speeds. Why? Contention Ratio

Contention ratio

ADSL, SDSL and cable modems are all currently offered as services with advertised transfer rates, but the actual transfer rates in practice may be lower depending on the number of other simultaneous users on that node of the network. This is known as the contention ratio. More subscribers may mean more demand, which reduces the amount of bandwidth which is available for each user. Low content rates are roughly 5:1 but for some services it can be as high as 50:1

This can have a very serious impact on the performance of an internet connection and makes it impossible to ensure performance at any given time

I am very lucky because my 2MB NTL connection has only four users on the cable end and two of them are low internet users. I get a far superior service to people not that far away who pay a lot more for what sounds like a much "faster" connection but live on a fairly dense development.

 

[BTB 500]

All advertising I've seen recently says "up to ..." when referring to transfer speeds

 

[grasmere]

Azureus

I assume that Azureus is the same idea as Bitcomet? In that its the same torrents that are downloaded and the speed is to do with the connection and not the program . . . ?

 

[Mambo]

I assume that Azureus is the same idea as Bitcomet? In that its the same torrents that are downloaded and the speed is to do with the connection and not the program . . . ?

Azerus is just a torrent download client, it's what I use. There may be small differences in speed between different clients but the main factor affecting speed will be your connection

 

[gary350]

Recent thoughts on highspeed above 8mb is that you have to live within 3K of the exchange to get it and in the exchanges backyard to get higher. See Bulldog are offering 8mb for £14.99, BT and tiscali are almost there with their products.

gary

 

[grasmere]

Azerus is just a torrent download client, it's what I use.

cheers Mambo. I use bitcomet but I'll give Azerus a trial out

 

[scotth_uk]

I am deeply suspicious of some of the claimed speeds. Why? Contention Ratio

Contention ratio

Satch, you are quite right to point out the contention issue. As the country becomes more saturated with BB users, the problem will become worse. The only way to fix it will be to deploy more bandwidth between the ISP and it's next hop.

It's not all bad though. Contention really only becomes an issue when people are hammering their link.....

When you are browsing (not downloading files) your machine makes infrequent requests for small amounts of information. The second the "http get" response is complete, your link goes back to idle. When you make another request, the process repeats. This type of user doesn't really create a problem.

P2P, BitTorrent and downloading users are the ones that make you feel the contention issue.

The ISPs are very open about the contention ratios, and I don't think that any of this information should come as a surprise to anyone. Some advertise better ratios to get more custom. People should use this information when shopping around for a service.

UKOnline's contention for their 22mb service is only 33:1.

Interestingly UKOnline block you from running typical server types at home to prevent further saturation of their links. A good move I think.

 

[craigyb]

Got my upgrade ordered today, struggled with customer services to find my account status was set to "Pay as you surf" for some reason and I could auto upgrade.

They reset it and 30 minutes later the order went in.

Great, I'm about 100 yards from the exchange, I regularly get 830K out of my 8Mb line, so 22Mb's should be a hoot.

Craig

 

[A-AvantGarde]

Yipee! Looks like I can get upto 22MBs here in Camberley! You're right the UKOnline site isn't great. It's a shame that you have to buy their equipment at £80 if you want the 22MB service, what happens if you don't want a Netgear or Wireless?

May look around and see who else is offering this, 22 MB hmmmmm ;-)

 

[scotth_uk]

I think that at this time only www.bethere.co.uk are competing. I've got some friends at work who ordered that service and in the migration were left with no broadband at all for almost 4 weeks! You've been warned.

The £80 for the router with UKOnline is a pain, but they do it to ensure a decent service and to simplify their support arrangements. You can turn off the wireless if you need to. (I have a bunch of ADSL routers here, but none are ADL2+ - so I cannot see what happens with another unit)