UK Broadband - help me decide?

[Kaitain]

Well, my year working for BP has entered its last quarter, I've got the title for my end of year report, and the dates for my presentation. (That's what's kept me from being on AOA so much).

It's also student-digs hunting season, and I think I may have found myself a place for next academic year (woo!)

Anyway, the important decisions now have to be made, while I've still got an income: broadband.

Given the choice between cable and ADSL, which would you choose.

When ADSL's £15/month cheaper to rent than cable?
When equipment cost's vastly greater for ADSL?
When 2 computers are guaranteed to be using it at any time?

Help?

[mookydooky]

Unless your cable node in overwhelmed, which is possible with stuff like Kazaa and Morpheus, cable should offer better service. I have cable at home and DSL at work and the cable service is noticably faster. Also with cable, you normally don't have to deal with PPPoE which is a PITA unless you have one of those broadband routers.

The non-cable option. That'll teach you, ted rogers, ya ****er you!!!!!








:-D

[Aedan]

Originally posted by Kaitain
Given the choice between cable and ADSL, which would you choose.

When ADSL's £15/month cheaper to rent than cable?
When equipment cost's vastly greater for ADSL?
When 2 computers are guaranteed to be using it at any time?

Lots of questions there Kaitain!

I'm currently running ADSL, and I've had no problems with it, however, I have the money to spend on a netblock.

Both Cable and ADSL at the price point you're looking at, will be single IP, so you'll need a router that'll manage NAT. The router will always be a cost if there's more than one computer involved. ADSL routers start at around £130-£140, and have one ADSL port, and one or more Ethernet ports. You'll also need to factor in the cost of a microfilter for each telephone point - Some telephones interfere with the ADSL signal.

Cable, you'll need a router that can handle the hand off from the CableCo (NTL or Telewest). Generally, the CableCo give you an ethernet connection, so you'll need a router that has two sets of ethernet ports. Again, I believe these can be in the same range as the ADSL routers.

Yes, for both Cable and ADSL, you can get away with a computer acting as the router/NAT device with Linux, Windows or whatever.

When you start to look at sharing two computers, the cost difference between the two isn't so high.

In terms of ADSL, I'd recommend avoiding Pipex - One of the guys I work with had a runin with Pipex that led to him cancelling his account with them.

If you want to ask any more Qs, feel free, and I'll see what I can dig up.

AidanII

[Kaitain]

Unless your cable node in overwhelmed, which is possible with stuff like Kazaa and Morpheus, cable should offer better service

One of my future housemates has told me that those applications may be used periodically. I presume he wants to listen to freeware music by hardworking amateur musicians

Both Cable and ADSL at the price point you're looking at, will be single IP, so you'll need a router that'll manage NAT. The router will always be a cost if there's more than one computer involved. ADSL routers start at around £130-£140, and have one ADSL port, and one or more Ethernet ports. You'll also need to factor in the cost of a microfilter for each telephone point - Some telephones interfere with the ADSL signal.

I was looking at either an integrated adsl modem/router or cable modem router (depending on what system I end up with). Basically, the mixture of computers and users would mean that NAT and hardware firewalls are an essential, rather than a fun option. I've set aside £300 to get myself set up, having looked at a number of adsl modem reviews and seeing the prices involved for suitable systems. Thankfully, microfilters aren't that much now, either (dabs value, for about £8)

It's still cheaper than setting up a gateway PC

In terms of ADSL, I'd recommend avoiding Pipex - One of the guys I work with had a runin with Pipex that led to him cancelling his account with them.

Thanks for that - they're exactly who I'd have gone with. ISPreview gave them a good enough satisfaction rating, and they're by far the cheapest.

Which provider would you recommend (wires only)?

[loop]

We have cable and used a p133 running freesco off a floppy to do the NAT, it never slowed down unless kazza was used. Infact it was brilliant.

You can get a machine like that for about £20 - £50 at a pc fair.

Never tried ADSL but in Britain its like gold dust (hard to find and useless)

[Kaitain]

This is the advantage of going to uni in one of BT's primary rollout areas - the bb infrastructure's been there for a while now and has been upgraded repeatedly so it's not that bad. Still costs a pretty penny, compared with the rest of the EU, so just hoping BT will get taken to the European court again

We have cable and used a p133 running freesco off a floppy to do the NAT, it never slowed down unless kazza was used. Infact it was brilliant.

Also a good idea - thanks

Just how badly do things like KaZaA affect the data rate on internal networks? Which one holds up better to the load out of ADSL and Cable?

[Holst]

Ive just signed myself up for Pipex ADSL.

Its quite a bit cheaper than cable per month although the setup costs will be higher.

Im gettin a router with 4 port ethernet for £160, thats pretty expensive but it will give me a bit more flexibility, if I move house or something.

pipex is supposed to give good gaming pings and are pretty cheap (also no charge to sign up)

Im not connected yet, once I get it ill let you all know how im getting on with it.

[Aedan]

Originally posted by Kaitain
[B Thanks for that - they're exactly who I'd have gone with. ISPreview gave them a good enough satisfaction rating, and they're by far the cheapest.

Which provider would you recommend (wires only)? [/B]

The person I alluded to had had problems with Pipex blaming both BT and the router manufacturer when the DSL line failed to come up. Conversations with BT demonstrated the line was indeed up, and conversations with the router manufacturer demonstrated that the router worked fine. After much to-ing and fro-ing, Pipex eventually added his logon to their database. Information was not forthcoming from Pipex, to the extent he felt he was being ignored by them.

Secondly, because of the difficulties he had had getting Pipex to do anything about the problem, he decided to cancel his account. He did this in writing, by fax, by telephone and by email, to ensure that the request was received. No confirmation was forthcoming, but they removed his login after a couple of weeks.

At the moment, our guys are split between Nildram and Andrews & Arnold.

A&A charge £150/qtr for their Home 500 product. (They have a Home 500Lite, but say it's designed for 5MB/hour average over 4 weeks)

Nildram charge £76.56/qtr for their Home 500Lite (Dynamic IP). There's a one year minimum contract with the Home 500Lite.

As always, double check the terms and conditions. Looks like Nildram come out fairly well here. Pipex is a lot cheaper still (£59.85/qtr). All pricing excludes VAT.

AidanII

[SadisticWarrior]

I don't know about prices over there and dont' care about price here but.................... I'm hooked to cable and connected at 1470kb :-D avg. dl speed 950 kbs :-D . the guy next door is running DSL his avg dl speed 550 kbs you do the math. I'll never gve up cable till thay come up with something faster!

[The Spyder]

I like DSL for the upload- i have a 1.5/1.5m up and down :-P
SPyder

[Aedan]

Of course, if you're in the UK, and you really want to go overboard, then Easynet might have something suitable. I suspect their current offerings are not suitable for students, but what the heck!

Their top of the range DSL offering is 8Mbit downstream, and 768Kbit upstream. For SDSL, they can provide 2Mbit up and downstream. Of course, all this bandwidth comes at a price!

AidanII

[Carthesis]

Just to give everyone my two-pen'north of opinion...

Up until recently, I too was a student suffering the ignomy of a narrowband, dial-up 56k modem nastiness connection, and after browsing the old interweb at warp speeds in the university computer labs, decided to invest in the old broadband connection.

I'm one of these lucky people in a big city where everything has been done everywhere, so I had my choice of cable or ADSL. Based on:-
a) the recommendation of a friend
b) the price
c) the ease of installation
I went with the blueyonder service from Telewest. for those of you who haven't been informed, it's absolutely fantastic. I've had not one iota of trouble with it, and every time I've rung the tech support line, they've been very good at answering questions. The installation was on time, quick, easy, and the guy was very friendly and helpful.

I started out with a 512kbps dl/128kbps ul for 33 notes a month, which has dropped in price to 25 recently, and they now have a 1024kbps for only an extra tenner a month.

It's damned good, we like, and I'd recommend it to anyone. I have no problems running a few boxes off of the connection. The Cable modem is plugged into an SMC Barricade router, which you can get for about 90 quid these days which does NAT, port forwarding, MAC cloning and everything you could possibly need. Even has built-in print server.

Check out http://www.blueyonder.co.uk and try the old postcode checker they have to see if you can get a line in. Is most worthwhile.

[Rackne]

Originally posted by Carthesis
Just to give everyone my two-pen'north of opinion...

Welcome to the forums matey

[loop]

Originally posted by Carthesis
Just to give everyone my two-pen'north of opinion...

Up until recently, I too was a student suffering the ignomy of a narrowband, dial-up 56k modem nastiness connection, and after browsing the old interweb at warp speeds in the university computer labs, decided to invest in the old broadband connection.

I'm one of these lucky people in a big city where everything has been done everywhere, so I had my choice of cable or ADSL. Based on:-
a) the recommendation of a friend
b) the price
c) the ease of installation
I went with the blueyonder service from Telewest. for those of you who haven't been informed, it's absolutely fantastic. I've had not one iota of trouble with it, and every time I've rung the tech support line, they've been very good at answering questions. The installation was on time, quick, easy, and the guy was very friendly and helpful.

I started out with a 512kbps dl/128kbps ul for 33 notes a month, which has dropped in price to 25 recently, and they now have a 1024kbps for only an extra tenner a month.

It's damned good, we like, and I'd recommend it to anyone. I have no problems running a few boxes off of the connection. The Cable modem is plugged into an SMC Barricade router, which you can get for about 90 quid these days which does NAT, port forwarding, MAC cloning and everything you could possibly need. Even has built-in print server.

Check out http://www.blueyonder.co.uk and try the old postcode checker they have to see if you can get a line in. Is most worthwhile.

How did you go about getting more bandwidth??
I though Blueyonder only had one standard package (512down 128up).

[Carthesis]

They started out with just the one package, but apparently theres a new one out now. they MAY just be trialling it in my area, but i don't think so. I was speaking to one of their engineering types the other day.

All you have to do to get the extra bandwidth is ring 'em up, or so he told me. The new package (again, from him not me) is just a double-helping of the normal, so you get 1024 dl/256 ul.

Which is nice.

[loop]

for only an extra tenner a month, thats a pretty sweet deal (35quid). Might consider that, my main gripe with blueyonder is the limited upload bandwidth, we could do with a double helping

[Kaitain]

Haven't Telewest gone bust or at least be rather close? I know they've got a bit of a debt problem...

[Carthesis]

Don't ask me man. I only work here. The service is still going though, so i'm not complaining.

[loop]

Originally posted by Kaitain
Haven't Telewest gone bust or at least be rather close? I know they've got a bit of a debt problem...

They have got a lot of debt and so have BT, not sure about the other telecoms companies.
I heard from somewhere (might have been working lunch) that telewest might be working out a deal with its creditors that it will pay a lot of its debt off with shares. Although if this is true it will probably take some time to happen.

I wouldnt worry about it, all the telecoms sector is laden with debt.