ADSL Prices coming down

[DG]

I saw Bulldog internet are nowing doing a 4 Meg + package including BT Line rental for £30 per month.

We're paying about £24 per month for pipex at 512 kb/s and another £10 a month for BT Line rental .. so this would be up to 8 times faster!!

Shame they don't have it available at my exchange yet!!

[wheresmyplacebo]

available to me

but my mother dont want it :eek:

[Jim V]

I use bulldog at home, been great

[DG]

Originally posted by Jim V
I use bulldog at home, been great

Unfortuntly that 4 meg plus aint in my area and their 2meg service costs more then the 4 meg one which seems dumb!!

Anyway I'm expecting other providers to lower their prices, internet is by far the highest charge we pay at home for communications, i.e. higher then our rental, phone costs or sky digital!!

[noog]

I'm waiting for 8meg down 1meg up from ukonline for £40 a month

I imagine soon the prices will crash, what with LLU n'all

[Jim V]

ukonline has a really heavy limit on downloading though, whereas bulldog is unlimited.

I mean why offer an 8 meg service then make it limited? What they think people need it for?

[Mist]

I think that most services will end up being limited in one way or another, or very expensive if they are not limited.

If they (the ISP) are being charged based on usage, then they will have to pass this on to the customers in some way or go bust.

Plusnet recently dumped a load of heavy users (people who were downloading 24/7 basically) because they were not commerically viable. They've all gone off to other places, but my guess is that the other places will find it no better to support their usage patterns. The entire premise of a contended service such as ADSL is that people take breaks from using it, otherwise noone wins.

[wheresmyplacebo]

but 1-5 gig monthly download limit or what not means that the company wants you to have the service and virtually never use it - ie take the piss out of you

[Mist]

Originally posted by wheresmyplacebo
but 1-5 gig monthly download limit or what not means that the company wants you to have the service and virtually never use it - ie take the piss out of you

Not really. It just depends what you're doing with it. I could browse the net all month and not hit 1 gig of traffic.

[wheresmyplacebo]

Originally posted by Mist
Not really. It just depends what you're doing with it. I could browse the net all month and not hit 1 gig of traffic.

well actually you could.....

i could kill that from online gaming in a couple of days and thats only a bit more usage than browsing

[noog]

Originally posted by Jim V
ukonline has a really heavy limit on downloading though, whereas bulldog is unlimited.

I mean why offer an 8 meg service then make it limited? What they think people need it for?

the cap isnt a *really* heavy limit, they have a 450gb a month acceptable usage limit, which isn't strictly enforced, they coulden't possibly make money if everyone was raping a full 8mbit, I think most people, even the heavy warezers out there will have trouble using up that kinda bandwidth

[Mist]

Originally posted by wheresmyplacebo
well actually you could.....

i could kill that from online gaming in a couple of days and thats only a bit more usage than browsing

I doubt it, online gaming is not usually high traffic.

[noog]

Originally posted by Mist
I doubt it, online gaming is not usually high traffic.

http://www.fr4g.com/images/rtgpng.png

tell that to my traffic graph =)

[Mist]

Originally posted by noog


tell that to my traffic graph =)

bah, you can use statistics and graphs to prove anything ;)

[DG]

Originally posted by noog
http://www.fr4g.com/images/rtgpng.png

tell that to my traffic graph =)

What do you use to monitor your usage?

I want to monitor my usage over a week and see how much I go through.

I assume these caps enforced bythe ISP's are uploads as well as downloads?

I have a Netgear All in one modem / router and WiFi providing internet to 5 PC's at home, is there a way to monitor the usage for all PC's combined? Although I know my own PC will be the most (at least now that my cousin has gone back to uni)

Also anyone have an experience of Freedom to Surf?

http://www.freedomtosurf.net/adsl/connect.php

Their home package seems OK, upto 4 times faster then what I've got now for about £5 a month less, only thing is their 5gb limit but downloads between 1am to 6am aren't counted which seems good!!

More ISP should do things like that to keep prices down and get users to balance their usage to off peak times!!

[noog]

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
What do you use to monitor your usage?

I want to monitor my usage over a week and see how much I go through.

I assume these caps enforced bythe ISP's are uploads as well as downloads?

I have a Netgear All in one modem / router and WiFi providing internet to 5 PC's at home, is there a way to monitor the usage for all PC's combined? Although I know my own PC will be the most (at least now that my cousin has gone back to uni)

Also anyone have an experience of Freedom to Surf?

http://www.freedomtosurf.net/adsl/connect.php

Their home package seems OK, upto 4 times faster then what I've got now for about �5 a month less, only thing is their 5gb limit but downloads between 1am to 6am aren't counted which seems good!!

More ISP should do things like that to keep prices down and get users to balance their usage to off peak times!!

to use rtg at home you need a loonux box, it's probably better to use du-meter. my stats were generated using "rtg (router traffic graph)" on a server that pulls the data off the server's switch port, but afaik not all routers do it.

and i use f2s and they're brill :) for 512 uncapped anyway.

[jake0]

Originally posted by noog
to use rtg at home you need a loonux box, it's probably better to use du-meter. my stats were generated using "rtg (router traffic graph)" on a server that pulls the data off the server's switch port, but afaik not all routers do it.

and i use f2s and they're brill :) for 512 uncapped anyway.

not necessarily, you can get snmp support for windows and last time i checked there is windows ports of mrtg

[noog]

Originally posted by jake0
not necessarily, you can get snmp support for windows and last time i checked there is windows ports of mrtg

oh, well i'm using rtg, which is different.. no windows ports :( . also mrtg doesn't display totals, just max/min/average, so is fairly useless for drawing up bandwidth graphs. it would be better to use a nix box with an interface for every machine on the network and draw stats like that, so then it doesn't mix up network sharing with interweb browsing.

[DG]

Here's another budget priced ADSL provider

https://www.adsl4less.com/broadband-products.htm

£14.99 for 512 kb/s unlimited

Which is pretty much what I'm paying almost £10 a more each month for.

But only a 1 month contract where as freedom to surf has a full 12 months on the tariff I looked at.

[DG]

Found this article which suggests faster speeds are to be available to more people

New tools available to ISPs soon, could see our broadband connections upgraded either for free as part of promotion and/or marketing scheme, or alternatively for minimal a cost (eg. as little as £5). The new facilities come about as a result of a huge ADSL network migration that BTWholesale are planning to kick off from late February 2005.

The option from BTWholesale to ISPs will be available for the duration of the network upgrade, planned to begin on the 23rd February and last until 31st July 2005.

The BT Datastream's equivocally similar End User Speed Upgrade Facility is expected to be available from 1st May 2005 until 31st August 2005.

Another of the more interesting facilities that will be made available to ISPs is "End User Speed Control", which permits an IPS to directly change the downstream speed of their end users’ access. This will be in steps between the ranges of 64 Kbit/s to 2Mbit/s, dependent on the maximum speed of BT IPstream product operating on the telephone line (500, 1Mbit or 2Mbit).

This will not sound all that foreign to some. Eclipse Internet has long been promoting its 'FLEX' product, offering exactly what BT are now planning to release to the rest of the ISP community. The only difference is that Eclipse offer a service where the user is more centric to the changes, increasing and decreasing the speed of their line as the users need suits, although it would'nt be beyond the realms of possibility to see similar schemes offered by Eclipse rivals.

BT Wholesale plans to begin a trial of End User Speed Control in July 2005. During the trial BT Wholesale scrub any extra monthly charges for the use of the End User Speed Control facility meaning ISPs changes, including permanent changes, as they wish without charge.

Incidently rumour has it that Buckinghamshire based Nildram could be imminently announcing a plan to upgrade its all its 512Kbps customers to 1Mb (where possible). Of course not confirmed at this stage, but the grapvine has it to look at this tuesday (11th Jan) as for a possible official announcement.

[noog]

If you want 2mbit, www.lchost.co.uk do 2mbit full uncapped for £35 a month

[DG]

Originally posted by noog
If you want 2mbit, www.lchost.co.uk do 2mbit full uncapped for £35 a month

I'm not really too bothered about super fast speeds. I mean 2mbit per sec isn't really going to make a huge difference in gerneal surfing or file sharing a lot of th etime cos it depends on the speed of the other guy's connection.

As I see it faster speeds are better for downloading big files like ISO images of Linux, etc

The freedom to surf thing looks good though - I've downloaded a program that will tell me how much I've downloaded - so far today I've done over 11 meg just by general surfing!!

[morrocan roll]

the reasons prices are tumbling is because BT were forced into an agreement about lowering charges to isp's which comes into force this month.

[DG]

Originally posted by morrocan roll
the reasons prices are tumbling is because BT were forced into an agreement about lowering charges to isp's which comes into force this month.

Yeah, which is why I'm waiting for a bit to see what else the other ISP's come up with!!

Bulldog's £30 per month all inclusive inc. line rental is by far the best deal out there, for those who are covered by their service area.

[DG]

Here's some info from freedom to surf about migrating to their service


Hi,

Thank you for your email.

With reference to your enquiry,

If you already have ADSL with another service provider then it
maybe possible to migrate your service to freedom2surf if the losing
ISP agrees to this transfer.

If migrating to the Pure IP Home or Business Lite 512K the activation fee will be waived (* Activation fee waived subject to the service
being retained against the same uninterrupted and unchanged BT Line
Rental Contract for a minimum of 12 months otherwise standard
activation fee of £59.99 plus VAT is due).

If migrating to Connect Lite or Connect Home we will waive the activation fee (Activation fee waived subject to the service being
retained against the same uninterrupted and unchanged BT Line Rental
Contract for a minimum of 3 months) and once the line is activated
arrange for a regrade to the fastest speed available for your line, up
to 2MB.

Migration is an alternative to completely terminating your ADSL
service. That is, you will not have to lose your broadband connection - we arrange for the transfer of your service from your current ISP over
to our network, and once this has taken place you would commence
paying us for your broadband services and would cease to be a customer
of the previous ISP. You would then be subject to our terms and
conditions.

If you would like to migrate to us then you will need to inform your
current ISP of your intentions and request they provide you with
your \\MAC\\ number. This number is a unique reference code that is assigned to your ADSL service and we require this code if you wish the migration to take place.

It`s important that the MAC number is given to us correctly. A MAC
number will begin with BBIP or FTIP, and will then be followed by 8-9
digits and then a small part after that.

For example (L = letter, N = number):

- BBIP12345678/LLNNL
- FTIP123456789/LLNNL

Once you have provided us with the name of your current service
provider and your \\MAC\\ number we will commence processing your order. Sometimes a migration order will fail because the losing
service provider does not consent to this request or there may be a technical restriction that prevents the migration from completing.

You may only migrate \\\\like-for-like\\\\ services, i.e. if you have
a Wires Only 512K 50:1 service then you may only migrate to our
equivalent service which is known on our product list as either
\\\\512K Home\\\\, \\\\512K Business Lite\\\\, \\\\Connect Lite\\\\ or
\\\\Connect Home\\\\.

You can only migrate to us if your current ISP uses the same network
as us. Some ISPs provision their ADSL differently, and we can`t
migrate customers from these ISPs. Namely ISPs such as (but not
necessarily limited to) Tiscali, Bulldog, Central Point and Fast24.

If the order fails for any of the above reasons then you will have to
fully terminate your service with your current ISP before we can
commence processing your order.

Please ensure you have ordered the equivalent service. Check with
sales for details of how to upgrade your service once the line is
activated.

If you wish to migrate then please enter your \\\\MAC\\\\ reference
number and the name of your current ISP when you place the ADSL order
or if you have already placed the order send this information to broadbandadmin@freedom2surf.net or call them on 0870 242 3758 option 2 then number 1. The office hours are Monday - Friday: 9.30 am - 5.30
pm.

If you do not receive an email or telephone call within 3 days of
confirming your \\\\MAC\\\\ number to us or you lose your ADSL
connection in the interim of us processing your order then please call us so we may check that your order is progressing correctly.

The lead time for migration is approximately 5 – 10 working days. You
should not lose your connection during this time except when the
actual switch occurs.

Please note that the ADSL router/modem must be to UK specification,
supports PPPoA V MUX and is compatible with your operating system.

You may place your order via the website address: www.freedom2surf.net
or you may call Sales on 0870 242 3758 option 1 and we will send you a
form to complete and return to us.

[YouCrazyDiamond]

If you use decent file-sharing programs like BitTorrent then a faster connection will make a MASSIVE difference to your download speed.

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
I'm not really too bothered about super fast speeds. I mean 2mbit per sec isn't really going to make a huge difference in gerneal surfing or file sharing a lot of th etime cos it depends on the speed of the other guy's connection.

The surely defeats the whole purpose. If everybody thought that way then we would all be stuck with piddly connections that don't do very much in a hurry.

[DG]

Originally posted by YouCrazyDiamond
If you use decent file-sharing programs like BitTorrent then a faster connection will make a MASSIVE difference to your download speed.

I've never seen my current speed reach it's maximum with a filesharing program .. certainly with legit FTP transfers you see the speed start at 150 kb/s and then get slowed down by the ISP to 50 kb/s max

[Mist]

Yarr. On filesharing you will rarely see anything like your 2 meg because it's going to depend on how many and what speed your sources can offer.

The only places you can see it really are high capacity FTP servers running off things such as university and mirror networks, where you can easily max out your bandwidth.

[YouCrazyDiamond]

Originally posted by DiamondGeezer
I've never seen my current speed reach it's maximum with a filesharing program .. certainly with legit FTP transfers you see the speed start at 150 kb/s and then get slowed down by the ISP to 50 kb/s max

Ever tried BitTorrent? A well-seeded torrent with plenty of unfirewalled peers should max our your connection easily.

I've got a 1mb/s connection and frequently get 125kB/s download speeds.

[noog]

heh, If you use decent bittorrent trackers you get decent speeds. when i download using my server it happily gets around 1000k/s xD