Broadband

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Rooster
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Re: Broadband

Post by Rooster »

While some suppliers will have better contention rates and hence better speeds at peak times than others the main factor in broadband is your line quality, if it's fibre stuck into the Brennan of the pc then it will go like the hammers but if you have a lump of copper that is going green at the joints and water leaking into junction boxes etc it will matter very little who you are connected with as the speed will still be crap.
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WhiteKnightoftheWeld
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Re: Broadband

Post by WhiteKnightoftheWeld »

well if you will be a farmer stuck out with thon cattle in thon fields out yonder...
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Rooster
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Re: Broadband

Post by Rooster »

WhiteKnightoftheWeld wrote:well if you will be a farmer stuck out with thon cattle in thon fields out yonder...
Plenty of people even in Belfast with the sort of crap I have described, we don't use copper or fibre out here, real true cyberspace rules :cheers:
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Re: Broadband

Post by colind »

Thanks Everyone

From checking the samknows site and asking around it appears that my local BT exchange (Belfast Stormont) is still running on steam power.

I reckon that at the moment there is little difference between the few options available to me so I don't know if I should just stick with what I've got despite the price increase or move to save maybe a couple of quid a month and then find I've worse service. Currently Orange is OK apart from the odd time I've to call their support line and then the incompatability problems between Belfast and Punjabi accents kick in. :duh:
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browner
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Re: Broadband

Post by browner »

I'm with virgin..............never had an ounce of trouble, running one old wired computer and two laptops, fast as feck.

Suppose that's a recommendation.
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Re: Broadband

Post by colind »

Browner

Is your Virgin setup through the (old NTL) cable system or are you using their standard ADSL setup which piggybacks on the existing BT lines?
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browner
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Re: Broadband

Post by browner »

Cable system.
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Re: Broadband

Post by mikerob »

Rooster wrote:Thanks for that http://www.samknows.com link BT told us a few weeks ago that we would get a high speed connection in 2011 when this 21CN WBC network was running, I foolishly believed it till I read about what that means on that site, possible increase in range up to 6.5km from exchange, we are 19km :roll: phone call in the morning :D >TM :twisted:
fyi BT are trialling technology that may reach up to 12km from exchange.... not far enough yet tho'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/bt_bet_trials/
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Rooster
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Re: Broadband

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mikerob wrote:
Rooster wrote:Thanks for that http://www.samknows.com link BT told us a few weeks ago that we would get a high speed connection in 2011 when this 21CN WBC network was running, I foolishly believed it till I read about what that means on that site, possible increase in range up to 6.5km from exchange, we are 19km :roll: phone call in the morning :D >TM :twisted:
fyi BT are trialling technology that may reach up to 12km from exchange.... not far enough yet tho'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/bt_bet_trials/
Was talking to an engineer about that system, he said great job if line quality is good otherwise it just amplifies the crap, they had tried it on some lines here and while it helped a bit it had made a mess of some already within range, we have big sections of old aluminium cable which is a major problem as it is a worse conductor than copper and gives more corrosion and hence noise problems, they put it in one time in the eighty's as it was far cheaper than copper at the time, NIE was at the same with underground cables as well at that stage.
Seems the easiest option is blow a single fibre to some roadside boxes and place a mini exchange in then and distribute from it, but that is expensive as well.
The big binlid on the wall is working well at present, just hope the new satellite gets put in correct orbit next spring before this one dies.
“That made me feel very special and underlined to me that Ulster is more than a team, it is a community and a rugby family"
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pwrmoore
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Re: Broadband

Post by pwrmoore »

Rooster wrote:
mikerob wrote:
Rooster wrote:Thanks for that http://www.samknows.com link BT told us a few weeks ago that we would get a high speed connection in 2011 when this 21CN WBC network was running, I foolishly believed it till I read about what that means on that site, possible increase in range up to 6.5km from exchange, we are 19km :roll: phone call in the morning :D >TM :twisted:
fyi BT are trialling technology that may reach up to 12km from exchange.... not far enough yet tho'
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/15/bt_bet_trials/
Was talking to an engineer about that system, he said great job if line quality is good otherwise it just amplifies the crap, they had tried it on some lines here and while it helped a bit it had made a mess of some already within range, we have big sections of old aluminium cable which is a major problem as it is a worse conductor than copper and gives more corrosion and hence noise problems, they put it in one time in the eighty's as it was far cheaper than copper at the time, NIE was at the same with underground cables as well at that stage.
Seems the easiest option is blow a single fibre to some roadside boxes and place a mini exchange in then and distribute from it, but that is expensive as well.
The big binlid on the wall is working well at present, just hope the new satellite gets put in correct orbit next spring before this one dies.
Putting new stuff on the ends of cables already in the ground/air is so much easier and cheaper than putting in new fibre. It is only in recent build out that ducting is used which allows the "just blow a fibre" to be a reality. In practice they're going to have to dig in a new duct to reach places like yours rooster and if the population density is as low as I think they're going to resist that like hell.
Paul.

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pwrmoore
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Re: Broadband

Post by pwrmoore »

You're probably right about the quality of your cable though - it could be a long time before they work out how to deal with some of the crap that is buried out there
Paul.

C'mon Ulsterrrrrrrrr! :red:
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Rooster
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Re: Broadband

Post by Rooster »

No problem with the ducting they have it installed and a couple of fibres in the cabinet for the past 3 years, just they won't do the final bit to join up, a few other roads around here have the ducts but nothing in them , probably free housing for rats by now, they had intended burying a lot off the above ground stuff but never bothered in the end and put in new poles last year instead.
The cables really are crap though and you wonder how much of this stuff is buried around the country, we had to bury over half a mile to get our original phone connection, BT supplied cable I supplied digger and labour and there is none of that ducted, most houses off the main roads are the same and it is mostly steel armoured aluminium stuff.
We have a pretty smart engineer that works around here and his verdict is dig the lot up and start again, they will never find a solution to those old cables.
“That made me feel very special and underlined to me that Ulster is more than a team, it is a community and a rugby family"
Rory Best
colind
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Re: Broadband

Post by colind »

Saw yesterday the Ofcom have removed the restrictions on BT offering discounts for bundled services (phone, broadband & TV)

This should (hopefully) see some good offers being made available. :cheers:
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