Hey,
We're considering switching our phone/broadband to Sky from Virgin Media soon (saving about £40 a month :O). We'll order 20Mb but we've never had ADSL broadband so we've got no idea what the speed is going to be like.
On the phone Sky said it would probably be about 8Mb, so to double check I put our post code into a few sites that also offer 20. One said it would 6, another said 13 and another said 5.
Since there's so much difference does anyone know a site/service I can use to get an accurate result?
Thanks.
There's no way to get an accurate result without actually testing it. If sky say 8 I'd say about 6 is likely unless you live very close to a telephone exchange.
Around 60-100kb/s.
Sky never provide good speeds, ever. I should know. At peak times I get 7kb/s - 10kb/s.
Don't get Sky, we're switching to Be soon, Virgin Media is a far better provider than Sky.
Never had ADSL? What did you have before?
[QUOTE=tommyc225;23898429]Never had ADSL? What did you have before?[/QUOTE]
We've had Virgin since 2005 (when it was ntl) which is DOCSIS, before that we had Dial-Up.
I've tried to convince my parents to go with O2/Be but they won't because they don't arrange the line to be fitted which we need. The exchange takes about 20mins - 30 to walk to.
[QUOTE=cbrain;23898520]t 20mins - 30 to walk to.[/QUOTE]
So like a 3 minute drive then?
About that. It's 2km away according to Google Maps.
The only way is to test. 2km away doesn't mean 2km line cable.. The cable goes through streets, not a straight line and it might go around the town first then to yours. BT can perform line tests to give you a guess on what speed.
Now I'm assuming you already have a phone line so give BT a call and they can run a test on it. If its a poor speed, I suggest you stick to Virgin media. I have never known someone to get 20mb ADSL speed. The highest I ever seen was 17mb and that guy lived on top of the exchange (Literally)
EDIT: You can run the test on-line. [url]http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25795&s_cid=con_FURL_broadband/faster[/url]
If your not going to get a good speed, then maybe BT Infinity could be an option?
I'll give that a check. There was a BT line in the house but when we had it rewired the electricians ripped it out ("ntl is so good you'll never need to leave"). There is another but my Dad's workplace is occupying that.
Openreach haven't upgraded our area to FTTC and we're not on the list to get upgraded, so Infinity isn't an option. :(
[editline]08:31PM[/editline]
The BT site thinks it'll be about 6Mb. :( If we can get another line put in we're considering BE/O2 (The BE site said about 13mb, the 7mb loss is fine to save £40).
If you have a working phone then you should have a BT line. You can run the test based on post code.
Going with one ISP over another isnt going to magically give you better speed, except when you consider BT because they have been known to lower speeds. Any other ISP's its dependent on the phone line. o2/BE are the best ADSL broadband in UK atm. Talktalk are also quite good, really bad phone support but they have a good forum where they can give you support also.
It's a Virgin Media line which runs over their network, not BTs. I used the number of my Dad's work line for the test because that's on BT.
[QUOTE=cbrain;23900063]It's a Virgin Media line which runs over their network, not BTs. I used the number of my Dad's work line for the test because that's on BT.[/QUOTE]
Virgin media don't have their own phone line network. All the phone lines in the UK belong to BT. I think we are talking about LLU, where the ISP takes the control over from BT, but I didn't think Virgin did that, so mabye they do. But you should still be able to run line test anyway.
Yes they do. The Virgin master socket is stamped Comcast Teesside (our old cable company before ntl/Virgin took over), that is connected to Virgins box on the side of the house which runs under the garden to the cable TV cap in the street. The broadband and TV all come from the same box so that kind of proves it.
The BT line is connected to the pole in the street through a seperate cable which is just suspended in the air.
[QUOTE=James1o1o;23900105]Virgin media don't have their own phone line network. All the phone lines in the UK belong to BT. I think we are talking about LLU, where the ISP takes the control over from BT, but I didn't think Virgin did that, so mabye they do. But you should still be able to run line test anyway.[/QUOTE]
Virgin's Cable != BT's phone lines for ADSL
[QUOTE=Juggernog;23895461]Around 60-100kb/s.
Sky never provide good speeds, ever. I should know. At peak times I get 7kb/s - 10kb/s.
Don't get Sky, we're switching to Be soon, Virgin Media is a far better provider than Sky.[/QUOTE]
I get 600kb/s up and 70kb/s down, unchanged at peak times, so this might not hold true.
[QUOTE=AMD 32;23900220]Virgin's Cable != BT's phone lines for ADSL[/QUOTE]
What? I might have mis interpreted what you said but Virgin's Cable is Fibre Cable, not ADSL. If the area dosen't have cable then they use LLU I guess (ADSL using BT's Line)
Although I guess he has cable fibre from virgin and not the ADSL.
Virgin's fibre isn't to the home as many would believe, it's just fibre to the node (few massive cabinets we have scattered around the area, then it's coax from there), but yes that's what we have. Virgin's phone service operates over this.
There isn't much wrong with it, just £40 pm extra is a hell of a lot to pay.
[QUOTE=James1o1o;23900013]Talktalk are also quite good[/QUOTE]
As a TalkTalk/Tiscali customer getting 600kB/s down | 42kB/s up, I must ask: [b]WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SMOKING[/b]
[QUOTE=leach139;23901524]As a TalkTalk/Tiscali customer getting 600kB/s down | 42kB/s up, I must ask: [b]WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SMOKING[/b][/QUOTE]
Thats not TalkTalks fault, its Physics. I get 900kb/s down and 100kb/s up.
[QUOTE=James1o1o;23902529]Thats not TalkTalks fault, its Physics. I get 900kb/s down and 100kb/s up.[/QUOTE]
This isn't the case all of the time.
[editline]11:00PM[/editline]
We looked at TalkTalk but I've heard many a horror story so we won't be touching em.
I get upto 400kb/s on adsl, but at 2am oh boy 890kb/s download speed, and this is with talktalk, we [I]will[/I] be going back to virgin media after this back to the sweet land of cable.
Talktalk is great if you like having your internet get fucked at 9pm every night.
We are paying for 24mb and this is what we are getting:
[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/906928412.png[/IMG]
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/906941535.png[/IMG][/URL]
This is what we get at the moment but we want to save that extra £480 per year.
Sky are a fantastic ISP. I've had a few issues with my internet connection, but their customer service is very quick and helpful in solving issues generally.
[QUOTE=Sgt Pringles;23902968]I get upto 400kb/s on adsl, but at 2am oh boy 890kb/s download speed, and this is with talktalk, we [I]will[/I] be going back to virgin media after this back to the sweet land of cable.
Talktalk is great if you like having your internet get fucked at 9pm every night.
We are paying for 24mb and this is what we are getting:[/QUOTE]
890kb/s is still more than 3 times the average UK download speed. Also you dont pay for 24mb, your paying for 8mb. The speedboost to 24mb was made Free in February.
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