I suppose there are two schools of thought here.
Either you and the other residents have established that you want significantly higher speeds & would therefore like to pay extra for some form of upgrade.
If you did that there'd largely be two component charges to this: One would be getting significant enough backhaul to the village, second would then be the cost of whatever equipment is settled upon to share this out; be it WiMAX, some FTTC kit or ADSL2+ equipment in the exchange. I would suggest that if you're dead set on upgrading things that you start by speaking to Rutland telecom. After all if you're going to spend a chunk of cash you might as well get the best for your buck; VDSL at the cabinet would almost certainly be better than ADSL2+ from the exchange. Equally you might like to investigate some sort of FTTP solution, which could offer even higher speeds.

The other thing to investigate is making the best of what you have. For arguments sake, you could consider getting a second phone line with broadband subscription for just the kids, then you and your partner could share the existing. If both lines connect at 8mbit then that should tide you over for now, certainly until any eventual upgrade to 21cn. This approach would certainly require far less capital from yourselves. If neighbours similarly did this the number of broadband lines on the exchange increasing that might make the exchange look more worthy of an upgrade! In the long term, the double line rental and double broadband subs would work out dearer than a single line & FTTC connection though. Also, whether you add a clever load-balancing router in order to link the two connections or if you just do it crudely as discussed above is down to you. Can always start crudely and get more elegant if you feel the need.

A solution you could also look into in tandem with the above would be a decent router with a capable QOS module in it. I've got a Netgear 3700v1 (~£50 off a popular auction website) which I've flashed with the Gargoyle custom firmware. The QOS settings in that are superb; for want of an hour of really considering your settings and getting it right, you could quite easily share the available bandwidth in a far wiser fashion, such that bulk transfers are slowed down and real time services get what they need. This assumes that the sum total of all the real-time requirements is below 8mbit. Certainly it's possible to slow down the bulk game downloads but keep the gaming pings low for a console. Or guarantee a minimum amount of bandwidth to a computer (to ensure Spotify remains stutter free) but provide little more extra. If you want to investigate this avenue further I'd be happy to advise you; I've got a 8-9mbit connection which has similarly heavy demands placed on it by me and my partner; since getting the QOS set nicely it's a world apart.

There's certainly a lot to consider. Hopefully I've given you some food for thought!

I feel your pain.. Well did.

We was on 8mb with BT and had the same problem.

If my housemate was watching something on ITV Player, as he did every night, it would slow the whole connection down and i would lag like hell in online games.

There was no fault on the line or with the BB. Speedtests showed 6000+ kbps. But as soon as iplayer or Netflix or YT etc was used all the bandwidth went bye bye

And with 4 people here it was.. interesting to say the least!

But we got lucky. TalkTalk unbundlled our exchange (Pontybodkin) and now we are on 24mb ADSL2 and now someone can download, stream, use the web and i can still play online with no lag at all. A VAST improvement.

I hope you get something sorted out for you and your village.

Routers are emerging with QoS to help those on slower lines have things like this running at the same time.

That said, I've had 3 Netflix streams running and web browsing at the same time. Yes Netflix dropped to SD (only a 6 Meg line) but the streaming software does make a big difference too.

A few people mentioned QOS.. I'd put money on you seeing a big improvement by ditching the home hub and getting a decent router with QOS. Such as an Asus RT-N16 with toastman's tomato build.

Of course if your exchange is congested this won't help but if the line is performing as expected do yourself a favour and try out a router with QOS.

Sounds like your connection is probably being traffic shaped due to your family's rapacious usage.
Also bear in mind that a provider like Rutland impose a 50GB cap which in your case would probably be inadequate.

Far better to go for 2x8Mb lines with the most generous usage allowances you can find. Possibly a business grade tariff would be best.

And another thing. Make the most of Sky+ or a decent PVR. Use the EPG wisely and you will hardly ever need the iPlayer. Freesat gave me 24 live Olympic streams in full HD so no need to miss a thing!

Internet bandwidth is a commodity and priced according to supply and demand. Where alternatives exist I would use 'em!

I see people suggesting QOS, and getting a 2nd line, but these will not help if the problem is a congested backhaul, rather than the individual ADSL being clogged. With a small village it's entirely possible that the backhaul can't cope with the OP's family plus a couple of other heavy users.

So I think the first thing to do is establish whether the backhaul is the bottleneck - BT ought to know how heavily it's loaded, but whether they'll come clean is another matter! If it is overloaded, they should upgrade it.

Best of Luck!

-- Howard (on a Market 2 exchange, stuck with 20CN)

Edited by HDRW (Sat 01-Sep-12 14:08:39)

QOS will still work even if the backhaul is congested, rather than your suggestion of doing nothing.

In reply to a post by HDRW:

(on a Market 2 exchange, stuck with 20CN)

How come you are stuck on 20CN on a Market 2 exchange? Which exchange is it?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by HDRW:

(on a Market 2 exchange, stuck with 20CN)

How come you are stuck on 20CN on a Market 2 exchange? Which exchange is it?

I don't know - ask BT! I'm on Park Street exchange (LNPKS)

Cheers,
Howard