Which fibre provider and does an older PC affect speeds?

Hi

I am in an area where fibre is available except from my current ISP (O2).

I have tried to find out when/if O2 will offer fibre but are met with a lot of “soon”, “probably” and “I can’t be specific” when contacting them or visiting their shops.

I have been with BT before but don’t want to go back as l understand their technical help is overseas based so “International Rescue” isn’t for me!

I’ve been reading forums all morning and am seeing providers I’ve never even heard of with the exception of the good folks from Yorkshire, Plusnet.

Our usage is probably quite low at the moment as hubby is between games but I need the option to move up to a larger capacity package if our usage increases without any restrictions i.e. capping, traffic management [read scary stuff about O2 asking customers to change packages].

I’m currently on the old O2 Home Broadband Pro @ £21.50 which I don’t think has any restrictions and am out of contract so can leave with notice.

This is what we’re getting now :
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/button/13307...
I’m assured (by Plusnet) it will improve to approx.
Mattie: Your estimated line speed is 5Mb.
Mattie: Your estimated speed with fibre is: 40Mb

I run regular speedtests but am concerned that despite their being fibre on my estate for quite some time I can't see many test results posted on the speed checker or is it that fibre customers don't check their speed and post results!

1. Can any of you knowledgeable peeps offer me any advice on a fibre provider with UK based technical help?

2. Also, does the age etc. of the PC make a big difference to the speed of browsing etc.? Both our PC’s are at least 5 years old and OK at the moment.

3. Hubby currently connects via a “Netgear Powerline AV200” as our house wiring is very poor and currently disconnected. Does anyone know if fibre is compatible with that?

4. Anyone know anything about O2 and fibre?

Sorry lots of questions so I numbered them to make it easier to respond if you only know one of them

Thank you so much to anyone who responds

My PC is years old, but it has had virtually everything changed or upgraded over the years apart from the Floppy, Graphics and Case! It's now a basic 2.3GHz Pentium PC with 1G of memory running XP. I doubt the speed of the PC would come into play as speeds on Broadband as so tiny compared to the speed a PC goes at.

We've got 2 Wireless connected Laptops (4 when my son & Girlfriend visit) wirelessly connected to the Home Hub and a wireless connected printer which all bang away without problems.

I've used BT for years as you get what you pay for in general and it's extremely reliable and consistant. Can be a little expensive, but if you bundle in anytime calls and use it during the day it can save £££'s. I'm using Infinity FTTC, but they do want an 18-month Contract.

OK, there is an Indian CS, but I doubt if you will ever need to use it.

Power-line connections seem to work OK for most people.

Happy thoughts and good luck with your final decision.

PC spec wise, simple web browsing no real difference.

Gaphically heavy, interactive sites will benefit from more memory and faster CPU, not in the getting to you faster area, but rendering in the browser once it has the data faster area.

If on a limited budget and a 32 bit OS, then upgrading to 3 GB of memory, the max the machine will take can help. Also try different browsers, e.g. Chrome performs better for some sites than IE for example.

Where a slow PC will suffer is rendering HD video streams in Flash, the data arrives but the maths and drawing can tax the CPU.

If you have two computers, you can assess the raw speed of the network interface by timing the copy of a large file between two machines.

The AV200 should be fine with VDSL/Fibre a possibility they be a bottle neck, but not a major one.

O2 and fibre, believe they are waiting on the build of a new network with the capacity to cope with users having faster speeds, so could be three months away or could be 12 months away.

OK, there is an Indian CS, but I doubt if you will ever need to use it.

And you will live to regret the day you were born if you do.

A tip, phone the Welsh-speaking tech support...they will not be in India and they all speak English.

73s de

DrT (G4DWV, 4X1LT)

Thank you G3UZF, MrSaffron & DrTeeth for your posts, much appreciated

I am continuing to look at "who offers what" today and checking various fibre comparison websites, most of which mistakenly offer me Virgin who are not available to me, yet. They aren't far away but haven't ventured on to my estate, despite being told they'd be here within the year..... 12 years ago.

I'm certainly happier that even if O2 are 3 months away having read their forum their customer service seems to be dropping so I may have left anyway, especially if signing a new contract for fibre means I lose the "unlimited" status of my account.

I'm even happier that I don't need to buy 2 new PC's to enjoy fibre speeds!

I like the look of Zen to be honest but don't like the initial set up costs and having to buy my own router, I think I currently own at least 4 routers that would probably not be compatible!

Probably going to go for Plusnet, our friends in Yorkshire.

Anyway thanks peeps

In reply to a post by TracyP:

I am in an area where fibre is available except from my current ISP (O2).

I have tried to find out when/if O2 will offer fibre but are met with a lot of “soon”, “probably” and “I can’t be specific” when contacting them or visiting their shops.

I was with O2 until a few weeks ago as I left them to go with Sky as I could get Sky TV (the basic entertainment package), phone and broadband for little more than what I was paying O2 just for the broadband and phone !

My exchange is due to get upgraded to FTTC within a few months (from june onwards) and as O2 seem to be reluctant to offer a FTTC service, I can see them losing a lot of customers for the foreseeable future !

Well I went from O2 Standard, (the unlimited up to 8Mbps legacy package corresponding to your Pro), to IDNet Fibre Starter a year ago. Paid the year up front so saving a month's payment.

No hitches at all, but had to buy a router. Got a Buffalo Airstation for under £30 delivered and that has beeen fine too.

13 Feb moved to Plusnet Value Fibre. One or two hitches with it being a fibre migration, but reasonably content so far. Not regretting it. Only 2Mbps upstream where I had 10Mbps before, but I don't need it. Downstream actuals seem to be not much different from IDNet.

I would also look at the packages from ADSL24 etc. James ** does an excellent customer support role on these forums, and he is most assuredly based in Blighty

Personally, like you, i want English speaking and living support. !!

http://adsl24.co.uk


(** I have no commercial interest in this company, i just notice good customer communication when i see it)

Edited by Moradin (Sat 03-Mar-12 14:55:55)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

If on a limited budget and a 32 bit OS, then upgrading to 3 GB of memory, the max the machine will take can help.

That's not really true is it. The maximum the machine can take is, obviously, the maximum the machine can take. I have machines at work with 1/2 TB RAM. Every machine I have at home has at least 8GB RAM.

It is not even true were you to say "the maximum the OS can use" as Linux systems running the PAE kernel can address much more than 3GB RAM.

What you mean of course is your Windows 32 bit system can only address 3GB, which is also not true. When this machine I am using now had 32 bit XP on it it saw about 3.5GB RAM

In reply to a post by TracyP:

Hi

I am in an area where fibre is available except from my current ISP (O2).

I have tried to find out when/if O2 will offer fibre but are met with a lot of “soon”, “probably” and “I can’t be specific” when contacting them or visiting their shops.

I have been with BT before but don’t want to go back as l understand their technical help is overseas based so “International Rescue” isn’t for me!

I find BT Infinity fine, I went from BE Unlimited to BT Unlimited.

Support are very good. I would definitely vote for them here if they were a candidate.

Any PC will be fine with fibre, remember Ethernet speeds are 100Mb, so 30Mb fibre will be fine.