with a 12mbit sync you in the middle of the ranges I am going to give.
I would say below 8mbit go to infinity above 14mbit sync and stay with BE, you nearer to 14 than 8 so my gut feeling for you would be to stick with BE unless you really want that higher upload speed.

In reply to a post by orly:

...I use newsgroups for downloads generally and they always fly at the full 3MB/sec or thereabouts

Very useful to know.
I'd expect p2p, torrents, etc. to be throttled with most ISPs.
Usenet is a tricky one because it tends to be related to an ISPs overall performance (rather than their protocol throttling).

What sort of usage are you doing each month?
Do you ever get into trouble with BT for going over their pretty vague FUP (i.e. quotes no upper limit at all; other than to say "the top 5% of users").
I know BT did have a terrible name if usage went over about 20-30GB (even on the unlimited package) but I find it hard to see how any ISP could justify that as a typical monthly allowance over a 40Mb fibre connection (especially given a 25.5Mb connection could download an entire 30GB monthly allowance in a little over 2.5 hours).

In reply to a post by adebov:

In reply to a post by orly:

...I use newsgroups for downloads generally and they always fly at the full 3MB/sec or thereabouts

Very useful to know.
I'd expect p2p, torrents, etc. to be throttled with most ISPs.
Usenet is a tricky one because it tends to be related to an ISPs overall performance (rather than their protocol throttling).

What sort of usage are you doing each month?
Do you ever get into trouble with BT for going over their pretty vague FUP (i.e. quotes no upper limit at all; other than to say "the top 5% of users").
I know BT did have a terrible name if usage went over about 20-30GB (even on the unlimited package) but I find it hard to see how any ISP could justify that as a typical monthly allowance over a 40Mb fibre connection (especially given a 25.5Mb connection could download an entire 30GB monthly allowance in a little over 2.5 hours).

The "FUP" is 300GB a month with BT and that's plenty for now. I think a lot of people are unaware of that and think it's a lot lower - influencing their choice/opinion

In reply to a post by orly:

The "FUP" is 300GB a month with BT and that's plenty for now. I think a lot of people are unaware of that and think it's a lot lower - influencing their choice/opinion

If you exceed that, do you get limited to 2Mb for the rest of the month?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

If you exceed that, do you get limited to 2Mb for the rest of the month?

It states on the BT site -

In reference to bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10495/c/346/?s_cid=con_FURL...:

Customers who are classified as very heavy users will experience significantly reduced speed at peak times (typically 5pm-midnight every day but these times may change depending on the demand on the network) for a period of 30 days, or for as long as very heavy use continues. This applies to customers on all Options.

Doesn't specify the speed it'll reduce you to. Never had that happen so can't comment.

Oh, that's woolly

Customers who are classified as very heavy users will experience significantly reduced speed

So it could be any usage leading to significantly reduced speed.

He also says he gets full p2p speeds yet BTs site states...
"5. What is BT's policy on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications?

P2P refers to certain applications that enable files and program sharing between groups of people logged on to a P2P network. Because they use uploads and downloads and are often left running 24/7, they consume significant bandwidth, even when being used by just a small number of customers.

Because a lot of P2P traffic is not time-critical, e.g., downloading and uploading TV programmes or movies for later viewing, we treat P2P traffic differently from time-critical traffic (such as surfing, streaming or internet telephony) and apply speed restrictions to all P2P traffic. We manage these restrictions daily based on the demands on the network, but downstream restrictions will typically be in place 4pm - midnight on weekdays and 9am - midnight on the weekend. Upstream restrictions may be in place at other times.

You can, of course, still use P2P services, but downloads will take longer during the peak times.

So no idea why he gets full rate on P2P, maybe they forgot about him but not the millions of other users?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Oh, that's woolly

Customers who are classified as very heavy users will experience significantly reduced speed

So it could be any usage leading to significantly reduced speed.

But the FUP on Infinity option 2 is 300GB, so thats the "cut off" for reducing speeds. On option 1 it's 40GB or something similarly laughable.

You just need to learn how to set things up. A few minutes on google would get you started for goodness sake.

The throttling and monitoring systems ISPs use are far from a perfect system. As we all know, this makes it rather less than infallible.

In any event, use newsgroups and you don't even need to bother thinking about it. All this P2P stuff is akin to arguing about whether to use a Pentium 4 or an Athlon when everyone in the know has an i7...

In reply to a post by orly:

You just need to learn how to set things up. A few minutes on google would get you started for goodness sake.

Utter nonsense BT torrent throttling can not be bypassed via torrent client options including enabling protocol encryption.

In reply to a post by orly:

The throttling and monitoring systems ISPs use are far from a perfect system. As we all know, this makes it rather less than infallible.

The only way around it is via a VPN or similar service, which is pointless on a FTTC service as using one you will never get anywhere near to the 20-40Mb speeds many get from FTTC

In reply to a post by orly:

In any event, use newsgroups and you don't even need to bother thinking about it. All this P2P stuff is akin to arguing about whether to use a Pentium 4 or an Athlon when everyone in the know has an i7...

Or in other words its not that easy to bypass their throttle or you would need to recommend people pay for a newsgroup service.