C & W reseller - Possible switch over from SKY LLU

As the title suggests, I'm thinking of moving over from Sky LLU (im not on the SVBN, still have BT line) onto one of the C&W resellers.

My exchange EACOS only has Sky,TT, AOL and C&W LLU presence.
It is due to have Fibre enabled end of Sept 2012.

I've been on LLU for several years now first with UKO who provided me with 15998/1024 @ 7db with a Linksys AM200 Modem.
Then with Sky where I get 17500-16000/1150 @7db depending on what coding gain i set on my Billion 7402nx.

For reference Broadcom (834GT) & Infineon (Draytek 120) modems only achieve about 15500 @ 7db on my line, probably as UKO and Sky use a Conexant/Globespan chipset better matching the Billion.

I have a few minor reasons for wanting to leave Sky - inability to freely use own router (more of a problem with MER), blocking of legitimate filehosting sites eg Netload (granted via the IWF proxy, but a block to me none the less, resulting in me not even having access to my own legitimate files)

I am thinking of moving to TT aswell, but wondered what the C&W LLU is like.
Some q's.....

1) Can C&W set a 6 or 7db snr on the line ? As I understand it the default is 9db, which will be no good for me as i'm used to 7db and the associated speed.
2) Can the interleave depth be reduced to 8ms ?
3) What chipset does C&W usually have in the exchange ?
4) Does the line run the same speed 24/7 like i'm used to on Sky, eg no congestion at peak times ?
5) Can I use my own modem/router combo freely ?
6) Is there any filtering/blocking of the filehosting sites ?

Thanks if anyone can answer some of my q's

If the IWF are blocking sites, this will apply to all ISPs.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

1) Can C&W set a 6 or 7db snr on the line ? As I understand it the default is 9db, which will be no good for me as i'm used to 7db and the associated speed.

C&W announced a pilot to enable this for customers and then never delivered - rather like a lot of their other announcements on their LLU platform. This means that in practice you will not be able to get anything better than 9dB.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

2) Can the interleave depth be reduced to 8ms ?

No.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

3) What chipset does C&W usually have in the exchange ?

They do not disclose this information. For the most part their equipment is fairly old but does perform reasonably well where it doesn't have problems with particular routers.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

4) Does the line run the same speed 24/7 like i'm used to on Sky, eg no congestion at peak times ?

The answer to this will depend upon who you buy it from as all C&W provide is the exchange port and backhaul to whichever wholesale supplier is being used. If the ISP has plenty of capacity then the answer should be yes.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

5) Can I use my own modem/router combo freely ?

Yes - unless the ISP you choose says otherwise.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

6) Is there any filtering/blocking of the filehosting sites ?

If the ISP imposes it but otherwise no.

Wrong. The IWF list is not used by most small ISPs unless they are simply reselling a managed product from one of the 5 or so largest ISPs.

For the most part the IWF list is not currently an issue unless you are trying to access material that is in itself illegal to access.

I was with ADSL24 C&W service for 2 years and never had any problem and I have a long line.
A mate of mine is a avid games player and uses a C&W reseller and things are ok with him, he is a lot closer to the exchange than me mind you.

Here the service is reliable, the problems my mate had was due to phone line, not the broadband service and he went through hell with that, be cause BT openreach had very little interest, nor did Bt for that matter.

As for the SNR, i got myself a Netgear DG 834 router from Ebay stuck DGteam third party firmware on it and lowered the SNR my side.

The blocking is a reason I don't want to go with large providers and why at the moment I am staying away from fibre.

Thanks for the info.

The lack of being able to reduce the interleave depth could be a nail in the coffin for me as im an avid gamer too !!
I already know C&W dont do fastpath, but no configuration of the max delays is abit restrictive

As tweaking the snr, ive already got a DG834gt with DG team fw on it somewhere in the loft.
Been a while since i used it.

Can a DG834GT be used in bridge or half-bridge mode so i can use it with my Netgear 3800 router?
My Draytek 120 does PPPoA to PPPoE conversion so it plays nice with the 3800.
Afiak you cant tweak snr with the Draytek though.

Oh does anyone know if C&W support PPPoE ? If so may be able to use my Billion 7402nx as a modem and tweak with coding gain.

As you may have found out now, there is not an awful lot of flexibility on the CW service, we have plenty of customers that have no issues and just want to use it, but if you need profiles changed down to 6db fastpath, then you may be better of with one of the many TT wholesale packages on offer, as there is quite a bit more flexibility, and some (like us) will do free migration.

Which one of your packages is TT based ?

I think we may have cracked it here

TT is apparently a good match for my Draytek 120.

In reply to a post by slickric21:

Thanks for the info.

The lack of being able to reduce the interleave depth could be a nail in the coffin for me as im an avid gamer too !!
I already know C&W dont do fastpath, but no configuration of the max delays is abit restrictive

My mate seems to manage and he is avid games player, ok it is mainly MMO's, but he does play other games as well

As tweaking the snr, ive already got a DG834gt with DG team fw on it somewhere in the loft.
Been a while since i used it.

Can a DG834GT be used in bridge or half-bridge mode so i can use it with my Netgear 3800 router?

with the DGteam firmware it is possible to make the DG834 as a modem only as I did it when I got my TP-link router.

My Draytek 120 does PPPoA to PPPoE conversion so it plays nice with the 3800.
Afiak you cant tweak snr with the Draytek though.

Oh does anyone know if C&W support PPPoE ? If so may be able to use my Billion 7402nx as a modem and tweak with coding gain.

i think they do use PPPoE, i can't remember now, I can find out what my old speedtouch was last set at, later on, when I come back from work.

I notice above something was said about Talk Talk network, just to be fair there are other resellers that sell the same service, including ADSl24.

But to be honest if you are going to go for Talk Talk network, then why not go directly to Talk Talk, as it will be cheaper, but then you may have the same problem as you have with Sky.

If you went onto the Talk Talk network via a reseller, would you still have that problem as you are still using their infrastructure?

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