TT coming to my area on 28/2 - to move or not?

According to samknows TT LLU is going live at the end of the month.

I am with PN on the unlimited BB at the mo costing £25 since the vat (!) increase.
With TT's offer of 1/2 price BB for 12 months + phone I recon it will be less than what I am paying for that alone.

Reading on here it looks like their service has improved since I last checked them, p2p is throttled but I don't use that much - what about usenet is it throttled or full speed?

Given my stats of 24,0/44,0db I will not see much in the way of speed increase but as long as I get much the same (at the mo I sync at just under 7Mb) d/l rate I am not too bothered.

DEFINITELY NOT !!

do some research on talk talk and you will find copious amounts of reading stating that they are truly abysmal. google is your friend, log into the scream and read some of the talk talk tales of despair there. also log into talk talk hell and read some of the stories there too. i left them after 4 days of incompetence, ineptitude and experiece of the worst ISP you could possibly imagine. look at ISP review sites and see how well they fare there, vast majority of reviewer implore readers to stay away from talk talk wishing that they had.

save your money and your sanity and stay as far away from talk talk as is possible.

Edited by deleted (Tue 22-Feb-11 20:46:21)

And to redress the balance slightly...

I left Entanet IPstream for Talktalk LLU, and I am now paying a lot less and have got over twice the speed I had.
It's 100% completely reliable, and although phone support leaves much to be desired (OK it's CARP!) the TT members forum OCE's are knowledgeable, curteous and get the issue dealt with.
I haven't regretted the move for more than .001/ second

oh, and usenet is full speed 24/7/365 (allegedly)

For your needs I'd say yes, but only you can decide. I joined to save money and also because TalkTalk are the only LLU alternative to BT at my exchange. Seems like you're in a similar position on that front, so I'd say go for it. The service has been great for me for 2 + years now.

In reply to a post by Zigtek:

And to redress the balance slightly...

And also to address the balance i have been a TT customer for more than 12 months and have had no problems at all, i get great speed and gaming pings and have recommended TT to family and friends who have also joined without problem.

speed and ping - http://www.speedtest.net/result/1169541016.png

The biggest issue with TalkTalk is there phone support but if your happy to use a forum for your support needs you should be fine .

The important bit the connection has improved allot since there early days .

Can't advise with regards Usenet but I would say its probably traffic shaped at peak times but as I don't use it , I can't say for certain .

I left NewNet a few months ago when TT unbundled my exchange. I have not looked back. And TBH, while the phone support is not great, on 2 of the 3 occasions I have had to call I have got what was needed quickly and with a minimum of fuss. The 1 bad experience with phone support was for someone else....

USENET is not throttled. Use it all the time and it runs at full speed. I have also done a little p2p and it will sometimes fly, others crawl. Depends on the time of day I guess.

I think you would see a synch increase. I know I did with 25db. now at 23.1 db and seems rock solid. went from about 8Mb to 17Mb (must try and work out why I am only getting 13.5Mb throughput though??)

Also happy on TT LLU. Been with them 18 months and no outages. Getting 17.5Mb on a line TT estimate at 20Mb. Never tried to use TT Call Centre who are (reputedly) hopeless. You will get all the support you need from the helpful folk on the TT user support forum.

OK that�s about what I have researched, if you need to phone them expect problems but web/forums are fine.

So hopefully I will be moving next month and looking forward to the savings.

In reply to a post by kenr:

OK that�s about what I have researched, if you need to phone them expect problems but web/forums are fine.

So hopefully I will be moving next month and looking forward to the savings.

Not necessarily. My Talktalk LLU service went active at around 9am. Now since i'm on a stable & short line, i wanted to get my downstream noise margin changed to 6db and be put on a fastpath profile for higher speed and better pings (i believe talktalk's default SNR is 12db and interleaving on). I know i should have waited at least a few days before requesting this but i got impatient and called Level 2 support (India) a few hours later asking for these changes. Guess what? No questions asked, they changed my SNR and put me on a fastpath profile straightaway! I was gobsmaked as to how easy it was. So whilst i agree that that generally speaking their telephone support sucks, sometimes you do hit the jackpot. When needing telephone technical support, i always recommend you call their Level 2 support (based in India or Eire) directly so you bypass their level 1 monkeys.

I wasn't going to reply as most have said pretty much what I would say. However I think it's relevant as I was with Plusnet also the same as you and wary about leaving. I went live on Sept 25th and it has been good since and a big improvement on gaming pings since being put on their fastpath ( Interleaving switched off) and an improvement on speed. Also it is much cheaper than what you're paying. The standard packages at plusnet also throttle P2P so there's no difference there. They're value package even throttles gaming! Check out the plusnet package comparison chart here. Remember that TalkTalk give a one month trial period anyway and now their contract is only 12 months.

Most have said that the telephone support is not good, but I'll go as far as to say most of the time they are diabolical. I considered cancelling at one point during the trial month after calling them. However the talktalkmembers forum is good and staff are polite and qualified. So far I've personally no reason to complain. To be honest Plusnet run on a ticket system also which is similar to the talktalk forum (in fact the forum is a bit more personal contact) and they are owned by BT since 2007. I rang them with a cessation of line problem when leaving and got put through to an Indian call centre so Plusnet are not the company that I originally joined in 2004.

I'd recommend avoiding talktalk unless you know you are going to get a good connection. I've been subsumed via tiscali being originally a nildram customer. Since talktalk have taken over and my line was migrated the performance has been utterly terrible. in the evening or weekends youtube doesn't stream for more than about 10 seconds without pausing. No changes at my end, decent quality line.

support is also awful. No response for a week to ticket raised then constant "lies" about escalation of the call and a team leader would call to discuss the problems.

They've also just arrived in my area as the only LLU provider.

However, the maximum speed they say they can deliver is only 5mbit, compared to the bang on 8mbit I currently receive through Demon, however, since Demon isn't an LLU service, I'm subjected to a 50GB/rolling 30 days FUP, but other than that they offer great service for the money.

So the only reason I would be switching would be to get rid of the FUP, however, Demon are quite a switched on company, refusing to sign up to various government schemes like other large ISPs, against rubbish like Phorm when it reared its ugly head, and seem to value their customers more than kowtowing to corporations, whereas TalkTalk give the impression that they'll be the exact opposite of that.

It's just the FUP that is the thorn in my side, and TalkTalk is the only option, but since they seem traffic shaping happy, is there much point, as I may not be able to use the connection properly anyway.

the maximum speed they say they can deliver is only 5mbit, compared to the bang on 8mbit I currently receive

What's your SNR? I doubt you will go from 8meg to 5 meg. I went from a synch of 8meg to 17meg... I really do need to work out why my synch is 17meg but speed tests are consistently 13.5meg......

TBH, there is a lot of talk about traffic shaping. I have been using some P2P software of late and getting good download speeds. Also get good gaming speeds and excellent browsing speed. Can't fault the service, and the members forum is fine for getting simple things done like profile changes.

I don't rate the phone support highly but on the occasions I have used it I have at least been satisfied. Again, I think as long as the problem is a simple one they can sort it out.

In reply to a post by MrWhiteUK:

It's just the FUP that is the thorn in my side, and TalkTalk is the only option, but since they seem traffic shaping happy, is there much point, as I may not be able to use the connection properly anyway.

If for whatever reason you do decide not to go with talktalk there are other options for you.
Check out the resellers forum for companies that sell products based on CPW exchange equipment.

Xilo and Vivaciti are two of them.
Xilo do not traffic shape at all and Vivaciti do however you can pay to have it removed. You can also keep your BT line now on one of the Vivaciti products.

Problem is they could prove to be much more expensive than talktalk.

Think Xilo offer 50GB on their product for £26.54 which may not be enough for you?
Vivaciti would be 26.40 for 100GB plus another £20 to remove traffic shaping which would also remove the 100GB cap.


Gary

In reply to a post by gmoorc:

In reply to a post by MrWhiteUK:

It's just the FUP that is the thorn in my side, and TalkTalk is the only option, but since they seem traffic shaping happy, is there much point, as I may not be able to use the connection properly anyway.

If for whatever reason you do decide not to go with talktalk there are other options for you.
Check out the resellers forum for companies that sell products based on CPW exchange equipment.

Xilo and Vivaciti are two of them.
Xilo do not traffic shape at all and Vivaciti do however you can pay to have it removed. You can also keep your BT line now on one of the Vivaciti products.

Problem is they could prove to be much more expensive than talktalk.

Think Xilo offer 50GB on their product for £26.54 which may not be enough for you?
Vivaciti would be 26.40 for 100GB plus another £20 to remove traffic shaping which would also remove the 100GB cap.


Gary

Thanks for that, I didn't realise there were other providers available using the hardware.

Xilo don't appear to be able to offer any better than I could get through Demon, but Vivaciti can offer me 100GB FUP for £19.80 inc vat per month, and according to their FAQ, it doesn't seem the FUP is so brutal as Demon's, where you're basically throttled to 128k for a few weeks if you go over the limit.

As it is a fair use policy rather than a data cap, we look at the activity of the account throughout the duration of your service, so if your usage is normally below the FUP, but you occasionally go over this, then this would not be a problem, if however you consitently go over the FUP then we may recomend a different package that may suit you better.

they also mention

What are Peak and Off Peak Hours?
For the allowance based products, peak hours are defined as Monday to Friday 8AM - midnight (8AM - 8PM for Office connections) All other times are off peak.
Our FTTC Products have peak time defined as Mon - Fri 8am - 11pm.

So if they're a bit lenient on their FUP and I could have unlimited usage during off peak, then that would suit me brilliantly.

And I assume it should be as fast as I get on BT Wholesale through Demon? (Vivicati make no mention of predicted line speed) since Tiscali said they could only provide 5mb, surely ADSL2+ should be able to deliver more than the dead on 8mb I get now?

Thanks

In reply to a post by SimonCandest:

the maximum speed they say they can deliver is only 5mbit, compared to the bang on 8mbit I currently receive

What's your SNR? I doubt you will go from 8meg to 5 meg. I went from a synch of 8meg to 17meg... I really do need to work out why my synch is 17meg but speed tests are consistently 13.5meg......

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 26 db 5.5 db
Noise Margin 7 db 24 db

Just for clarity, I do actually download at 8mbit, I'm not just synched at it, in case anyone thinks I'm getting confused between the two

Edited by deleted (Tue 01-Mar-11 12:48:15)

Well no sign of them actually active yet ;-(
The samknows still says RFC yesterday and their online checked says I am out of network.

In reply to a post by MrWhiteUK:

they also mention

What are Peak and Off Peak Hours?
For the allowance based products, peak hours are defined as Monday to Friday 8AM - midnight (8AM - 8PM for Office connections) All other times are off peak.
Our FTTC Products have peak time defined as Mon - Fri 8am - 11pm.

So if they're a bit lenient on their FUP and I could have unlimited usage during off peak, then that would suit me brilliantly.

Is that the price for the partial LLU surfwise product?

There is no peak or off peak with surfwise. You will just get a straight 100GB to use through the month.
They do shape during office hours up to around 7pm ish if I remember correctly.

This Link says you should get around 17meg.

In reply to a post by kenr:

Well no sign of them actually active yet ;-(
The samknows still says RFC yesterday and their online checked says I am out of network.

Is your exchange on this list?

In reply to a post by gmoorc:

Is that the price for the partial LLU surfwise product?

There is no peak or off peak with surfwise. You will just get a straight 100GB to use through the month.
They do shape during office hours up to around 7pm ish if I remember correctly.

This Link says you should get around 17meg.

It doesn't seem to mention what product it is, and it doesn't seem to match up with any of the services they've got listed, it just says "ADSL2+ 100GB FUP - £19.80 inc vat"

That price does match the partial LLU product so line would stay with BT.
Vivaciti forum post
Probably best to give them a call to discuss if you are interested.

In reply to a post by gmoorc:

That price does match the partial LLU product so line would stay with BT.
Vivaciti forum post
Probably best to give them a call to discuss if you are interested.

Thanks for the info.

I will go and look into it, my initial findings seem to suggest they traffic shape just as much as Tiscali, so I'm not sure if they'd be any better or not.

I'll keep investigating ether way, thanks

In reply to a post by gmoorc:

Is your exchange on this list?

Yes

GALASHIELS (ESGAL) Targeted; Estimated Go-Live = 28/02/2011 Planned for TalkTalk exchange unbundling (LLU)

In reply to a post by MrWhiteUK:

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 8128 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 26 db 5.5 db
Noise Margin 7 db 24 db

Just for clarity, I do actually download at 8mbit, I'm not just synched at it, in case anyone thinks I'm getting confused between the two

The speed checkers are notoriously unreliable, and tend to err on the pessimistic side. From your stats, you're definitely looking at faster speeds (maybe upto 17Mbps) and not 5Mbps on TT LLU.

We restrict P2P and newsgroup traffic but only between 8am - 7:30pm Mon - Fri
Outside these times open, or if you need this type of traffic in the daytime you can get a file share add on to the service.

Hmm the TT home page "check" changed from out of network to "Sorry. It seems we're unable to give you an estimate." is this good or bad?

Might be moving after all

In reply to a post by vivaciti:

We restrict P2P and newsgroup traffic but only between 8am - 7:30pm Mon - Fri
Outside these times open, or if you need this type of traffic in the daytime you can get a file share add on to the service.

I have now signed up to Vivaciti Cheerio BT Wholesale.

Just out of interest, what is the fee for this add-on, and is it a one off or monthly fee?

I'm unlikely to require it, but would be interested in the details.

Thanks.

£20.40 monthly fee
Sounds expensive but does make it unlimited as well as removing shaping.

Price list

Hi Guys,

I was almost sold on moving to Talktalk because they have recently unbundled my exchange until I saw this thread http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php.... I don't download too much via P2P just Linux distros etc but this does seem quite strong. Is this is case of a poorly configured P2P client or have TT really cracked down? Or should I be thinking of thinking of using Vivaciti partial SMPF instead?

I am currently on Newnet (12gb per month) but wouldn't mind going for TT/Vivaciti for an increase in speed and more bandwidth. My exchange is here.

Any advice would be great! Thanks

Normsland,

It seems to depend on the exchange you're connected to, I have tested and get fast speeds 10Mb/s+ but you'd really need to find a TT user in Chipping Norton to know for sure.

I would say as you're on a small exchange with a gigabit backbone not disimilar to mine that you should be fine.

Regards

Danny

Well now 7 days after it was supposed to go live, still no sign of it.
Samknows still says 28/2 but the TT checked says out of network.

PAH!

OK today it is showing I can get a massive 4.6Mb (I currently get 7Mb!) Does this now mean they have enabled the exchange?

OK just got off the phone with them, it looks like they HAVE enabled my exchange, only issue is I have just signed up with PN for phone&BB '-(
Well at least it is only a one month contract and I can transfer after that ;-]