leaving nildram - considering alternatives

I've asked for my MAC key from Nildram (although i'm still waiting due to a 'BT issue' ).

I currently pay �19.99 for a 2mb, 25gb peak / unlimited off-peak.

I live 370m from the exchange as the crow flies, my line stats -
ADSL Link Downstream - Upstream
Connection Speed 8096 kbps - 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 19.0 db - 9.5 db
Noise Margin 10.4 db - 24.0 db

I mostly use my line for gaming and some bittorrent / usenet access, as for downloading I have only used more than 35gb off peak about once in the last year, average combined usage is about 50gb.

I've reached a point of deciding between ADSL24 and IDNET. the �19.99 deal from ADSL24 is the one I will swap too if I don't make any further decisions, but I've been looking at ADSL24 Office 45 (�~35) which offers 'priority at the exchange' and the SuperMax deal from IDNET (�35) which offers 'priority at the exchange' in terms of what extra gaming value they could offer me over the Home 30 deal, and whether it would be worth it. I'm primarily concerned with latency, followed by Gb allowance, i do all major downloads overnight (between midnight-8am).

Anyone got further explaination of the 'priority' recieved by the premium packages ? and whether you think it's worth the �15 ?

Regards.

The priority is about you getting an earlier shout at the available capacity, on a not busy exchange it will make little difference, on a busy exchange it will make some difference, but does not give you a latency boost if that is what you want.

The extra upstream speeds may be helpful if you do voice in game.

If a provider was to offer you a real-time QoS session then that would be what you want, and in theory this should start to appear once WBC products from BT Wholesale roll-out

Latency is always good on ADSL24/Entanet even when the network is busy. Office traffic might be given priority at the exchange but once it hits Entanet's network it is treated the same, and I would guess the same is true over at IDNet. The extra you're paying for Entanet's Office 45 package is really buying you faster uploads, more peak hour GBs and 2 extra hours of off-peak Monday-Friday where you can fill your boots with the off peak allowance at full speed before the users on Home start hammering the network at 10pm. If all your major downloads are between midnight and 8am I wouldn't be fussed about paying the extra for an Office package. Latency will be good on Home at all times.

Regards,
Steve

Latency is always excellent from IDNET. There are many satisfied gamers.

www.idnet.co.uk

IDNet Studio, The Spirella Building, Letchworth, Herts SG6 4ET. UK
T: 08000 267 237 | E: [email protected]

Im with a entanet reseller but looking at your usage i feel you would be happy with idnet as they give better over all speeds as they don't have such high usage caps..
That said the enta ALT keeps gaming pings where you want them nice and low with very little packet loss..
as for the lower contention products , as i understand this gives you priority at the exchange over high contention products at peak usage times, how this helps i expect depends how busy your exchange gets, but the extra upload speed is why i went for the office45 product..
but as a online gamer , getting your line switched from interleaved to fastpase is what you want to get better pings, enta and idnet will both do this for you as i understand it..

hope this helps

excellent advice, thanks for that.

another question, on ADSL24 package page it says you can choose your required speed on signup, 512, 1024, 2048 and 8mb, my question is would it be possible to select a speed between 2mb and 8mb ?

regards.

thats actually a very good question as im right at the limit of being able to be on fastpase, and my line can be unstable sometimes and if i could reduce my sink speed and ip profile through choice , feel this would increase the stability of my line...
But i never thought to ask if this could be done....

No, those are the only choices. 8Mb is also known as Max and will adjust itself to give you the best it thinks you can use, up to 8Mb.

Your router may let you adjust the SNR Margin using DMT for example.

FYI - I recieved my MAC key today, so a thumbs up to nildram CS on that.