Moving from cable to ADSL - spec me an ISP!

Hello all,

I'm new to ADSL and these forums as I'm currently an NTL customer. I've recently purchased a new apartment in an area that has no cable services and it appears I've picked badly with regards to distance from the BT exchange. I'm on the Nuneaton one and its approx 2.3km as the crow flies and approx 6km of cable distance (supposedly).

I work from home as a web developer and require above all else, a reliable ISP. I also do a lot of downloading from newsgroups but don't require a newsgroup service with my ISP as I use a 3rd party one. I've been told to expect speeds between 512K and 1Mbit. I hope this is not the case as I'm very fond of the 10Mbit I'm on now!

My priorities are as follows:

1. Reliable service (especially at peak times)
2. Highest download AND upload speed achievable on my line
3. Max cost of

You might get a bit faster than 1 mb, but IPstream will only give a max of 8mb, and you wont get that with your line legth, and the LLU providers, are not likely to look at you as your line length (as BE have said)
I would guess you will be looking at a max of about 3-4mb (this is pure guess work as your line condition counts as well as length)
Your best bet is going to be get a connection and suck it and see as it goes for speed. If you look at an office connection, this will give you faster upload speeds.

Paul

Thanks for the reply.

I would be quite content with 3-4Mbit so long as the overall service is good, i.e. reliability, usage allowance, no-throttling, no port blocking and good customer service.

Other people have also suggested the trial and error approach in which case a short-term (1-3 months) contract and reasonable connection/migration fee is also a must.

I have been looking at the various entanet resellers and do like the sound of the 'Office MAX 45' package. Although various technical sources have suggested I may be better off with a non-rate-adapative service.

Should I start off with trying out an ADSL MAX service or regular ADSL?

It is a hard call to make, if I thought you would only be getting 500k - maybe 1-1.5mb and it was used for work, I might say a fixed speed line would be better, but until you get activated it would be hard to say for sure, the new BT system is if your MAX speed will be less than a fixed speed line, then they will only provide a fixed speed line, but I think you will be over that speed, but as I say pure guess work at this stage.

Right so I've made the decision to get the "MAX Office Allowance 45 GB (300 GB Off Peak)" package and as I can't tell the difference between the Entanet resellers, I decided on Vivaciti as you're the only one who replied to my post!

However.... when I try to call the phone number on your website (0800 0911 797) I get connected to a completely dead line and when I try to call the number in your sig (0800 0911 979) an insurance company answers!

Edited by Imy (Wed 28-Feb-07 11:03:24)

Hi,
We have had some problems with the phone lines this morning, we have a temp solution in place, but if you want to send me a PM with your contact number, I will get someone to call you.

I am in a similar long line position currently on 1Mb fixed and was thinking of moving to Vivaciti 1Mb service. I did not want to risk Max only to get a slower speed. Are you saying that this will not happen i.e. if Max stabilised at <1Mb I would revert to a fixed service?

Atten: 58db
Noise Margin 12-15 db

Thats how we are reading it, looking at your stats, I would say that MAX will give you between 1.8mb - 2.6mb, so you might find that if BT think you would get less than that they may provide a 2mb line instead.