New to this ADSL stuff

Hello

I have been blessed with living in a cable area for the last 5 years (And on a virgin retention deal of

BT Wholesale http://www.btwholesale.com/getbroadband gives

"For Postcode CH63 3AW

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your postcode indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a line rate up to 1Mbps. However due to the length of your line the 1Mbps service may require an engineer visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our check also indicates that your line should be able to support a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 3.5Mbps or greater.

The actual ADSL Max line rate supportable will be determined during the first 10 days of use, after which time the highest stable rate possible will be set.

If you decide to place an order, a further test will be performed to confirm if your line is suitable for the service you wish to purchase.

Thank you for your interest."

You will pay the activation fee one way or the other, either up front, or buried in someones long term contract.

If you want Sky TV etc then Sky would make sense. They do tie you down to a long contract though.

In reply to:

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I am thinking of getting SKY, so am thinking about them, will they get upset if I hammer the DL off peak? When is Off peak anyway?

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If you either have or are getting Sky TV then which ISP to go for is a no brainer really - unless you like chucking money away.

With Sky you can get 6 mixes of their TV channels - free phone calls - plus your broadband connection from just

Edited by deleted (Wed 01-Aug-07 21:46:33)

One disadvantage with sky is speed, you will need their top package(broadband) which is

The broadband on Sky is three speeds.

Base is up to 2mb with 2GB monthly allowance - cost of that is zero.

Mid is up to 8mb with 40GB monthly allowance - cost of that is

Edited by deleted (Wed 01-Aug-07 22:28:48)

Sky use ADSL2+ artificially capped at a max of 16Mb (I guess either for commercial reasons or maybe because they are being realistic about what the majority of users will get).

ADSL2 max speed capability is only 12Mb and is not used by any UK ISPs so far as I know.

Edited by deleted (Wed 01-Aug-07 23:13:02)

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Max is up to 16mb with unlimited allowance - cost of that is

In reply to:

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One disadvantage with sky is speed, you will need their top package(broadband) which is

It is a bit of a no brainer cost wise. However the OP did mention gaming, and many users especially on Base and Mid Sky packages complain of high pings.

I'm on max, and my pings to London (from up here in Leeds) are just shy of 40ms with Fast path on. Not too shabby. Although all Sky connections are meant to be on Interleaving, therefore adding a few milliseconds.

However when on UKFSN with Fast path, I was pinging London servers at about 16-18ms.

Having said that, I don't do much gaming anymore.