Nildram

Haven't been here for some time (couple of years!) and following my modem dying I thought I'd run a speed test on the new equipment.

Maybe I missed the announcement but I carried out a speed test and it said I was with Tiscali instead of Nildram. When did they get taken over? Or is that a mistake on the part of the speed tester?

Anyway real point of the post is I have Talk Talk LLU on the exchange with a 40Gb limit which is well within my usage. I was initally at 6.5mb download when ADSL Max first came in but had so many problems, was at times getting less than my 2mb connection speed allocated, I reverted back to a 2mb 'fixed' connection with a 50gb carry over unused portion.

Talk talk would be far cheaper for me...but would you go for it, as the comments about Talk Talk seem to vary so much. Not too bothered about out and out speed but reliablilty is king!

Yes, Tiscali now own Nildram, and several people have left as a result.

Really we could do with your line stats, (if you don't know how to get them look here or here), and some better idea of how much of your 50GB you actually use. If you could tell us your exchange that would help, or look here and post the result.

Talk Talk is all right for some, better than BT, Orange, Tiscali/Pipex and probably soon Nildram, but not one I would choose.

How much do you pay now, and how much would you be willing to pay below that for a good ISP. Not just speed but overall performance - speed, support, reliability and so on?

Thanks for that info..

Oh god, my worse nightmare...unless Tiscali have improved of late.

Line stats etc below. Must admit the setting up of the router was far easier than my previuos set up and much cheaper to buy too!

System Up Time 38:54:54
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 4008 3789 0 97 742 01:24:27
LAN 10M/100M 128462 109519 0 496 112 38:54:48
WLAN 11M/54M 85207 77937 0 479 69 33:35:51


ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 7616 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 25.0 db 14.0 db
Noise Margin 15.9 db 25.0 db

I'm on the Langport exchange and about a mile out from the exchange.

The original setup worked well but the family have moved on and as such whereas the original 50gb limit would sometimes take a hammering, now it hardly gets used...I use much less than 5gb/month max. Currently I have 98GB to use in the next week!

Not into massive downloads but don't like to feel restricted as to what I can do. And although the phone is on with Nildram, it is at a total cost of �26/month.

As i mentioned, it is a 2mb line but it is a restricted 2mb line speed. Certainly for about the first 10 hours on the day of the upgrade to 8mb (I was one of the guinea pigs for BT ), I was connecting at over 6mb......the rest, as they like to say, is history i.e. dropping at times to less than using a 14k modem!

Biggest problem I do have is come the new year I don't expect to be resident in this country. So although one month notice would be ideal, I could take the hit of a longer tie in if much cheaper.

I've been with Zen, who were very good but priccy and inflexible when I had the fiasco with my connection speed, hence the move to Nildram at the time.

Thanks for your help

Pity, only TT available of the LLUs. Only worth looking at if the International 2 or International 3 packages would be useful for the phone. I think it is a 12 or 18-month contract.

Theres nothing obvious in those stats to indicate a problem with the line, maybe things have changed.

What would give a clue would be error stats - are those available as well? What is your new router? You are actually still on a Max connection, presumably Nildram are doing the throttle to 2Mbps.

If you want to migrate I would look at Newnet Home Lite at �12.95pm 3GB allowance and be prepared to pay �1.40 per GB for any more you use. Alternatively Newnet Home M at �17.95 is 12GB. Or IDNet Home Lite at �17.99 with 5GB.

Plusnet is worth looking at possibly in your case - I think you can put the phone with them as well, but they may not guarantee keeping the same number. (Neither to BT apparently if you revert it!).

Useful comparison. Bear in mind Nildram are probably on the way down to Tiscali levels.

I would go for true Max, but whoever you choose I would check first with sales if you could revert to fixed speed if true Max turned out still to be problematical. Also would there be a charge!

Thanks for the info.... Actually given where Langport is I am amazed that it is even LLU by anyone!

I was initially interested in the International calls but not much good as they don't include Vietnam in the plan. As you say it's an 18month contract but I also understand that it's �125 reconnection fee if i ever wanted to go back to a BT connection.

The router I've got now is a netgear DG834G. I'll have a look at the Newnet show as i can't really justify paying �26. The phone gets very little use anyway. The one good point about TT is it would be just one connection charge as the current �26 doesn't include BT's take.

Hi there,

We offer a broadband package with 8GB included (plus free overnight downloads) for �14.99, and you can add Home Phone with free evening and weekend calls for �9.99 on top of that which might be suitable.

With those stats I'd say Max would be ok, but we could always revert you to fixed rate IPStream if need be.

For cheap rates to Vietnam I'd say a VoIP solution would be your best bet, as most providers do not include this in international tariffs, including us.