ISP CHANGE CONSIDERATIONS

I live in rural part of Wales, current ISP (for last 2 years) is Tiscali (Tiscali Max) and line is about 4km (2.5miles) by road from local exchange.
Max download speeds achieved outside peak times have been 1.9Mbps (Jan/Feb 08); 1.7Mbps (July/Sep 08) & 1.2 / 1.4Mbps (2 weeks ago); however, during peak times it barely exceeds 0.7Mbps when Tiscali throttling kicks in and sometimes is even less than the Upload Speed (particularly at weekends).

I am currently using a Thomson SpeedTouch 330 USB modem but cannot obtain line stats as the
Dr SpeedTouch program does not work and has been withdrawn from Thomson�s website. I therefore am considering upgrading to a Router � any recommendations on what to consider please?

Local Exchange info - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SWNEN - BTW is sole provider of broadband services � no LLU/Cable operators and 21CN PSTN target date Q3 2011.

I want to leave Tiscali and am currently considering Zen, IDNet & NewNet.
I am a light to semi-medium net user but do not mind paying a lot more to achieve a constant download speed that I know my line is capable of achieving. I therefore want a good reliable ISP with a minimal/non-existent traffic shaping policy & preferably (though not essential) a UK customer support desk. Any recommendations on this aspect would be much appreciated.

If you have no idea of how much you download and upload then get tbbMeter from here.

That should give you the traffic statistics through your modem. If it doesn't then it was worth trying. After a few days of that, and knowing if you do anything unusually heavy outside those days, (if you do then you need to include something like that so you know how much it uses), you should have some idea of how much you upload and download in a month.

Then look at Newnet for under 20GB total per month of upload and download, or IDNet and Zen for more download. Those two do not count upload.

Laughs - I was thinking so much about the usage stats I forgot most of your post so went to re-read it. Looks like we agree on the ISPs, I hope the 20GB figure will help if you can get figures.

If you can't get figures, or if you just want to try things, then you could go to O2 Access or one of the higher Plusnet packages. Both of these supply a loaned router and have money-back getouts, and you could get figures as well then. Then use the getout and migrate to one of the chosen three. Unless of course you are happy with the new one anyway.

O2 Access is having fairly big problems in some areas at the moment due to rapid expansion so the service may not be brilliant - or it may be excellent. Plusnet won't have that problem but they throttle heavily at lots of times - see this page. The big advantage of O2 is it is unlimited and not deliberately throttled - just possibly due to congestion at the moment.

Hard to choose, perhaps stick to your original plan, try to get those figures, and buy a Netgear 834G or GT or a Thomson 585v7. I'd be scared of a second-hand router unless it had a warranty. I got my 585v6 from DSL Depot and was very pleased - so have a look there.

In reply to a post by RURALWELSHBOYO:

I am currently using a Thomson SpeedTouch 330 USB modem but cannot obtain line stats as the
Dr SpeedTouch program does not work and has been withdrawn from Thomson�s website. I therefore am considering upgrading to a Router � any recommendations on what to consider please?

If you want a cheap and cheerful that seems to work, bought one for my son in Italy, (nothing is too cheap for my boy ) and is working fine. Has the same chipset as the Netgear DG834GT so I believe.

Ooops! almost forgot to post the link.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Hard to choose, perhaps stick to your original plan, try to get those figures, and buy a Netgear 834G or GT or a Thomson 585v7. I'd be scared of a second-hand router unless it had a warranty. I got my 585v6 from DSL Depot and was very pleased - so have a look there.

I would second that. My last two routers prior to moving to Be (and so moving to the BeBox) came from DSL Depot (www.dsldepot.co.uk) - a Netgear 8<something> then (when I moved to multiple static IP addresses that the Netgear wouldn't support) a Draytek Vigor 2600. At those prices it is much better than risking eBay or the like as they are all given at least a cursory test and come with a short warranty rather than none.

Thanks for your response and info.
I have downloaded the tbbMeter and will monitor the stats over the next month to see how much I download and upload.

I�ll assume, unless otherwise advised, that I will get much closer to my line�s speed capability during the peak time period if I choose an appropriate package of one of the mentioned ISPs that throttle much less than Tiscali does at the current time.

Thanks also to Sadoldman & dspillett for their valued comments on specific modems/routers.

I'd agree 100% with your candidate list of ISPs - Zen, IDNet and Newnet. None of them throttle or shape connections and they all have first-class UK support.

I'm hugely biased towards Zen. I have used them for 5 years and never a problem.

As for routers. my personal favourite is a Netgear DG834G. Cheap, does the job and hangs on to the connection, particularly if you are some distance from the exchange. More here:
http://netgear.co.uk/wireless_adslrouter...

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Edited by lodge (Tue 03-Feb-09 21:25:14)

With the ISPs discussed the package is irrelevant to the speed you get, unlike at least one of the throttling ones who throttle the low users (cheap packages) more than the high users (expensive packages), and some major ISPs who just throttle as a matter of policy/profit-making on the basis of the public trust in the brand names.

On ADSL Max (as you are?) and will be the BT system underlying it calculates a profile from your connection speed. The profile determines your maximum download speed.

I was with Newnet for 18 months and basically got 70%-90% of profile at all times - interestingly higher in the evenings than during the day which is the opposite of most ISPs I believe. (My theory is they are mainly a business ISP so that capacity becomes available to home users out of the normal working day). Barring the Olympics when customers of many ISPs were reporting very low speeds. I occasionally got as low as 50% of profile! (2500 of 5000), when other ISPs were supplying much lower download speeds/percentages.

I can't speak from experience of IDNet and Zen though I get the feeling they may normally be fractionally better than Newnet, but possibly suffered more during the Olympics. The next ones are far enough away not to worry, especially as all three are monthly contracts! (Pay the extra on Newnet for monthly not annual/12 if you go there).

Thanks once again for your response and additional info.
Also thanks to lodge for additional comments as well.

Over the past 15 months I have run many tests on the BT Speedtester website: http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ and the IP Profiles for my line have ranged from a low of 0.35Mbps (Nov 2008) to a high of 2.0Mbps (Jan 2008). Recently, the IP Profile has fluctuated between 0.5 & 0.7Mbps.
When IP Profile was 2.0Mbps, DSL connection rates were 2.112Mbps (Downstream) & 0.448Mbps (Upstream). The corresponding figures when IP Profile was 0.35Mbps were 1.632Mbps & 0.448Mbps respectively.

I have just checked the websites for NewNet, IDNet & Zen - using their broadband availability checkers, the results were frankly disappointing. NewNet predicted a likely speed of around 0.5Mbps; IDNet -0Mbps & Zen � a max of 0.5Mbps.
Presumably, these results are based on BTW�s Availability Checker which, I understand, gives a conservative estimate. If I input my phone number to BTW�s Availability Checker I get up to 0.5Mbps or greater; if my post code is entered, the result is up to 2.0Mbps or greater. I understand this checker gives a conservative estimate only but I know my line is capable of achieving a max download speed of up to 1.9Mbps if the service is not being throttled. I suppose the only way I�ll know for sure what my line is truly capable of is to obtain the stats for my modem (or the new router when I get it).

I guess the real question is this:
Although I have a longish phone line, if I change to a router and opt to go with NewNet, IDNet or Zen, am I likely to achieve a faster and more consistent download speed than I�m currently getting with Tiscali (taking into consideration that BTW is the sole provider of broadband services at my local exchange)?
I am hoping the answer will be yes (it surely will be better than service provided by Tiscali).

Any final thoughts on this matter before I take the plunge would be much appreciated.

In reply to a post by RuralWelshBoyo:

I guess the real question is this:
Although I have a longish phone line, if I change to a router and opt to go with NewNet, IDNet or Zen, am I likely to achieve a faster and more consistent download speed than I�m currently getting with Tiscali (taking into consideration that BTW is the sole provider of broadband services at my local exchange)?

Of course, it's not possible to guarantee 100%, but the very likely answer is yes. Apart from the outlay of a new router, you have nothing to lose anyway because you will not be tied in on a long contract with any of the 3 ISPs mentioned.

I do think a decent router that holds onto the signal, will be a major help in maintaining a consistent BRAS profile, which is often the problem with obtaining a consistent speed on long lines.

Thanks for your help on this matter and for everyone who commented on my query.