I wouldn't use AOL. It seems to be a very strange setup, not fully TalkTalk in the way that Tiscali et al are. I think it is TT network but some sort of USA customer handling. I don't really know. Does this help?

Re BRAS profiling, the new system on WBC, which is what you would be on if not LLU, is a lot better than the old one. IP Profile is 88.2% of connection speed, (which in effect absorbs a lot of the overheads), and it adjust immediately to the connection speed. In the case of a few ISPs, Plusnet being one, the ISP holds a copy of the BT IP Profile but rounded down, and applies that. The "copying" procedure fails sometimes and may need to be triggered by support.

The system also now has a 3dB noise margin setting which it can apply on stable lines. That can add over 1Mbps to the connection speed on ADSL2+ compared to the standard 6dB.

Sky LLU I believe uses a standard setting of 7dB.

TT LLU I'm not sure about. There are several resellers using TT exchange equipment with their own backhaul not TT's. Vivaciti is one.

In my opinion the benefits of speed and lack of IP Profiling that LLU used to have are now largely gone. However they are still very cheap compared to WBC-based and TT resellers. (O2/Be are a different case again, but not available to you).

Have you considered going for Sky, and getting a 3G dongle on 11 Jan to tide you over for essentials stuff like emails and shopping?

Yes the 3G dongle is top of the list at the moment

Just saw the link to the Guardian article about Plusnet offering unlimited, not strictly correct for them to say Plusnet has always had caps on home users as I only just cancelled my unlimited account which I had with them for several years and just kept saying I'd leave every time they increased the price!. Good news is the new pricing looks a lot better than the one I had

Let us know what you do, and how it goes .

True unlimited on PN aka BT and Sky, if there is no funny FUP/AUP stuff, will be a huge selling point.

Will do

Just found what looks like a good offer on a PAYG dongle from O2, 1 month 2Gb £12.87 with free delivery

http://shop.o2.co.uk/promo/o2mobilebroadband/tab/Pay...

Some friends of ours moved from the Manchester area to Milton Keynes, and bought an O2 dongle to cover them for about a month at the new house. They were perfectly satisfied.

All sorted

Got the O2 dongle in the post and signed up with Plusnet Unlimited, gave me an install date of Jan 25th so a week earlier than thought.

Will let you know how it goes

A Happy Xmas to All

Great.

(I assume you mean Unlimited plus Home Phone?)

Quick update.

Openreach sub contractor arrived Friday afternoon, spent several hours going backwards and forwards but couldn't get a connection to the cabinet.

Came back Saturday morning and said we were connected via two cabinets not one, an hour later and I had a working phone line

Made a phone call on the afternoon, went to make another later and no dial tone

Spoke to Plusnet on Sunday, nothing they can do as the job's showing as not completed, suggested I ring back this morning and speak to provisioning.

Spoke to provisioning who went off and spoke to Openreach, appointment booked for 8am-1pm today to sort it, their system also shows the job as not completed and due to be done today.

1pm came and went and no engineer, just rang Plusnet (again) and they're ringing Openreach (again) so still waiting to see what's happening

Openreach say the job is completed (but have no record of Saturdays visit), earliest appointment to come out again .......... Feb 25th!!!.

Just been transferred to Plusnets telephone faults department who have ran a line test, came back with a fault between data point and customers equipment which apparently is good news as it means they can get someone out this Thursday to look at it!.

So, hopefully it will be sorted Thursday and then just have to wait and see what they do with the broadband connection!.