Best ADSL provider (nightmare situation)

[Darkst4r]

Ok I've just had a shock after looking into the broadband speed I can recieve in my new property.
Apparantly it's a listed building so cannot be cabled for broadband, only ADSL broadband which gives me an average speed of 6mbs if I go with Virgin or BT.
Does anyone know if this is just a conservative figure they give or if any other provider can do any better ?
I think going from 50 meg to 6meg is going to cripple me, I know I should have looked into coverage before but in this day and age you dont expect to be recieving such a low speed atall.
Any help or advice (apart from moving house agai) would be great, thanks in advance.

 

[lamboman]

First stop is at SamKnows to find out what services you can get. Only then can anybody really make any true recommendations.

 

[Zswizzy]

I get 3mb/s count yourself lucky.

 

[Rroff]

The figure given is usually conservative (I think they base it on a mixture of line history and average speeds in the area) - I get:

up to 2Mbps via ADSL
3.5Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max
6Mbps or greater via ADSL2+

In the checker but with a DG834GT router and a couple of minor SNR tweaks I can hold 10MBit down, 1Mbit up absolutely fine.

 

[badcompany]

surely cable won't violate listed building reqs?

 

[BDEE]

surely cable won't violate listed building reqs?

You rekon?

How about a listed building where planning permission was needed to put up a TV on the wall, which eventually got granted, but with no permission to turn it on.....

Planning on listed buildings is a nightmare.

 

[The Halk]

The max speed you get isn't dependent on the provider, it'll be the same for em all. What will vary is how much of that max speed you get.

That is my understanding at least.

 

[Darkst4r]

Sam doesn't know...

 

[brendy]

I think going from 50 meg to 6meg is going to cripple me, I know I should have looked into coverage before but in this day and age you dont expect to be recieving such a low speed atall.
Any help or advice (apart from moving house agai) would be great, thanks in advance.

Are you serious? Half the internet cant even push data at 6mb. Unless you are running some sort of media or torrent heavy apps, it really wont be something that will "cripple" you. Its ONLY the internet.

 

[Darkst4r]

So is 6 meg enough for online gaming and streaming video without awful buffering times ?

 

[brendy]

Should be grand. I can remember gaming only a few years ago on 2mb. Iplayer for example needs min 1.5mb so 5-6 will be grand.

 

[RomanNose]

Are you serious? Half the internet cant even push data at 6mb. Unless you are running some sort of media or torrent heavy apps, it really wont be something that will "cripple" you. Its ONLY the internet.

That's a load of ****.
Youtube HD, Iplayer HD, all deliver > 6mb/s.

 

[Mr_White]

The max speed you get isn't dependent on the provider.

Depends if they're all using BT Wholesale or some are using LLU.

 

[SilverTongue]

Should be grand. I can remember gaming only a few years ago on 2mb. Iplayer for example needs min 1.5mb so 5-6 will be grand.

I am only running 1.25Mb and can stream and play games online no problem...

I remember gaming on 56k for crying out loud.

What is it with people and saying slow internet will cripple them, it's no a right it's a privilege to even have internet access at all...

 

[Darkst4r]

I am only running 1.25Mb and can stream and play games online no problem...

I remember gaming on 56k for crying out loud.

What is it with people and saying slow internet will cripple them, it's no a right it's a privilege to even have internet access at all...

I dont see how it's a priveledge if you have to pay for it. I just want to try and get the best for my money thats all and make sure I'm not stuck paying for something I cant make the most of.

 

[brendy]

That's a load of ****.
Youtube HD, Iplayer HD, all deliver > 6mb/s.

Yes its a load of whatever that our office in Birmingham runs a 5mb line and can supply email to 30 users, unhindered web access and several users who use the likes of youtube quite heavily (sales videos hosted on there). They have yet to report any speed issues, not that it would make any difference as they are line quality limited to 5mb.
The only difference I have noticed is on big service pack downloads etc compared to our infinity line over here.

 

[dfarrall]

Lol, asif your complaining about 6 meg, thats a good speed. I was stuck on 1 meg till i got BT infinity recently.

 

[weringo]

Can't stand going back to my parents who only have 16mb broadband compared to my 50, feel for you OP.

FWIW just ran a speed estimate on my parents phone line and it came up 10-17mb

 

[RomanNose]

Yes its a load of whatever that our office in Birmingham runs a 5mb line and can supply email to 30 users, unhindered web access and several users who use the likes of youtube quite heavily (sales videos hosted on there). They have yet to report any speed issues, not that it would make any difference as they are line quality limited to 5mb.
The only difference I have noticed is on big service pack downloads etc compared to our infinity line over here.

OK well the first two applications don't use particularly much bandwidth. But it doesn't matter anyway, go to youtube and iplayer and you will see that it uses 5-10mb/s in HD and youtube HD.
I don't know about you but I would be pretty annoyed not being able to watch HD videos in this day and age.
And just because your users don't report problems doesn't mean they don't exist, they have probably been working with these speeds for years so they know the limits anyway.
Also if you want more proof, run youtube-dl and fetch a 720/180p video.

 

[brendy]

You may be forgetting that if you have a faster line that it will spool faster, it will not necessarily impact the actual play speed of the video, just that it will finish downloading faster.
For what its worth too, if I want something in crystal clear video, I watch a blueray. Head over to youtube and stream a few of the HD test clips, they are nowhere near as clear as blueray etc so the HD or nothing argument is a little invalid in my opinion.