Annoyed and frustrated.

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

Burnsy2023

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Joined
17 Nov 2003
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Location
Southampton, UK
Right, for the last 18 or so months I have been a happy customer of Pipex. However, this is no longer the case, since Tiscali got their dirty mitts on Pipex I have been living in fear of a migration. Well that happened about a month ago and my line speed has gone from about 7.5Mb to 1.5Mb and there is nothing Pipex can do. So I have rewarded Pipex's migration by asking for a MAC.

But the question arises of who to turn to. My home network is busy to say the least, we have about 15 computers on the LAN which requires a fair amount of bandwidth for internet access.

I have looked at some comparison websites like uSwitch but it's quite obvious that their pants. For one, Pipex isn't even listed. I talked to Be, who said that the maximum speed we could get is 2Mb, which seems really low considering we were getting nearly the full 8Mb from Pipex. They also say that this is because of the distance from the exchange (about 4km), but looking it up, even with the cabelling going a conveluted route, I can't see it being more then about 2km. So is it possible for Be to be wrong? BT say that we could get about 6Mb, which is obviously much better, but I don't really want to get tied into another 12month contract.

So what chance is it likely that Be's systems are wrong and that we'd get a decent line speed?

Are there any other providers that I should consider?

Thanks

Burnsy
 
Your Pipex line used to IPStream (i.e. BT), so BT's 6Mb estimate is still likely to be wrong - you already know the sync speed you were getting.

Be will be wrong - they use exactly the same lines as BT, just connected to different equipment. It will be the same, if not a bit more than you were getting from Pipex. The service is brilliant, too!
 
Be's estimates are typically extremely conservative.

The best answer, as far as knowing what you'd get with whatever ISP goes, is posting line stats (attenuation, SNR margin, sync rate). There's a calculator in the sticky that should give some estimate of what you'd get too.
 
My current stats are as follows:
Connection speed: 1792kbps
Line Attenuation: 37db
Noise Margin: 10db

The calculator comes up at 2mb, but like I said, it was only recently that i'd sync at anything less then about 7mb.

Burnsy
 
Most of the entanent re-sellers, like ADSL24 whom I am with, do monthly services. So as you already have an ADSL connection and as long as you have a modem etc (as they don't supply one) it would be very painless to give them a try. Personally my speed, on the same line, has increased threefold since ditching Orange.
 
i'm in the same boat, but i'm with pipex homecall and the last couple of weeks i'm getting between 200-600kbps and sometimes as low as 70kbps which is takin the pee. i'm sick to death of doing their speedtest.

i only renewed my contract last month and already want to leave them.

are these low speeds good enough reason to get out of the 12month contract without paying and if so who should i change to.
 
Tiscali would need to have screwed something up pretty badly for your SNR margin to drop through the floor though :confused:
 
It's possible, but seems unlikely - either way, you'd have limited success getting any sense out of Tiscali trying to get a fault raised. Migrate and see if it improves?
 
Trouble is if pipex have migrated you to LLU, then you'll more than likely have to pay to get back on Ipstream. However, if you are on datastream you will be alright, which could also explain the poor speeds. Ring pipex and ask what equipment they have connected you too at the exchange. Seems whenever ISP's start using tiscali wholesale, if they cant get you on LLU you go on datastream.
 
Yeah, you'd have the standard activation fee for an LLU-IPStream migration, unless you tied in for 12 months or whatever.

DataStream wouldn't touch your SNR margin though.
 
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