AOL Suck, Which ISP next?

Naaiif

Naaiif

Naaiif

Associate
Joined
13 Mar 2009
Posts
20
Yeh so AOL suck. Crappy 4mb download speeds max, 0.3mb upload speed, and that's on a good day. Sometimes i randomly have to reboot my router and play pick n' mix with AOL's server, sometimes i get 2mb bacj, sometimes 3, and if i'm really lucky 4mb! Lucky me!

So i'm sick and tired of it all, been with them about 4-5 years, and they've always been terrible tbh but i've just put up with it. So where to next guys? I've heard good things about Be, but my area is a problem. I live 2.10km from my exchange, and i can get up to 7 providers:

Be, Sky, Bulldog, Orange, AOL, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.

I tried the availability checker on Be's website, and they said they can provide me with 8mb. Where as AOL currently do 4mb. Sky said 3.5 mb, Bulldog said 3mb, and i didn't bother with the others.

So how can Be provide me with 8mb, where as the others can only do 4? I'm a bit miffed that the max i can get is 8mb tbh, my mate gets 18mb from be and he lives 2km away from a different exchange. Why is my case so different?

My only other choice is Virgin Media, who can provide me with 20mb. But have you seen the bandwidth throttling they do? They've got a whole chart on their website, and every scummy chav around here has Virgin Media, so I'm going to be sharing the streets bandwidth with those clowns, downloading their chris brown songs off limewire and all that jazz. I'm a big downloader myself, and i can't take that kind of throttling, so i guess Be are my only option.

Also i've heard on here that Be's supplied router sucks, so will i have to buy a new one? Mehhh, anyway thanks for listening.
 
Welcome on board. Oh, and claimed! ;) The figures quoted by the ISPs are a pure estimate. No matter which ISP you go for they'll all attempt to give you the same maximum speed. The variable factor is your individual line.

What they're saying is, those speeds are what they "think" your line might manage, not what speed they're willing to give you. Since they're all around the 3 to 4Mb mark and Be* said 8Mb, are you sure they didn't mean you could only get their "up to 8Mbps" service, as opposed to their up to 24Mbps LLU service, rather than saying you can actually achieve 8 meg on your particular line?

Personally I'd go for UK Online (part of the Sky group) or Be.
 
Yeh it looks like Be are the only sane choice to go with. Uk Online said i can only get 3mb.

Why is my area so poor? What do they have against Birmingham?

Damn it. Well it's either go to Be or stay with AOHell. Might as well get bethere, even if i don't get 8mb.
 
Naaiif said:
Yeh it looks like Be are the only sane choice to go with. Uk Online said i can only get 3mb.
Click to expand...

As I said to you in my last post, each ISP will give an ESTIMATE of what speeds they THINK your line will be able to manage. They're just that - guesses. Everyone can guess, but not everyone will be exactly right.

It doesn't matter who you sign up with, ANY of them could be right. For example, you might sign up with Be* and end up with 3Mb. You might sign up with UK Online and end up with 4Mb. It depends on your LINE and not which ISP you signed up with. Well unless you signed up to a throttling bandwidth hater like BT or AOL etc.

Whether you sign up with Sky, UK Online, Be or whomever your speed will be virtually identical. They'll all send you "up to 8Mbps" or "up to 16/24 Mbps", the quality of your line, internal wiring and attenuation will play the role of determining how much of that speed you actually see.

The further from the exchange you are, as a rule, the higher your attenuation. This means more signal is 'lost' between you and the exchange. Having aluminium instead of copper in all or parts of your line will also degrade quality and speed. As will having ring-wires attached in your NTE5, or not using microfilters.

Choose the ISP based on the package they provide, their reliability, customer service and so on. NOT on their guesswork-only attempt at estimating your eventual speeds. :)
 
If UKO say you'll most likely only get 3Mbps, that's probably all you'll get on Be as well. They both use the same technology and the deciding factor is the quality (and length) of your line.
 
So basically i'm screwed either way.

Great.

I don't think the length of the line is a problem, like i said my mate lives the same distance from a different exchange and he's fine. Obviously my line is some sort of poor excuse for copper.

God damn it, do you know of any way I can improve this situation somehow? Oh and i'll probably still go for Be, after all, it'll improve my upload speeds to 1.3mb, and hopefully my online games will be smoother.
 
Naaiif said:
I don't think the length of the line is a problem, like i said my mate lives the same distance from a different exchange and he's fine. Obviously my line is some sort of poor excuse for copper.
Click to expand...

Where are you getting these lengths from - what Samknows gives you is measured in a straight line, so the actual loop length can be significantly different. As suggested, post stats.

God damn it, do you know of any way I can improve this situation somehow?
Click to expand...

Move.
 
Swifty55 said:
Be* estimated my line at around 3 - 4mb, I happily sit just below 8mb.

Post your line stats. Can determine a few things.
Click to expand...

Ooooh, now that's promising. You've made me happy. I guess what I'll do is, I'll order the Be Value package which is 8mb max, and if i get lower than 8mb, well i'll just stay on that.

BUT if i get the full 8mb most of the time, i'll see about upgrading to 24mb, and maybe i'll get a little more.
 
BT say I can get 4mb and I sit at 11mb :p

Those estimates dont count for anything,

Do the ring trick on your main BT box and your speed will be better aswell.
 
Naaiif said:
Ooooh, now that's promising. You've made me happy. I guess what I'll do is, I'll order the Be Value package which is 8mb max, and if i get lower than 8mb, well i'll just stay on that.

BUT if i get the full 8mb most of the time, i'll see about upgrading to 24mb, and maybe i'll get a little more.
Click to expand...

Another thing, you need to be on the 24mb package in order to have fastpath. but the 24mb is a 3 month contract as the 8mb is 12months.
 
Generally, except on the worst lines, you'll get more on ADSL2+ (the 24 meg package) than you will on G.DMT/ADSL1 anyway, even if you don't see the full 8 meg on "normal" broadband. That's not to say you'll suddenly get 16 megs on a line that does 3 to 4 on normal ADSL, BUT you'd still get more than 4Mb, if that makes sense. I had a chart somewhere that showed the likely increases, I'll try to dig it out.
 
So the 8mb package isn't adsl 2+? Meaning i need to go for the 24mb package in order to get speeds of 8mb or more?

Ahhh it's only £4 a month more anyway.
 
The 8Mb package may or may not be on ADSL2+ (it could be G.DMT or, more likely, ADSL2+ just "capped" to 8Mbps). Either way it won't go any faster than 8 meg unless you pay Be to upgrade to the full 24Mbps package. Got those router stats handy?
 
Rainmaker said:
The 8Mb package may or may not be on ADSL2+ (it could be G.DMT or, more likely, ADSL2+ just "capped" to 8Mbps). Either way it won't go any faster than 8 meg unless you pay Be to upgrade to the full 24Mbps package. Got those router stats handy?
Click to expand...

Router stats? You mean my router? Or Be's provided router?

I just shot them an email asking whether their "Up To 8mb" option uses the same adsl 2+ technology as the other packages.
 
You have some kind of modem, yes? It should provide some sort of stats on your connection. Those are useful...
 
Naaiif said:
Router stats? You mean my router? Or Be's provided router?

I just shot them an email asking whether their "Up To 8mb" option uses the same adsl 2+ technology as the other packages.
Click to expand...

Yes, their 8mb packages uses the same ADSL2+ technology, you're just capped at 8mb with no choice of fast path and 12months contract.

For the extra £4, its worth it in the sense you get fastpath and you're not tied to a 12month contract.
 
Naaiif said:
I just shot them an email asking whether their "Up To 8mb" option uses the same adsl 2+ technology as the other packages.
Click to expand...

Does it really matter whether they use ADSL1 or 2 on the up to 8Mbps package? You'll never see more than 8Mbps on it regardless. That said, to be fair you could I suppose get better speeds on capped "up to" 8Mbps ADSL2+ than on ADSL1 if you're on a sub 8Mbps quality line, due to the extra tones in use. So it's worth a try I suppose, and saves paying out for the full 24Mbps that you'll never see anyway.

tolien said:
You have some kind of modem, yes? It should provide some sort of stats on your connection. Those are useful...
Click to expand...

Indeed. Try http://192.168.1.1 http://192.168.0.1 and http://192.168.1.254 - one of those will likely lead you to your modem/router's config page showing your connection stats. It's a block of text containing figures such as downstream/upstream connection speed (in kbps), SNR (or Signal or Noise), Attenuation and so on. Like this:

Code: 
[B]Statistics[/B] [B]
Downstream[/B] [B]Upstream[/B]
[B]Line Rate[/B] 20703 Kbps 1023 Kbps
[B]Noise Margin[/B] 3.1 dB 7.0 dB
[B]Line Attenuation[/B] 22.5 dB 11.1 dB
[B]Output Power[/B] 1.6 dBm 12.8 dBm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom