bethere or o2? fastpath?

ojste

ojste

ojste

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so i am thinking of switching to bethere or o2 as i have heard great things about both. I've did a few searches on here and google and gathered that they are pretty much the same but as it stands o2 would be the much cheaper option for me as im on o2 mobile contract as well (£7.50 pm vs. £14 pm).

they are both pretty cheap regardless and my main concern is with this fastpath i've heard of... i read that you can ask them to do this for you and you will get lower pings in game (this is important to me), faster d/l speeds etc. i've also heard that o2 don't let you do this whereas bethere does? just wondering if anyone can shed some light on this and explain it a little more to me in simple terms :p and also whether it actually makes a big difference.

also general opinions on either company would be great :)
 
From what I've read on the matter O2 now allow you to change to fastpath as well, just not all of their staff know about/have been trained on it yet.
 
Indeed /re o2 and fastpath - DDave is correct.

Keep in mind that if you've got a bad quality phone line then fastpath might not be suitable for you (or at least not without a large speed or stability hit).
 
cheers guys, i think ill ring up o2 later and see whether they think my line will be suitable for it :)
 
As DDave said, you might find it hard to get suitable advice from o2. If you can post your current line stats and sync speed we can probably give you a reasonable estimate.
 
i have no idea how to do that :D

is it easy to do, is there a quick faq somewhere? edit - i think i found it, is there any particular info i should leave out or is it safe to post all of it up?

also does anyone know if o2/bethere cap speeds at peak times? this is the main reason im switching from BT as they are terrible for it!
 
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There are no caps/fups/etc at all on o2/Be LLU products.

What router do you have currently? I'm sure someone on here will be able to post on how to get the details.

What we need is:

Attenuation
SNR
Sync speed
 
i cant find those exact headings but heres the info:

lstats.jpg


is that right?
 
Yeah...

Though sadly with that kind of attenuation you're not ever going to get amazing speeds. I wouldn't expect to gain more than a few mbit when you switch to o2/Be.
 
id be happy with any increase however small, my main concern is getting not being capped at peak times. my BT 2mb connection turns to 512k at peak times which is just not on! :(
 
Ah, you won't need to worry about that. It's rare to see congestion even on o2/Be and they generally sort it out very quickly if it does occur. As state, you'll not be under any download limits/etc either - people have quoted regular download figures way in excess of 500GB/month without any issues.
 
Not getting capped/throttled makes all the difference, a lot of people seem to be swayed by max speed and forget that even if you line isnt fantastic, getting a solid reliable 24/7 speed is worth much more than a high top speed that gets slowed down on a regular basis.

If you call them up they will test your line and give you a good estimate of what to expect.
 
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mattyfez said:
Not getting capped/throttled makes all the difference, a lot of people seem to be swayed by max speed and forget that even if you line isnt fantastic, getting a solid reliable 24/7 speed is worth much more than a high top speed that gets slowed down on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

True enough...

I'd always go for the top speed my line supports, and choose an ISP that allows me to use that how I want. I was merely advising the OP that his highest speed won't be that great as people often expect a huge increase when moving to adsl2+ products.
 
Oh yeh, im not dissagreeing with you.
not a great line, granted but I think he will see a big improvement in raw speed, not only that but it will be constant, so its win/win really.

Fast path is not always suitable as it can make the connection unstable if the lines not that good, but thats niether here nor there really...his best bet is to ring them and get them to a line test, they are generally a little conservative about what they quote so there shouldnt be any disapointment.
 
Just got my MAC Key from Plusnet and ordered Be Ultimate last night, I've never heard of Fastpath before, so do you guys think it'd be worth asking them about it? Here's the line stats from my router, but I think Be are sending me a new router too, if that makes any difference.

linestats.png
 
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