I'm with BT, any point in changing, will I get a better service

Soldato
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Well I'm with BT for my broadband, and in the day it can be as slow as 0.80Mb, past midnight it will let me have 7Mb download, have been in contact with BT's technical department and they claim to be trying to fix it if they can find a problem, me personaly I think it is down to congestion at the exchange I'm on but BT will not admit to it, they have agreed I can end my contract with them with no penalties.

So if I do move to another supplier, could that solve the congestion or is that not going to happen?

I am unclear on this area with broadband if it is possible as to me it will still be going through the exact same line, and the congestion will still be there.

I was thinking of moving to Xilo, as the 50GB home package should do me fine

The exchange I'm on is BT Whosale only, market 1

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SLAF
 
Hyperst, I will be in exactly the same situation as you are in a couple of weeks. Sadly, though, my speeds will be crappy both days and nights on the Wingham exchange.

I was under the impression that you could only get guaranteed better speeds if there were LLU's available. However, in Market 1, there are none. My understanding is that you can shift ISP but they will then use exactly the same line/equipment as BT. The difference is only how they handle the congestion/speed/allowance/priority.

Some ISPs have slogans such as 'no caps', 'always maximum speeds' etc. But, as stated in the OP, if BT say they can't find a problem, what guarantee is there that there will be better speeds with a shift of ISP?

Yes, you will see better performance if you change.



Check out Zen and IDNet.

What, exactly, is it that they do differently? Statements such as these are hardly helpful unless a reason is given.

Will be following this thread. Hope something good comes out of it :)

EDIT: Just for comparison: hyperst, can you report back what you get when you test this? http://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html
 
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Do you know what speed the router is connecting at? Can you post the stats?
yeah it connects good, never ever changed

bt.png

Hyperst, I will be in exactly the same situation as you are in a couple of weeks. Sadly, though, my speeds will be crappy both days and nights on the Wingham exchange.

I was under the impression that you could only get guaranteed better speeds if there were LLU's available. However, in Market 1, there are none. My understanding is that you can shift ISP but they will then use exactly the same line/equipment as BT. The difference is only how they handle the congestion/speed/allowance/priority.

Some ISPs have slogans such as 'no caps', 'always maximum speeds' etc. But, as stated in the OP, if BT say they can't find a problem, what guarantee is there that there will be better speeds with a shift of ISP?



What, exactly, is it that they do differently? Statements such as these are hardly helpful unless a reason is given.

Will be following this thread. Hope something good comes out of it :)

EDIT: Just for comparison: hyperst, can you report back what you get when you test this? http://www.btwholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html

thats what I am wondering, how can they be any better? heres what that link says, couldn't copy the text so have had to snip it

bbc2.png
 
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Sounds like an ISP change will help in this case, as you're connecting fine but it seems BT just can't deliver (congested) or you are being capped.
 
BT are going to offer Optical Broadband this year, just depends when it is to b rolled out in your area.
I am in the process of chabging ISP's and trying to get a decent deal is difficult !
 
What, exactly, is it that they do differently? Statements such as these are hardly helpful unless a reason is given.
In the BT Wholesale environment each ISP buys the amount of bandwidth they require from BT. Some ISPs limit their costs by shaping traffic and reducing speeds at peak times, others will pass on the increased costs to their customers in return for less/no shaping.
 
I am on the unlimited package and rarely use more than around 40GB a month, they say it is not them traffic shaping, the technical department are just giving me the run around I think, they usually give me a few phone calls a week, last one was they had a problem there end and was awaiting the results from the tests they have been carrying out, and I had an engineer call me a couple of days back saying he had found a small fault in the exchange and that he was getting someone to fix it, a test cap or something like that said was faulty, but he said my line was fine and it had tested out fine on the line.
 
Sounds like an ISP change will help in this case, as you're connecting fine but it seems BT just can't deliver (congested) or you are being capped.

In the BT Wholesale environment each ISP buys the amount of bandwidth they require from BT. Some ISPs limit their costs by shaping traffic and reducing speeds at peak times, others will pass on the increased costs to their customers in return for less/no shaping.

So I should go with changing ISP by the sounds of it, I really hope it works as having a ping of 1000 in bfbc2 dosnt let me play, well not till after midnight when things settle down
 
Yup This is good old BT at their best. You have a reasonable line and should do much much better - great shame that the exchnge has not been opened up - obviously it is too small and not economic to excite the interest for LLU. Check out Plusnet - they are owned or were by Bt. However, their service is much better - but then it would be difficult to fine a worse supplier than BT.
 
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TBH I think we all get done over by our ISPs. Im with talktalk and I actually dont have any complaints at all. I dont get capped for the amount I download and I dont get my line limited during the day, in the evening theres some slow down due to presumably congestion but at best only for a couple of hours. Probably worth trying someone else.

Hawker
 
So I should go with changing ISP by the sounds of it, I really hope it works as having a ping of 1000 in bfbc2 dosnt let me play, well not till after midnight when things settle down

I have the same problem just spoke to them for over 1 hour, they took control of my pc and looked at router settings/ports then could not find out what to do.

They gave me another number, which the engineer asked me to pay for the service for them to try and fix it,

I'm not sure what do to peak times the Internet is useless I cannot invite people to games via PSN at peak times or join there private session and BC2 does not work.

How did you manage to convince them to cancel your broadband?
 
Yup This is good old BT at their best. You have a reasonable line and should do much much better - great shame that the exchnge has not been opened up - obvoiuse it is too small and not economic to excite the interest for LLU. Check out Plusnet - they are owned or were by Bt however their serice is much better - but then it would be difficult to fine a worse supplier than BT

Lucky he even has internet then.
 
What, exactly, is it that they do differently? Statements such as these are hardly helpful unless a reason is given.

BT = Oversold, traffic shaped, long contract etc.
Zen = No shaping, low latency and maximum throughput 24/7.

So I should go with changing ISP by the sounds of it, I really hope it works as having a ping of 1000 in bfbc2 dosnt let me play, well not till after midnight when things settle down

You'll have an awesome ping 24/7 if you make the right choice!

TBH I think we all get done over by our ISPs. Im with talktalk and I actually dont have any complaints at all. I dont get capped for the amount I download and I dont get my line limited during the day, in the evening theres some slow down due to presumably congestion but at best only for a couple of hours. Probably worth trying someone else.
Hawker

TalkTalk = cheap one size fits all ISP. Don't expect anything great during peak times.
 
I have the same problem just spoke to them for over 1 hour, they took control of my pc and looked at router settings/ports then could not find out what to do.

They gave me another number, which the engineer asked me to pay for the service for them to try and fix it,

I'm not sure what do to peak times the Internet is useless I cannot invite people to games via PSN at peak times or join there private session and BC2 does not work.

How did you manage to convince them to cancel your broadband?

complain and complain, I had to do this for three weeks, each time speaking to someone in india who just spouts ''i understand your frustration sir, can you please plug into the test socket''
I gave up and found an email adrress of one of the top BT people and sent him an email of complaint, couple of days pass and I have a english guy talking to me and helping, should say the india people wanted to connect me to the tech part that charges me, I said ''no way, do not do that, this is a problem your end not mine'' she was quite shocked.
The english guy has agreed to let me out of my contract at any time and no charges will be applied to my account and he said if BT do try to charge I was to ring him and he would go and sort it out, top bloke.
BT = Oversold, traffic shaped, long contract etc.
Zen = No shaping, low latency and maximum throughput 24/7.



You'll have an awesome ping 24/7 if you make the right choice!



TalkTalk = cheap one size fits all ISP. Don't expect anything great during peak times.

so I should go with Zen, not to sure, was thinking Xilo, but am open to discussion on who to swap to:)
 
complain and complain, I had to do this for three weeks, each time speaking to someone in india who just spouts ''i understand your frustration sir, can you please plug into the test socket''
I gave up and found an email adrress of one of the top BT people and sent him an email of complaint, couple of days pass and I have a english guy talking to me and helping, should say the india people wanted to connect me to the tech part that charges me, I said ''no way, do not do that, this is a problem your end not mine'' she was quite shocked.
The english guy has agreed to let me out of my contract at any time and no charges will be applied to my account and he said if BT do try to charge I was to ring him and he would go and sort it out, top bloke.

Any chance you could please send me the Email address of that guy to trust mail please. Worth trying Zen out as there only monthly contract if your not happy can easliy leave them
 
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Weird. Everyone seems to be hating on BT, i've never had any problems, get decent pings considering my location and never noticed speed drops (apart from that 2mbps mess a month ago) and really whats a bit of torrent shaping anyway, fire em up at midnight and have everything in half an hour, seems i may be one of the few getting a decent service from them
 
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