Monthly usage question and Eclipse Internet opinions

Smithy · 1 May 2006 at 22:55

Does the monthly usage limit include content downloaded while browsing? i.e. images on websites etc. Or is it just data thats directly downloaded like MP3's or Video's etc? Am i likely to hit a limit of 20GB if all i really do is browse and play games (given that i do a hell of a lot of this), also the odd mp3 every now and then, and maybe every month or two a movie?
My contract runs out soon and im looking at Eclipse option 1 or 2, where obviously the only difference is the monthly usage limit (20GB for 14.99 & 30GB for 18.99), now obviously im gonna want to get it as cheap as i can, hence the questions about usage limits.
Also has anyone had any experience with Ecplise, are they any good? Reliability? Thanks in advance.

Burbleflop · 1 May 2006 at 22:59

Data transfer is data transfer, irrespective of if it is a download or surfing traffic.

Phil99 · 1 May 2006 at 23:21

All data transfer is included, both downloads and uploads.

I'm on Option 3 at the moment and speeds are "variable" ...it seems they have something setup poorly with their shaping gear as http is slow but usenet and bittorrent are flying along :confused:

Reliability is generally very good, but if they have a problem they're not the best at updating their status page, though I've never had an outage worth worrying about on my connection.

Smithy · 2 May 2006 at 00:13

ok thanks, and in respect to my question about hitting the monthly limit, any comments? given how i use the net as ive described above.

Mook · 2 May 2006 at 10:36

I've just moved to the Eclipse option 4 package, it all went very smoove. Gone from 2mb to 8mb, this morning i was happily hitting 850k on Newsgroups. Browsing seems fine as well.

smids · 2 May 2006 at 11:45

Smithy said:
ok thanks, and in respect to my question about hitting the monthly limit, any comments? given how i use the net as ive described above.

With just gaming and browsing, I doubt you'd go over 15GB p/m. On a quiet month of downloading, I usually hit about 18 but then again, I do download a fair bit and my average is about 30GB p/m+. If you are worried, go for 30Gb but in all honesty, I doub't you'll need more than 20GB.

tolien · 2 May 2006 at 11:47

Simple answer, go for the 30GB, install DUMeter/PRTG/a crystal ball, and watch your usage for a month (or better still a few months).

Smithy · 2 May 2006 at 11:51

sweet. Did you have to pay anything extra for line upgrading or anything?

http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=broadbandprice_res said:
A connection fee of £47 is payable for new connections and includes a line upgrade to the fastest possible speed available on your line. Pricing includes VAT.

I did a test using my phone number and it estimated that i would get a speed of 6.5Mbps, is the connection fee only necessary if your wanting a line upgrade or is it standard? Thanks again.

tolien · 2 May 2006 at 11:52

Neither, it's if you don't have ADSL already.

Phil99 · 2 May 2006 at 12:09

Also remember the limits are only between 6pm -> Midnight everyday of the month, so you could, in theory, max out the line 18hrs of the day and not even come close to the peak time limit.

ANDARIAL · 2 May 2006 at 20:46

Phil99 said:
Also remember the limits are only between 6pm -> Midnight everyday of the month, so you could, in theory, max out the line 18hrs of the day and not even come close to the peak time limit.

mate is this the `peak hours` they talk about in the fair use policy
me has got the evo 4 option atm and want to find out the `peak hours` so i can adjust the downloads to off peak
bit disapointed atm as well speed is pants,has been for the last few days only getting 50-100 on p2p

synching at 2.9 at this moment has been upto 3.4 but still in the testind period of 10 days ,hope it sorts itself out soon

Phil99 · 2 May 2006 at 21:25

Yeah, peak hours = 6pm -> Midnight every day of the week, usage is unmetered outside these times.

Spudgun · 2 May 2006 at 21:51

speeds are pretty poor on eclipse's network right now, check out ADSLguide forums for more info.

My line syncs at 8meg but my download speeds are in the region of 30-40k a sec. If i use the BT login i get between 4 and 7mbs, so i don't think that this is a contention issue

Spudgun · 2 May 2006 at 22:36

By way of illustration of how bad things are on eclipse at the moment

The speed test has completed on test server speedtester1.nat.bt.com for user ********** and you have downloaded a 1.7Mb file at a speed of 301 kilo bits per second (Kbps), your service bandwidth will have been quoted to you in kilo bits per second.

roughly half of what i would get on a 512k connection

Router is synced at 8128/448 and has been for over 2 weeks

If i login with the BT test login i get

The speed test has completed on test server speedtester1.nat.bt.com for user ******* and you have downloaded a 1.7Mb file at a speed of 6165 kilo bits per second (Kbps), your service bandwidth will have been quoted to you in kilo bits per second.

Just goes to show how bad things are on eclipse right now. Needless to say that i am currently researching my next ISP which will bring to an end 5 years at eclipse for me.

Phil99 · 2 May 2006 at 22:47

Not quite that bad here, but still not acceptable for a 4mbps line:

The speed test has completed on test server speedtester1.nat.bt.com for user and you have downloaded a 1.7Mb file at a speed of

786 kilo bits per second (Kbps)

Wierd thing is usenet will go straight to 430KB/s and will constantly download at that rate (about 3hrs constant earlier today) but http is crawling along. I've also had a day or two of top speeds in anything, so my bets are on a very poor traffic shaping setup they've got at the moment.

Spudgun · 2 May 2006 at 22:54

Yeah, i agree, the traffic shaping does not appear to be doing its job. It should be crippling newsgroup/FTP/P2P traffic but instead the http traffic is reduced to dialup speeds.

norm · 2 May 2006 at 23:10

Everything moving along fine on Eclipse as a Flex500 user.

Smithy · 2 May 2006 at 23:11

well looks like the parents are going for talktalk when the current (Tesco) runs out anyway. Simply because its the cheapest, they dont care about speeds, just what costs less. Which is fair enough, though i had the impression talktalk were... well to put it lightly, ****.

Though i havent done much research on them myself i dont need to, seems to be the general opinion is that they recieve loads of complaints and their customers generaly get very poor speeds.
So my next question; Anyone here on talktalk who can give me an insight into what i should be expecting from this ISP? Apparently its 8 meg bb, even though its supposedly 16x my current connection i expect this isnt what im going to get. Any comments on p2p/torrent speeds?

norm · 2 May 2006 at 23:15

At the very least get them to look at an ISP like Nildram. Low-cost options available and reasonable guarantee of good service.

Phil99 · 2 May 2006 at 23:24

Smithy said:
well looks like the parents are going for talktalk when the current (Tesco) runs out anyway. Simply because its the cheapest, they dont care about speeds, just what costs less. Which is fair enough, though i had the impression talktalk were... well to put it lightly, ****.

Though i havent done much research on them myself i dont need to, seems to be the general opinion is that they recieve loads of complaints and their customers generaly get very poor speeds.
So my next question; Anyone here on talktalk who can give me an insight into what i should be expecting from this ISP? Apparently its 8 meg bb, even though its supposedly 16x my current connection i expect this isnt what im going to get. Any comments on p2p/torrent speeds?

Just point out that it's an 18 month contract so they're stuck with it until November 2007 if they sign up now and that the broadband market is a rapidly changing one.