o2 or BE for broadband ?

bloodline76 · 9 Jun 2009 at 08:44

smids said:
Mine was activated in 3 days - set it up last week. O2 do interleaving though it's pretty weak. My pings are still quite good - 16ms average over 1min to bbc.co.uk for example. Sky interleaving was much stronger.

What is interleaving and how do i get it turned off as I game more than download?

smids · 9 Jun 2009 at 13:43

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm

Not sure what to do with interleaving on O2. Doesn't really affect me (and I too am a gamer) so I won't bother as I still get decent pings and am able to download at a good rate too.

bloodline76 · 9 Jun 2009 at 17:38

smids said:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/interleaving.htm

Not sure what to do with interleaving on O2. Doesn't really affect me (and I too am a gamer) so I won't bother as I still get decent pings and am able to download at a good rate too.

Mmm adding 20-40ms to the latency would be very bad. What sort of ping do you get on games?

Hopefully i wont notice it too much. Anyone know if this could be turned off if there is a problem?

smids · 9 Jun 2009 at 18:16

bloodline76 said:
Mmm adding 20-40ms to the latency would be very bad. What sort of ping do you get on games?

Hopefully i wont notice it too much. Anyone know if this could be turned off if there is a problem?

Playing CoD4 today was getting me about 45ms ping. This was actually one of the best on the server though, with most people around 60-70 and the best person hovering around 35-40ms. That's a regular UK server I play on.

Not sure if it can be turned off but it would be worthwhile asking considering that their daughter company Be* do have this option. I would have thought the same would be available for O2 customers therefore.

As previously stated though, over a 1 minute period, my ping to bbc.co.uk was only 17ms. According to my router, I think the interleaving is adding 7ms (there was something in the stats called delay with that figure next to it, only on the downstream).

thepharcyde · 9 Jun 2009 at 20:53

My own personal experience I have been with Tiscali for 3 1/2 years. The service has been good vs how much it cost, but recently I could write off my 15 mins COD4 after work, the connection was awful. So I cancelled and got O2 also a customer with my Mobile so 8MB for £7.

With tiscali I used to get 2MB peak time using Speedtest and 6MB off peak.

Just got connected today with O2 and tonight i.e. peak on a 8MB package I'm getting 11.6MB. happy days. Line was taken over my BT Friday, modem arrived yesterday and connected today!! 3 working days.

crinkleshoes · 10 Jun 2009 at 00:06

O2 are doing well for me too... Ordered on the 5th, being connected tomorrow (10th)... 3 working days... very impressive.

I was expecting to wait anything up to 3 weeks (how long it took to migrate to Be at my previous house).

Thomss · 10 Jun 2009 at 12:11

I'm on Be* Unlimited at the moment, but thinking of changing over to 02 PRO to get the free wireless N router.
Has anybody here got that router, is it any good?

I also need a new mobile on a fresh contract so I'll get one on 02 to get the £17.13 a month price. I must say though, Be* have been excellent, very few problems.

Locke · 10 Jun 2009 at 12:16

One thing to notice with o2 is that it takes more than an arm and a leg to get Fastpath on for most people.
If you're lucky then they'll switch you to fastpath straight away or if you're like me then they won't ever do it whatever you try :s although they are helpful in most other ways of adjusting your line speed (Changing noise ratio etc)
Having said that, my pings are quite excellent anyway, they hover around 30 - 35 on most UK servers.

crinkleshoes · 10 Jun 2009 at 12:32

Activated ~ 8-30 this morning... 15mbit/1.3

BT engineer I had round the other day told me not to expect more than about 5 mbit... damn I'm relieved!

Ch3m1c4L · 10 Jun 2009 at 13:46

remember that is during line training, so it may well drop.

"It should also be pointed out that whilst BTw state that applying interleaving shouldn't reduce your line speed, it does reduce the maximum line rate achievable from 8128kbps to 7616kbps due to the additional overhead required for check bytes."

that explains why when i got it turned off when iw as on entanet that my line speed went up and my pings went down....how i miss my previous two houses where i had chosen the net and had max speeds....stupid housemate getting stuck into an 18month!! contract with btgayrubbish @ 3.5mb

crinkleshoes · 10 Jun 2009 at 16:30

Of course, hopefully not though.

Looking at neighbours' connections... they all seem to be on BT ADSLMax with sync rates of ~7700kbps... so when I can get my netgear router back with TeamGT firmware, I'm hoping to tweak the line for more than 15mbit

The really strange thing I had at my old house, was when I first moved in, we were on adslmax with a sync speed of about 5.5mbit (actual throughput was less than 2mbit lol... damn eclipse [shame they were taken over by tiscali])... and yet when we migrated to ADSL2+, I managed to tweak 18mbit out of the connection. I guess the router we used for adslmax was crap.

tolien · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:09

There isn't a training period on Be, other than the usual rate adaption every time it connects.

crinkleshoes said:
eclipse [shame they were taken over by tiscali]).

They weren't. Eclipse was bought by Kingston.

crinkleshoes · 10 Jun 2009 at 17:31

tolien said:
There isn't a training period on Be, other than the usual rate adaption every time it connects.

They weren't. Eclipse was bought by Kingston.

Really? Huh... my bad... well, whomever took them over turned them from the best ISP in the UK to one of the worst... naturally, I assumed it was Tiscali.

Stanman67 · 10 Jun 2009 at 21:53

Also remember both BE and O2 offer cashback via certain websites,not sure if I can mention them but google will help out. I switched from Sky to BE and for the year its only costing me £45 on the lite package. I have to say very good ISP, way way better than Sky or BT

Will_3rd · 11 Jun 2009 at 18:56

Switched to O2 Home Broadband today, getting activated on 19th June can't wait!

Locky · 12 Jun 2009 at 02:52

I'm on an o2 interleaved line I sync arround 10mb/1.35 my ping to uk servers is about 22ms, which I think is very good being interleave is on.

CSA · 12 Jun 2009 at 07:28

Stanman67 said:
Also remember both BE and O2 offer cashback via certain websites,not sure if I can mention them but google will help out. I switched from Sky to BE and for the year its only costing me £45 on the lite package. I have to say very good ISP, way way better than Sky or BT

Stanman67 did you notice any speed difference between the two ISP when you changed ? did you swap sky for a similar o2 package ?

Im on sky max (upto 16mb)

1kiwi · 12 Jun 2009 at 21:20

kylew said:
They're very happy to help out, I just send them webtickets if I want things changing like fast path(interleaving) they get it done pretty quickly.

My last ticket was me asking for a discount and some months free, they actually gave it to me too .

£21.50 a month on Bepro down to £15 a month, and 3 months free.

Best ISP I've been with to date.

Second that - i asked for a discount for Be unlimited and now i'm only paying £12

I have had many different ISP's and these guys are amazing. To date, in two years i have had not one issue and in most cases i have the lowest ping on COD4/CS of around 20ms

Btw - i havn't even bothered activating fastpath ....

BTW CSA - your sig cracks me up lol

CSA · 12 Jun 2009 at 21:49

lol thanks beh*

Im nearly convinced to go back to BE, i was with them for a year and had no problem apart from the initial set up when they charged me 3 times for set up, that was sorted and the service was perfect, and if i can swing a discount too that will be a bonus

bloodline76 · 12 Jun 2009 at 23:03

I switched over to 02 today took less than 4 days to swap which was impressive.

My download speed increased an extra 3mb and my upload went from 100kb to 600-900kb which was nice.

And its only £7.34 which is a bonus.