Sky 900 vs EE 900 vs BT 900

MehulLakhani · 16 Jun 2022 at 13:02

Dear All

About to come to the end of my contract with Virgin, and want to move provider to FTTP, which is now in my area.

I have options with EE, or sky, or BT, all similar prices

Sky seem to suggest that on their 900 gigafast product, they have slower upload speeds than BT ?

Should I just go with the cheapest, are they all the same product, or are there technical differences in terms of speed/latency ?

R

Mehul

andy_mk3 · 16 Jun 2022 at 13:05

I'm with Sky 500mb. I and many other have had a lot of issues with using a VPN causing all sorts of issues, so I would avoid if you use VPN.

BUDFORCE · 16 Jun 2022 at 13:16

Can't get Zen?

Also do you really need 900? We went 500 and I'd say even that is overkill.

I downloaded a 70gb game on Steam in 20 minutes.

MehulLakhani · 16 Jun 2022 at 13:17

BUDFORCE said:
Can't get Zen?

Also do you really need 900? We went 500 and I'd say even that is overkill.

I downloaded a 70gb game on Steam in 20 minutes.

Hiya
So its basically for my work, I need the best upload speed I can. Thats why I am looking at the 900 products. Will look at Zen, thank you
Mehul

ChrisD. · 16 Jun 2022 at 13:53

Go with the cheapest. If it's for work and you could make use of a static IP then look at Zen.

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:03

BT will be the best for you if cost isn't the main factor imo.

ChrisD. · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:06

0007 said:
BT will be the best for you if cost isn't the main factor imo.

Based on what?

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:10

ChrisD. said:
Based on what?

Their peering, the fact that you get a 4G Backup if the net goes down for whatever reason, speed guarantee aswell.

Cuckoo is also probably a good option, they use TalkTalk Business for their network, so you're getting access to that without all the headache of having a business line.
And there's also no contract so you can leave at any time...

ChrisD. · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:30

0007 said:
Their peering, the fact that you get a 4G Backup if the net goes down for whatever reason, speed guarantee aswell.

Fair point about the backup, but most people have mobile phones they can use as a hotspot and the switchover speed isn't all that fast. Also, EE are BT, and can work out cheaper if you're an EE mobile customer.

Cuckoo by default use CGNAT which can be extremely problematic.

To request a static IP address, use this page:

Can I get a static IP address? | Cuckoo Help

help.cuckoo.co

But the link doesn't work. Great start. :cry:

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:38

ChrisD. said:
Cuckoo by default use CGNAT which can be extremely problematic.

Yeah by default they do, but if anyone is going to have problems with that they can just get a static IP for £1/mo.
https://help.cuckoo.co/en/articles/6155967-can-i-get-a-static-ip-address

Dianbobo · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:40

Haha I’m on cuckoo gigabit, it’s been fine but I hope I never need to use any support, the website is a mess :cry:

ChrisD. · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:41

0007 said:
Yeah by default they do, but if anyone is going to have problems with that they can just get a static IP for £1/mo.
https://help.cuckoo.co/en/articles/6155967-can-i-get-a-static-ip-address

With a link that takes you to a generic contact us page, and not a form as suggested.

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:43

ChrisD. said:
With a link that takes you to a generic contact us page, and not a form as suggested.

Weird I clicked it on an incognito tab and it worked, you can just go on there and search 'Can I get a static IP address?', and the same article should pop up.

ChrisD. · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:47

0007 said:
Weird I clicked it on an incognito tab and it worked, you can just go on there and search 'Can I get a static IP address?', and the same article should pop up.

I mean the link on the static IP page. £1 a month is also a bit much in order to circumvent CGNAT, that soon mounts up. Not everyone needs a static IP address so for a normal user to have to shell out to get around the well documented CGNAT issues that many see means it's not really an ISP I could recommend.

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 14:56

ChrisD. said:
I mean the link on the static IP page.

Ah right I see what you mean.

ChrisD. said:
£1 a month is also a bit much in order to circumvent CGNAT, that soon mounts up. Not everyone needs a static IP address so for a normal user to have to shell out to get around the well documented CGNAT issues that many see means it's not really an ISP I could recommend.

Yeah I do think they should just hand out IP's to everyone, it's a small cost for them which can cause complaints etc, especially with customers who aren't aware.
But at the same time I imagine they've already done that risk assessment, and they've seen that most customers won't really have issues with this hence why they have CGNAT defaulted?

Anyway if you know or are made aware that CGNAT is going to be a issue for you, you simply pay the extra £1/mo and then you're set.

MehulLakhani · 16 Jun 2022 at 16:27

0007 said:
Their peering, the fact that you get a 4G Backup if the net goes down for whatever reason, speed guarantee aswell.

Cuckoo is also probably a good option, they use TalkTalk Business for their network, so you're getting access to that without all the headache of having a business line.
And there's also no contract so you can leave at any time...

By peering etc, do BT provider better latency/router etc - for somereason, on the same openreach product, BT are advertising higher speeds for DL and UL ?

Caged · 16 Jun 2022 at 16:43

The rate they can advertise is based on the averages being achieved by their users. A larger ISP with more people on the top tier product and routers that have software in them to monitor the speeds that the service is running at will have the data to back their claims up. There's no difference in the speeds that the services are provisioned at.

0007 said:
Yeah I do think they should just hand out IP's to everyone, it's a small cost for them which can cause complaints etc, especially with customers who aren't aware.

ISPs don't buy CGNAT boxes for fun, they do it because they do not have enough IPv4 addresses for the user base. Anybody who doesn't play games or host services will not be impacted by CGNAT as things like Zoom, Teams etc. will all work around it. £1/month for an IP address is, if anything, below the market rate when compared with other ISPs that charge.

Turn · 16 Jun 2022 at 19:44

Caged said:
ISPs don't buy CGNAT boxes for fun, they do it because they do not have enough IPv4 addresses for the user base.

Yeah, definitely, that's why they cost a decent amount vs /48 blocks that are handed out to each customer on IPv6 nowadays.

Caged said:
Anybody who doesn't play games or host services will not be impacted by CGNAT as things like Zoom, Teams etc. will all work around it.

Yeah that was my point really, most people probably not affected by it, so they went with having CGNAT as default.
Then if someone needs it they can optionally pay the extra for it, I don't really see a massive issue with it, my point really was that I can imagine some confused customers wondering why their port forwards are not working.

Caged · 16 Jun 2022 at 21:03

I think it definitely needs to be regulated so that ISPs have to inform customers that they are buying a CGNAT connection, with a link to a page explaining the potential downfalls and the pricing to opt-out if available - imagine if you were sold a connection that could only support HTTP and HTTPS because it reverse proxied everything? It would work for the most part but it's not what anybody could define as an Internet connection.

If you're going to run CGNAT for IPv4 I really think it's inexcusable to not then have a working IPv6 deployment.