Hi everyone, I don't know am I posting in the right place. Anyway, I recently fed up with my current ISP - BE (bethere.co.uk), and wanted to change to another one, but not sure which 1 is good. I am currently paying BE for 18.xx pounds a month for the speed of "24mbps", but the actual speed I get is only 5.xxmbps, couple of years ago I still get at least 8.xxmbps, so I went through some serious of complaints to them, but they keep repeating themselves and ask me to use the modem they provided which im always connected with their modem all the time, but they keep saying im using the third party modem; speed tests on speedtest.net, but I have shown them million times already; connect only 1 pc with ethernet cable, and I did that most of time. They took 2 weeks in total and nothing is done, still saying 5.xxmbps is normal for what I should get, and tell me to connect only 1 pc through ethernet to their modem over and over again and again. Thats the story ended, and I don't want to get in touch with them anymore, so I decide to switch to another better ISP, but I would like to have some advice! I'm currently thinking to join Virgin Media 30mbps optic broadband, but wanted to know are there anyone using it right now? Are they good? Do they really offer "true unlimited" usage? Do I really get 20-30mbps speed ? Is the broadband stable (like if someone calls in, will the connection drop)? Do they monitor very single activity on your connection like the horrible BT and get me banned? Is Virgin optic good for online gaming (e.g. Battlefield, Modern Warfare, Crysis 2 etc)? THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME ! HOPE THERE ARE SOMEONE WHO CAN GET ME OUT FROM HELL AND LIFT ME UP TO HEAVEN OF FREEDOM AND FAST INTERNET WORLD! (what am I saying? )
I would advise against Virgin - they have a very unfair bandwidth policy and slash your bandwidth by 75% at certain times of the day /after downloading a certain amount (for me, 3GB). I'm not aware of any ISP that offers "true unlimited" usage - as somebody pointed out to me in my recent thread about Virgin broadband, only a dedicated line will give you that.
I had Virgin, and it was horrible. 90% of the time it wasn't working, when it did work it was slow as hell. I was paying for 20mbps, but only got around 3-4through. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone after having it. I switched from that to BT's infinity package, and I've been plain sailing since get 54mbps instead now, and not once has it gone off or been slowed to less than 50mbps. I'm also in Leeds to give you an idea of the speeds you get here from Virgin compared to BT.
When I was on Virgin 50 meg, I always got at least 48 meg and at that time, it was truly unlimited with no caps or restrictions since it was the top package, not sure if that's changed since 100 meg is now available. There's bound to be some sort of restriction on the 30 meg product, best to check their traffic management pages, they like to put restrictions on the cheaper products to push people on to the top packages. As for monitoring, what were you doing with your BT connection that got you banned??? Looks like now the 50 meg is restricted slighty, upload only though. A quick look shows that they restrict P2P stuff at peak times on all packages however the 100 meg does have proper unlimited bandwidth no matter what the naysayers say. I never had any problems while I had it, constant 45-50 meg with no dropouts that I can remember. Wish the flat I moved into had cable...
Sky offer proper unlimited to people who's exchange has Sky/Easynet LLU. Are you sure that was cable and not ADSL? It sounds like ADSL.
Got Virgin at uni, on the 50mb package, pretty pleased with it, all of us (4 in the house) are fairly heavy users, me and a friend constantly upload without any issues, never had it drop (apart from the wireless once or twice)
I've been with Virgin now for the last 10 months on the 50 meg package and never had any problems, and doing a speedtest generally always get the full 50 meg. Before that I was in a non cable enabled area and was with Plusnet and they were very good as well, even though it was only ADSL.
No your not. You are paying BE for a rate adaptive service that will operate at the maximum speed based on the length of your phone line and the signal to noise ratio which it provides, you are not in anyway paying for an unlimited 24Mbps service from them. There is no home provider which will offer you a truly unlimted service in the £20-£30 price range regardless of what their claims are in their adverts, even Sky whom keep shouting about their LLU being unlimited run into issues as they simply do not have enough bandwidth in the back haul to provide every single user on their service with full speed 24x7. If everyone is using the net on your exchange/node you will get slow down, end of. The only true way to get a truly unlimited service is to get a leased line, a 2Mbps fixed line which can burst to 10Mbps when no-one else is using the service will cost you around £1000+VAT per month: http://clueless.aa.net.uk/etherquote.cgi Now, if you want to be a little more experience and stop expecting a guaranteed '20-30mbps speed' for the sort of money you are willing to pay here are a few options: 1. Virgin - However the service you get will vary from area to area and depends on how over subscribed their service is, as again they only have so much 'speed' in their back haul to share between users, and when everyone is using it everyone is slowed down. 2. AAISP - Expensive, but probably the best ADSL provider out there. 3. Zen - Also expensive as this is a business service. The benefit of AAISP is they have stated several times, they will ignore all rules regarding traffic monitoring and will fight everything in court to allow users to have a un-monitored service.
Q: I'm currently thinking to join Virgin Media 30mbps optic broadband, but wanted to know are there anyone using it right now? Are they good? A: Yes, I'm on their 30mbit service and it's been working flawlessly for me. Having said that, from what people say on forums the quality of service depends on what area you're in as their network is built from the networks of the old cable companies, and these vary a bit in quality. Different areas are also more over-subscribed than others, which affects bandwidth. For me on the Stretford UBR, there's been next to no issues in our broadband line since mid-2002 (back when this was a 512k line!). Q: Do they really offer "true unlimited" usage? A: Not in the truest sense of the word - they have a peak time traffic management policy that slows you down by 75% if you go over the limit during the peak hours. In practice, I don't ever hit the limit with normal usage. As long as you schedule your big downloads outside these hours, you'll be fine (and even if you're throttled, you still have 8Mbit of bandwidth for 5 hours). When it comes to monthly data usage, they really don't care - I've once downloaded about 1.5TB in a month, and they didn't even bat an eyelid. Q: Do I really get 20-30mbps speed? A: Yes - in fact I consistently get 32-33Mbit since the peak data rate is actually higher than the advertised rate. Afaik, VM 30mbit broadband is the only service where this is the case! Q: Is the broadband stable (like if someone calls in, will the connection drop)? A: Cable is a completely different technology from DSL, so this scenario shouldn't even occur. In practice, the connection overall has been completely stable for me. Q: Do they monitor very single activity on your connection like the horrible BT and get me banned? A: In theory, they're supposed to be monitoring and sending out letters to naughty people. In practice, they've not banned me or warned me for anything in the last 10 years. Q: Is Virgin optic good for online gaming (e.g. Battlefield, Modern Warfare, Crysis 2 etc)? A: I play TF2 and get a very good connection on my servers. Typical ping is usually 15-20ms, worst probably being in the mid-30s. Not had any issues with lag on my side at all.
I'm with Be and get 4mb max on the 8mb package, I easily cope with this as in the several years with them I have never been contacted once for usage abuse but I do try to spread out certain activities over the month. Used to have a Zen line once, was reliable and they tell you your limit and give you the tools to monitor so you can calm down your usage if needed and can even buy more, but as stated they charged a premium rate (i used to work for them so got a free line) I used to be with NTL (pre virgin) and had eractic speeds due to my usage, I can only imagine its worse from what I hear The only truely reliable speeds are Fibre optics but due to those speeds they'll punish people who use the bandwidth. Weigh up the options of a faster connection or better download limits, for me Be have never hassled me so I live downloaders running and it'll be done, I just remember the 512k days and appreciate what I got
I'm with Sky and they are pretty much flawless except for 2 days back in October where I could only get on certain sites. Unlimited bandwidth and I get a healthy 8-10mbps. Cheap too. Can't complain.
I've no experience with Virgin Media. I have been with Orange for ages. Excellent service. I've probably has 2 days of super-slow connection (0.4Mb/s) in 5 years, the rest of the time I get full speed. Sadly my full speed is only about 2.5-3 Mb/s as I live in a rural spot, miles form the exchange. I pay £18 for 'unlimited' bandwidth. I know i could get cheaper, but am reluctant to change after hearing lots of poor technical customer service reports.
Sky LLU is unlimited, they do not traffic shape of limit your service based on download volumes. Obviously the more users on the service, on a single exchange, can and may impact download speed, however I haven't noticed any degradation. I was previously with BE and very happy with them, however you have to consider the distance you are from the exchange, not just as the crow flies but the actual copper wire length - moving to another LLU provider won't make much difference with download speed.
Virgin in my area 90% of the time is cracking and I get my advertised speed however when something goes wrong they are the worst company to deal with and I feel don't give a crap! The only way I got a positive response was when I made a complain on their Facebook page!
BE is superb in terms of 'unlimited' - they never, ever, ever, send you anything about the amount of data you use. However, they're limited by the technology of ADSL2+, namely that they can't deliver 24mbps unless you live next to the exchange (I did in Oxford, and got 24.3mbps every single day), so your speed will inevitably be lower. However, they'll let you max out the line, whatever your real world speed, 24/7. The other fly in the ointment is other users, as the contention ratio rises - again, it's a problem with the very nature of ADSL.
My parents are with be and it's one of the best for adsl. As for VM it's fast and stable, though can go down from time to time. Be aware that it's only truely unlimited after 9pm. If you go over 1.5gb they slash your speed 75% for 5 hours. However if you splash out for the fastest package it is unlimited at all times.
I'm on the VM 30MB connection, so far it has been excellent, though I did encounter the capping service after redownloading my entire steam collection of a few hundred GB, even after being capped it still seemed reasonably decent. A couple of months in I had a minor problem with the billing (they took out ~£80 instead of £50) a free month's broadband as well as refunding to the correct amount! As for speed and ping, I get around 33mbps down and 3.5 up, with a ping over ~35 (I am over wifi though). The only thing I dislike is their router, though it is gradually improving via firmware updates
I'm on virgin's 10mb service. very happy with it, I get the very occasional slow-down, but it's still useable. Usually it's at the 10mb down. Only time I've really seen it slow down was downloading both the latest bf3 and the bad company 2 patches (~3gb each) at the same time. They took a while longer -which was annoying as a group of people at work had aranged to paly bc2 that night. However I've got a number of games from steam and never been shaped because of that. I've also found phoning them so so much easier than sky who have constantly messed me about.
