[Merged] 8Mb ADSL

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

<snip>


It's clearly stated on UK Online's site that you may not get the full 8Mbps, but you should get a minimum of 2Mbps. The majority will get between 6 and 8Mbps though.

So, would you be happy then if you could only get 2Mbps for the same money as someone a couple of yards closer to the exchange getting 6 or 8?

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by orangebird

So, would you be happy then if you could only get 2Mbps for the same money as someone a couple of yards closer to the exchange getting 6 or 8?

Maybe not, but then if you lived in an area where BT will only give you 512kbps, you'd be quite happy to pay £40 to get 2Mbps (in fact I'm paying £40 for 2Mbps, though that is uncapped ).

[slowcoach]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

Maybe not, but then if you lived in an area where BT will only give you 512kbps, you'd be quite happy to pay £40 to get 2Mbps (in fact I'm paying £40 for 2Mbps, though that is uncapped ).

But I can't get 2Mbps in fact I couldn't even get 1Mbps, just because someone else is sending me the signal doesn't alter the fact that my line is bad, but then I wouldn't know this if I hadn't tried to upgrade to 1Mbps and I would be thinking that I am in line for 8Mbps, a lot of people will be thinking this after reading the announcement, and most will be disappointed. It's one thing for people with high speed ADSL to sing it's praises but they are always going to be in a minority until a system is invented which can travel over lines irrespective of their condition or until more local exchanges are built to cut down the line distances.

I wouldn't have moved from ADSL if I could have been sure that I wouldn't be stuck at 512Kbps for the rest of my life, having made the move to Cable I know I made the right choice every time I use the phone and can actually hear what the other party is saying, I just have to get into the habit of not having to shout down the phone anymore, the 3x, soon to be 6x faster BB speed is a bonus.
I'm just glad I at least had the choice of Cable available to me and I really feel for those people who live outside a Cable area.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

No, just a progression of technology. This 8Mbps service has nothing to do with BT, being LLU, and they can offer speeds that the technology can actually cope with. If the length of the line is too long it's reduced to 6, 4 or 2Mbps, but you're guaranteed 2Mbps. If anything UK Online are competing with the likes of Bullldog, not the cable companies (who tend to have a monopoly in cabled areas anyway as most people automatically go for cable with the assumption that it must be better). Also, UK Online are not competing with cable in non-cabled areas. Their coverage is far greater than cable can ever reach.

Don't forget that it is the "last mile" that determines what speed you can get and that is provided by BT. If BT can only deliver 512k then it is highly unlikely that any other ISP can deliver much more, if any more. A guaranteed 2Mb would be impossible, LLU or not. Remember too that upload speed is affected by distance. How do you think you would fare with that?

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

I'm just glad I at least had the choice of Cable available to me and I really feel for those people who live outside a Cable area.

Similarly though with those who live in a Cabled area but can't get ADSL for one reason or another. Their only choice is to go with the one cable company or get satellite broadband.

I'm glad I live in an area where I have choice between cable and ADSL. Turns out for me ADSL was the right choice as it works perfectly, whereas my NTL cable never worked right. Being on ADSL I now have choice of ISPs (and that includes NTL even via ADSL, and more so in the future if they do an LLU install at the exchange).

[Gareth]

woot - good news ...even if it's not available here. Competition is a good thing, and can only result in UK Online's competitors being forced to look closely at their offerings to determine whether they are still relevant.

[Gareth]

Oh, and is anyone currently living in Bath or Bristol prepared to house-swap for my nice little place in Swindon...?

[Regalrip]

Was Hugely excited about the 8Mbits line. Contacted Ukonline and found out I was in the Exchange Area. WHOOOHA.

BUT then

I noted after allot of emails to the Support team.

"8Mbps is the maximum download speed - although this depends on how far you are from the exchange and our contention ratio."

Now we all know that, But That’s not all

"However we run port-blocking on all of our broadband services in order to maintain quality of service for all of our customers, so you will not be able to run a mail or web server. We block ports 25, 80, 8080 and 3128."

What’s the use of having 8Mbps and they block all the ports!!!!!!

You however wont find this on the Website. So BEWARE.
__________________

War doesn’t determine who’s right but who’s left.

[TheBlueRaja]

Nothing much wrong with that - they only block ports which are used if you want to run a web server on your machine or a mail server on your machine, which seems acceptable concidering what you get.

You will still be able to run P2P stuff for example.

You dont know how good they are for newsgroup access do you?

Welcome to the site by the way...

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by Regalrip

You however wont find this on the Website. So BEWARE.

It's in their FAQ...

http://support.ukonline.net/support_...band+Questions


Another interesting one from...

http://support.ukonline.net/support_...Broadband+8000

"We advise customers to use the equipment that we supply as we cannot guarantee service levels if you use your own equipment."

[Regalrip]

Thx Kenny , Missed that one.

Thats not on,

"We advise customers to use the equipment that we supply as we cannot guarantee service levels if you use your own equipment."

[mrlipring]

Originally Posted by Regalrip

Thx Kenny , Missed that one.

Thats not on,

"We advise customers to use the equipment that we supply as we cannot guarantee service levels if you use your own equipment."

why's it not on? EVERY company will have that. They don't support hardware they didn't supply. It'll work. You and I know it will work. They just don't want people buying some crappy cheap as chips router, or piecing together a network out of incompatible components, THEN phoning tech support to moan. Literally, every isp will have something similar to that statement. If you're of the inclination to set up a home network with hand-picked components, you should be sensible enough to make sure everything will play together nicely, so for most people there won't be a problem using non-official hardware.

[Stuart C]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

and what was that argument about ADSL taking it's time upgrading speeds?


UKOnline's 8Mbps service comes to my exchange in February (being based on EasyNet's LLU) and the cost will be the same as I pay for PlusNet's 2Mbps

Puts NTL's upgraded speeds to shame.

How long will it take UKOnline to roll out 8Meg nationally? Their advertised speed is fine if you can get it.

BTW, in my area UKOnline is not competitive at all. They can only offer a 1 meg connection. Even the BT broadband checker says I should be able to recieve a 2 Meg connection.

And I live less than half a mile from the exchange (it's actually in the next street, so I would be suprised if the distance on the network was much further).

[DeadKenny]

BT are to trial upgrades on the 2Mbps lines to turn them into 8Mbps lines (and this isn't LLU either!), and they're also begining ADSL2+ trials.

Obviously it is all related to how far you are from the exchange etc, but then that's exactly the same with cable in terms of if you are outside a cable area (i.e. big town or city), you can't get cable, end of story. A rural area may get crap ADSL, but it's far better than no cable.

[daxx]

useful post from the wayback machine (search thingy) for finding your physical (down the wires) distance from the exchange http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...3&postcount=85

The thread as a whole still makes interesting reading in the light of the current announcements