Help choosing broadband

[MKFM]

Hey there,

I posted here on another account a long time ago and got good advice so I've come back :)

At the moment, I'm getting TV, phone and broadband from Sky. My contract's up soon and I'll be moving into a new house with two other housemates. The new house we're in doesn't have a BT phoneline or a Sky dish, so our only choice is cable. The previous tenants had cable, too, and they left all of their equipment (except I think they took the modem/router).

We've decided we don't really want the telly or the phone in the new house, so having to go with cable isn't so bad as it means we don't need a phone line (we're in a cabled area).

Couple of questions:

There's going to be three of us streaming and downloading TV, music and movies online, possibly all at once. Do you reckon the L 10MB service will do for us or should we get the XL 30MB one?

When I add the broadband to my basket, it says I have to pay a one-off fee of £40. What's this for? If it's for installation, it's an awful lot and we know the house is set up for cable already. Do you reckon I could get them to waive this cost? I'm not gonna order online, I reckon I'll go into a Virgin Media store when I'm in town tomorrow so I'll be able to chat to the sales people a bit.

Everything we plan to connect is wireless N enabled, except one of the others' laptops. How does the superhub handle this? Do we all have to use the slower wireless speed because of his laptop?

Cheers,
Michael :)

[Sleeper919]

Three heavy internet users? I'd say go for the faster broadband option.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Think of the £40 fee as more of an adminstration / setup cost. Even if the cables are there it will include the supply of the modem stuff.

If you don't take the virgin media phone line your monthly broadband costs will be a bit higher.

the 10meg service is only suited to light users doing a bit of browsing and email.. Once you get a couple of you trying to stream stuff the 30 meg will be better, but wathc out for the STM stuff during peak hours.

[MKFM]

Thanks for the responses!

I guess, but £40 is more than a month's service on the XL package. It just seems a little steep. Sky installed our dish and provided all of the kit, including the router, for free. I'm gonna see if there's any way around it tomorrow in store :/

[bigsinky]

just blow yer balls off and have the 100Mbit installed. you know you want to ;)

[jb66]

I'd get the 50 through quidco.com

[adzii_nufc]

Suprised nobody has said this.

Give Virgin a ring and get through to a salesman, Since your a new customer he chance to knock off the installation price and give you discounts for a certain period as an introductory offer.

< I just got free installation on 100mb and £23 knocked off the monthly cost.

[dibbz]

3 x heavy users = possibly constantly capped!!!

just remember to download your tv shows etc outside the monitored times then you wont get capped...and in the "peak" periods - use that for viewing your shows or surfing!!

[Never say never]

just blow yer balls off and have the 100Mbit installed. you know you want to ;)

Depends what he wants to use it for, look at your ping on 100Mb its 47ms thats BAD. I find my VM connection is not as good as my ADSL connection for online gaming.

Heres my 50Mb results and my ping is usually 10 or 11ms.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/39.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

Infact my ping to Dublin from the middle of England is better than yours.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2011/07/40.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[MKFM]

Lol cheers guys. I went in store today and pretty much said "I want your broadband but I'm not paying your install fee" and he was happy to help. We're going with the XL package, and he gave us a free phone line.

@bigsinky LOL I'd never leave the house!

@dibbz I think the limit during peak time is like 10GB for XL customers? I don't reckon we'll go over that. I am gonna tell the others though to do most of the downloading overnight though.

@Never say never We have a 360 and we will be playing online sometimes, hopefully it'll be alright :/.

Does anyone know anything about how the Superhub handles non-wireless-N devices? The only thing I really know about wireless-N is that it's faster, which is cool, but my friend was saying that some routers will default to the slower G standard unless all devices are N capable. I hope that's not the case with the Superhub :(.

[dibbz]

@dibbz I think the limit during peak time is like 10GB for XL customers? I don't reckon we'll go over that. I am gonna tell the others though to do most of the downloading overnight though.


look here:

http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html

[MKFM]

Cheers. It's...

10am to 3pm - 10000MB.
4pm to 9pm - 5000MB.

Yeah, it's likely we'll hit that evening one at times. Right now I'm downloading a game (slowly :|) on the 360 and it's like 5.4GB. Gutted.

[Never say never]

@Never say never We have a 360 and we will be playing online sometimes, hopefully it'll be alright :/.



If you have a 360 please don't look HERE (http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Gaming/bd-p/Gaming)

An if you play any of the call of duty games or Halo reach//////oH DEAR LOL. I play HALO REACH and on my 50mb VM CONNECTION IT ACTUALLY GIVES ME A BANDWIDTH WARNING LOL............Runs ok on my ADSL connection though.

I can and will provide pictures if ness.

[MKFM]

Aw man, I'm glad I don't play regularly. My dad plays XBL including Halo reach at home and he's never had any problems. Maybe he's just lucky. LOL this is sorta unrelated but a couple of months ago my dad called VM because our cable box was broken. They fitted another one and they also discovered that we were paying for XL broadband but only getting L speed because of something to do with the box at the end of the road. We upgraded a couple of years ago. Maybe he's not one of the lucky ones after all...

---------- Post added at 19:24 ---------- Previous post was at 19:20 ----------

We moderate the total volume of file sharing traffic on our network between 5pm and midnight on weekdays and midday and midnight on weekends. This policy, which applies to all broadband packages, is restricted to Peer to Peer ("P2P") applications and Newsgroups (which are commonly used to distribute large amounts of data)

What does this mean? Moderate how?

[Never say never]

Aw man, I'm glad I don't play regularly. My dad plays XBL including Halo reach at home and he's never had any problems. Maybe he's just lucky. LOL this is sorta unrelated but a couple of months ago my dad called VM because our cable box was broken. They fitted another one and they also discovered that we were paying for XL broadband but only getting L speed because of something to do with the box at the end of the road. We upgraded a couple of years ago. Maybe he's not one of the lucky ones after all...

---------- Post added at 19:24 ---------- Previous post was at 19:20 ----------



What does this mean? Moderate how?

It means whatever package you're on P2P will be crippled between the times stated. But in my opinion thats a good thing.

A lot of P2P users are filthy low life **** who steal films and music but don't have the guts to steal it from a shop. But they would if given the chance.

The sooner one of these pieces of filth is made an example of in the courts the better.

[MKFM]

I see, not gonna deny it... I P2P movies so I'm a bit disappointed. I buy movies on DVD or blu-ray, then I download a copy if I can find one. My new laptop doesn't have an optical drive so I can't play DVDs on it when I'm on the road or visiting my parents, so I download a copy. Plus, I can't watch them on my phone either.

I don't really consider this to be piracy. If I bought a CD and ripped the tracks to my computer, that wouldn't be piracy. So I guess if I buy a DVD and rip it to my computer, that's not piracy either. Ripping DVDs on my laptop takes a long time, it's quicker to download them. Sometimes DVDs include a digital download copy, but I've found these to be pointless as you have to install a program to even open them, plus you can only use transfer them to an iPod or iPhone. I have neither.

I have a music subscription, so I never pirate music.

[Jelly]

It means whatever package you're on P2P will be crippled between the times stated. But in my opinion thats a good thing.

A lot of P2P users are filthy low life **** who steal films and music but don't have the guts to steal it from a shop. But they would if given the chance.

The sooner one of these pieces of filth is made an example of in the courts the better.

lol

[New to cable]

I see, not gonna deny it... I P2P movies so I'm a bit disappointed. I buy movies on DVD or blu-ray, then I download a copy if I can find one. My new laptop doesn't have an optical drive so I can't play DVDs on it when I'm on the road or visiting my parents, so I download a copy. Plus, I can't watch them on my phone either.

I don't really consider this to be piracy. If I bought a CD and ripped the tracks to my computer, that wouldn't be piracy. So I guess if I buy a DVD and rip it to my computer, that's not piracy either. Ripping DVDs on my laptop takes a long time, it's quicker to download them. Sometimes DVDs include a digital download copy, but I've found these to be pointless as you have to install a program to even open them, plus you can only use transfer them to an iPod or iPhone. I have neither.

I have a music subscription, so I never pirate music.

So because I own a legal digital copy of a movie does that mean I'm entitled to steal a hard copy from a shop? You're just a thief and one day you or one of your buddys will be up in a UK COURT CRYING YOUR EYES OUT.

[martyh]

I see, not gonna deny it... I P2P movies so I'm a bit disappointed. I buy movies on DVD or blu-ray, then I download a copy if I can find one. My new laptop doesn't have an optical drive so I can't play DVDs on it when I'm on the road or visiting my parents, so I download a copy. Plus, I can't watch them on my phone either.

I don't really consider this to be piracy. If I bought a CD and ripped the tracks to my computer, that wouldn't be piracy. So I guess if I buy a DVD and rip it to my computer, that's not piracy either. Ripping DVDs on my laptop takes a long time, it's quicker to download them. Sometimes DVDs include a digital download copy, but I've found these to be pointless as you have to install a program to even open them, plus you can only use transfer them to an iPod or iPhone. I have neither.

I have a music subscription, so I never pirate music.

actually when i was on 50mg(untill 2 weeks a go) with VM i never had a problem with P2P

[Hugh]

Topic?

I am sure there was one around here somewhere.....

[jb66]

http://www.atb-bargains.co.uk/ekmps/shops/atbbargains/images/mars-topic-58g.-2523-p.jpg

Found it

[Sleeper919]

I wish they made larger topics.

[MKFM]

@New to cable That's different and you know it. If you buy a poster of a famous painting, you're not entitled to steal the real thing. However, if you purchase the painting then you'd be able to make poster copies if you wish. Bottom line is, I paid for the movie and I'll consume it how I wish.

Back on topic now, got a call from the guy in the store today who said our installation date is next Tuesday. Yay. Unfortunately our internet with Sky is being cut off on Friday. I got an email asking me to set up my online account too, so I did that. The only package I have so far is phone M, I guess that must be the free line rental he told me about.