The Hawk
@btcentralplus.com
| [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area Hi, I'm considering moving from our current BT provision to BE Broadband. Our max DL was 8MB when we signed up with BT probably close to 18 months ago now and we only get 2MB. No surprise there I hear some of you say. We're barely a mile from the local exchange here in Altrincham, which I understand was upgraded in preparation for the forthcoming 'up to' offerings earlier this year.
Does anyone have BE currently as their ISP in Altrincham and if so can you advise on your experience with their service and the speeds you're getting compared to the package you're actually paying for?
Cheers | |
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 davelister
join:2000-11-29
SK6
| Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area I'm in Stockport on BE Pro getting 16 MB Down.
Had BE for 2 years haven't had any issues in that time really good service. Speed is conditional on distance from exchange and quality of the copper between.
Used NTL Virgin up to 20meg (ha!!) that was a real headache, never again!
Unfortunately moving in October and the best speed I can get is going to be 4 MB which that is going to be a real pain! | |
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A J 121
Who Is Keyser Soze?
Premium
join:2001-01-15
UK
clubs:
| In Congleton Cheshire, up the road from you and with Be*
What you will get will depend on your own line stats so what others in Altrincham/Cheshire/UK or where ever will have no bearing on what you may get.
All I can say is that I have have broadband since 2000. I was on the trials for it before BT rolled it out to the masses. In that time I have had a few ISP's. At some point all of them were good and did what they said on the tin. But alas this never lasted.
I am with Be* at present and have been for quite a while. They are still doing what they say on the tin (for me anyhow) and I would not leave them as no one else is able to offer me (in Congleton) what whey do for a better price. I am on Be* Pro and my line shows the following:
Modulation: G.992.5 Annex M US 56
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 2,572 / 22,665
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 10.5 / 21.5
I am subject to no caps or throttles and am only on a short term contract which I pay £22 a month for. Before I moved to the Pro package my sync was:
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 1,321 / 24,574
My download speed in real world tests has always been what it should be for my sync. Something that sadly cannot be said of most other ISP's in the UK.
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Be* unlimited
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The great Cheshire town of » Congleton | |
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The Hawk
@btopenworld.com
| Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area Thanks for you reply A J. Sounds like you've got a pretty good understanding both technically and operationally how ISP's function. Comm's Engineer of some description perhaps?
Anyhow, when you say your line shows the following - is this your router showing these figures, software on your PC/laptop or another piece of hardware i.e. a line tester? I'd be interested to find out what my line attenuation is as this will possibly give an indication of whether I'm getting a decent signal down the line, thus whether I should be getting a better throughput from BT dependant on syndication levels and a subsequent descision whether to move to another ISP. | |
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A J 121
Who Is Keyser Soze?
Premium
join:2001-01-15
UK
clubs:
| Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area Stats are just from the router.
Once you have your own stats you can visit a few sites that will give you a rough idea of what you will get on ADSL2+ (what Be* use)
Here are a couple to try:
»www.farina1.com/adsl/ just enter your stats and it will give you an estimate.
»www.internode.on.net/residential···extreme/ This one has a graph to estimate what you may get.
Another ISP you may want to look at is o2 as they now own Be* and use Be*'s hardware in the exchanges.
If cost is an issue you may want to look at them too as they come out as being cheaper than Be*.
Here is a BE/O2 Service Comparison from another site.
»www.dontbethere.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8858
Hope this helps.
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Be* unlimited
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The great Cheshire town of » Congleton | |
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A J 121
Who Is Keyser Soze?
Premium
join:2001-01-15
UK
clubs: | Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area Just noticed the BE/O2 Service Comparison site is a bit out with the prices.
An example of this is Be* Value as it is £8 a month till the end of 2008. | |
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The Hawk
@btopenworld.com
| A J, thanks for the links and giving me somewhere to start.
I've got the following readings from my Netgear DG834G...
Sync speed - 2272Kbps
Attenuation - 17dB
Noise Margin - 31dB
I've fed these into the farina1 web site and got the following....
Maximum line speed - 8128Kbps
BRAS data rate - 7.15Mbps
ADSL2+ maximum likely line speed - 20300Kbps
ADSL2+ Maximum likely IP throughput - 17965Kbps
Is this actually demonstrating that I should currently be getting a much higher throughput than I currently have and I should be getting in touch with BT and giving them these figures? If so, what should I be telling / asking them to do apart from 'give me what I'm paying for'!
Cheers. | |
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A J 121
Who Is Keyser Soze?
Premium
join:2001-01-15
UK
clubs:
| Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area Go here:
»www.speedtester.bt.com/
and perform the test at different times of the day and night. This is the only speed test that BT will take any notice of. You need to test at different times to rule out exchange contention. A test in the middle of the night should do this.
I cannot use the test anymore as my line is now on Be*'s ADSL2+ kit but the test did give your bRAS profile and speed when I used it last.
Now if your speed falls way below your bRAS profile then you need to contact your ISP and supply them with the results of the tests.
People with speed issues can find a good guide here:
»www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/slowspeeds.htm
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Be* unlimited
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
The great Cheshire town of » Congleton | |
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F2kSel
join:2005-12-27
| I went with O2 as it was a bit cheaper and had money back offer.
With BT I could get 4.5meg but mostly got 3.5meg due the way the SNR works at BT. BE/O2 offered 4.7meg and I'm currently synced at 4.8meg. I know it will do 5.5meg but it's a little less stable at that speed.
I'm further up the road in Biddulph. | |
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nemo1966
join:2005-11-15
England
| Re: [ADSL] BE Broadband - Altrincham area said by F2kSel  :I went with O2 as it was a bit cheaper and had money back offer. and plenty of Phorm...... 
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