We’ve created this message board to allow consumers to ask for - and get - advice on any aspect of choosing a broadband provider. Please feel free to post here if you have any questions at all, whether about how to compare broadband, what stuff means, who does what, where things are, why things are, or anything else you can thing of!
Please note that if you would like to review a specific broadband provider, you can do this on our provider pages to help other consumers. Start by picking your provider from our broadband providers directory.
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Latest Posts
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Hi genie,
Like the new site - awesome man. How about an “ask the genie” button where I can ask him directly?
Nice idea. We’re just introducing our first interactive, forum/community-type features, so I’m sure there’s more we can do. It’s pretty exciting, lots of very kind feedback about the new site so far
I have a broadband connection via cable with NTL, my telephone line is also with NTL. I have seen that there seem to be better deals for my broadband connection than the one I have got.
The problem is that it appears that I have to have a BT line installed before I can access any of the better deals.
Unless you know differently ???
Thanks for a great site !!
David
Hey you guys you need to change the time on your site clock !!
My last post went on at 4.23 not 5.23 !!
Cheers
Hmmmm. Will look into the clock!
Yes, if you’re switching from cable (i.e. NTL or Telewest) to ADSL (i.e. most of the others) then you will need a traditional-style phone line, usually supplied by BT. This can, of course, be a pain, and BT will normally charge to install a new line. The ADSL provider will give you a little device called a microfilter which allows you to use the telephone at the same time as the internet. So you don’t need a dedicated phone line for ADSL broadband, if that’s what you are concerned about.
Most houses still have a BT line from pre-cable days - does yours not? In which case I think BT just need to activate it.
We’re just in process of writing a new ’switching’ guide, which we’ll highlight on the cable pages. I’ll forward your query on to hackgenie, the author, so that she can make sure that this situation is covered.
Hi guys,
I am moving to London for 3 months in a flat with a phoneline but no modem. Can I get a modem and BB from somewhere for short term?
Matt
Hmmmmmm, Matt. You could try the few providers with no minimum contract.
Watch out, though. Even though there’s no long contract, there will still be cancellation charges.
For example, Virgin.net currently state that “if you wish to leave our broadband service, you’ll need to give us 30 days’ notice. Please note that we reserve the right to apply a £50 cancellation charge if your service is cancelled within 12 months of activation.”
Seriously Internet has a sliding scale, i.e. you pay £60 cancellation if you cancel within six months, £40 if you cancel within 6-12 months, and so on.
So you might be better getting a cheaper deal on a 12 month contract, and getting the landlord to take over the contract after you leave, or something like that……..
Sorry, broadband providers don’t seem to be set up for this kind of thing (if cost is an issue, you might just want to go with dial up for three months), unless anyone else knows different?
Thanks for that. I have also recently heard that there is a modem that you can purchase that only lasts for a short period. Anyone know anything on this?
Never heard of such a thing. Not even sure how you could have a modem which only lasts for a short period?
When comparing broadband providers on the website I have found the following error:-
When comparing Virgin services with, for example, BT in the general provider’s page, the comparison tables state that you get antivirus, webmail, antispam, 10mb of webspace and 5 free email addresses.
By clicking on the Virgin logo and comparing Virgin services within this area, it states that you get no security software, webspace nor email addresses.
Which is correct?????
I have a broadband account with tiscali. I have had to do a factory re-set on my father-in-laws pc. He has an existing talk-talk broadband account. I want to know if i can set up his modem (i have installation cd) on my telephone line. (i cannot go to my father in laws to do this as he lives 280 miles away!)
Simon - I really don’t know! I’ll see if anyone else does - I suppose you could give it a try?
Clive - Thanks for the spot. We’ll have a look and correct the error.
Hi
Can anyone advise me with regard to download caps. We use our PC mainly for gaming on the internet and very rarely download anything. Do we have to worry about download caps?
Hi Kim,
98% of the time, no one ever exceeds their bandwidth cap. The idea was implemented by the broadband providers to try and stop a lot of people doing “peer to peer” (i.e. downloading lots of illegal movies and music from the internet).
For gaming - (e.g. second life, and world of warcraft), it is important to get a good download speed (which in turn will help increase the upload speed of how fast you send data back to the gaming servers).
I would suggest the following:
Virgin.net Bundle Two
up to 8mb download speed, a 6gb bandwidth cap per month (this is plenty), and for £14.99 / month which is a good price
Hope that helps - and happy to help with any more questions / clarification.
Hi.
Just wondered if anyone had ever tried to connect 2 BT Homehubs together. If i plug one in upstairs i get no wireless signal downstairs and viceversa. If i try to simply plug one in at both points nothing seems to work at all. Short of buying a veery long ethernet cable I am not really sure what to do!
Hi Peter,
I guess the question really is why do you want 2 hubs together…. You really only need one BT wireless network running else there is a good chance the two will conflict.
Without making it too complicated,
1: Just use the one and try and put it on a table (anything above the floor) - which should give you coverage across the house
OR
2: change one of them to be a “repeater / range extender” - should tell you this in the manual. This means it will detect the signal from your main homehub / router and amplify it for you.
Also found this, if it helps:
http://hubbub.labs.bt.com/?pagename=viewpost&id=8394
Is there any way that I can get the interent (Broadband) without having to have a phone line? Thanks all help appreciated xx
Hmmmm, Shivvi, you could try looking for satellite broadband, or even a 3G card in a laptop?
The normal way to get broadband internet is to get a BT phone line or a cable installed.
If Anyone has the CD For teh instalation of toucan 512k unlimited please send it to me or upload it to a site and give me the link please
I have just tried to avail of the SKY £26/month deal advertised in the media at the moment and I have to say I was far from impressed.
Firstly, we live in Peterborough, a major city and only about a mile from the BT telephone exchange. We have a BT phone line and pay our bills to BT. We currently get our Bband from Virgin and have had no problems to date.
Before I rang SKY, I entered my phone number into their Service Availability checker on their website and was informed that I had a “Cable Line” and could not avail of their services. This seemed odd but I thought that I would ring them just in case their website was malfunctioning.
My first call was to their customer services department. The person on the line was helpful and answered most of my questions, however they did say that “Because I was not in an area that provided full broadband services”, I would be charged extra for my broadband service. This seemed even more odd than the website answer as I had already explained that I had a BT line and that I was able to get services from other providers. I asked her why SKY should be any different and she could not answer.
It was simply a case of “COMPUTER SAYS NO”
Frustrated, I asked for the number for their technical support line so I could speak to someone who DID know why they were different to every single one of the over 300 broadband providers in the UK.
I rang the number.
And waited…..
…and waited… whilst Beethoven’s 9th wound me up even further.
Ten minutes later, my call was answered and having explained my whole situation, it became obvious that the person on the other end could not speak much English and was just reading from a cue card. I know this because even though I had explained my situation fully, he asked me for my SKY broadband reference number! Luckily (or so I thought) he understood the word “Escalation” and informed me that he was putting me through to 2nd or 3rd line support to deal with my query further.
And waited…..
20 minutes later, my call was answered again, this time by someone who could speak English. Hurray I thought and proceeded to explain the whole situation again. I was told exactly what I was told on my first call and that If I required any further information I should ring technical support.
Hmmm. And here’s me thinking that I was through to technical support. Silly me…. and I thought I was talking to someone who is employed to know what they are doing.
45 minutes and goodness knows how much money wasted to be sent round in circles and to be told that my BT line was a cable line by three different people on 2 continents and to be informed that we were not eligable for their broadband deal.
Sorry… but if the SKY is the limit, then we’re all mugs.
Steve, Central England (and not as SKY would have you believe in some far flung remote island in the outer Hebrides)
I’m an Apple Mac user trying to find reasonably priced Broadband that is Mac compatible, is technically supported and WORKS. Any ideas ?
Have you seen the deals at bethere.co.uk? I have been talking to a guy there and he says that my line will not suffer from contention because I won’t be sharing the line with anybody else.
Is this true? Is this possible with adsl? What’s to stop someone else using the internet and slowing my connection? Does it just depend on how the wires are plugged in at the exchange?
We were talking about the business package, at £88 a month.
i can not wait intill im disconected from virgin media when i was on cable my bill was £23 its now gone to £30 i tryed to phone them up to see why this was i tryed all there phone numbers but could not get any reply i was put on hold for 10 minits every time but when i phoned the number to join virgin i was put strait throught i told the person on the phone what as happend and they said they would transfair me to the right section when they did i was left listning to music for ten minits then cut off this whent on for 3 hours finely i managed to get in touch and have now canceld with them
so if you are with virgin you try to phone them and see how you get on
Having an intermittent problem with my connection to server, flashing ADSL light and Error 680 message, I have been told that possibly my RJ11 cable is to long from BT socket to modem. Is there a recommended max length for this cable to be able to work effectively. Mine at the moment is 20 metres
I’ve not look at www.bethere.co.uk but will have a look.
There’s so much to choose from nowadays.
Is there a best provider?
Hi, our family has been moved onto 8mb/s broadband a few weeks ago (after months of waiting) and it seems a lot faster.
However, it seems that the broadband provider (uwclub) is limiting the download speeds of certain file types. For example; a .exe file downloads at around 800kb/s but a .avi file downloads at about 45kb/s. That is a massive differentiation in download speeds.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to speed up or fix this problem.
Thank you.
-Tom ^.^
Hi tom, yes there is a problem with broadband companies and there advertised connection speeds/usage. I have found the same on BT Broadband that if you are browsing or emailing or using for gaming services then it works at the speed you paid for, but it seems now when you try to download .exe files or .avi files or whilst using bittorrent then they are capping the speed. Pretty sure they are now traffic shaping and they are not informing anyone of this as when i rung up to find out i just got told that they didnt understand what i was talking about and that the problem lies with my equipment.
Is it legal for them to do this without informing the customer??? I would love to get the real answer!!!!
Hi, I am changing from BT broadband to Talk Talk. They are sending me a Talk Talk modem ,which I have to pay for. It has been suggested that I may not need to use this modem and the BT modem may be perfectly adequate — is this the case –can anyone advise ?
Brian
hello
i am from pakistan. i am using dial-up connection speed of 56kbps provided by local ISP, now i want to get broadbad connection for my pc.can you help me in this regard. my PC properties are(256MB ram ,735MHZ processor, & 20GB hard disk). are your services are available out side across your country e.g, pakistan
I would like to say this test is very good i tested my virgin media 4meg broadband and came up as 4.6meg. Very happy. Good work guys with this test and keep it up.
I have my broadband service from talktalk.
Recently, I have not been receiving some of my emails.
For example, I was sent an important email last Friday at 2.43pm and I have still not received this email 5 days later
If the same happens to previous ‘lost’ emails, I will never receive it.
I have emailed talktalk to inform them of previous ‘lost’ emails but I just receive a standard reply apologising for server problems. They do not appear to attach any importance to the fact I have not received important emails.
Does talktalk not have a responsibility to deliver my emails?
Should I receive any compensation?
I would appreciate any advice on sorting this problem with talktalk.
Regards
Ivan
Hello to you all. Being new to Broadband I recently had an upgrade from 4M to 10M with Virginmedia and was told that this would be great and fast. Looking into some speed test sites I have found that my download speed is about 651KB/s…Is this correct or should I be worried? I thought the 1mb was 1024k or there abouts!
Hope you have some info for a computer/broadband biff like myself!
Thanks in anticipation
Hey - why do the latest items go to the bottom instead of the top?
I am setting up a study in the house I’ve just bought and want to get broadband when the room’s ready (I’m currently on dial-up). Unfortunately, there’s no BT socket currently in the room. I understand I can get hold of RJ11 extension cables so I thought I could lay a cable under the floorboards from the socket in the adjacent room (6 or 7 metres away). Will this length of cable cause a significant degradation of signal?
Hi Broadband Genie,
love the site - gave me a lift to realise that I’m not the only one having problems with Orange. Now struggling to get my MAC code from them? What’s the legislation on this now?
Thanks
Slappy
Hi Slappy,
The Ofcom regulations for MAC codes state that you should have been provided at least two means of contacting your provider, in order to obtain your MAC code. The provider should then respond in writing, and free of charge, with the provision of a valid MAC code.
As far as I understand it, they can only refuse to provide a MAC code if they are unable to validate your identity, if your service has already been terminated or if they are in the porcess of generating a MAC code for you from a previous request.
This legislation does say that Orange must provide a clear explanation to you if they are not providing you with your MAC code.
If in doubt you can see the document on the Ofcom website http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/codes/bb_migration/
Hope that helps!
Just been informed by a virginmedia broadband support that they are capping speeds in the evenings , this has been going on now for 3 weeks in my area (ipswich) very rarely do i get 1 mb in evenings , when i can get over 16mb during the day , i use www.speedtest.net and have been monitoring the speeds for the past 3 weeks , no customers were informed of this project and as far as i was told it is going to continue . all this after i was on the telephone every day for 3 weeks moaning about my speed/connection , more than once i was told it was my p.c etc etc ..(Bull excrement), i even had an engineer round and no probs were found my end , i must say if you call 150 from virgin phone its free and also choose option ( you are thinking of leaving virgin etc etc ) explain to them your slow speed etc , moan long enough and you will recieve a free month of broadband
hi ,i’ve had sky broadband for several weeks now,but the only way i can access the internet is to have my phone switched on when i turn it off my internet link goes with it,awaiting call back fom sky sent them endless emails i’ve even sent emails to BT wholesale,i was wondering if you had any ideas why this is so everything is configured correctly.
Hello,
Download speeds have nothing to do with file types and everything to do with where or how you are downloading the file.
For example: If you download a program from a website, let’s say download.com, the speed you will achieve is generally dependent on how much bandwidth that particular server is willing to assign to each person connecting to it. In off peak periods you will generally achieve better speeds, as there is less load on the server. You have to remember bandwidth costs money and the bigger the company you are downloading from, the more likely hood there is, the speed will be faster, as they can afford to pay for a big fat connection to their web server…
Torrents work in a completely different way to downloading from a web server using FTP or HTTP.
It is not one server you are connecting to, but many servers or people sharing the same file. So if you have 100 people sharing a file and each of them is allowing 10kbps upload speed in their torrent client that gives a total download speed of 1000kbps. Of course this has to shared between everyone who is downloading the file at a particular time. If one person is downloading they should, in theory, get a 1000kbps download, lovely
Unfortunately it is very likely that a lot more people will be downloading at the same time so the speed will drop. If 4 people are downloading you will only achieve 250kbps and so on. It is not quite as straight forward as this but if you need to know more about peer to peer, pop it in to a search engine, after all the internet is the biggest Library in the world 
The three golden rules for torrenting:
1.) The download speed you achieve is directly proportional to the your upload speed.
2.) The more people that are seeding a torrent, the faster your download will be.
So, set your upload speed to about 75% of your maximum. If you set it to 100% it will cause a slow down in your download as information needs to be sent 2 ways and if all your upload bandwidth is taken up seeding there is none left to do this.
Choose torrents that have plenty of seeders and not many leechers - obvious really…
3.) SEED when you have finished downloading the file. Don’t just disconnect (it’s file SHARING after all) You will be rewarded in the end with much faster download speeds as the various trackers notice your good etiquette and adjust your ratios accordingly
So, before you call your ISP, on a very expensive number no doubt, and complain about slow speed; find out how your software and the internet works first. After all you wouldn’t drive a car with out having some lessons first….
In reply to Marks comment about being disconnected when you use the phone.
This is almost definitely a filtering issue. Please make sure you have an ADSL filter connected to every telephone socket in your house that has telephony equipment attached to it, not just the socket with your router or modem. Sky TV uses the telephone line so this needs to be filtered as well, Sky of all people should have let you know this.
A simple test to find out if this is the problem is to disconnect everything from every telephone socket & just leave your router or modem and one telephone plugged into an ADSL filter. Test it. It should work. If it doesn’t, first of all try another filter. If it still doesn’t work there could be a problem on the card at the exchange or the line and you will have to call your ISP to raise a fault.
Regards
I am confused about virgin medias policy of cutting the speed of heavy users.
1- are you notified when you fall into that bracket?
2- is this done on a daily basis or are specific users targetted over a period of time?
I cant distinguish if I my own speed has been reduced or if, generally, virgin media can t keep to its published speeds at peak hours, since broadband tests show I am getting much less speeds than I should
Hi Andrew,
Unfortunately this dilemma is not something I can help you with. It might be worth speaking directly to Virgin Media about the way they decide who to throttle and who not, but it does seem like many people suffer with slower speeds during peak times simply because of the high demand.
If anyone else knows how to tell if your speeds are getting deliberately restricted I would be pleased to find out?!
Hi,
how much Bandwidth does VOIP use up?
BT were telling me that BT Broadband Talk will not eat up any bandwidth and won’t slow down the Internet connection - is this right?
Due to being 3km from my exchange, i get a lousy 512k download (although i’m currently struggling to even hit that) and to pacify me, BT are offering a free upgarde to the Home Hub with with the handset, which should cut my phone bill slightly. But will a 512k connection be able to deal with VOIP?
Hi Richard,
It’s difficult to know exactly how much bandwith VOIP would use up, as this would depend on how much time you would be spending on the call. But VOIP service is definitely affected by the speed of your intenet connection, and if this is too slow the delay in the conversation would be huge and it just wouldn’t work.
I would think carefully before accepting the offer from BT, unless you can get a faster connection you will probably find that the VOIP is a bit iffy.
Hey,
About the messages about slower bit torrent and AVI files downloads and traffic shaping… I would have said that this didn’t happen BUT I changed my broadband from 2 - 8 (published as up to 16) mb connection. The result in upload speed is apparently it being doubled But I have used bit torrent for a long time and it is slower! Having said that my whole internet seems to be slower!! my downloads have got no faster although perhaps peak at a higher level. I live in belfast and uwclub is my provider. Do you recon it is just because of more traffic on this new line (is it a new line?) that it is slower?? Because it really has been a downgrade for me!
Hi, thanks for the advice!
I’m really unsure what to do with my broadband now - i either stay with BT and put up with 512k for £16 a month (after discount) or i can go to Be for £14 a month, who will give me 4Mb (although i do pay a connection fee).
Sounds an obvious choice, but being an O2 customer too, should i wait to see if O2 announce a special offer on Be Broadband? Also, i have been impressed with BT’s service as a whole, so should i wait for them to get ADSL2?
I could also go with Sky, but i think i’ll give that a miss!
Choices, choices…
Hi. I would like some advise on my Virgin Media (cable) broadband. I was previously with NTL with a 512kb connection at £17.99 a month, now it has changed to Virgin Media I see you can get a 2mb speed for the same cost. Is there any way I can get this faster speed?, as it seems unfair to get a quarter of the speed for the same cost.
Hope you can help, Thanks.
Hi guys, wondering if anyone can offer any help. I currently use Eclipse internet as my service provider and am having major grief. I initially lived in upminster for six months then moved to gidea park, Eclipse saw this as a new contract and gave me a new 1 year contract at my new address, I didn’t have a problem with this except, my line speed is appalling. I have had a case with eclipse open for almost a month and a half with no resolution, (they closed the call yesterday) Initially Eclipse had me running tests on a daily basis to test the speed and it looked like my line was set to half a meg (problem with wiring), BT fixed the problem and they told me they were hitting four and a half meg, this I can live with, however, that was 4 weeks ago, I am still sitting at half a meg, Eclipse have since closed the call saying “BT have come back to us, advising they believe the fault on your broadband service has been cleared.” and I am still left with a half meg bloody service. Is there anything I can do as I am paying almost £20.00 a month for a crap service. Ta
I have a speed problem at present, i have an 8 meg connection but only getting 2.5 meg, so i decided to connect my neighbours pc up to my connection and on his pc we were getting 5 meg download speeds, has anyone got an idea what is slowing the speed down when i connect my pc?
Hi Phil,
The speed of the computor shouldn’t make any difference to your connection speed, so with this in mind I can only suggest that the broadband connection was just running a bit faster when you plugged in your neighbours pc (broadband speeds tend to be in constant fluxuation). Broadband speed tests only give you a snap-shot of the connection speed, a couple of milliseconds later it could have changed, so they really can only be used as an estimate of the overall speed.
Hope that helps explain it a bit!
thanks slackasulike,i’ve tried four different filters but still the problem persists,i recently changed the face plate for a new one when i wired it up everything was fine until my internet link dropped yet again,i’m sure it’s the master socket but i don’t know why ,when i take the wires back out of the connectors in the master socket and then put them back in again the link comes back on again.the connection is stable for up to 8 hours whether there is a small fluctuation in voltage or a momentary surge who knows,i’ve even tried disconnecting my phone line and just having my adsl line plugged into my filter it worked for a while any thoughts?
TALKTALK ARE THE WORST DURING DAY HOURS YOU BE LUCKY IF U CAN DOWNLOAD ANYTHING BUT NOW DURING THE HOURS OF 2 OCLOCK IN THE MORNING TO ABOUT 5 YOU CAN I DONT NO IF THEY ARE DOING THIS TO EVERYONE ARE JUST ME WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM OTHER PEOPLE ON TALKTALK
HI Genie,
I have a BT Votager 210 ADSL modem and have recently changed to talktalk. But i am unable to connect. When i try to i am told that the modem is only compatible with BT connections.
Is this correct and if not how do i get it to work?
Thanks for your help,
Ubeefcrj.
Hi Ubeefcrj,
Blimey. really don’t know, unfortunately! You’d probably need to ask the manufacturers (do you still have the box?).
Unless anyone else has come across this?
Scaredygenie
Hi mARK
you are not alone in talktalk hell my connection was fine for the first 4 weeks now since last sunday in the evenings it has dropped to under 200 kbps in the morning it is about 4500 kbps the talktalk robot in india which i spent 3hrs trying to get through to said my connection was fine now i’m waiting for a response from the tech guys ! if they exist.
Hi………….. I have virgin 2Meg and its crap.
When using utorrent i gat a 30kbs upload speed ….. MAX
But its 1Meg upload on the speed test,s
I have tested utorrent on 2 lap tops and 2 pc,s
Have you found this problem with your Brawdband at all ?
Its messing up my rashio.
Hi…..newbie seeking advice
Hi folks my situation is this
I used to have a BT line which was disconnected. Now I wish to reconnect and get broad band….should I go for an all inclusive phone/broadband deal with a broadband provider or get reconnected via BT and go for the best broadband only deal….there is so much out there it is difficult to know which to choose.
Cheers Pete
i have been having problems with virgin broadband since the start of february.
They have replied to emails with all the usual rubbish, and now im receiving 128kbs , when im paying for 8 meg.
my advice to anyone considering taking out Virgin media broadband, is dont, flushing ur money down the toilet has more chance of getting you a decent broadband service as virgin does.
Hi people, just want some help please,
Im with Tiscali Broadband (ADSL), and i’ve had enough of there poor line service, so i’ve been looking at Virgin media broadband via cable, thing is, when i go enter my MAC code, it only gives me the option of Virgin Broadband ADSL! and i want the cable?
Suggestions anyone please?
Thanks
Hi there, having recently signed up to tiscali broadband, i am currently attempting to connect 2 computers to the internet and it’s proving to be a real headache. I decided, seemingly unwisely, to go for non-wireless connectin to my pc and laptop, as i didn’t want to have to fork out for a wireless receiver on top of the cost of the router etc. so i purchased a Netgear RP614 v4 Broadband Router, but it doesn’t appear to be compatible with my modem, which is the Speedtouch 330 modem provided by tiscali. I don’t know if i just need a few different cables and adapters or whether the two are completely incompatible?? Hope that’s all clear ebnough, i don’t know much about the terminology or specifications. cheers, will.
@Peter Wilson
If you wish to run more than one computer if 2 different locations using BT total broadband you need a Wireless adapter not another hub.
It plugs into the expansion slot on your motherboard and transmits to the hub no need for cables at all if you don’t want them.
Hi Joe,
dont go for Virgin Adsl, its rubbish, it only has half decent speed during the day or very late at night. I was on the 8mb package but was getting speeds of 300kb in the evening. Stay away. Customer service dept is REALLY rubbish aswel.
Im considering getting Be Unlimited Broadband as my flat is next to the exchange and I can expect to get roughly 20MBPS out of a 24MBPS connection. This would be perfect apart from the fact that I do not want to use their equipment and want a more specialised set up consisting of:
Draytek Vigor 100 ADSL 2 Ethernet Modem
Connected To
Apple Airport Extreme
From speaking to the help center at Be for an hour they eventually could not help me. I have been looking into the protocols used and Be claim to use RFC 1483 Bridged, the Draytek supports the following:
ITU-T G.992.1 G.DMT (Up to 8 Mb/s Downstream)
ITU-T G.992.3 ADSL2 G.dmt.bis (Up to 12Mb/s Downstream)
ITU-T G.992.5 ADSL2 (Up to 24Mb/s Downstream)
Annex A & Annex M (ADSL2 ) Support
It would seem that RFC 1483 is linked to PPPoA which with the Draytek would be bridged to PPPoE that the Apple Airport would use. Then the next problem, they could not give me a username that would be used in the Apple Airport connection settings like plus.net have as such (Example: username@plusdsl.net), then your password. The Airport would manage the connection but with such sketchy information I’m unsure whethere this setup would function correctly. The use of the Airport is down to the fact that we use Mac and also it allows to connect printers and hard drives wirelessly as well with the added benefit of it being an N connection.
If anyone has any similar setups with Be or knows any information that would be helpful that would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Dave
Right can anyone help?
I am having a nightmare. I live in a new block of flats and the Landlord who I thought was a good bloke turned out not to be. I have been living in the flat for 6 months and it is a new block of flats. Now when I moved in initially I paid for the BT connection fee of £124.99. Now it has come to light that I have to move out due to a repossession order from the local Court.
THAT NICE LANDLORD WASN’T PAYING THE MORTGAGE.
I have however found a place in the same block of flats but it appears that BT won’t change over my line. They want to charge me another £124.99 Connection fee.
This is too much money for me. I need my BB for work and family but I can’t find an alternative.
Is there another way to get Internet connection without a phone line with BT?
Is there another company that could connect a phone line cheaper?
How much does those 3G thingies cost and are they only for laptops?
If anyone out there knows what to do in these circumstances I would be so grateful for your help. Or if anyone had a similar experience I would like to know.
Thank you!
having used your speed test with the result of 56KB. My internet provider supplies download of 2.0MB, my phone line supports a download of 4.4MB. So why is my speed so low?.
Regards. Alan.
Hi all
I am after some advice. I have Sky broadband (well, sort of) and after 2 months of no connection, it transpires that I can only connect through my master socket in the hallway. The master socket is a flat face with a line through the middle, and no actual ’socket slot’ on the front to plug the modem into. When I take the face plate off, all of the phones in the house go dead. I have been told that I need something called a ‘pre-filtered face plate’. Can anyone tell me where I can get one from, preferably on the high street, and what the hell I do with it once I have it!
Many Thanks
can i connect to aol broadband without recieving the installation box?, I Ordered the Broadband about 2 weeks ago and havent got it through yet, but i do have a wireless modem & a phoneline, filter ect, and my laptop is picking it up, but no connection to the internet???
help please!
had phone line with bt but as just got a computer switched to talk talk with broad band.one and only, therefore master tel. socket is in hallway and computer in back room. do have sky tv but do not have this plugged into phone line socket. bought modem extension lead from home base and this has the microfilter supplied by talk talk plugged into it. tel socket has other end of modem extension lead and land line phone plugged in via a double socket adaptor. problem is that although we have b/band, do not have a decent ie clear phone line. am being driven to distraction with talk talk and can hardly hear them when i call to report this fault. when modem came in post, they also sent 3 filters. have tried all three in this set up and even [at their suggestion]swapped the land line phone but to no avail. all they say is that if an engineer calls and finds fault with my equip. they will charge me £140. cannot be only person wth phone socket that is not right next to computer and want to keep phone in another room, but admit to being hopeless with this stuff. not sure to try and find another b/band provider or not- will it make a difference. if i add a tel.extension lead will this solve problem?13 yr old big headed son says not poss to get long adsl lead and that master socket with extension lead makes extension lead effectively the new master socket.
Having read the comments concerning Tiscali I still decided to go to them for Btoadband and telephone, what a useless bunch. When I attempted to sign up I was advised I was still with Tiscali well I was many years ago with dial up. They kept telling me I was not with Tiscali even though the sign up page told me I was and customer services confirmed this and advised me to telephone to have this line cancelled from the system. I was then told that my ISP (Eclipise) probably used Tiscali for the connection!!!!! All in all a total shambles. I am now looking eksewhere
Hank
Hi
I have a spare Belkin ADSL router (with 4 ethernet ports at the back) that I’m tryig to use at uni accomodation. But uni uses ethernet ports to give internet access. Is it possible to use a ADSL router with an ethernet cable providing the internet?
Thanks.
I have a desktop connnected to Virgin cable BB. I’ve just bought laptop and belkin G router. I’m connecting the laptop to the router by wire at first but intend to use it wirelessly.
Problem is, the router installs and talks to the laptop fine, but when I run the the Virgin bb disc it comes back with ‘no NIC detected’.
Do I need the desktop connected during all this?
I live some 5 Km (line length) from the exchange. BT Wholesale state I should be able to get 0.5 meg.
I expect my ADSL to be weak. I only pay for a basic “Up to 2 meg” package. Which is what my phone line can handle. My provider informed me of this when I tried to upgrade my package a couple of years ago. They not only apologised but returned the extra money. Since then as package specifications have increased they have reduced my cost further by dropping me onto the lowest spec available.
When my neighbour got broadband the provider told him he didn’t have a phone line capable of high speeds and recommended the lowest priced package.
What most peole seem to be suffering from is not poor internet connections but rather lousy sales people selling you something you can’t actualy get.
really confused here..
right i used to live in my girlfriends house with her and her parents, whilst there they had a 1mb connection, with tiscali i think…
me and the missus have just moved out… and moved directly across the road… literally the width of the road away…
just paid for the bt landline, wanting to get broadband so i can get back on xbox live,,,, however for some reason our house can only get 512kbps???
whilst old house across the road is still get 1mbps??
and i have tried several different providers and all say the same 512kbps.
does anyone know why this could be??
we are on the same exchange. and i have done speed check in the old house, definately gettin 1mbps.
could it be due to our new line has only been connected a few days?
Can you guys help?
I’m thinking of moving my mother on to a phone and broadband
service, but wanted to check. She has a pendant button device that rings
through to a warden so she is now unable to use dial up. I spoke to the alarm provider who said we ‘might’ need a filter/suppressor depending on the system. Is this a simple procedure and might it affect her having a wireless router?
Many thanks
Agaton S
I am on the bt low user tariff. Can I get broadband without changing tariff.
3G WORKS WELL
they want your money they arnt bothered if you have crap speeds and as for moan long enough and youll get the internet for free for 1 month is total crap ive been on the phone for the the past year to virgin and all ive got offered is £2.00 of my bill quick ill buy a pint of lager with that ha ha and ive written to them and still no reply virgin are a load of bull telewest come back all is forgiven anyone agree?
Hi
I’m moving into a brand new apartment and apparantly cable doesnt get installed in these. So after being (happy) with NTL/Virgin for the last few years i’m now going to have to change. For a start i’m now going to need a BT landline (£125 connection and £10.50 line rental) on top of any broadband deal i can find.
Just wondered what people thought were the best deals. Done want more than 12 month contract if possible. Heard nothing but bad reviews about BT broadband, not to mention the low usage caps (i download a lot of stuff). Sky require you to be a Sky TV customer, quite happy with a Freeview HDD PVR box ibe recently bought so dont particularly fancy Sky TV that would provie me with no extra channels (that i want).
o2 looked by far the best deal (£7.50 a month with 8Mb speed and unlimited usage) but according to the website its not available at my new post code, current post or my parents address (so not in city at all).
So what else is there??? Virgin Media adsl (£15)?? orange? tiscali? peoples opinions much apprecited….
adam
lincoln_dj@hotmail.com
dont you all just wish you are all on bulldog ,, i am currently on this and have had no problems apart from initial teething problems, but of course as long as you dont have to talk to customer services and try to speak indian then your fine
and by the way i have had bulldog since service since sept 2005 ,,
can you give me a real reason !????!
Been on aol wireless broadband vista on a laptop since april last year great for the first few months then download speed went down down down down!!! getting now 129kbps on average . Occassionally its gone up to about 900 on a sunday night then back down again the next day or so. I live 3 km from the exchange. Ive done the phone thing with aol no help what soever done all the change this change that.
have threatened them with refusing to pay “!bring me to the small claims court go on!!!!” the day after I threatened this my speed went up to 1979 for three whole days I thought blimey it worked !!! then guess what it went back down again. m no tech wizzkid infact Im useless with computers just a joe public usual stuff finances kids homework youtube for the odd video thats it .whats wrong and if I left aol and went somewhere else woild I get the same bad speeds? I pay them 14.99 a month what a rip off!!!!! Done the check on the internet which states from bt I should be able to get 1.5mb
heres hopeing!!!
Hi,
I have AOL ‘Bronze’ Broadband, and in fairness it used to be OK. You gather I am not a Geek, maybe a Keeg. It used to be connected by DSL which was fast. They have, for reasons to me unknown, reverted me back to a TCP/IP connection. Can anyone shed a light Why please?
Lorenzo
Hi i am wanting to get Be Broadband but don’t have a bank account or debit card is it possible for me to pay through my father’s account with his permission?
Hi folks,
I am with Virgin Media Broadband 20mb. Lately they have started downgrading you if you have downloaded 4/5 gb. So if you were to download a movie which is that size you get downgraded to 3/4mb. Anybody else having the same problem.
I contacted them and they say you get put down to the lower download speed for 5 or 6 hours when you have downloaded that much. Just think its a bit much when you are paying for 20mb.
Thanks.
Just joined this site and cannot find any info on how to use it. If I ask it to search for help I get sent to a blog site.
How do you select a person you want to respond to?
Cheers
hi,
i’m about to get mobile broadband but i’m not sure about the data allowance. do you know what is normally used within a month? no internet gaming or films to be downloaded.
thanks
Hi, i used to be with virgin, changing back to bt with hub.Problem is i now have neiother phone nor broadband. Bt say there is nothing wrong inside house but its outside and wish to charge £400 to fix it if there is one found. Can anyone help me with why neither work when bt are saying all is well their end. I was going to contact virgin again but have no idea what to ask.thank you for any help.
I migrated from Virgin with a MAC provided going through all the proper channels to Be-unlimited on 8/5/2008 I had been with Virgin for well over the contract period and am now being billed from both ISPs as Virgin says I have to be with them for 30 days after migration they want me to pay for a service they are not providing as BT have switched the Virgin to B*unlimited anyway, so it would be impossible to use Virgin anyway.
is this normal?
Hi, can anyone help me out? I’ve just moved into a new house and want to set up phone and broadband, preferably the Talk Talk Global package. I have a BT landline in the property but it needs to be activated - do I have to sign up to a BT call package in order to have them activate the line and give me a phone number etc? To get the Talk Talk package I’d then need to transfer my line rental from BT to Talk Talk, incurring a £70 fee from BT - but without a BT line I can’t get the Talk Talk package to start with!
I suppose what I mean is, is there any way of getting a BT line without signing up to their line rental?
Any advice much appreciated! Thanks.
Hey everyone,
I’m moving into a student house in a couple of weeks with 4 friend and I’m having real trouble trawling through all the different broadband providers websites and getting confused! We need the following and wondered if someone could recommend a good ISP:
wireless broadband - so preferably including a wireless router - for 5 laptops
has to be compatible with macs and windows vista
unlimited downloads
12 month contract or less
4mb speed or more
the area where we are moving to in sheffield doesn’t have cable lines, so the broadband has to come through the BT exchange
we’d like to pay £15 - £25 a month including line rental and also don’t want huge installation or set up costs. we’re not too bothered about having a phone but if there are good packages with free calls available it would be a bonus. we were going to go with talktalk until we realised their contracts were 18 months
thanks, any help appreciated