UK BROADBAND USERS

[witton90]

Hello I’m currently with sky at the moment but contract up in new year, can anybody recommend a decent provider that they use for gaming I mainly play COD and fifa, not staying with sky as I can’t use a decent modem with the duma so looking different provider (fibre)  any feedback would be great thanks 

[N3CR0]

I can't recommend BT mate. 18 months of on and off interleaving and they couldn't care less.

Last engineer I booked never even showed up.

[witton90]

Thanks for feedback, I will give Bt a miss then, was thinking ee or Plusnet 

[Zennon]

8 hours ago, witton90 said:

Thanks for feedback, I will give Bt a miss then, was thinking ee or Plusnet 

Who were both bought out by BT so are BT under another names.

One persons problems are another man's gold, there are plenty of BT users that have a good line a few might comment.

If there is a line issue in the UK on BT's inferstructure (copper cables, cabinets) we all have to use Open reach as the middle man call out engineers whether you use BT, Sky or Talk Talk.

Only Sky and Talk Talk own their own equipment in the exchange alongside BT.

I use Talk Talk, I do not use their ISP router that is in the bin where it belongs.

 

[witton90]

I’m currently with sky but i can’t use a decent modem due to there authentication, had a bad experience with talk talk years ago, is isp using there own equipment good to go with ?

[Zennon]

8 minutes ago, witton90 said:

I’m currently with sky but i can’t use a decent modem due to there authentication, had a bad experience with talk talk years ago, is isp using there own equipment good to go with ?

You can get your Sky user name and pass from the router via long winded methods if you web search that.

Everyone will have different opinions on all providers mine of TT is good because I would never use phone support as them guy's know nothing of broadband or networking.

Mine is good as I use my own network equipment in my home and not their 10 a penny routers that they give out for free but everyone's mileage may differ as they say.

[witton90]

Ok maybe TT have improved I just wasnt getting no where near speeds expected of 68mb, what setup do you have if don’t mind me asking? I’m looking to go modem then r1, atm got router/modem in dmz into r1 can’t use bridge mode as r1 not got a feature for dhcp option 61

[Zennon]

32 minutes ago, witton90 said:

Ok maybe TT have improved I just wasnt getting no where near speeds expected of 68mb, what setup do you have if don’t mind me asking? I’m looking to go modem then r1, atm got router/modem in dmz into r1 can’t use bridge mode as r1 not got a feature for dhcp option 61

It is all down to distance from the cab then the quality of your own network.

Mine is MK3 fibre faceplate / Twisted Pair RJ11 / HG612 Modem / Cat 7 / R1 / Cat 7 / Ferrite cores on all cables and power supplies.

[Guest Killhippie]

I use IDNet, great niche provider great good for gaming wit lots of peering points you pay a bit more but I see it as totally worth it. I have an short cable from my NTE5C Mk4 faceplate to my modem (0.5m)  I match the chipset (Lantiq) to the cab as on my line (ECI) as broadcom modems do not work so well each line is different depending what tones get though. My router, modem and all peripherals including my iMac are all looked after my a APC 1000va true sine wave UPS with Auto Voltage regulation. so any brownouts, surges and the UPS kicks in, and of course it does as well when there are power cuts. The UPS will shut the iMac down smoothly in case of a power cut but keep my network up for a maximum of 5 hours if needed.

 Zenon is right, its all down to  distance from cab, quality of cable, underground gets more battery faults because of water ingress but that effects Broadband minimally unless is a big one. Overhead lines poles get hit by more REIN at night from street lights and the charged particles from the Ionosphere.  Diameter of copper effects your sync rate, as does bad joints, Aluminium, or Aluminium joined to copper causing reflection and then there is crosstalk. ECI cabs dont have G.inp to protect the lines from crosstalk or vectoring, Huawei ones do and  your modem needs to support both too (which it should). Also all lines are giant aerials in general for all sorts of interference from machines in factories and electrical cables etc.

In your home keep cables away from power sources, use ferrite cores were needed. This time of year cheap Christmas lights are blasting RFI out so REIN is always a problem. Make sure you have shielded cables where needed, but be aware one end should be earthed to act as a Faraday cage which prevents EMI from reaching the internal signal wire. The thing is if you don't ground the shield, EMI will induce voltages in the shield which will also be seen on the signal owing to the capacitance effect of the cable, so you can shoot yourself in the foot using shielded cables sometimes as well.

 In short  Its amazing with all the stuff that goes on we even get a connection really. Roll on FTTP, which still has issues, mainly being contention still from greedy ISPs who over sell and don't buy more backhaul. I know I have posted a lot but your line is exposed to so much every day and its sheer luck if you get a good pair in the cab. Even G.fast because it uses more spectrum frequency can be possibly more open to interference like REIN simply because of the frequency it uses. There is so much more to broadband than just the router, as I  mentioned its amazing it even works really when its bombarded 24/7 with so many potential issues. FTTP and maybe 5G will help a lot, after all most of us are on what is as a post war copper network designed just for making phone calls.    

[witton90]

Thanks for feedback guys

[witton90]

Has either of you know much about zen the broadband provider??

[RL317]

I'd say give Plusnet a try. I've read that they have something in place to prioritise certain traffic (including gaming packets). I was torn between them and TalkTalk when leaving BT (same price for the same 80/20 package) and went with TalkTalk... I wish I didn't. Same low ping high UDP lag bollocks. BT is pointless as you pay more for the same thing. Two years ago I started paying £36.50 for 50/10. Two months ago I moved to TalkTalk and I'm paying £28.50 for 80/20.

 

Plusnet is now £27.99 a month for 80/20 and you get a £75 disposable debit card (free money if you send it to your PayPal). TalkTalk is £25.45 for the same with no free money but it's arguably worse.