RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Alright guys, I'm pulling the plug on my subscription to Virgin Media tomorrow after they sent me a letter informing me of the second price hike in six months. Funny enough, not long after I got that letter I got hit by lightning and having travelled along the coax cable running up the side of the house into my room, it rekt my Super(crap)hub so who knows, maybe it's a sign I ought to move on asaply haha shame the lightning also took out all my UNPLUGGED gaming gear though, including my two month old Netduma, and apparently some of my ability to hear out of my right ear as it won't stop ringing since I got whacked out of my chair... Anyway, jittery cable RIP. Goodbye 60ms LAN pings. Hello FTTC. I've looked around and it seems I can get away with a deal even cheaper than what I'm currently paying for, hopefully with better stability and less headaches! I'm thinking either BT or Sky, but I wanted some of you guys' input, especially from those who have been with both at some point. What's the general consensus here? SFU or Infinity for the most consistent gaming performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 between evil and evil, what is a little evil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagsta69 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I have Bt infinity 1 package and after replacing the filters have a near flat line ping of 10 ms 24/7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG__DOG Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 i have bt infinity 2, you can't really go wrong with bt bud or sky fibre also.....i was with virgin for 16 years and it was the best move i made getting rid of them. I know my speeds are nowhere near as fast as virgin's, but the quality and performance is 1000 times better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CleanSlate Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I have BT Infinity 2 recommend them compared to Virgin Media i have less jitter good upload and download always 6ms ping never had any issues with them. always have green bars in lobbies never drops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zennon Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Fibre is the best choice in the UK cable seems to be a mess in the UK and the US. My friends here are very happy on BT, I am more than happy with talktalk. I choose TT as there is no PPPoE and no authentication so you can use G.INP enabled modems directly with no hassle, no jitter, happy days. DISCLAIMER : You have to bare in mind that if you have a line issue whether its your home wiring or BT's infrastructure you may have jitter issue's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Cheers everyone not too bothered about the speed drop because I had no issues whatsoever with 50/3 on VM before moving house. Uploading videos sucked but I always got 50-55 down. Since moving to 100/6 I rarely get more than 60 down, with the occasional glimpse of 90s. I guess the only factor that will affect my choice are the little perks. Do I take Sky's cheaper first 12 months, or do I take BT's £125 gift of a disposable debit card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bagsta69 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 If I was any good at the game yes I'd love it, lol. Very rare I get lag and that connection with the r1 as well I can play in lobbies in the states with dill and fuzzy on 120 ms ping and end up in top 3 reularly. I had major pink spikes and packet loss at one point which the help of others on here got it narrowed down to the filters. Changed them out and smooth as silk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 That's awesome, yeah I love stalking these threads and learning from the old wise heads Hopefully Infinity will give me a smooth experience off the bat. That £125 could help me replace some of my stuff too, maybe a new monitor... treat myself to an early birthday present Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG__DOG Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 if you go with bt or sky and your house does not have an existing bt line they will install a brand new 1....you will get an awesome new socket *mk3 or mk4) so no need for any filters at all. I would recommend that you buy a twisted pair vdsl cable which i just purchased with the help of @Zennon and nfxcr3w and it has worked wonders. i also upgraded all my ethernet cables to cat 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 I have an old NTL box downstairs by the sofa, one of the old phone line type connectors I guess. My VM coax cable seems to come from the back of the box next to my patio doors and runs up the side of the house into my room. I can't remember exactly which site it was but when I went through the ordering process on either the Sky or BT site, I'm fairly sure one of them asked me to put in my postcode to check available services and one of them told me I have an existing phone line. Virgin's broadband only is all I've used to get online since I lived at home with my parents a decade ago and we last had a landline, so I'm not entirely sure what the NTL box represents, but I'm willing to guess that means I have a phone line laid already that's been disconnected. If I order in the next few days I can get these prices/offers, so I grouped them up together for comparison's sake: BT vs Sky broadband: 52mb: BT - £34/month 12 month contract £49 activation fee £125 gift card for ordering Sky - £27.40/month for 12 months, then £37.40/month £10 router delivery 76mb: BT - £43/month 12 month contract No activation fee £125 gift card for ordering Sky - £32.40/month for 12 months then £42.40/month £10 router delivery I'm not entirely sure if BT has a delivery fee or if you have to have an engineer (who will bring it with him) visit, but that's about the gist of it. 76mb BT seems like a bad idea as it'll be dearer than Sky throughout the entire term, but then again I'm not sure I want to go back towards the 50mb mark. The £125 card would help massively though as I'm still skint after moving and it would help me replace at least one thing that got destroyed this week. If they're similar in terms of performance then I'm stuck haha, decisions decisions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby jugs Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I too had the get out jail free card from virgin saying they are putting the price up and a attempt to justify it. the service hasn't been bad lately but a while back it was awful because of oversubscription.....which they'd never admit to. i have also had bad experiences with BT pre-fibre and TT......and i used to work for TT lol not decided 100% on who to switch too yet but zen are high up on my list this time because of their reputation, even though they're pricey... and sky are a maybe too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Oh hello Toby mate, it's oRL from the CoD forums Just got off the phone with VM. Hilarious conversation really; the woman tried to convince me I didn't understand how networking works, while trying to talk me into a friendly visit from their "professional broadband specialist". I just sat there picturing him popping round to tell me my "speeds are fine" lmao. Anyway they're sending a bag for me to return my SupercrapHub and I'm getting a refund after my last month charge so finally that ordeal's over! I'm just trying to work out how BT/Sky installation differs from Virgin's. I currently have a coax that goes into the outside of the wall behind the NTL box so that I could have a wired connection directly to my room, rather than having to rely on wifi or power line adapters. As far as I can tell BT and Sky don't use anything like coax though; there's a cable I'd need to run between my NTL box and modem, and only then could I run an Ethernet cable to my Netduma. I'd rather not have a huge Ethernet cable running from that box downstairs, up the stairs and into my room because knowing my luck I'd trip over it one night and break my neck lol, and I'd certainly rather not start making a mess drilling holes in floors and what not. Any idea if they could make use of the hole in the wall outside in the same way Virgin did, running a cable from my room, outside down the wall and into the back of that box on the wall? Or does it really need to come inside first so I can plug into the NTL box on the inside downstairs? Idk if I'm overcomplicating this or not because I'm unfamiliar with getting online with a phone line hope you catch my drift. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpz44 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 So do you not have any previously installed bt sockets,also have you checked to see if other houses have over head cables going to them if not then bt will be in the ground, I would be very surprised if a BT engineer would install a master socket upstairs, but if it's overhead wiring then they probs would Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby jugs Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 i knew it was you oRL 1) because you have youtube channel with same name 2) you have an inimitable posting style 3) lightning couldn't strike twice surely i would imagine any provider could wire you into any room of your choice, they do it for peeps in flats and bedsits so it's no different really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Nah bud, the only thing here is that old NTL box. But I just double checked on the BT website by typing in my postcode and door number and they say there's a BT phone line here? I guess it just came through that NTL branded box then. As far as I can tell all the houses on this road (there are only 12 here) have boxes on the inside next to their patio doors, and when an engineer visits he goes out to the cabinet on the road and then into the garden on the other side of that wall like they did here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 i knew it was you oRL 1) because you have youtube channel with same name 2) you have an inimitable posting style 3) lightning couldn't strike twice surely 1) doubt I'll be doing any uploading any time soon 2) I really ought to learn to mix it up a bit 3) uh yeah knowing my luck, it'll be twice, three, four or more times LOL There's a free self-install option on the order page for BT, but that would leave me stuck with a Hub plugged into the wall downstairs. I could pay £50 for an engineer visit but I'd rather not if they'd be unable to grant my wish of placing the Hub upstairs where I can run a short cable to my Duma and then my PS4. Plus if I opt for that visit I'm apparently going to have to pay £176 in up front charges. Not sure how it all added up to that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpz44 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 In that case the wiring is installed but the master socket may have been removed at some stage, is there a cable cover on any of your outside walls apart from the ntl box,as you know that's what it was before Virgin ,also I would recommend BT over sky for using 3rd party routers as sky have there username and passwords locked so can be a pain and more hassle for you to extract them, BT are now installing the new NTE5C master sockets so you should get one of them and they will give you the new home hub which you can then put into modem only mode and attach the Netduma to it,I live close to my exchange and get a constant 74mb and 17 up with a ping of 10-12, it just works... also maybe try ringing BT to haggle the price and waive the install fee as they love taking Virgin customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpz44 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Sorry forgot to add that I would not worry about the hub being down stairs, you can run a shielded RJ45 on the outside of your house with no issues but needs to be shielded,I did my mates for him as he has his gaming room upstairs and works perfect straight from the master socket but installed an openreach modem and a Netgear R7800 up there as that's what he wanted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby jugs Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 i had virgin put my internet upstairs so i could game upstairs whilst wired they did f.o.c aswell which was surprising. i'd call bt and specify that you want it upstairs and see what they say, but for that fee i'd be expecting them to put it anywhere i wanted anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Sharpz - cheers for all the info. There is a pair of cables running together on the wall outside coming down from a dish, into the wall at the back of the house, but the ends were snipped off. I'm guessing this was probably for some TV subscription the past inhabitants had. Otherwise I can't find any point where other cables have been in/out through the wall. I've tried to do some homework on sockets and as far as I can tell, people have had issues with the location of their master socket for obvious reasons (upstairs studies, cables running all over the place...). If they're now installing this new type of socket, does that mean I could ask for that point to be fitted in a location of my choosing, rather than them using the old NTL box's spot? Again I'm not too familiar with all of this so forgive me if I'm way off the mark. Just trying to find out what my options are, because the cable running up the wall and into my room from the outside was perfect for keeping my VM Hub together with all my other equipment Like I say I'm not bothered about the paid for bandwidth drop because I don't get 100mb with VM anyway, the upload is too low for me (10mb or more would be fantastic) and I really want stability for gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Toby - yeah I think I'd rather call ahead and check instead of ordering online. Better to be safe than sorry! I really don't want to have to game over wifi or powerline adapters because I want performance to be as good as possible. Funny enough I had no problem with the Hub downstairs in my big old place and using powerline adapters to get a wired connection upstairs, yet running a 1m cable directly from the Hub to my PS4 (and later to the Netduma, then PS4) after moving here was awful. Maybe the coax cable was bad or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toby jugs Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 good luck with getting it all sorted dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpz44 Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Sharpz - cheers for all the info. There is a pair of cables running together on the wall outside coming down from a dish, into the wall at the back of the house, but the ends were snipped off. I'm guessing this was probably for some TV subscription the past inhabitants had. Otherwise I can't find any point where other cables have been in/out through the wall. I've tried to do some homework on sockets and as far as I can tell, people have had issues with the location of their master socket for obvious reasons (upstairs studies, cables running all over the place...). If they're now installing this new type of socket, does that mean I could ask for that point to be fitted in a location of my choosing, rather than them using the old NTL box's spot? Again I'm not too familiar with all of this so forgive me if I'm way off the mark. Just trying to find out what my options are, because the cable running up the wall and into my room from the outside was perfect for keeping my VM Hub together with all my other equipment Like I say I'm not bothered about the paid for bandwidth drop because I don't get 100mb with VM anyway, the upload is too low for me (10mb or more would be fantastic) and I really want stability for gaming. Yer you should be able to get them to do that if there's not one in the house,the ntl socket should have nothing to do with the BT line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL317 Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 Good to know buddy thanks. Think I'll have a go at one of these live online chats to find out what I need to know rather than spending an hour on the phone to someone who probably struggles to speak English, because knowing my luck that's exactly what I'd get lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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