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On Sun, 1 Jan 2012, Neil Winchurst wrote:
On 31/12/11 19:06, Gordon Henderson wrote:On Sat, 31 Dec 2011, Neil Winchurst wrote:Thanks for all the gen about how it all works. As you say, it is probably a problem with my ISP, but I could go elsewhere and be even worse off. (Frying pan and fire come to mind.) I am using one of Fast's standard packages. They do offer Premium packages too. That would cost me £12.26 more per month, which works out at £147.12 per year! I can't justify that.You get what you pay for.So the constant download speed shown by my router is irrelevant, is that correct?Yes. Your modem is showing you the line synchronisation speed. The speed you get will depend on everything else I wrote earlier. Pay more money and you'll get a better service and it's as simple as that. GordonWell, that told me it as it is. Thanks. The main problem seems to be that I could do with a better ISP, one which would give me less contention. But there are so many out there, how on earth does anyone choose? Is it enough to go by how much they charge I wonder?
Do you really need/want to change though? Maybe you can live with it... I'm guessing you're on the £12.99 a month package with fast.co.uk. That really is right down at the bottom level in terms of packages and prices - personally, I'd barely expect carrier pidgeon for that...
However... Since you're right at the bottom of the budget level, and your exchange is BTW only, (which rules out LLU packages from e.g. Utility Whorehouse) then your cheapest option, and one I'd never seriously recommend might be to go with a combined package from BT. They'll hapilly sell you a combimed phone plus broadband (plus TV if you let them) package for what seems like a relatively cheap deal. The actual broadband shouldn't be any worse than you're on now - and from what I've heard might actually be better. You'll be signed up for a new one-years contract but they will give you a new modem/router as part of the package.
So if you're curently paying £13 a month for broadband and (I guess) the same again fo a phone line, then a cobined BT package ought to work out cheaper..
Hm. Actually, I've just had a look at the BT site and I'm not impressed. I guess things have changed somewhat since I last looked. Their "best deal" package is £16 a month plus £10 line rental - which works out at about the same (I guess).
So - stick with what you've got. Schedulle big downloads for their off-peak time (ah, which fast don't have). So keep an eye on your usage. Typically an hour of standard def TV is about 600MB, or about 1.3-1.5 GB if HD.
Entanet (via me or ukfsn, and many others) will not be cheaper by a long margin. They have 2 new packages - 1GB data cap and 3GB data caps which personally I think are rubbish, however they're £14.56 a month and £16.64 a month respectively. (Their family 30GB package starts at £19.78) this plus the cost of a phone line.
Utility Whorehouse won't be cheaper either unless you take their bundled package (20 quid a month for combined phone and broadband - however as you're not on an LLU exchange, UW have to supply them as an un-bundled services which cost more - phone is £10.75, cheapst broadband is £14.99 - Speak to Flashtek Neil...)
And I notice they're misleading on their website too - at £10.75 they are absolutely *not* the cheapest phone line rental by a long margin - if you want the cheapest use Primus saver: http://www.primussaver.co.uk/ but do google for reviews... There are whinges of their customer support (ie. you get what you pay for!)
But at the end of the day, sometimes it's just easier to stay put. Happy new year! Gordon
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