IDNetters Forums

Technical News & Discussion => IDNet Help => Topic started by: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 13:50:31

Title: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 13:50:31
It's something I've contemplated for a couple of months now but this afternoon I requested my MAC from Brian and placed an order with BT.

Despite a shaky start my time with Idnet has been great and I can't really fault the service I've received from them during my 18 months but my personal circumstances have changed and I'm working from home a lot more these days and for the last few months I've found it really hard to stay with my bandwidth limits.

Once the order has been officially accepted I'll be sending Simon D an email thanking him and his staff for their help and assistance during the time I've been an Idnet customer. Should any of my friends or relatives need a new ISP I'll definitely recommend Idnet to them.

It's my intention to stay on this forum and still contribute if I'm still welcome.  :)
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Lance on Jan 26, 2012, 13:55:11
Of course you're still welcome, Griff!

Hopefully your line will be problem free so you don't have to use BT support!
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Simon on Jan 26, 2012, 14:20:31
Good luck with the move, Griff, and don't be a stranger here.  You've been a great help to many members, and I hope that your welcome contributions to the forum continue.  :thumb:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Glenn on Jan 26, 2012, 14:29:21
I would like to echo the comments from Lance & Simon.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Ray on Jan 26, 2012, 14:52:30
Good luck with your move, Griff, and you're always welcome here. :thumb:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: zappaDPJ on Jan 26, 2012, 16:20:11
I've contemplated the same dilemma myself Griff. The quantity vs quality equation becomes an issue for me towards the end of every month. I'll be very interested to know how you get on so don't be a stranger ;)
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 16:25:50
Cheers guys. I don't use P2P and as long as I don't need to call support I'm hoping I won't notice too much difference in the actual service but I'll definitely let you know how I get on.

Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: pctech on Jan 26, 2012, 16:52:47
Using FTTC 'infinity' I assume Griff?

Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Steve on Jan 26, 2012, 17:02:18
Good luck Griff, hope things work out ok. Please let us know how you get on. :thumb:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 17:06:14
Quote from: pctech on Jan 26, 2012, 16:52:47
Using FTTC 'infinity' I assume Griff?



Yes Mitch.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: pctech on Jan 26, 2012, 17:07:00
Hope all goes smoothly for you.

Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Niall on Jan 26, 2012, 20:03:39
Quote from: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 17:06:14
Yes Mitch.

I hope you get an attractive room mate too. If the advert is true, I'm getting me some of that fibre summin summin ;D
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 20:13:02
(http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/flat6/chapter_2/images/3dobjects/intro/0.png)

She could share my bandwidth any day Niall  ;)
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: pctech on Jan 26, 2012, 21:39:32
She's pretty hot, if you get 100 Meg do two arrive?  ;D
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Anton on Jan 26, 2012, 22:08:37
Quote from: .Griff. on Jan 26, 2012, 13:50:31
I'm working from home a lot more these days and for the last few months I've found it really hard to stay with my bandwidth limits.

I considered the same myself as I home work perhaps 85-90% of the time and have done for many years - I'm an IT Service Manager for 400 or so field sales agents, so it really doesn't matter where I physically work.

If the order isn't yet accepted ponder on it a little more first. I've been on the end of unreliable broadband in a work situation, VPN won't connect, line drops, outages all that stuff that comes with lesser services. In the end I'd now rather pay the extra for the reliable service because weighing it up against the cost of Petrol to  my nearest business LAN point, I pay for my IDNET sub in 5 days working at home and the peace of mind of knowing I don't have to drive out to get connected! Heck, even using free wifi at the pub ends up costing me a tenner in drink ;)

Once you start rationalising out the costs of failure (time, missed deadlines, stress, etc.) IDNet isn't a great price to pay. There is nothing more frustrating and depressing than not having BB available when you're a teleworker. so if you do take the shilling I really do hope it pans out for you.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: joe on Jan 27, 2012, 11:27:41
Griff,

Hope all goes well with your move to the dark side and that is proves worth it. 
Is your possibility of 80/20 improved by this move - I know you were a would be triallist like myself ?

Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Jan 27, 2012, 16:31:50
Now the order has gone through I sent Simon a thank you email and received a nice reply  :)

Anton - I'm quite fortunate that I've several "backup" connections I can use in the event of an emergency. I just hope it doesn't come to that.

joe - I was down to trial "phase 2" but that's obviously not going to happen now but it shouldn't be too long before 80/20 becomes available, presumably as an upgrade option, so I'll have to wait and try it then. 
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Feb 03, 2012, 11:42:48
Apparently my migration was completed at 1.40 AM. I beg to differ  ::)

Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Simon on Feb 03, 2012, 12:05:11
A bump in the road?  ;D
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Feb 03, 2012, 12:45:10
Well that's certainly surprised me.

Although I hadn't lost sync, dropped PPP and still had my Idnet IP address following some advice on TBB it appears my activation had taken place and I was somehow connected to both ISPs?!?

After a quick reboot of the VDSL2 modem and a change in the PPPoE login details I've now been assigned a different IP and it appears I'm on Infinity.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Rik on Feb 03, 2012, 12:48:23
It does. :(
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Feb 03, 2012, 12:53:38
Get ready to say bye bye to your peak time speed  :evil:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: .Griff. on Feb 03, 2012, 12:54:01
Quote from: Rik on Feb 03, 2012, 12:48:23
It does. :(

Sorry Rik..  :angel:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: sof2er on Feb 03, 2012, 14:42:08
It seems I may have to move as well, I'm already on the highest package which allows for 80GB monthly and It seems I'm already exceeding that. We have about 4 household users which do everything from gaming, downloading to streaming.

Looking at Plusnet FTTC it does seem their prices are extremely cheap, I'll wait and see what happens for a while.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: D-Dan on Feb 03, 2012, 14:53:02
Quote from: psp83 on Feb 03, 2012, 12:53:38
Get ready to say bye bye to your peak time speed  :evil:

To be honest, I've been on Infinity for several months now (not my choice but I didn't get a say in the matter), and I can honestly say that there's no peak time slowdown, and of the two problems we've had, both happened at around midnight, 1am, and both were resolved within 12 hours. It seems BT have made a better job of infinity than they made of ADSL.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Technical Ben on Feb 03, 2012, 15:18:08
Quote from: D-Dan on Feb 03, 2012, 14:53:02
To be honest, I've been on Infinity for several months now (not my choice but I didn't get a say in the matter), and I can honestly say that there's no peak time slowdown, and of the two problems we've had, both happened at around midnight, 1am, and both were resolved within 12 hours. It seems BT have made a better job of infinity than they made of ADSL.

I guess they saw the trouble of copper and thought "anything is better than the mess we created last time!"  ;D
Glad to hear the main bugs and problems that seemed to be around with the trials is gone.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Feb 03, 2012, 15:22:37
Quote from: D-Dan on Feb 03, 2012, 14:53:02
To be honest, I've been on Infinity for several months now (not my choice but I didn't get a say in the matter), and I can honestly say that there's no peak time slowdown, and of the two problems we've had, both happened at around midnight, 1am, and both were resolved within 12 hours. It seems BT have made a better job of infinity than they made of ADSL.

Do you live quite far from the FTTC cab then to get 17 Mb/s?
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Glenn on Feb 03, 2012, 15:25:07
For my 33 - 37mb, I'm about 600m from the cabinet, but those few metres are playing havoc with the ping, it was 16ms during the summer, now it's 29ms.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Steve on Feb 03, 2012, 15:25:42
I think a lot will depend on how BT Retail cope with the increasing expansion & uptake of FTTC over the coming months and years. How much will they spend on their own backbone to cope with the inevitable increased data load. It maybe a honeymoon period at present as customers will  I believe be slow to change their internet habits from adsl times to the new availability of high quality streamed content, time will tell.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Feb 03, 2012, 15:36:56
Quote from: Glenn on Feb 03, 2012, 15:25:07
For my 33 - 37mb, I'm about 600m from the cabinet, but those few metres are playing havoc with the ping, it was 16ms during the summer, now it's 29ms.

I'm about 340m from my cab, the one they originally commissioned me on was over 900m away.

Getting (full ?) profile of 38710

(http://psp83.com/pics/fttc-route.jpg)
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: TheMonkey on Apr 16, 2012, 13:14:57
So I'm moving to the Dark Side also and have signed up for BT Infinity 2. Line should get 54 down and 10 up which isn't too shabby.  I'm crushing my allowance at the moment and had no choice but to move.

Don't laugh but I signed up on Friday the 13th  :evil:  :slap:
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: Technical Ben on Apr 16, 2012, 14:09:59
Just pretend your Chinese, Hebrew or any of the other calendars. Well, except Mayan...
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: pctech on Apr 17, 2012, 14:58:03
Quote from: TheMonkey on Apr 16, 2012, 13:14:57

Don't laugh but I signed up on Friday the 13th  :evil:  :slap:

:laugh: sorry
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: sof2er on Apr 27, 2012, 18:40:51
I'm contemplating on moving as well, currently on the biggest fibre package and I'm still going through all peak usage before the month ends (100GB+) whereas my off-peak usage is only around 75 GB (300 GB).
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: TheMonkey on May 15, 2012, 16:39:22
Quote from: sof2er on Apr 27, 2012, 18:40:51
I'm contemplating on moving as well, currently on the biggest fibre package and I'm still going through all peak usage before the month ends (100GB+) whereas my off-peak usage is only around 75 GB (300 GB).

Don't go with BT. Try Zen who give you 200gig with no peak limits
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: pctech on May 15, 2012, 18:26:42
Can personally vouch for Zen, been on their ADSL for nearly two years now, service is on a par with IDNet.

Leave your phone line with IDNet though as Zen's call packages don't come close to IDNet's.



Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: TheMonkey on Jun 19, 2012, 12:48:57
Thought you guys may appreciate an update on the BT Infinity 2...

After losing Internet completely for 5 days and an indian call center telling me to turn it off and on again they sent out an engineer who fixed my issue at the cabinet where I "wasn't even connected" to FTTC but was on adsl. (even though I was when it was installed)!?

Any way. Had a solid 61mb down and 14mbup for a good month and everything seemed rosie. Its now dropped 10mb down to 51mb for no reason at all. Upload remains the same.

I'm not sure what they are up to but i'll leave it for a bit.

If you do p2p, forget about it. Its throttled to a few kb/s which they did advise anyway.

The only saving grace is that if there are issues, the BT Help community forum have a few moderators who can look internally on your behalf. They will respond within 3 working days so its not an immediate fix but does get you out of the Indian saga.

If anyone has any questions who is thinking about moving to BT let me know. Unlimited broadband is my savior but it comes at a price.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 13:34:26
Quote from: TheMonkey on Jun 19, 2012, 12:48:57
Any way. Had a solid 61mb down and 14mbup for a good month and everything seemed rosie. Its now dropped 10mb down to 51mb for no reason at all. Upload remains the same.

How far away from the cab?

If you are around 500m you will get about 50-60Mbps down.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: TheMonkey on Jun 19, 2012, 14:17:18
Quote from: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 13:34:26
How far away from the cab?

If you are around 500m you will get about 50-60Mbps down.

Its just at the end of my road. About 200 meters i'd say.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 14:34:25
Have you tried powering down the modem?

You could of had a re-sync at a noisy time of the day and forced your sync lower or BT engineering works could have cause a lower sync.

There's been alot of network upgrade works in Bristol over the past weeks and I've been getting disconnected in the early hours, this dropped my sync to 52Mbps, after restarting the modem I'm now at 57Mbps sync.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 14:36:40
Quote from: TheMonkey on Jun 19, 2012, 14:17:18
Its just at the end of my road. About 200 meters i'd say.

Also the trouble is, your line may not be 200m. BT don't seem to take the shortest routes  :-\

My cab is around 350m away, but the line goes the other way, the longer way, which makes my line around 500m to the cab  :-\
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: TheMonkey on Jun 19, 2012, 15:15:28
Quote from: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 14:36:40
Also the trouble is, your line may not be 200m. BT don't seem to take the shortest routes  :-\

My cab is around 350m away, but the line goes the other way, the longer way, which makes my line around 500m to the cab  :-\

I probably did go the long way. Shame they took 10mb away. Didn't notice any instability with my connection. Oh well.
Title: Re: Moving to the dark side..
Post by: psp83 on Jun 19, 2012, 15:20:47
to be honest, your not going to miss it  ;D

At the start of the year I would get annoyed if I lost 500k when I was on ADSL2, not on FTTC, it's like "5mb loss, who cares" lol

Anything >50Mbps is fine for me  :laugh: