Alternatives to BT, excluding cable
lostboy
cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
excellent.
We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
going to work so much!
So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
Broadband?
George Weston
"lostboy" <nemofai...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1188417389.3...@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
Do you mean "BT Broadband" or broadband provided by wires from BT?
If the former - yes, there are loads of ISPs other than BT - see
www.thinkbroadband.com
If the latter, the short answer is no. If cable is not available, then your
local loop wiring will have to be provided by BT.
You may well have access to some "halfway-house" services, using LLU (local
loop unbundling) from the exchange onwards but which still use BT wiring
from your local exchange to your home.
That's about it really.
Do some research - check out http://www.samknows.com/broadband/ for local
availability of ISPs / LLU suppliers.
Hope that helps
George
lostboy
> "lostboy" <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> availability of ISPs / LLU suppliers.
> Hope that helps
>
> George
I mean specifically 'BT Broadband'. As a lot if ISPs use BTs local
loop, does it mean they are subject I to the same latencies as BT? If
so that would be dreadful news.
What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
reputations for quality of service? What is wrong with British
Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
cable???
Hog
Because the fibres under your street and the copper into your house, and all
the local exchanges, belong to BT. Nobody else can afford to compete
nationally in the local loop.
The competing wiring infrastructure bankrupted the companies which laid it.
--
Hog
Eeyore
lostboy wrote:
> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> excellent.
I can only assume your needs are very basic in that case.
> We currently have BT and frankly it's dreadful. I should know I did a
> stint with Technical Support hotline and I had to leave, I dreaded
> going to work so much!
>
> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
> Broadband?
All the other ISPs. A BT line does not mean you have to use BT the ISP.
Graham
Eeyore
lostboy wrote:
> I mean specifically 'BT Broadband'. As a lot if ISPs use BTs local
> loop, does it mean they are subject I to the same latencies as BT? If
> so that would be dreadful news.
How have you been measuring these 'latencies' ?
But no, a change in ISP can be be totally chalk and cheese. For a top quality service
consider Idnet or Zen. Don't bother with ANY ISP that has TV adverts btw. In fact all the
'big' ISPs tend to be the worst.
> What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
> reputations for quality of service?
Both have gone totally down the tubes.
> What is wrong with British
> Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
> cable???
Your premise is not based in fact.
Graham
naza
Other Options are Probally Expensive. You could try wireless options
like satillite but is very expensive, you have to pay a lot for the
equipement and then the monthly fee, the connection speeds vary from
provider to provider, and weather effects your speed. Sky do a package
that lets people connect to them who cannot becuase the exchange is
not enabled. I dont know whether is a satillite connection but you
might want to look into it. Its the Sky Connect Package. Other options
might be HDPA, For laptop it is possible but expensive again. You have
to pay the network data charges and the max you can get is 1.8mbps,
and when your talking about home broadband thats not really great
speed.
George Weston
<snip>
> What is wrong with British Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all
> except if we have cable???
Tis the way of the world, I'm afraid, as has been explained by others.
Forget satellite - you'll have plenty of ISP options in Bristol using your
BT line to the exchange - and many LLU suppliers also.
As I said earlier, check out your local exchange for options on samknows.
Some Bristol exchanges have access to Be - they are reputed to be faster
than most, if it's speed you're after.
George
Mike
On Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:08:16 +0100, "Hog" <hog...@freenetCHIPS.co.uk>
wrote:
>lostboy wrote:
>> What about services like Demon or Nildram? I know that they have
>> reputations for quality of service? What is wrong with British
>> Broadband that we cannot escape from BT at all except if we have
>> cable???
>
>Because the fibres under your street and the copper into your house, and all
>the local exchanges, belong to BT. Nobody else can afford to compete
>nationally in the local loop.
>
>The competing wiring infrastructure bankrupted the companies which laid it.
...which , given their cherry picking of only cabling built up areas
and with no universal service obligation just shows the level of
incompetence of the cable companies and indicates the level BT had to
'exceed' to stay in business.
--
Chris.Cheney
19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:
> On 29 Aug, 20:56, lostboy <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
>> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
>> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
>> excellent.
>> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives to BT
>> Broadband?
FWIW, and I have no idea whether your criteria will be met by these:
Bristol City Council is a partner in the StreetNet network that is run
by CitySpace, see
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Community-Living/Community-Advice/wi-
fi-networks.en
At present, this seems to provide only very restricted coverage in the city
centre and does not cover residential areas. Use of StreetNet is free (but
requires a sign-up).
There appears also to be a completely separate community-run wireless
network in
Bristol, see http://www.bristolwireless.net/ There is a "larger-scale" (I
use quotes advisedly) coverage map than the one one their web page at
http://www.bristolwireless.net/images/maps/coverage_large.jpg
Any feedback on these would be appreciated.
HTH
extremete...@hotmail.com
and at least 6 other computers are connected to it.
Sometimes the internet gets really really slow, I find the only thing
that works at the moment is turning the hub off then on again, or
waiting for ages until it gets a bit quicker.
Do you guys have any ideas how this problem could be fixed?
Cheers
On 3 Sep, 16:50, "Chris.Cheney" <Chris.CheneyXXNOSPA...@tesco.net>
wrote:
> naza <naza...@googlemail.com> wrote in news:1188469690.444175.100950@
> 19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:
>
> > On 29 Aug, 20:56, lostboy <nemofairbrot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I live in Bristol, UK. Currently I live in a house which cannot get
> >> cable, therefore no Virgin/Telewest. This is extremely troubling since
> >> in previous houses I have had cable and the service has been
> >> excellent.
> >> So what are the decent, reliable and feasible alternatives toBT
> >> Broadband?
>
> FWIW, and I have no idea whether your criteria will be met by these:
>
> Bristol City Council is a partner in the StreetNet network that is run
> by CitySpace, seehttp://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/content/Community-Living/Community-Advi...
> fi-networks.en
> At present, this seems to provide only very restricted coverage in the city
> centre and does not cover residential areas. Use of StreetNet is free (but
> requires a sign-up).
>
> There appears also to be a completely separate community-run wireless
> network in
> Bristol, seehttp://www.bristolwireless.net/There is a "larger-scale" (I
> use quotes advisedly) coverage map than the one one their web page athttp://www.bristolwireless.net/images/maps/coverage_large.jpg
Eeyore
extremete...@hotmail.com wrote:
> I live in largs, in south west scotland, and im connected to a hub,
> and at least 6 other computers are connected to it.
> Sometimes the internet gets really really slow,
Actually, sometimes it does but I suspect you really mean "Sometimes our connection gets really really slow". Do you understand the
difference ?
> I find the only thing that works at the moment is turning the hub off then on again, or
> waiting for ages until it gets a bit quicker.
> Do you guys have any ideas how this problem could be fixed?
Who's your internet connectivity provider ?
If cycling the power on your hub REALLY makes a difference then there's a fault but I suspect it doesn't actually make a difference, it
simply enforces a short wait after which the conditions have changed.
Graham
JohnW
19g2000hsx.googlegroups.com>, says...
>I live in largs, in south west scotland, and im connected to a hub,
>and at least 6 other computers are connected to it.
>Sometimes the internet gets really really slow, I find the only thing
>that works at the moment is turning the hub off then on again, or
>waiting for ages until it gets a bit quicker.
>Do you guys have any ideas how this problem could be fixed?
By "hub" what exactly do you mean? Do you have a router with
an inbuilt modem, such as http://preview.tinyurl.com/qwbe3
(Zyxel)? Do you use Wireless to a wired, Ethernet, connection
to this "hub"? What speed does your Internet connection run?
What ISP are you connected to and what package (some throttle
the connection based on use)?
--
JohnW. - just down the coast from you <g>
Replace the obvious with co.uk in 2 places to mail me.