LostUser

My 12 month contract with BT Broadband is finally up and I'm looking to move away. Mainly because they hammer bittorrent traffic from 4:00p.m till at least 23:00 most days.

Plus I'm only getting 3Mbit anyway.

Are Be still any good? I know they were supposed to be one of the best with their ADSL2 and true Unlimited service but I thought I'd heard they'd started having problems recently.

boxst

My connection is still very good -- and has been for two years now.

If you are only getting 3mb, you may not get anymore with Be* as it is dependent on the same physical line from your exchange.

Steve

HankScorpio

I've had one DNS problem in 12 months and wouldn't use any other ISP.

If you want, PM me your email address and I'll send you a "recommend a friend" invite, you get free connection, I get a month free

LostUser

Hey Boxst, I understood that my 3Mbit connection would improve to around 6-7Mbit. It seems odd that they could do that but I did look in to it. Their website said I could get 10Mbit but I'm doubtful.

My router is currently on an extension socket which doesn't help. I've had 4Mbit by plugging it in to the master socket but unfortunately that's in the middle of the lounge.

But anyway, a constant 3Mbit is better than a ridiculously throttled 3Mbit.

Cheers Hank, I might do that. I did actually try that with Blknight last year and then when I called BT they told me I was tied in until April. I had no idea. I felt pretty bad for Blknight but hopefully it didn't cause him any problems.

I'll check tonight what the status of my contract is.

AndyLyman

iTrader: (1)

Fantastic ISP....

Wouldnt use anyone else.......

Andy

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

curently pay £13.50 with Be only had the odd DNS issue on them my ping in games is 25 get about 6mb down and 1.3 up great service

with me having a nipper soon I wanted to find a cheaper provider as I wont be playing many online games when I rang to cancel they lowered my BB to to £10 Result

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

This is the package to go for really, especially if your already a customer
O2 Home Broadband - Charges
And before anyone asks, O2 (Telefonica) own BE and its exactly the same equipment etc they use (though the O2 broadband desk is proven to be a little better )

Tony

spectrum48k

I've used them for the past year with ZERO problems. My client only gets 3Mbps , but as Steve says, it's all dependant on your distance from your local telephone exchange.

I find them very good, and for the 2nd internet line (fail over) I've used Nildram in the past, who now offer very good value, a good upload speed and a fixed IP address (in case you want to remote dial into your PC from another location)

boxst

And in the 'real' world, if I'm downloading a popular torrent I'll get 1.7mb/s.

Steve

LostUser

Cheers Guys. I think I'll go for it.

What I'd loved to do is re-site the Master socket but I don't fancy paying BT £150 odd.

I'd happily do it myself (although BT wouldn't want me to) but the master socket is in the middle of the lounge and the cable comes up from below so I can't get to it.

The other option is to move the router to the master socket but who wants a router sitting in the middle of the lounge. It's not even behind a sofa or anything.

As mentioned above, I've got an extra 1Mbit by plugging the router in to the master socket before.

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

My be modem matches my SKY + white box its a nice little thing - I plug it in directly then run a cat 6e eithernet cable through 3 rooms under the floor into my PC sorted PS3 is also conected with eithernet cable into modem handy as its next to it

boxst

You could put the router by the master socket and use powerline connectors to get to your computer?

Steve

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

I'm probably 2-3kms from the exchange and pretty happy with my speed and the overall service from Be.

mart360

Another vote for BE,

compared to other isp,s there customer service, whilst no frill,s is far better.

They take the time to email you when there are planned outages at your exchange, unlike other isp.s!!!!


Because they dont have "a web home page" and other associated crap along

with it, there not competing to be the "preffered choice" default home page etc.

been with them 2+ years now.

And reccomended my mum who's more than happy with her 8mb connection


Mart

LostUser

Right, just got my MAC code from BT so I'm off to Be. Cheers for the advice.

Hank, you've got PM if that "Recommend a friend" offer is still open?

StickyMicky

just had a letter from BT asking me to renew, they have said that option 3 users will get a reduction of 6.96 per month if you sign for another 12 months?

LostUser

When I called BT to get my MAC code they offered to cut my monthly bill from £22 to £19.56 and give me the new black home hub (currently on option 3). I said I can get a better service for £17.50 from Be. He said, "Shall we see if we can get the price below £17.50 then?".

I said don't bother.

He then said BT were upgrading exchanges to support up to 20Mb. Mine is being done in September.

I've got my MAC code anyway and order is now placed.

RRH

I found that the Be deal looked great, but perfomance was rubbish. That was probs my exchange in fairness but I couln't get any more than 3mb, same as BT.

I finally had enough when it kept dropping out, and ended up spending hours with a chap from Be trying to talk me out of terminating- then the line going dead.

One thing to be aware of; no matter how long you've paid them for a service that don't work, you still have to give them their crappy router back, boxed, if you leave

StickyMicky

Well after not being able to stream videos from XboxLive yet again during the night time, i have just rang BT up for a MAC code, it seams ridicules that i am paying for BT`s top broadband package and i am getting gash speeds on peak times, so i have just given my MAC code to Be.

the top Be package still looks a little cheaper then what i was paying with BT, so hopefully its all happy times from now on, they are estimating that i will get 7mb speeds, which is a hell of a lot higher then i ever got from BT (they estimated i would get 5mb and i never got that unless it was some kind of crazy lunar event.

LostUser

Hey Sticky, you should have asked someone for a "recommend a friend". You wouldn't of had to pay the £24 connection fee and they would have gotten a free month.

Mine connection is activated on Tuesday so I'll let you know how it goes.

I had a call from BT a few nights ago. They said "We hear you're leaving". I said "Yeah your speeds are rubbish". They said "We did warn you they would drop after 6 in the evening." I said "fair enough. I'm still leaving".

StickyMicky

i don't pay the connection fee anyway as far as i know as i went for the "pro" package ?


the lady at BT was trying to tell me that any provider i go to will never give an increase in speeds, i tried to explain to her that the speed is fine off peak, but i never use it off peak so its no good?

she then told me that my local exhange is due to be upgraded in july, i asked her "is this ADSL2?) and she did not know the proper name for it, as a option 3 user i would get new improved speeds and a cheaper cost (£15.56 per month she said) i asked what sort of speeds i would be looking at, and she did not know, she asked me to hold on while she found out the information 5 mins later i had more then enough in hanging on(while trying to search on what upgrades BT were due to implement), so i hung up and redialled, the next lady gave me the MAC code within a few mins.

hopefully

LostUser

I think BT will be able to offer up to 20Mbit after the exchange is upgraded. I'm not sure if it's ADSL2 or part of the 21CN network.

Don't care really. I'm off to Be ;o)

RA Dunk

ive been with nildram for about five or more years now and looking to move away from them, im on up to 8 meg and usually only connected at 1 to 1.5 if im lucky

RA Dunk

are BT upgrading all exchanges then?

Dream Weaver

I don't have any issues with BE.

I used to get max of 2mbps with Pipex (£24 a month!!) and now get between 4.5 and 7mbps with BE.

Had the DNS issues, but moved to OpenDNS and all has been well since.

LostUser

Hey Ra,

Use this link to check when BT are upgrading your exchange. It appears as the 21CN WBC Status date.

Samknows Broadband - Exchange Search

Try going to www.bethere.co.uk and entering your phone number. It should say what speed they could get you.

If you want to get a free connection (no £24 fee) then I could give you a "Recommend a Friend".

StickyMicky

it seams that my exchange has already been upgraded, so i am not sure why its taking until july for them to apparently roll out the new speeds.

the thing is, i suspect they will still throttle the service down anyway in the evenings? so what is the point in offering "higher" speeds ?

offpeak with BT i could usually get around 4-4.5mb i would be happy with this if i still got the same in the evening, instead of 786k!

StickyMicky

how fast should this switch over take?

they said 2-4 weeks

but they have already posted out the router to me according to the website, after that its "take payment" and "activation"

LostUser

Mine is about 2 weeks. I got an email pretty quickly with the activation date.

StickyMicky

arghhhh, started downloading "HellBoy 2" in HD from xbox live this afternoon, i think at around 70% compleated the notifaction popped up to say i could watch the film from this point onwards, i assume it works out, how fast its downloading and computes this against the legnth of the film ?

anyway, we left it until the film was 93% compleated before we started to watch it (5.4gb file iirc)

got to near the end and it started buffering checked the guide and in 2 hours its only went up to 95% 1% per hour

BT must have started throttling again will be glad when this is all sorted out, still not seen the bloody end of the film yet