philgr

BT openworld has just launched in my area and as i registered v early i can get it fitted for free with a free usb modem

Does anybody have any optinions on this service, ie what is like for games like counterstrike, download times, or general problems, etc......

thanks in advance

14,500rpm

i have it and i like it, could never go back to a dial-up now. cs pings at between 30-50, and downloads are in the 50-60k range. had a few problems early on when it failed to verify the username/password now and again, and once when they were sodding around at the exchange, but been fine recently <me touches wood> another good thing is that it does n't disconnect u every 2 or 3 hours like dialups tend to.

its a bit expensive tho, if u can get a cable connection (ntl or telewest) i'd go with that.

14,500rpm

Steve Perriam

hi phil

get my icq earlier ?

m8 has just had adsl installed.

swears by it after only 2 days !

he into cs bigtime - pinging at 50 ish ! and download at 50k +

i can now get it in my area so i am going for it. £40 a month but 24/7 and dual voice data has to be worth it.

steve

Lee

Be cautious of these blokes who've only had it a few days

I've had it for months now..great when it works but when it plays up..oh my god. BT support are crapper than crap, its all farmed out to a 3rd party who take forever..I could go on forever.

I currently don't pay for my service as BT agreed it was pants.

Steve Perriam

lee

so would you not recommend it ?

i'm really fed up with a 56k modem and crap pings / lag when playing.

therefore i've been waiting for adsl.

can u mail me you views /experiences id you dont wanna post on here.

thanks

steve

stevem2k

BTopenwoe had a lot of problems in the beginning, but most complaints I've seen recently are about support, rather than service. There are a number of other DSL providers that are significantly better at service ( not mine - Demon , but that's another rant ). Nildram are supposed to be very good.
There is a list of suppliers available at

Lee

Hmm remember that its BT Ignite selling the service to other ISPs.

Steve - what do you want to know specifically ?

Kevin Greeley

And you can't have it if you're a Home Highway (ISDN) user like me

It's only available on a standard line currently.

Kevin.

Lee

heh heh I have 2 normal analogue lines here plus ISDN2E. When the engineer came to convert one of the lines to ADSL there was a lot of head scratching and "I just need to call someone" :-)

BarryK

I registered when it first appeared, so I have an installation "free" option. BUT, on the wrong phone number!!!

We have Home Highway, and they say no problem converting it (not so in the past), but the free installation has to be ordered on the number I registered. Which just happens to be our digital number and not our domestic phone number.

Now if only that nice man rings me back on Friday like he said he would, last Wednesday!

Oh well, here we go again.

BarryK

So, I rang them back.

Hooray.

I have to do precisely Jack. A geezer will come round remove my home highway, test me line and if thumbs up, fit ADSL. Otherwise stuck with ISDN.

How'd you get it fitted on a Saturday?

AlexM

Hi,

I took advantage of the free installation for early registration offer - I registered with my previous home number (where they couldn't install), but they were happy enough to honour the arrangement when I told them I'd moved to an ADSL enabled postcode.

The service (via fixed IP BTOpenworld) is ok - 8/10 for reliability, and 5/10 for customer service. I haven't noticed any performance degradation due to contention yet either. A friend who has ADSL provided by Freeserve has noticed a recent slow-down though...

Never, ever order anything from NTL/Telewest if you have a reasonable alternative.. It never takes less than 30 minutes to speak to somebody when I need to, and the subsequent execution is lamentable too (currently three days with no cable TV service and counting... *******s )


Cheers,

Alex

Dave P

so with ADSL do you still get the two lines??? It's really handy not locking one up while you're surfing....

ADSL's not in at my exchange yet, but the BT Home highway ISDN is pretty good for now...

Also I thought ADSL was much quicker than 50 - 60K, isn't that what I get on my ISDN line??

Amazing isn't it, I was the first year to take (and pass) computer science at A level and now I am totally technically inept.

Dave

Lee

you technically inept plank

on ADSL I get 58-61 kilobytes per second. On ISDN single channel I get between 7 and 12 kilobytes per second depending on the type of file (compression y'see).

don't confuse kilobits with bytes or you'll be out by a factor of 8.

You get a splitter box which is situated where the line comes into your house. One split goes to the USB modem or router. The other split is for your phone system. My entry point was at the front of the house, my PCs at the rear so the engineer swapped em with some fancy wiring :-)

engineers .. good.
support staff .. just following (like sheep) the guidelines for their job. "Can you power cycle sir" "OK lets try uninstalling and reinstalling drivers sir". lets not. just log my f'ing call and pass it to your 3rd party cos they take long enough as it is !

When its working I never see any degradation in speed, but then where I live the average age is er..dead...so probably not in wide use.

Kevin Greeley

BarryK: BT were going to charge me £99 to remove Home Highway before testing to see if ADSL would be ok. If it wasn't, they wanted another £99 to put the Home Highway back in!

Have they sorted this out so you can go straight from HH to ADSL do you know?

Thanks

Kevin.

BarryK

They told me so long as the line test had adequate decibels, it was a cake walk.

If you check their site, bottom left corner of

Dan A

Got installed a few mths after it came to my area (leeds).

Very good. Never go back to dialup if i can help it.

Crap on the support, but Alot better than cable.

But 50k a sec is quality..............Dan

roadrunner

Guys!!

The issue with ISDN and xDSL is to do with the specturm frequency on copper phone lines. With Voice, your looking at only a very tiny, tiny amount of the specturm being used thus your modem is limtied to a crap data transmission. With all the avaliable untapped bandwidth DSL technology was developed (after ISDN BRI of course).

Anyway back to the main point.
The frequency spectrum used for voice and for DSL do not overlap, so the same wires can be used for both phone and DSL traffic at once. While ISDNs specturm overlaps with the DSL specturm therefore that's why BT have to remove your Home high before installing ADSL as both technogloy can work hand in hand.

HTCAFTU

rr

[This message has been edited by roadrunner (edited 21 August 2001).]

BarryK

Drunk at 5:10pm eh RR?

Do you really mean

"ISDNs specturm overlaps with the DSL specturm therefore that's why BT have to remove your Home high before installing ADSL as both technogloy can work hand in hand."

Isn't that a bit "all youre bases are belong to us"?

What does the acronym at the bottom mean?

P.S. Shoot you later.

[This message has been edited by BarryK (edited 22 August 2001).]

roadrunner

LOL @ BarryK - had a long lunch

Basically the specturm thingy means that the bandwidth used for ISDN2e signalling on a line overlaps with ADSL signalling therefore you cannot have DSL technology running over ISDN2e.

HTCAFTU - Hope that clears a few things up
Don't ask me, I've seen some kids use it before

Shoot me later , but I won't be on your team

rr