Broadband - what provider to choose?
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Broadband - what provider to choose?We're currently looking at choosing a broadband provider for our flat in the centre of town - who did you go with if you're living in town this year? any recommendations or any to avoid?
We're looking for unlimited downloads and a fairly decent speed (but doesn't have to be super fast), and cheap would be a bonus! We're currently looking at Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky. Thanks! -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?That's what I thought so I posted in the Loughborough thread hoping someone would have some recommendations.(Original post by ThrashMetal)
Alot depends on the area you live in but I think from that list, if you also get TV and Phone Sky is very cheap and I think it's quite good / reliable.
We can get pretty much any provider I think being in the middle of town and we had Virgin Media last year (living about 1/2 a mile away) and were getting about 14-16 mbps speed. -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?Virgin is pretty much the only decent student choice, since they do the 9 months and they don't require you to buy a phone line either. There's a guy in Loughborough whose like "the student rep" or something - he gets commission for signing students up, but he will sort you out on the best package. We pay £28 a month for the 60mbps package. We've always had really decent speeds even during peak times.
PM me if you want that guys details.Last edited by Diminutive; 18-09-2012 at 12:11. -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?It will vary enormously depending on what time of day it is and how many other people are online (and to some extent, whereabouts on campus you are). 10-15mbps seems fairly typical in my experience, though it can occasionally drop as low as 1-2. On the other hand, I've had some slightly better results...(Original post by Tyles)
bit off-topic OP, but thought worth posting here: does anybody know the download speed of the internet in halls (preferably Royce hall)?
This one was in halls:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1919332883.png
And here's one I did on campus one day...
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1514605489.png -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?All of the on-campus halls have "Hallnet" which is basically JANET to connect to the internet. Because of the way it works, you can't really say its XY speed as you can with conventional ISPs. It's basically very fast, lol. You aren't meant to torrent/download 'warez' as they put it. For standard browsing it's super fast, for gaming it's really good (always had really good pings).(Original post by Tyles)
bit off-topic OP, but thought worth posting here: does anybody know the download speed of the internet in halls (preferably Royce hall)?
There were times I may have been a little naughty and accidentally used usenet at like 4amand was getting speeds in excess of 30MBps (so thats the equiv of having a 240mbps internet connect). It's worth making sure you have a gigabit network card that can do 1000mbps (since it can easily saturate a 100mbps card) if you care about that kind of things =)
Also, if you're into computers/gaming/general geekery you should join LSU computer society! We have awesome LANs -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?Woah i'm impressed with that speed!...and I looked at the LSU computer society! but i'm not sure you play the same games as i do(Original post by Diminutive)
All of the on-campus halls have "Hallnet" which is basically JANET to connect to the internet. Because of the way it works, you can't really say its XY speed as you can with conventional ISPs. It's basically very fast, lol. You aren't meant to torrent/download 'warez' as they put it. For standard browsing it's super fast, for gaming it's really good (always had really good pings).
There were times I may have been a little naughty and accidentally used usenet at like 4amand was getting speeds in excess of 30MBps (so thats the equiv of having a 240mbps internet connect). It's worth making sure you have a gigabit network card that can do 1000mbps (since it can easily saturate a 100mbps card) if you care about that kind of things =)
Also, if you're into computers/gaming/general geekery you should join LSU computer society! We have awesome LANs
Also, so downloading torrents is strictly not allowed? I suppose it should be really lol. thanks for your reply!
Those speeds are fantastic. thank you(Original post by Potally_Tissed)
It will vary enormously depending on what time of day it is and how many other people are online (and to some extent, whereabouts on campus you are). 10-15mbps seems fairly typical in my experience, though it can occasionally drop as low as 1-2. On the other hand, I've had some slightly better results...
This one was in halls:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1919332883.png
And here's one I did on campus one day...
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1514605489.png
Last edited by Tyles; 18-09-2012 at 13:14. -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?(Original post by Tyles)
Woah i'm impressed with that speed!...and I looked at the LSU computer society! but i'm not sure you play the same games as i do
Also, so downloading torrents is strictly not allowed? I suppose it should be really lol. thanks for your reply!
Those speeds are fantastic. thank you
The official rules say absolutely no torrenting.... and torrenting is pretty easy for them to pick up on because of how the traffic looks . Some people still do it, some people get away with it and some people get caught. I'd recommend looking into usenet, you download directly from a single server rather than individual peers. There's advantages like always getting a constant fast speed, and it appearing as standard SSL encrypted internet traffic - so IT services can't tell what you're downloading or from where. Disadvantages are that it's harder to use, you have to pay for a server (you can get it for £5 unlimited per month) and some people find it harder to find content.
In terms of LSUCS, there's a wide range of people who all play a massive range of games. The main popular ones at the moment i can think of are - TF2, LoL, Dota2, minecraft, l4d2 and Guildwars2.
But there's so many others as well... like uh, i dunno, i see everyone playing crazy stuff that I don't know what it is =D I've just been solidly playing GW2 (we've got a Gw2 guild) so I've no idea what the non-GW2ers are up to!
So much of the LAN is atmosphere and meeting people. There's things like the pub quiz which are for everyone type thing =) We have a guy that always brings he's crazy controller thing and plays fighting arcade game things, and another whose racing game mad and brings his full steering wheel/pedal setup and does track time competitions.
We also have a super fast network at our LANs, that we all share our linux distributions over
Lots of linux distribution sharing going on at LANs!
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?I always recommend Sky; been with them for years - always great customer service and never any problems. I would also say NEVER go with BT; I was with them for 10 months before Sky and I had more problems in those months than in years with Sky.
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?talk talk, o2, orange, plusnet all come to mind. have you tried uswitch.com?(Original post by LouboutinLove)
We're currently looking at choosing a broadband provider for our flat in the centre of town - who did you go with if you're living in town this year? any recommendations or any to avoid?
We're looking for unlimited downloads and a fairly decent speed (but doesn't have to be super fast), and cheap would be a bonus! We're currently looking at Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky. Thanks!
http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/
stick in your postcode and see what the prices are, and then look for online reviews of a few of the companies
Good luck!
P.s. whatever you do, avoid bt and aol - they're terrible! -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?I might have to check out this UseNet thing then, if it's worth getting so i might be needing your help again at some point haha i'm not very good with computers. I've got GW2, i played it for the first 4 days, got to 77 and I just haven't been at all motivated due to lack of apparent end-game content. I play Dota 2 so i guess that's kind of cool, stuff like CSGO I like, but I'm primarily known for SC2, I played it competitively at events such as Insomnia(Original post by Diminutive)
The official rules say absolutely no torrenting.... and torrenting is pretty easy for them to pick up on because of how the traffic looks . Some people still do it, some people get away with it and some people get caught. I'd recommend looking into usenet, you download directly from a single server rather than individual peers. There's advantages like always getting a constant fast speed, and it appearing as standard SSL encrypted internet traffic - so IT services can't tell what you're downloading or from where. Disadvantages are that it's harder to use, you have to pay for a server (you can get it for £5 unlimited per month) and some people find it harder to find content.
In terms of LSUCS, there's a wide range of people who all play a massive range of games. The main popular ones at the moment i can think of are - TF2, LoL, Dota2, minecraft, l4d2 and Guildwars2.
But there's so many others as well... like uh, i dunno, i see everyone playing crazy stuff that I don't know what it is =D I've just been solidly playing GW2 (we've got a Gw2 guild) so I've no idea what the non-GW2ers are up to!
So much of the LAN is atmosphere and meeting people. There's things like the pub quiz which are for everyone type thing =) We have a guy that always brings he's crazy controller thing and plays fighting arcade game things, and another whose racing game mad and brings his full steering wheel/pedal setup and does track time competitions.
We also have a super fast network at our LANs, that we all share our linux distributions over Lots of linux distribution sharing going on at LANs!
I guess we're moving away from the thread topic now, but anyway thanks alot! Once i move in next week at some point i'll check it all out !
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?Sky is great, only 7.50 for unlimited which actually means unlimited and the speed is ok most of the time. Just recently our speed has dropped but I have no idea why, i just need to ring them. For the most part of the year the speeds been great
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?Oh that's really awesome, do you know Shibby by any chance? He's also a comp SC2 player, he's like 8th-ish or something in the UK (though apparently played awful at I-46 so don't know if he got de-ranked). He comes to our LANs though, as his brother is an LSUCS member. =) I played minecraft competitively at I46 haha =D I was in the final of hunger games, got to play up on the stage and everything =D haha(Original post by Tyles)
I might have to check out this UseNet thing then, if it's worth getting so i might be needing your help again at some point haha i'm not very good with computers. I've got GW2, i played it for the first 4 days, got to 77 and I just haven't been at all motivated due to lack of apparent end-game content. I play Dota 2 so i guess that's kind of cool, stuff like CSGO I like, but I'm primarily known for SC2, I played it competitively at events such as Insomnia
I guess we're moving away from the thread topic now, but anyway thanks alot! Once i move in next week at some point i'll check it all out !
cough yeah, so the topic.... yeah broadband is awesome =D -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?virgin purely for the fibre optic so you get reliable speeds.
When i was with BT, the speeds were ****, 1mbps and I live in london (it was using copper cables though).
With virgin media (had them for four years) and we get 20mbps consistently (if it does drop, it will drop to as low as 15mbps). Virgin uses fibre optic which is the way forward. -
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?loool yeh i went I46 but as a spec this time, I won some COD4 ffa tour and got some goodies wooo haha, I was in my prime a little before Shibby at around I43, I got to the semi-finals of a cup, But yes I know Shibby, just as I stopped playing to concentrate to get my A-levels he started getting good and more active in the UK community because all the UK players used to be quite close together, we've never played at each others best though(Original post by Diminutive)
Oh that's really awesome, do you know Shibby by any chance? He's also a comp SC2 player, he's like 8th-ish or something in the UK (though apparently played awful at I-46 so don't know if he got de-ranked). He comes to our LANs though, as his brother is an LSUCS member. =) I played minecraft competitively at I46 haha =D I was in the final of hunger games, got to play up on the stage and everything =D haha
cough yeah, so the topic.... yeah broadband is awesome =D
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Re: Broadband - what provider to choose?Sorry people, will do(Original post by Potally_Tissed)
This is straying slightly from the topic
Probably best to continue by PM 
Lots of linux distribution sharing going on at LANs!
Probably best to continue by PM 
