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BT Infinity?
coozer - 2/4/14 at 09:14 PM

Thinking of moving from Sky for my broadband to BT for the fibre optic Infinity thing..

Anybody done this? Just wondering how it goes.. price is about the same and the attraction is BT Sport and ESPN included. Plus obviously infinity is much faster than standard broadband.


kingster996 - 2/4/14 at 09:28 PM

I am with bt infinity and it is very fast. Get 70mb down and 20mb up. Been pretty reliable too.


McLannahan - 2/4/14 at 09:46 PM

I made that move too. It's quite good, not cable good...I would have done that out of preference if it was available. I have the BT Youview box too. There's plenty enough channels and the interface is good. It's a little slower to react than Sky and I do need to reboot the box once a week but it's cheap, and I'm happy in general with it!

I don't really miss Sky and as said, BB speed is good and it's reliable too.


kingster996 - 2/4/14 at 10:11 PM

Mine is easily as fast as cable, was on vm before house move to non cable area. Uploads are twice as fast which is good for me being a web developer.


craig1410 - 2/4/14 at 11:56 PM

I'm using the same fibre to the cabinet technology but with a different ISP, Zen Interenet. Zen are widely regarded as the best UK ISP and I can certainly recommend them. My Dad and a good friend use BT having previously been with Zen and have had problems with speed and reliability. As with most things, you get what you pay for.
Zen isn't cheap but there are better options than BT (eg. Plusnet). Have a look at the ratings on thinkbroadband.com


snakebelly - 3/4/14 at 06:49 AM

Another vote for Zen, I use them for business, we have them supplying broadband to a couple of blocks of flats we manage the it for and never had a technical issue in over 5 years, also use them for hosting, as said not the cheapest but you get what you pay for.


David Jenkins - 3/4/14 at 07:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
... there are better options than BT (eg. Plusnet).


Strangely, Plusnet manage to out-perform BT in many ways - even though they are owned by BT, and use the same infrastructure!


Slimy38 - 3/4/14 at 07:37 AM

I stayed with Sky but moved to Sky Fibre, which is basically rebranded BT infinity. Performance wise it has been spot on, but the main reason for staying with Sky was the 'unlimited' side of things. BT infinity is/was capped remarkably low, I don't know what it is now but it's definitely worth checking first. Had I been with BT I would have hit the cap every single month (IT consultant working from home)


kingster996 - 3/4/14 at 08:02 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Slimy38
I stayed with Sky but moved to Sky Fibre, which is basically rebranded BT infinity. Performance wise it has been spot on, but the main reason for staying with Sky was the 'unlimited' side of things. BT infinity is/was capped remarkably low, I don't know what it is now but it's definitely worth checking first. Had I been with BT I would have hit the cap every single month (IT consultant working from home)
I am on the top BT Infinity package 70mb ish and no limits. Originally was on their limited package but went over in under a week (IT/Web dev usage!).

Personally, no real problem with BT - only issue I have had in over 1yr was due to the physical cable attached to my property causing intermittent connection. They fixed it within 24hrs.


Daddylonglegs - 3/4/14 at 08:15 AM

We moved to BT Infinity about 4 weeks ago. Getting between 12 and 35Meg DL and around 5-8M upload so not as fast as some, but much better than with wired BB.

We have also had issues with the box needing resetting a couple of times a week, it seems that when we go to On Demand, if the Internet drops, then the box needs resetting before it will work properly. I intend to give BT a call and see what they have to say. But on the whole it's not too bad.


wilkingj - 3/4/14 at 08:34 AM

I am biased..... I worked for BT for 41 years, and was part of the BT Internet launch (and pre launch trial) in 1994.

So I have had BT Internet from before day one!
Its always been reliable, and rarely goes wrong.

I have just upgraded to the FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) and have copper for the last 1/2 mile or so. Whilst not on the top package, I get a steady and contsant 43.8 Mb download and a good 7.8Mb upload.

I have yet to see anyone who gets the FULL advertised up/download from ANY ISP. I am happy with what I get for what I pay.

My mate in the same village, has full FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) and gets about 75Mb Down and 18.5 Up. He pays a lot more than me, and has static IP addresses with ZEN. He also rates Zen and has been with them for a good while. He is also Technical Manager for a Computer company.
I have known him for over 35 years, and respect his knowlege and judgements when it comes to computer /Internet things.

So thats another +1 for ZEN.

For me, reliability, and service is worth more than a little extra speed.



EDIT.... If you have a BT Hub, leave it on ALL the time. Its does things in background like optimising the speed, and diagnostics. Not a lot, but I never turn mine off.
Sometimes, I have to restart my box (not a full reset to day one data) and this will often clear any speed issues I have had, but not always as it depends where the problem is.

[Edited on 3/4/2014 by wilkingj]


daveb666 - 3/4/14 at 08:49 AM

I wish I had the opportunity to get BT Infinity.

My exchange has nearly 7,000 residential homes on it and isn't even 'planned' to have Infinity rolled out to it.

The exchange on the other side of the village has just over 7,000 residential homes on it and has had infinity for nearly 6 months.

It really pisses me off that BT are already shouting about Infinity 2' - they should be forced to make sure all exchanges are upgraded to Infinity 1 first.


kingster996 - 3/4/14 at 09:57 AM

quote:
I have yet to see anyone who gets the FULL advertised up/download from ANY ISP. I am happy with what I get for what I pay.
I just did a "speed test" and got 38 down, 18 up - and pretty happy with that tbh as I notice the upload speed when transferring large video files up to client's web sites etc. I have had over 70 download in the past (but don't check that often!)

When the engineer was here fixing my external cable issue, he did a test to exchange/cabinet (whatever) and reported that it was "as fast as you can possibly get round here - 80 down and 20 up" - so I guess it is 'capable' of what they advertise, but the interweb itself can be a limiting factor I reckon.


wilkingj - 3/4/14 at 10:17 AM

quote:
Originally posted by kingster996
I just did a "speed test" and got 38 down, 18 up - and pretty happy with that tbh as I notice the upload speed when transferring large video files up to client's web sites etc. I have had over 70 download in the past (but don't check that often!)

When the engineer was here fixing my external cable issue, he did a test to exchange/cabinet (whatever) and reported that it was "as fast as you can possibly get round here - 80 down and 20 up" - so I guess it is 'capable' of what they advertise, but the interweb itself can be a limiting factor I reckon.


You are absolutely right, the Internet is only as fast as the slowest link (connection) in the chain.
Bearing in mind you could be passing through half a dozen different carriers / ISP / networks to get to the destination.
If the speedtest site you are using is NOT in the same ISP's "cloud" as you then you are subject to the slowest link rule.

The Internet, is made up of leterally hundreds of thousands of ISP's and carrier companies. Its not "one" network controlled by any one company.
I am sure that "Grannies" and "eggs" is completely correct here!


Geoff


jeffw - 3/4/14 at 11:52 AM

I have two FTTC connections, one with Plusnet and one with BT. Both of them are 75Mb/s down and 18.5Mb/s up....


coozer - 3/4/14 at 04:32 PM

I live in No 26 and No 31 is at the end, just round the corner is a green box with a 'Fibre optic inside' sticker on it so thats about 150/200 metres away.

Do they run it through the existing twin copper cable or run a FO line into your house?

I had a slow/connection problem with my Sky broadband at the start which was fixed in double quick time by the BT engineer. Turns out he lives in the next street and asked me if I seen anyone in the green box at the end of the street! He rang me up after to say he'd found a loose wire in the box and its been rock solid ever since! What a guy.

Package I'm looking at is the 38mb with a 40gb usage, price is similar to sky but is optic and includes BT sport and ESPN!

Did a speed test last night on my current broadband and got 8.9mb down and /0.87mb up so should be MUCH faster I reckon.


David Jenkins - 3/4/14 at 06:02 PM

I'll let you know how I get on - I have a BT man due to turn up and install FTTC tomorrow morning! Currently getting about 5 - 6 Mbs, so it will be interesting to see what I end up with.

(BTW: I'm on PlusNet)


jeffw - 3/4/14 at 07:30 PM



Fibre to Cab and then copper the last mile. BT are trialing 300Mb on FTTC. There is also FTTP for business use in certain areas.


David Jenkins - 3/4/14 at 09:07 PM

The local cabinet is less than 1/4 mile away, so it should be interesting...


coozer - 3/4/14 at 09:12 PM

Well, I've done it, paid the money so its coming.. 17/04/2014 to be exact


David Jenkins - 4/4/14 at 12:28 PM

Well, here's the result of the upgrade:



Not at all bad, considering I had just over 5Mb/s before.

In addition, the Openreach bod moved my master socket from an incredibly inconvenient place in the porch to a position just under my desk, which was a huge bonus.
(It actually made life a lot easier for him, too)


jeffw - 4/4/14 at 01:13 PM

Nice nice....it takes a few days to settle down.


chris mason - 4/4/14 at 03:23 PM

Think we need some fibre round this way
Local exchange has it and apparently they're taking orders now for fibre, so hopefully the green box will be ready soon



Slimy38 - 4/4/14 at 03:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by chris mason
Think we need some fibre round this way
Local exchange has it and apparently they're taking orders now for fibre, so hopefully the green box will be ready soon





I think it's great when you go from being slower than a certain percentage, to being faster than a certain percentage...I went from slower than 83% of GB to faster than 71%.

David, how on earth did you get a 0ms ping? If ever I play call of duty I'm never playing against you!!


jeffw - 4/4/14 at 03:48 PM

The 0ms ping is a fault with the speedtest and not a real figure. 8ms seems about right for FTTC


David Jenkins - 4/4/14 at 05:22 PM

The ping indicator went across very quickly!

In subsequent tests the ping has been between 10 and 20ms, which seems more sensible. It's really nice to be able to play YouTube videos in 1080p and see the buffer filling way ahead of the 'play line'. Here's the latest test, after letting it settle down for a while:



I had one minor gotcha when the Openreach man did his stuff - I had drilled some holes and installed some trunking so that I could run some ethernet cable in the same route, expecting him to use the old-fashioned BT cable that had a really small diameter. Unfortunately nowadays they use a higher spec 4-pair cable and it's almost as thick as the ethernet cable I'd planned to run; the holes in the walls are looking a bit 'snug'. Still, it's not an insurmountable problem.

[Edited on 4/4/14 by David Jenkins]


coozer - 17/4/14 at 04:55 PM

So, its been on now for 2.5 hours, seamless switch over. No hassle from any side (was expecting some grief from Sky)


britishtrident - 17/4/14 at 05:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
I'm using the same fibre to the cabinet technology but with a different ISP, Zen Interenet. Zen are widely regarded as the best UK ISP and I can certainly recommend them. My Dad and a good friend use BT having previously been with Zen and have had problems with speed and reliability. As with most things, you get what you pay for.
Zen isn't cheap but there are better options than BT (eg. Plusnet). Have a look at the ratings on thinkbroadband.com


Zen are fine until something goes wrong
The most expensive ISP in the UK I my experience they are very reluctant to call in BT engineers for line faults.

A few years back they had a major security breach in their accounts department they had a rougue employee sold thousands of customers credit card details.

[Edited on 17/4/14 by britishtrident]


Simon - 17/4/14 at 07:32 PM

Got BT Vision and internet recently. YouView so unreliable we still haven't cancelled Sky !

Must remember to call and have a massive moan.

ATB

Simon


beaver34 - 17/4/14 at 08:00 PM


ours has been great, box needs a reset once a month but thats it no issues


britishtrident - 18/4/14 at 07:08 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Simon
Got BT Vision and internet recently. YouView so unreliable we still haven't cancelled Sky !

Must remember to call and have a massive moan.

ATB

Simon

You View is a dead end most of the original consortium have abandoned it.

Get yourself a Roku USB stick or if you want to flash more cash a RoKu3 nb Don't bother with the Roku 1 or Roku 2 as they don't do Demand5 or ITV Player.

There is also the £10 to £15 NowTv box which is a Roku LT with restricted firmware, it will give most of the free to air catch-up TV services but the subscription services are restricted to SKY/NowTV so no Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant