BroadBand Question

[Jon_in_london]

So, Im thinking of dragging my arse into the 21st century and finally getting broadband.

I have two options-

1. 1Mb with a 2Gig per month limit.
2. 512Kb with no limit.

So which is the best? They are the same price- How much slower is 512 in practice and how much can you do with 2Gigs a month?

Thanks.

[Capsid]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
So, Im thinking of dragging my arse into the 21st century and finally getting broadband.

I have two options-

1. 1Mb with a 2Gig per month limit.
2. 512Kb with no limit.

So which is the best? They are the same price- How much slower is 512 in practice and how much can you do with 2Gigs a month?

Thanks.

Go for #2, 512k is quite fast for most surfing, and it will be very irritating if you reach that 2 Gb limit.

[El Greco]

I agree. At times I download 2 GB per day. For simple surfing you will notice no difference at all. For casual surfing, most times the servers you're connecting to are not even able to max out 50Kb, let alone 512KB.

[Donks]

Originally posted by El Greco
I agree. At times I download 2 GB per day. For simple surfing you will notice no difference at all. For casual surfing, most times the servers you're connecting to are not even able to max out 50Kb, let alone 512KB.
I have a 512k connection, and I routinely download 3GB per day.

[malbui]

Another voice here for taking the 512K. It's more than adequate for daily surfing, and I pull all my big downloads (recently I've got the iso images for Solaris 10 and Fedora Core 3, for example, at a couple of gigs each) down overnight. Bandwidth caps are a pain.

[Theodore Kurita]

You'll be better off with the 512KB.

Trust me, you'll be better off in the long run, especially if you download lots of media, like I do.

[Jon_in_london]

Thanks for that folks.

The 512 option is AOL. I have heard horror stories about AOL- is it actually that bad?

[asthmatic camel]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
Thanks for that folks.

The 512 option is AOL. I have heard horror stories about AOL- is it actually that bad?

Yes.

[Wudang]

What the camel said. have you looked at http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

My brother has AOL and a typical session when I use his PC goes
"What the (rule 8)? What (rule 8)ing (rule 8) son of a mutated (rule 8) that was (rule 8)ed up the (rule 8) by a (rule 8)ing (rule 8) came up with the notion that this (rule 8)ing pile of (rule 8) (rule 8) masquerading as a piece of software should act in such a (rule 8) (rule 8) (rule 8) way? I'd rather let a (rule 8) (rule 8) my (rule 8) with a (rule 8)(rule 8) than have anything to do with this."

[Soapy Sam]

Jon, I use Nildram's 512K unlimited. I know other Brits here do too. It's not the cheapest, but I've had no complaint about it in the year since I got it. I would say this though:- Do you see yourself downloading a lot? Some months, I download nothing apart from blasted Windows updates.

I think I would still go for the 512.

By the way, talk to your mates- some companies offer bonuses for new customer referals.

What about hardware? Router/modem? Wifi?
I strongly recommend a router modem. And remember with increased time online comes increased exposure. Are your firewall, AV and Spyware programs up to date?

[Wudang]

According to this table (http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/summarylist.asp?order=tco512k) Nildram are still a lot cheaper than AOL. £212 per year as opposed to AOLs £270 TCO for 512.

[Smike]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
Thanks for that folks.

The 512 option is AOL. I have heard horror stories about AOL- is it actually that bad?

I have it. The connection itself is generally fairly reliable.

Just don't use the software. You'll have to have it open to get on the internet, but just minimize it and use a different browser.

[heath]

I twenty-second the 512 unlimited option. 2GB may sound like a lot but it isn't.

I use www.plusnet.co.uk for my 512 unlimited. Excellent uptime and service, good price etc. Highly recomend them if you can get them in your area.

[asthmatic camel]

Originally posted by Smike
I have it. The connection itself is generally fairly reliable.

Just don't use the software. You'll have to have it open to get on the internet, but just minimize it and use a different browser.

Ye-e-es, but, have you ever tried to uninstall the software? Definitely not a job for the amateur.

[geni]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
Thanks for that folks.

The 512 option is AOL. I have heard horror stories about AOL- is it actually that bad?

Depends. If you want to go trolling AOL has to be the ultimte ISP. No one can block your IP without taking out the whole of AOL and the shear number of useres often makes that impractible.

[Interesting Ian]

Originally posted by Jon_in_london
So, Im thinking of dragging my arse into the 21st century and finally getting broadband.

I have two options-

1. 1Mb with a 2Gig per month limit.
2. 512Kb with no limit.

So which is the best? They are the same price- How much slower is 512 in practice and how much can you do with 2Gigs a month?

Thanks.

2Gb! :eek: That's nowhere near enough. Option 2 without hesitation.

[Soapy Sam]

"2Gb! That's nowhere near enough. Option 2 without hesitation."
-Interesting Ian.


Ah! Now we know why you need that double layer DVD writer.:D

[Darat]

Just found out I'm being upgraded "within the next 7 days" to 2Mb, which is good news, but then they are introducing a 15Gb limit - which is bad news (no more all day internet radio playing in the background :( )

The creafty logic always makes me smile.

[Soapy Sam]

You can get a decent digital radio for about 50 quid.

[Darat]

Originally posted by Soapy Sam
You can get a decent digital radio for about 50 quid.

No digital reception in my area and very poor analogue reception, damned annoying.

[Interesting Ian]

Originally posted by Darat
Just found out I'm being upgraded "within the next 7 days" to 2Mb, which is good news, but then they are introducing a 15Gb limit - which is bad news (no more all day internet radio playing in the background :( )

The creafty logic always makes me smile.

:confused: Surely radio won't take up that much? I agree its damned annoying though. I'm being upgraded to 2M too sometime from March 14th from my current 750k. A 30Gb a month limit is being imposed though :( I have absolutely no idea how much I use up now, but can't imagine it's near that amount for most months. But still, it's the principle of the thing. It's nice not to have to worry about it.

[Darat]

Originally posted by Interesting Ian
:confused: Surely radio won't take up that much? I agree its damned annoying though. I'm being upgraded to 2M too sometime from March 14th from my current 750k. A 30Gb a month limit is being imposed though :( I have absolutely no idea how much I use up now, but can't imagine it's near that amount for most months. But still, it's the principle of the thing. It's nice not to have to worry about it.

I was surprised, I used the BT "calculator" here: http://www.bt.com/broadbandusage/ and with my radio use added in it appears I use about 20Gb a month. :(

[DickK]

Originally posted by Interesting Ian
:confused: Surely radio won't take up that much? I agree its damned annoying though. I'm being upgraded to 2M too sometime from March 14th from my current 750k. A 30Gb a month limit is being imposed though :( I have absolutely no idea how much I use up now, but can't imagine it's near that amount for most months. But still, it's the principle of the thing. It's nice not to have to worry about it. You're right Ian, it doesn't use that much. A while ago I worked out a couple of numbers for a friend who was looking at broadband with a cap: Listening to JazzFM uses ~210MBytes/24 hrs, and playing a 52 player Battefield1942 game, ~1 GByte/24hrs. Your mileage may vary.

edited to correct shaky memory