True Unlimited Broadband in the UK? 144
Tango42 asks: "Next (academic) year, I'm going to be living in a student house with 4 (inc. me) heavy internet users. I can see us potentially using 50-100GB/month. Do you know any UK ISP that will accept that kind of usage without claiming it's abuse under some 'acceptable use policy'? We're willing to pay a bit more that we would on more restrictive ISPs, as it's divided 4 ways, we just don't want to end up getting cut off or throttled for going over the limit on an 'unlimited' account."
Maybe (Score:5, Informative)
BY are great (Score:1, Informative)
Best ISP I've ever had. Never had any OS issues before I started sharing either ( never had a windows PC )
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
iproute2/tc, not iptables. http://www.lartc.org/ (Score:1)
not iptables so much as iproute2/tc.
http://www.lartc.org/ [lartc.org]Wondershaper can be a wonder, tho I have found that it can be improved somewhat by rewriting the concept in perl (Python should work too), rather than bash. Makes it more flexible. Use your language of choice of course, so that you understand it.
IPtables cannot do shaping, although you can use it alongside iproute2/tc with MARK.
Be Unlimited 24 Meg Broadband (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Maybe (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
But, I'll add my vote to BlueYonder/Telewest.. Had Broadband in since it started, and not really had any issues with it..
The only ones I did were hardware related (they had a fault due to corroded copper in a service pit just outside the house.. Took about 5 engineer calls until one of them fixed it correctly)..
Last time I checked, the phone in support desk doesn't support Linux, but you just tell them you're using Windows, and answer the questions they have using Linux tools.
Th
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
How public spirited! Thanks! (Score:2)
So from everyone, thanks for that!
After all, there's nothing else you'd be doing running P2P and disc duplicators, is there?
(PS - this is an attempt at humour and should not be taken seriously or internally)
Re:How public spirited! Thanks! (Score:2)
The link's a client's tho who I'm trying to draw traffic (or at least, google rating, although it doesn't seem to be working)... perhaps I should include a "my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of..." disclaimer in my sig too?
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
Now
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
I'm living in Leith and have the 30 quid package, mostly because the previous owner/tenants had all the cabling already installed. I can max out the incoming connection too.
I can't say I've ever had to call their customer support, so I dont know how good they are. But I guess saying that I've had no problems in two years is something.
They have occaisional outages. I think I've seen maybe two mornings where I had no internet in the past 18 months. Frustrating since my neighbours open wireless link also
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
Re:Maybe (Score:1)
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
Blueyonder have always been quite a nice ISP, in my experience. Back in my dial-up days I had unlimited dial-up from them on a second line and I left it connected pretty-much 24/7 and they didn't seem to care. I figured this was because I got my telephone line from them as well, so it wasn't really harming them. At about that time all of the BT-based "unlimited" ISPs were using automatic cutoffs every hour or two, whereas I'd keep connections up for weeks at a time. It doesn't really suprise me that they'd
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Maybe (Score:2)
I Agree, BY best in UK (Score:2)
No (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry
Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
But anyway, don't take the piss with peer to peer maxing your bandwidth all month and I doubt you'll have a problem.
(p.s. Just noticed "unlimited" also applies to the lower connection bands as well.)
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
So you rightly have pointed out that perhaps the only truely unlimited service is offered by NTL and Telewest but you are not actually disagreeing. NTL and Telewest are connections not actually made through BT's infrastructure but their own cable (originally TV) network, wh
Re:No (Score:2)
Re:No (Score:1)
Re:No (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No (Score:3, Informative)
That's utter rubbish.
Whilst all the lines are owned by BT, when they were privatised by Maggie Thatcher in the 1980s they were put under the supervision of OFTEL (now OFCOM, I think) which was given the job of ensuring that BT doesn't behave in a monopolistic manner. For this reason BT have to provide lines to ISPs on reasonable terms - in f
Re:No (Score:1)
Sounds like you're already on their latest accounts though.
Re:No (Score:1)
I stay with Eclipse because no other ISP has ever given me less hassle than they do. Their only black mark is botching my transfer when I moved houses.
Re:Off topic sig comment. (Score:1)
Re:Off topic sig comment. (Score:2)
Re:Off topic sig comment. (Score:1)
Re:Off topic sig comment. (Score:2)
Re:No (Score:1)
Re:No (Score:2)
Ofcourse, since BT are a pain to deal with a lot of ISPs use third parties as the go between with BT, companies such as easynet, griffin and entanet... Who offer a range of plans, both traffic limited (fixed cost for a line regardless of speed, and you pay for traffic usage) and unlimited (where faster lines cost more)...
Currently i have 2mb unlimited, and i run it flat out pretty much 24/7.
Re:No (Score:2)
The whole industry is based around buying X mb of bandwidth from BT, and then reselling it on to customers, expecting the customer to use a fair amount of it - not to use all the 2mb that they are given. This overselling is common as you'd be paying £100 a month for a 512Kb connection if they
Price (Score:2)
ADSL Max service with a 50 GB/month limit are probably not making a huge profit - they're relying on
many customers using less than the limit. They have a much more expensive unlimited "business" version.
ISPs can avoid BT's bandwidth charging by "unbundling" exchange lines: they put their own equipm
Seems like it shouldn't be a problem... (Score:3, Funny)
Connection Reset by Host - Over Bandwidth Limit
Re:Seems like it shouldn't be a problem... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, remember to support bridge building!
Easy solution (Score:2)
Get some sturdy seats--preferably recliners with build-in cup holders--and you should be fine.
nildram 50GB limit (Score:2, Interesting)
English equivalents of US units (Score:1, Interesting)
Sir Dude, what's the English measurement for Mega-byte? I mean, that's the US measurement and all, but isn't a mega-byte in the English system like, "X stones per pound per nut of wire diameter" or something?
Re:English equivalents of US units (Score:2)
Re:English equivalents of US units (Score:2)
Business plans (Score:3, Funny)
I hear plans for businesses tend to actually give you the limit you pay for, and without throttling... I think the reasoning is that businesses are paying for bandwidth that they NEED for their mission-critical ... things (sorry I only took business 101, and I ran out of buzzwords). Anyways, MY thoughts on this are, if you were an ISP, would YOU want to cut off a business when they might train their lawyers on you? I thought not.
At any rate, you should look into it.
Re:Business plans (Score:5, Funny)
In order to facilitate the delivery of high-end dependable data services, a forward-facing enterprise connectivity provider will rapidly leverage their contractual provisions to mitigate against otherwise impending client bandwidth-insolvency.
Now the programmer inside me makes me hate myself
Re:Business plans (Score:3, Informative)
my friend uses them and he has an ace connection with low latency and low connection ratios.
their business boradband doesnt seem to have a limit (the 8Mb service) and tbh 512k^h^h^h^h 8Mb should be enough for anyone
http://broadband.nildram.net/products/pro/?is=hp-
Prodigy Networks (Score:2, Informative)
It's wires only, so you will need your own filters and modem, but the prices and service are great.
HTH
ADSL Guide UK [adslguide.org.uk] has some good recommendations.
Re:Prodigy Networks (Score:1)
High Usage (Score:1, Insightful)
Bandwidth is not everything (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How about (Score:1)
Re:How about (Score:2)
100GB/mo == 256kbps (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:100GB/mo == 256kbps (Score:1)
Assuming 1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes we get 0.03125 MB/s
0.03125*60*60*24*30 = 81000MB per 30 days. Roughly 81GB.
Of course that is running 24/7 at the maximum theoretical speed of the connection, which is never going to happen.
Bitrates, Powers of 10 vs. Powers of 2 (Score:3, Informative)
Business vs. Non-Business (Score:2)
don't use tiscali (Score:2)
I recomment a QOS Router (Score:2)
Re:I recomment a QOS Router (Score:2)
I also set up port forwarding on address ranges to different IPs, for example,
20000-20999 -> 192.168.1.20
21000-21999 -> 192.168.1.21
Then, anything that someone wants to run on their machine, they just set the port within that range (most listening programs will let you specify a port to listen on). New services can be added no problem without having to configure the
Get BE 24mb adsl (Score:2, Informative)
Between the 3 of us in the house, we use around 150~200Gb a month for the past 5-6 months without any complaints from BE.
They've been good to us, give them a try.
Re:Get BE 24mb adsl (Score:1)
How much are you prepared to pay? (Score:5, Informative)
One month minimum contract (useful if you are only staying in the house for 10 months)
No bandwidth limit
Excellent technical support
Max ADSL - up to 8Mb/s, depending on your distance from the exchange and quality of the circuit.
Happy Zen Customer (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How much are you prepared to pay? (Score:2)
Those might be of interest. I'm a happy blackcat customer.
Plusnet (Score:2, Interesting)
And the referrals program means you may end up not even having to pay for any of it. Tell them negativezero sent you.
Re:Plusnet (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Plusnet do allow true unlimited downloads from midnight to 4pm though - they throttle it during peak time when mum and dad are downloading emails and surfing for their new vacuum cleaner, so its understandable the CEO wants to give them a good surfing experience (they pay lots for little usage after all) witho
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Ditto, I was going to mention plusnet. Although by the looks of things you got a better deal than I did!?
I was paying £30/mo for 2 meg -- but it was two years ago that I signed up (and a year ago I quit) so I guess their pricing has been forced down by competition.
Anyway, I paid as much as £30 because it said unlimited and it meant it. I used over 100GB/mo (just me!) and they never batted an eyelid.
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Plusnet do have usage limits they just hide them in a 'Sustainable Usage Policy'
On their PLUS package you pay £14.99 a month and are capped at 10gb
On thier Premier package you pay £21.99, £29.99 or £39.99 for 15gb, 22.5gb or 30gb caps.
These caps are on peak time usage, initially this was afternoon/early evening for a 4 hours or so. It is now 4pm until midnight and can be changed on their whim. At one point it was 4pm
MOD PARENT UP (Score:2)
I joined them about 3 yrs ago because at that time I considered them one of the most technically aware ISPs - but with the gradual throttling of any protocol that's not HTTP or POP3, a
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Re:Plusnet (Score:2)
Demon (Score:1)
One thing to n
Not so (Score:1)
Freedom 2 surf (Score:1)
It's reasonably cheap too, I pay £17.99 a month for 512k-2M and although they technically have a 10gig per month limit, I use about 50 gigs per month and
I'd leave F2S for a while... (Score:2)
Maybe try in a few months when they've had a chance to boost their support staff...?
Tiscali horror story (Score:2)
You may be able to get out free after 9 months instead of 12!
If you're only in the student house for one year, you only really need the connection for about 9 months, i.e. not over the summer afterwards. Most ISPs contracts are 12 months, with terms that you pay the remaining months to get out early, so as useful as just paying and no one receiving the service.
However: Me and 3 others signed up for Tiscali's
Easy (Score:2)
I had even > 300 GB in some months, and never got any complaint, but I'm in Germany.
Kosi
Simple idea: Get a life! (Score:3, Funny)
But this is some serious downloading, shouldn't you be spending your money on cidar, and banging fat chicks at students parties? Throwing up your guts after the quid nights, passing out in someones garden?
Bulldog (Score:2)
Be broadband would have to be my other choice though. A guy who works with me does some stupid stuff with his line and doesn't have any problems.
Berny
UKOnline (Score:1)
Well There is a way (Score:2, Informative)
Hi,
There certainly is a way todo this. Theres going to be 4 of you ?
So if you each pay £20/month towards a net connection it should not be a problem to enter into
an unlimited bisness grade account which dont have caps / limts etc.. but they do cost around £80/month or more.
All BT ADSL Lines in the UK charge the ISP's for data form the exchange to the ISP at a rate of around £300/mbit per month. This is why the limits exist.
I have been looking at moving away from my current ISP because they
AOHell (Score:2)
this is just what me freind told me you might want to make sure first, as AOL are a bunch of cowboys.
Black Cat Networks (Score:2)
http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/services/adsl [blackcatnetworks.co.uk]
And native IPv6, incase you're really geeky
Be Unlimited (Score:2)
Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells (Score:1)
Zen Office 8000 Max of course (Score:2, Informative)
Screw unlimited (Score:2)
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:3, Informative)
I chalk it up to:
1) Competition:
a) DSL in the area is very competitive price-wise, they don't do 8Mbps accounts, but they do 1.5Mbps for under $15.
b) Some bordering communities have FIOS available, mine does not, but Comcast may not be smart enough to dist
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:1)
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:2)
1TB is approximately 400 movies at DVD quality.
Re:maybe, maybe not (Score:2)
Re:Funnily enough, AOL (Score:2)
Wise words! Just the other day I tried to VNC into a laptop on an NTL connection and had to literally wait about 2 minutes for the screen to draw. The laptop had nothing bandwidth intensive going on at all either.
Further to that NTL force proxy all their web traffic through a cache. Serious b/w issues there.
The owner of the laptop plugged into a BT ADSL connection at his other location and we tried VNC again. Nice and fast!
NTHell!
Re:bandwidth abuse (Score:2)
Unless he's on a cable modem, in which case he and his geographic neighbors share a fixed pool of bandwidth. In other words, his level of usage makes all his neighbors' internet experience that much less satisfying.
Also, while it's true that p2p systems favor the nearest host, it's also true