[Paul B]

Well, sadly I'm back in the UK and again sadly I've got to un-mothball my life.

Before going away I cancelled our phone/internet/mobiles etc. so I need to set all of these back up.

Previously we used BT for both phone and broadband as it was convenient but I've got a few questions for people?

* - Firstly do bt packet shape where torrents are concerned?
* - Is this a big issue or can I just use encryption as suggested by Torrentfreak?
* - Is it worth going with another company such as newnet, to get unlimited download there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in cost.
* - Have I missed anything?

(my exchange can only handle 8 mbps I believe and my line test shows about 6.1 max)

Cheers in advance to all of the usual suspects...

[slackline]

BT do shape your bandwidth although how much this will affect you I've no idea as I've no first hand experience (some info).

Not looked at encrypting things yet as the only time I actually notice bandwidth throttling is if I'm trying to use the internet at the same time and its been dropped really low, in which case I just turn of the torrents until I go to bed at which point I turn it back on.

Can't really recommend any alternatives either I'm afraid, on Virgin who are pretty useless, but work (probably won't be looking at alternatives until I get round to moving which might happen, one day, very far away).

[Paul B]

Cheers in advance to all of the usual suspects...

[Jaspersharpe]

Don't know anything about torrents but avoid Talk Talk as they are fucking useless.

[Jim]

I know that O2 broadband is very good as they don't mess with it (well not as yet) and it is unlimited (fair usage policy tho)
If you get an O2 phone contract you get it half price or if your a very loyal customer you get it for fuck all 

[Bubba]

Newnet are great. They do no traffic-shaping of any kind and have proper support (ie not a call centre half the world away).

It's not unlimited though (on my package anyway) - you get 20gb peak allowance and unlimited off peak (2-7am). This means you have to plan any major downloading but i'm happy to do that to avoid the shaping.

[Tris]

BT do shape your bandwidth although how much this will affect you I've no idea as I've no first hand experience (some info).

I have BT business broadband at home which is provided by work. It is absolute total bollocks. BT throttle it like fuck and the contention ratio is feckin bollocks.. it is completely unusable on the weekend.

If I was getting broadband I would never in a million years go with BT..

From speaking with friends/colleagues Virgin seems to be ok. The guy I work with has both BT and Virgin - he says that Virgin is in a different league to BT.

[dontfollowme]

I am very happy with O2 - £7.35/month if you are a customer of theirs. You will need to check your telephone exchange can provide it though.

[Paul B]

unfortunately I have and I can't so 02 is scrubbed. Newnet is looking like the best option. BT have told me the line will be delayed being activated (for some reason) so I can't look into it until Fri now.

[Paul B]

Proving more difficult than I expected this:

Newnet p*ssed me off a bit on the phone. I rang and asked about an unlimited package as my exchange wasn't enabled for 24mg, I was told it was fine and they'd put me on the 24mg package and I'd just get nearer 8. When I phoned to say ok they said they couldn't offer me any kind of unlimited package and the highest package was 20Gb!

BT - well I've been trying to avoid this for now.

Plusnet - anybody? It looks like they throttle torrent traffic at peak times etc but its cheap (13.99) for 8mg and 80Gb's...

[Jim]

not cheap in my eyes

[Tris]

Interesting news for file sharing

We can’t be throttling back the speed of people's internet connections

[Paul B]

not cheap in my eyes

well its not half of fuck all but seeing as though o2 is out and I'm not a loyal customer of theirs anyway, in fact I'm not even a customer its pretty similar to what they could offer. Which they can't anyway...