[underground]

Righto, I today I received my BT Vision equipment as it turnsout I can get Freeview after all. The trouble is, the damned BT Homehub I'm currently using only has 2 ethernet ports on it- which means that it can't accomodate my NAS as well as the connection to PC and connection to the powerline ethernet adapter.

I have a Netgear DG834G sitting pretty - so, does anyone know if i could replace the homehub with this, and still have the same network connectivity? I've read that it is possible to do this and throttle the bandwidth in the BT Vision's IP address to save it from sucking everything, but I don't really know much about even simple windows networking, so I'd appreciate a bit of help if possible.

Thank you kind folks....

[dobbin]

yes yes yes! it works fine for me. And, for added confidence, I am using the exact same router you mention. Lovely.

Not had to throttle bt vision either, but that will depend how much of the on demand content you watch. its a good thing. has been invaluable over xmas.

[underground]

Nice one dobbs - it helps enormously if one uses the correct username for the account!

During setup I did find that the 'unlimited' transfer on option 3 isn't quite so unlimited- they apply a fair usage policy for excessive p2p traffic.

[Vitamin K]

Was thinking of ditching Sky - no let me rephrase that I am ditching Sky and looking at this as an alternative.

I just want regular TV, Internet and phone and would be interested in what you thought of the whole package. Also what are you paying a month (if that isn't a rude question).

Also, is the self-install OK?

Currently on TalkTalk and although they were completely crap at the beginning they seem to have sorted things out, but they don't have a tele package.

[underground]

Was thinking of ditching Sky - no let me rephrase that I am ditching Sky and looking at this as an alternative.

I just want regular TV, Internet and phone and would be interested in what you thought of the whole package. Also what are you paying a month (if that isn't a rude question).

Also, is the self-install OK?

Currently on TalkTalk and although they were completely crap at the beginning they seem to have sorted things out, but they don't have a tele package.

Quite honestly, I'm not too impressed. The 'unlimited' broadband service is still subject to fair usage if you use p2p or transfer a lot of data, which kills the transfer speed. This in turn impacts the on-demand service so as to make it not work. That's 24.99 / month on an 18 month contract (Zen internet were far better in this respect.

The on-demand stuff is pretty poor too- a bizarre assortment of programmes which to get anything like a decent set of options costs an additional 14 / month. I don't watch sport so can't comment on setanta. I found the on demand film selection quite poor too, stuff like Pretty Woman and Beverly Hills Cop, and not much 'new' on offer. The film I did watch kept freezing up quite regularly.

You then have to factor in the fact that the Freeview channels do require you to be able to pick up a digital signal through your aerial already, and that the digital signal is required for you to be able to use the PVR facility on the V-box. The whole thing also relies on you being connected to ADSL via BT Broadband so if you wanted to switch after the contract period you say bye bye to the service anyway. I would definitely advise against switching to BT broadband just to get the Vision service as it's been glitchy to say the least, although the overall speed is quite good when itisn't hit by throttling and excessive contention.

I did benefit from being able to use wireless through the Homehub, as the wireless on my Netgear router doesn't work with Vista. the trouble is however, the HH only has 2 ethernet sockets and one of those is required for BT Vision, so I couldn't attach my NAS device. I resolved the  issue by disconnecting the whole thing and giving up with trying to get on with the TV stuff. I can't get Freeview anyway.

The box itself- has to be reconfigured if you ever wish to power it off completely, otherwise it's on standby all the time and the fan for the hard disk is quite noisy, and it gives rise to artefacts on the normal analogue TV picture.

The one saving grace is the fact that part of the package includes a pair of Comtrend Powerline ethernet adapters, which are required to connect the hub to the box if they are isolated from each other- they are worth the inital £30 connection fee on their own, and I'll be keeping mine for other networking applications. Having said that I don't know how they compare to similar units; I know they are uniquely paired to each other for security reasons, so I suspect it's not easy to e.g. just purchase another one to add into the network.

Hope that helps in your decision!

[Vitamin K]

That's the most helpful thing I've read about the whole set-up - cheers. I may just go with standard Freeview and watch the kids go through cold turkey - I'm sure they'll forgive me...eventually.

Nice one, much appreciated.

[underground]

You're welcome. It's worth pointing out that Zen, who I mentioned above, had a truly[/] unlimited usage policy, for the same price per month but with only a 1 month rolling contract so no worries if you needed to leave them for any reason (which in hindsight I wish i hadn't).

[Ena]

I've just set this up at home, having switched to BTb a couple of weeks ago. I'm using my old 834G and have found the whole thing really easy to set up and use. I honestly haven't had any of the problems mentioned above.

My set-up is: 834G with LAN cables to the BT Vision box and my work laptop, plus the brilliant powerline linking to a games PC upstairs. Wireless is linked to 2 more PCs and a wii. We got the cheapest package - £8/month for 6 months then up to £18. We got the TV package at £4/month but it's free for 6 months. No other charges at all, no connection or hub fee. We get all the freeview channels. The only thing I had to buy was a long LAN cable so I could nick the powerlines for a PC.

Everything works! The on demand is good for old TV plus it has some newer stuff like Lost and all of Peep Show, but it is a bit incomplete, like no Boosh. Not used a film yet, we use lovefilm for DVDs so probably won't use the films much. The recorder works fine, but you need to add 5 minutes at the end so you get the whole prog! No glitches on on demand either.

The line connects at 7.8mbs and typical download speeds are between 4-5.5 mbs. I haven't throttled the vision box, but will keep an eye on it.

In summary: cheap and works well, but on-demand a bit limited in choice.