Potential Customer - couple of questions

[Myst]

Hi Guys

I'm looking to swap ISP's at present.

I'm currently with Madasafish, and other than getting as a rule asian call centres who know very little other than reboot your router to every issue they have been ok.

Still not 100% sure where i will end up but here was recommended and seems to be born out judging of the thinkbroadband site.

Other potential ones are O2, Plusnet or BT (cough spit)

My main use is gaming on the pc, with the kids on various consoles.
Would Idnet be a good home for this kind of set up? Also if i was to give it a whirl, is the 1 month notice genuine or is there any small print to be aware of?

Thanks

[Inactive]

Hi Myst and welcome to the forum.

I can only answer part of your questions, others will answer in full in a short time.

The " one month " part is 100% correct, if you are not happy with IDNet, you can leave without any hassle.

I was with Plusnet ( part of BT ), I have been at IDNet for about 2 years now, completely happy with the excellent service.

[Simon]

Hi Myst, and 

Can't add to what Inactive said above, except to say that I've been happy with IDNet for just over a year now. 
No one is perfect, and there have been occasional problems, but we can guarantee that you won't be directed to an Asian call centre, and that customer services are always very supportive.

[Rik]

Hi Myst

Welcome to the forum.

As In and Simon has said, IDNet give a good service with a real person on the end of a phone at Letchworth if you do have a problem. Generally, latency is good, the network is guaranteed to be free of contention (though BT are doing their best to negate that) and the 30 day notice is just that. You could give it, if you wanted to, a couple of days after migrating in, and IDNet wouldn't make life hard for you.

IDNet, however, is not ideal for anyone who wants to download the entire internet daily, an Enta-reseller would be better in that case. They should be able to offer ADSL2+ products next month, for those on upgraded exchanges. Otherwise, is you want the higher speeds, then O₂ would be better for you.

Apart from an unlimited number of email addresses, you also get free webspace, blogspace and photo album with most packages.

[DarkStar]

Hi Myst,
I have been with IDNet for nearly two months now and haven't regretted it at all. This IDNetters forum really is the icing on the cake.
Apart from that I migrated in from Fast.co.uk (I was previously with MAAF) and after getting very variable speeds with Fast I can honestly say that with IDNet my speeds are consistent within a couple of mbps day and night 24/7.
Short of BT buying them out  I'm staying put,

Ian

[Simon]

Thanks for the positive report, Ian. 

[vitriol]

I'm a PC Gamer and I also have Xbox360 with Live, I've had jno problems latency wise.  Always get very decent pings especially to UK servers.

[Sebby]

Welcome to the forum, Myst.

I would say IDNet are amongst the best IPStream ISPs, and I can't imagine you'd be disappointed. As Rik says, they have a network guarantee, though BT are playing games at the moment in the run up to 21CN and WBC.

As far as LLU goes, I've heard good things about O2, although what I can say is that their support won't be as good to deal with as IDNet's! But they're very different ISPs at the end of the day.

What's your line like? Could you post some stats? If you've got a good line you could get interleaving switched off, which would improve pings (something, I gather, that's essential for gaming).

[cavillas]

I have been with IDNet for nearly 3 years now and have enjoyed the experience throughout.  They have introduced free web space, photo space and blog space since I first joined and things have never dropped below perfect, except for a couple of things out of Idnets control but which were cleared up quickly.

I have been recommending Idnet for a long time now and will continue to do so.

Welcome Myst.  Are my eyes clouding over?

[Myst]

Thanks for the quick replies;  it shows the feeling towards here very positive, thanks for taking the time to voice your opinions.

I think i shall be signing up shortly and see 1st hand.

Sebby, results below from speedtester.bt.com, i would agree with the result, its about what i get fairly consistently- is that enough or are there more comprensive reports to be found elsewhere?

Ping is certainly an issue, i tend to get between 60-75 as a rule on my dedicated box which is hosted in London, where as others can get in the 20's and the majority of UK players between 35-45.
I'm about 1.5 miles from exchange.

Test1 comprises of Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
   Your DSL connection rate: 2272 kbps(DOWN-STREAM),  448 kbps(UP-STREAM)
   IP profile for your line is - 2000 kbps
   Actual IP throughput achieved during the test was - 1829 kbps

Thanks again

[Sebby]

Ah, so you're on a 2Mb fixed product. Could you post the stats from the router?

[Myst]

Signed the dotted line so hopefully in a few days i'll be connected here

As far as i'm aware my present service is meant to be on an up to 8mb service rather than a fixed one

Router info.

ADSL Link                    Downstream                 Upstream
Connection Speed            2272 kbps                448 kbps
Line Attenuation              49 db                      15 db
Noise Margin                   2147483647 db          14 db

[vitriol]

if you post the ip of your london based server I'm sure alot of the netters will post ping and tracert stats to it.

[hairyman]

Hi Myst

Looks like you are on a fixed rate 2meg service at the moment.

If yr line atten downstream of 49 db is to be believed yr line may be poor or long but I dont think your Downstream noise margin of 2147483647db can be right perhaps a reboot of the router and a repost would be useful. The line attn and snr may then change.

Idnet are very very helpful and would recommend fully. O2 are also super especially if they have their own gear at yr exchange as then you can get a very good deal if you have an O2 mobile ( even a payg mobile will get you a 8meg service for just £7.50 a month so long as you top up £10 every three months I think).

Idnet seems the best ISP using the BT ipstream product at a fair price.

[Sebby]

You can probably expect around 5Mb sync, so around 4Mb throughput, Myst. I'd look into replacing that Netgear router, though. They typically sync too high at the expense of the noise margin - yours is currently negative, but Netgears can't report it properly.

[David]

Hi Myset  I cannot add anything accept to say I moved from a not so great isp earlier this year,I have cut my teeth on call centers abroad they had me do everything bar whistle a tune down the phone.A good learning curve for me.I had got my list down to 3 I think and after a lot of looking and a lot of reading came here,and Im not talking about this forum (this comes as a free bonus)

The support here imho is second to none,when my router was set up I had problems with my line and not only did Bt engineer call Idnet,support then talked me through the whole thing,which is not easy in my case.I have always had brilliant service here with my uninterupted and not capped in any way service and It would take a lot for me to consider any other.

Any of us can leave at anytime with just a months notice...you really cannot lose.

Well thats my halfpennies worth I dont envy you making the choice.Im glad I made the right move.
You only get one karma but I like stereo so much 

[Myst]

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 2496 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 50 db 15 db
Noise Margin 13 db 14 db

Thats following a reboot
I do have a D-Link although have never used as i have never thought i had an isse with the Netgear

Vitriol, the IP is 81.19.219.120

Again, thanks all for taking the time, i appreciate it.
On the strength of the replies i have now passed on my Mac code so will soon see 1st hand
An additional  plus side of here is a new place to spam...i mean write creative prose

Cheers guys

[Sebby]

Hmm, so you're not on a fixed 2Mb service, you're already on Max by the look of it, and it seems like it might not be the Netgear that's to blame after all, but rather a lot of noise causing the downstream sync to be reduced (coupled with the fact that there may have been some instability, which has caused your target noise margin to be pushed up, causing you to sync lower, in an attempt to stabilise the connection).

What's your setup like? Are you plugged in to an extension socket? Do you have a BT master socket with a removable lower half?

[Myst]

Can't remember what the socket is, although i think yes the lower half comes off, i can suss that in morning. Don't want to go wandering around the house as kids / wife asleep.

Other that that i have an extension running upstairs into a socket, this one does by looks of it havehalf that comes off. Netgear wired into that - pc wired connection into router. laptops / consoles are wireless although not on that often.

Also have sky wired in off the master and main phone on a filter.

[Sebby]

The master socket would be the first socket where the line comes into the house. Are you sure the one upstairs isn't the master socket, and the cable runs downstairs to an extension?

[Myst]

The one upstairs used to be a 2nd line afaik. I'm sure the people we bought it from used it as a home / office. Since we have been in the line was dead until last year when i had it connected to the socket downstairs

[Sebby]

Okay. Well if they've just wired to that socket from the real master socket (so it's now an extension), that's not the one we want to remove the faceplate from. If possible, determine where the line enters the house and hopefully the socket will look like this:

[Myst]

I'm 99% certail that is the type thats in place.
Will have a look in the morning m8 and post from work, off to hit the sack now as up at 6
Also i'm sure you have better things to do than stay here to  keep replying to me. Tis appreciated though all the same.

[Simon]

Don't worry, Myst, we're here to help.  Well, the ones that know what they're talking about, like Sebby are anyway.  The rest of us just tag along for the ride. 

Just looking at your user name, and noting you're a bit of a gamer, can I ask, does it refer to the games of the same name?

[Sebby]

I'm 99% certail that is the type thats in place.
Will have a look in the morning m8 and post from work, off to hit the sack now as up at 6

Okay, no worries.

Also i'm sure you have better things to do than stay here to  keep replying to me. Tis appreciated though all the same.

Like sleep? I prefer to stay up.