FTTC now available, want to move from SKY, few questions....

[shorn]

Thanks for the welcome, and for the many helpful replies I received. I will keep you updated with how things go!!

[Rik]

 

[vbed]

Hi Shorn,



On the speed thing, I went live on Wednesday. The BT checker suggested 33 down 8 up and 5 minutes after switch on I was getting 37 down 8 up. The BT engineer said in the 6 months+ he'd been doing FTTC installs he hadn't connected anyone sub 30

Ed

[Simon]

  Shorn.

[shorn]

Yey! Had my order confirmation come through today, and I have been given a "committed" delivery date on 24th January. All good so far.

Out of interest, I signed up for the Home Pro Fibre package. Now this obviously attracts a monthly download limit. How does this limit work? Is it on a month to month basis, i.e. the limit resets at the beginning of every calendar month, or is it a rolling 30 day period?

I'm sure i'll be fine, but having moved from an unlimited package, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on things, especially as I have upgraded with the ATV in mind. I'm sure the HD movie rentals will use a fair bit of the peak time allowance.

[Simon]

 

[Rik]

The download allowance runs from the 1st of each month, Shorn.

[Bill]

I have upgraded with the ATV in mind. I'm sure the HD movie rentals will use a fair bit of the peak time allowance.

IIRC you can download the movies on to your hard drive during off-peak and have a month in which to watch them. I've never actually rented anything from iTunes though, so I'd suggest you have a look through the rental T&C's.


Edit- found the relevant bit:

(ix) Film Rentals

(a) Film rentals are viewable on only one device at a time. You must be connected to the Service when moving film rentals, and you may do so only between your computer and other compatible devices. Films rented using your Apple TV or iPad may not be moved. If you move a film to a compatible device and then use the Service to restore that device, or choose Settings > Reset > Erase all content and settings on that device, the film will be permanently deleted.

(b) You have thirty (30) days after downloading a film to begin viewing. Once you begin viewing, you have forty-eight (48) hours to finish viewing the film. Stopping, pausing, or restarting a film does not extend the available time for viewing.
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[Anton]

I'm sure i'll be fine, but having moved from an unlimited package, I guess I'll have to keep an eye on things, especially as I have upgraded with the ATV in mind. I'm sure the HD movie rentals will use a fair bit of the peak time allowance.

Two things:

1. The IDNet RSS feed is really useful - it puts you in control and gives you a daily update on bandwidth used, so you can actively manage your usage. I found I was using just a little more than the 30gb peak cap product, but rather than worry about over runs upgraded to the 50gb cap. I have no problem and now always have 5-10gb free at the end of the month (so download like crazy from 25th onwards ;-).

To give that context, I work from home via VPN (and Outlook is pretty chatty at the best of times), download perhaps 5 or 6 itunes rentals a month and both my partner, myself and my eldest are heavy net users often all three of us online for a couple of hours in the evening.

2. Apple TV rentals, being 720p are typically 700mb for a SD file and around 1.25gb for a HD feature don't eat into your cap at the rate they could if they were 1080p!

The trick is to migrate anything you don't need to do in peak to off peak. For example I tend to run software update in OS X every few weeks but at 8:00am as I'm still in off-peak so software updates take place while I'm having my cornflakes!

Finally, I've managed to pick up a BT Vision+ box for free - I'm going to see if I can con it into working this evening... ;-)

[shorn]

Thats great, thank you for the replies.

With regards to the off peak downloads, I was hoping that with the faster connection speed, downloading prior to watching a movie would not be necessary. This is what will make the ATV a very much "on demand" service. I sit down with the wife at 7pm, see a HD movie that we like the look of, click "Rent" and off we go. So obviously this would be streamed at peak time.

But if its reset at the beginning of the month, then that makes it pretty easy to keep track of.

[Rik]

Especially if you take the RSS feed. You'll get your daily actual usage plus a projected usage for the month.

[shorn]

Yep. I'll look into the rss feed. That will be very handy!

[Anton]

With regards to the off peak downloads, I was hoping that with the faster connection speed, downloading prior to watching a movie would not be necessary. This is what will make the ATV a very much "on demand" service. I sit down with the wife at 7pm, see a HD movie that we like the look of, click "Rent" and off we go. So obviously this would be streamed at peak time.

HD Apple TV movies launch in under 5 seconds... ;-)

[pctech]

Less time than you take to read this then.

[Rik]

Much.

[Anton]

Less time than you take to read this then.

;-)

[Rik]

We're all mad here.

[pctech]

You don't have to be of course but it helps.

[Anton]

You don't have to be of course but it helps.

So I'm starting to see! 

[Rik]

 

[Tacitus]

Especially if you take the RSS feed. You'll get your daily actual usage plus a projected usage for the month.

Just one tip - Rik might correct me on this.  The 'projected usage' on the RSS feed, simply takes the first day's (or two or three) usage and multiplies it up by the appropriate amount to give a 'projected' monthly total.  If on the first day you download a couple of OSX combo updaters and (say) a film or two, the next time you look at the RSS estimate for the month it will be wildly exaggerated, since you are unlikely to be doing the same every day of the month.

People new to iDNet tend to get worried about this, but once you realise how it works and arrange your downloading accordingly you'll be fine.

I actually had my first warning email this month telling me I would go over my allowance simply because I happened to do some heavy downloads at the beginning of the month.  In practice it levels out and few people experience problems.

[Glenn]

Tac, it bases the projection from your last 7 days usage.

If your previous 7 days rate of usage continues for 31 days then the total for the month will be:

[Bill]

People new to iDNet tend to get worried about this, but once you realise how it works and arrange your downloading accordingly you'll be fine.

Once you realise how it works you arrange your downloading to see how high you can get it to go and still stay within your allowance at the end of the month

I think my best effort has been about 85GB

[vbed]

Uploads aren't bad either and you're not restricted on them - I fell off my seat yesterday when I did an upload to Flickr for the first time since having FTTC  (it took them longer to process the pic than it did for me to upload)  

[shorn]

OK well, BT Openreach Enginner has just left. When he tested it with his bit of kit he said it was connecting at 39 down and 10 up. I'm all connected and using the Airport Extreme. First test 10 minutes ago ran in at 25down and 5.5 up,

Just a minute ago...



Heres hoping it settles down around this speed (or more!) over the next week/10 days.

Very Happy!!