Questions about IDNet

doc_holiday · May 24, 2008, 09:41:26

I posted this over on thinkbroadband, but thought there might be some users here that don't visit those forums....

Its been a couple of years since I surveyed the broadband market and I'm looking around to see if I want to stick where I am. I wondered if a few happy punters and antagonists would answer a few questions about IDnet?

My current usage is between 10-20 gb a month. I don't do P2P, but rather I need good latency for video conferencing and VoIP. Ideally, I am looking for an ISP that fairs well on this during "peak times of usage" like evenings and weekends, even if I have to pay a bit extra. So with that in mind, can any of you answer the following?

1. How does IDNet fair during peak usage times like evenings and weekends?

2. What are ping times like for IDnet users in the south to London sites like jolt? I currently get about 11 to 12ms.

3. I'm not far from IDnet's offices in Letchworth. Where are their network operations? Do they have a presence in London at Telehouse?

4. How much does a block of 8 public IP addresses cost? I assume me running a couple of servers on my home office network won't be a problem?!?

Any other thoughts, impressions and advice would be useful. I don't mind hearing the bad and ugly too. No one is perfect.

TIA for any assistance you can give!

Doc Holiday

Rik · May 24, 2008, 10:03:06

Hi Doc

1 For me, 50 miles NW of London, I've never noticed a slowdown at any time, except when the local exchange has been congested

2 I'm interleaved and in the wrong place, so my ping times aren't going to tell you much.

3 IDNet are in Telehouse & Telecity, the servers are remotely managed from Letchworth.

4 I believe it's about £4pm, but I can't be certain of that. You should have no problems with running your own servers.

Generally, I would recommend IDNet to anyone who doesn't mind paying a bit extra to get a quality service. It wouldn't be attractive to a Tiscali customer though.

We tend to know the support staff on first name terms, and that includes the MDs. There are no phone queues, no scripts. Like any technology-based operation, things do go wrong occasionally, but it's pretty rare and it's fixed fast. For example, a switch failed at 1pm on a Sunday and had been replaced within three hours. When the mail server died, they had us back up and running within a couple of hours, and had fully recovered all data within three days.

I've been a customer for 19 months now, and I've only had to phone about my own connection once. The problem was down to BT playing with cables, and was soon fixed.

Not only do we know the staff by name, but also the servers.

doc_holiday · May 24, 2008, 10:26:42

Quote from: Rik on May 24, 2008, 10:03:06

3 IDNet are in Telehouse & Telecity, the servers are remotely managed from Letchworth.

I had begun to guess that from some traceroutes I had seen posted here and elsewhere.

Quote

4 I believe it's about £4pm, but I can't be certain of that. You should have no problems with running your own servers.

Yikes! That certainly throws a spanner in the works!

Quote

We tend to know the support staff on first name terms, and that includes the MDs. There are no phone queues, no scripts.

I have always tended to go for the smaller ISPs that are like this. Nildram used to be this way when they were based in Tring and in their early days in Aylesbury. Zen used to be as well. Alas, it is a dying breed and whether I come to IDNet or not, it is nice to still see this around.

Many thanks for your response. Paying £4 each month for a small block of 8 IPs is a real off putter I am afraid. I currently have 16 at no monthly cost. I may still go for it, but it makes paying a premium, even more of a premium.

Rik · May 24, 2008, 10:30:31

Check with them on Tuesday (0800 0267237). I've never requested the information, and I don't think it's available on the website, I read it in a post...

Just found the pricing:

1 Usable Static IP Address /32 £0.00/month £0.00/month
2 Usable Static IP Addresses /30 £4.26/month £5.01/month
6 Usable Static IP Addresses /29 £8.51/month £10.00/month
14 Usable Static IP Addresses /28 £POA £POA

doc_holiday · May 24, 2008, 10:42:24

Quote from: Rik on May 24, 2008, 10:30:31
6 Usable Static IP Addresses /29 £8.51/month £10.00/month

Ok many thanks. That is breathtaking! You got to want them pretty bad to pay an indefinite reoccurring charge.

* doc_holiday goes back to doing further research and a rethink.

Sebby · May 24, 2008, 11:55:34

I think everything's already been answered!

For me, IDNet might be a little bit more expensive than other ISPs, but you get what you pay for. That means consistent service and excellent support.

Lance · May 24, 2008, 11:58:40

Welcome!

What quite a few people do is run their internal servers all on the same IP but using different ports

I'm in North Essex, and my pings (with interleaving on) are:

C:\Users\Lance>ping www.jolt.co.uk

Pinging www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=58
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=58
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=58
Reply from 82.133.85.65: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 82.133.85.65:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 25ms

Peak time with IDNet is no different to to off-peak, as in it is always as fast your your physical BT line (and exchange) allows. To be honest, it is a rare that you see any complaints about IDNet, and when you do it is often a case that the person isn't very technical and is blaming IDNet for a BT problem.

Simon · May 24, 2008, 12:00:16

Doc, and what they said.

Dangerjunkie · May 24, 2008, 12:05:46

Hi Doc,

IDNet really are fantastic. Trust me, I'm difficult to please. I've been with them a couple of months now after bailing out from what that sorry shower of <Insert_expletive_of_choice_here> at Virgin Media have become. I'm amazed at the throughput I get. I'm profiled a meg slower with ADSL than I was with VM but I regularly get 6x the throughput, particularly at peak times. I wouldn't even consider another ISP now.

IDNet support is on an 0800 number. To give you an idea of how good it is I called at 3pm on a Friday before I connected to ask which modem would meet my needs best. The phone was answered in 2 rings by a real engineer, not some call centre muppet. That was the first time I'd spoken to Miriam. She worked out in seconds that I was technically literate and spoke to me at an appropriate level (rather than the patronising, treat-you-like-a-moron script from VM) If I'd been less capable I'm sure she would have spoken to me at an appropriate level too.

I'm on Home Supermax (£35 inc VAT a month.) IDNet register this with BT in the same class as a business connection so you get "priority at the exchange" over ordinary home users if the exchange is congested. I live in a decent-sized town and I've never noticed any appreciable slowdown at any time of day. IDNet promise no blocked ports, no throttling and no contention within their network (the BT part from your exchange to them is beyond their control.) The only restriction is that I am limited to 60GB of downloads a month (30 GB between 0900-2359 and 30GB from 0000-0859.) Uploads are unlimited.

Which services and how many servers are you thinking of running? I've brought everything I need to run on different machines together on a single real IP address. I'm happy to try to help you achieve the same.

If you weren't as concerned about cost you could open a Business Max account. That is £69 +VAT a month but gives you ADSL-Max (up to 8MB, same as Home Supermax) no download limit and 8 IP addresses. There is no fair usage policy with this product (you can cane it 24/7 at your max rate.)

Cheers,
Paul.

edit: Another IDNet bonus is that they are "operating-system tolerant." You can tell them you have a Mac or Linux and they will work with you. I always had to lie and tell VM that I had Windows because the second I used the L-word they would say Linux wasn't supported and that the problem was caused by me using it. I think the best one was when I said I had Linux and they guy asked me what version of Windows that was.

Dangerjunkie · May 24, 2008, 12:09:12

Duplicate post removed

doc_holiday · May 24, 2008, 13:31:40

Quote from: Dangerjunkie on May 24, 2008, 12:05:46

IDNet really are fantastic. Trust me, I'm difficult to please. I've been with them a couple of months now after bailing out from what that sorry shower of <Insert_expletive_of_choice_here> at Virgin Media have become. I'm amazed at the throughput I get. I'm profiled a meg slower with ADSL than I was with VM but I regularly get 6x the throughput, particularly at peak times. I wouldn't even consider another ISP now.

Thanks chaps. I have always paid a bit extra until I went with UKFSN a couple of years ago, so I am generally very pro premium ISP. If it wasn't for a tenner a month for /29 (as opposed to a fixed set up fee, etc.), it would be a no brainer to try out IDNet. I just have to warm up to the idea. Nildram years ago (probably still do) charged monthly as well. In principle, I struggle with ISPs charging monthly for small allotments for IPs especially with IVp6 on the way, but I'm not a customer and don't expect IDNet to change to my opinion.

This has been very helpful. I'll think it through and see where I get! Cheers pps!

Dangerjunkie · May 24, 2008, 13:42:04

Good luck whatever you decide

BTW IDNet have no contract term and accept and give MAC codes on demand so if you have an existing ADSL provider you can join for free (unless you have to pay for the BT joining fee for a new connection) and leave to somewhere else after a month if you don't like it

Cheers,
Paul.

psp83 · May 24, 2008, 13:56:49

Heres a non interleaved trace route.

Tracing route to www.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms telehouse-gw2-lo2.idnet.net [212.69.63.55]
3 117 ms 15 ms 16 ms telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]
4 18 ms 16 ms 15 ms te2-3.cr05.hx2.bb.gxn.net [193.203.5.14]
5 14 ms 19 ms 15 ms vl3953.cr05.tn5.bb.gxn.net [62.72.137.29]
6 15 ms 18 ms 16 ms gi1-1-6.ar01.tn5.bb.gxn.net [62.72.140.142]
7 15 ms 14 ms 15 ms ge-0-0-0-3801.jolt-gw.cust.pipex.net [212.241.241.14]
8 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms secure.jolt.co.uk [82.133.85.65]

Trace complete.

doc_holiday · May 25, 2008, 08:44:13

One more question to throw out to the IDNetters... can anyone tell me if IDNet allow you to configure rDNS? This would be particularly useful for my mail server.

Quote from: Dangerjunkie on May 24, 2008, 12:05:46
Which services and how many servers are you thinking of running? I've brought everything I need to run on different machines together on a single real IP address. I'm happy to try to help you achieve the same.

I run NAT on my lan and then I use public IPs for my servers. I run one public server full time, which handles mail and a few other bits and bobs and then a semi private server for various small projects. I also add from time to time another server or two to create proof of concepts or test ideas. These come and go. (serious and full time hosting is done elsewhere) Hence, the /29 makes life so easier for chopping and changing around. Yes, I could mess with port forwarding, it's just a pain.

At the moment, if I move its down to AAISP or IDNet. AA looks initially more expensive, but they include into their costs as many IPs as I want. I currently have a /28 which I acquired two years ago when I was doing all sorts of creative stuff, but it is really excess to my requirements so ideally I am looking for a solution that can provide /29. Zen (who I used to be with a couple of years ago) will give me /28 for free, but I am not nuts about being routed through Manchester. I also have an impression, which could be wrong, that their customer service is not what it used to be.

Anyhoo... aside from this going back to my overall objective I am looking for performance, the big deal is that I am willing to pay more for an ISP that doesn't grind down the evenings and weekends. My own bandwidth requirements are pretty low, I just don't want to deal with saturated centrals due to everyone downloading enough movies to fill a blockbuster!

It sounds like IDNet would be a good place in this respect.

Rik · May 25, 2008, 09:14:55

There's a thread on rDNS here, Doc. It appears that it can be done, but we never did get chapter and verse on it.

g7pkf · May 25, 2008, 09:18:38

I run my own servers and have 2 usable ip's.

one i use for my main server (web mail and acouple of specialist things)

the other for test systems that come and go.

I am on the home supermax package with the higher upload speed. That is as i "remote" into my system a lot (good job uploads are not included in the monthly allowance)

As for performance i cant fault idnet, if there is a problem they fix it and will actually Admit there is a problem not like many other isp's.

I spent many many weeks looking for a god isp and am not dissapointed with idnet, they provide a good reliable service, Maybe they don't have all the bells and whistles like some isps but sounds like me you just want reliability and performance.

they are as good as Metronet were prior to Minusnet buying them out.

and you have a PM

Dean

doc_holiday · May 25, 2008, 09:50:09

Quote from: g7pkf on May 25, 2008, 09:18:38
Minusnet

ROFL. I hadn't heard that one!

doc_holiday · May 25, 2008, 09:56:55

Quote from: g7pkf on May 25, 2008, 09:18:38
I run my own servers and have 2 usable ip's.

one i use for my main server (web mail and acouple of specialist things)

the other for test systems that come and go.

I am on the home supermax package with the higher upload speed. That is as i "remote" into my system a lot (good job uploads are not included in the monthly allowance)

It sounds like your usage is very similar to mine. I VPN into my network on a regular basis too when I'm about. You are talking me into trying it for a few months...

doc_holiday · May 25, 2008, 09:58:42

Quote from: Rik on May 25, 2008, 09:14:55
There's a thread on rDNS here, Doc. It appears that it can be done, but we never did get chapter and verse on it.

Ok, I'll just ask them on Tuesday... then if I move, I need to plan the best time in relation to using up most of the current month's tariff which is paid for... probably mid-June...

Many thanks again.

Rik · May 25, 2008, 10:00:34

Most migrations take about 3 working days, Doc, so if you allow five before the end of your current billing period, you should be fine.

Sebby · May 25, 2008, 10:42:39

Quote from: doc_holiday on May 25, 2008, 09:58:42
Ok, I'll just ask them on Tuesday... then if I move, I need to plan the best time in relation to using up most of the current month's tariff which is paid for... probably mid-June...

I'm sure they'll be able to help you out. With a lot of things, even if it's not a standard offering, they can do something.

Migrations tend to be around 3 days like Rik says (unless migrating from LLU), so around 5 days should be fine.