I really don't want to jump ship but please look at your Caps

[kerrso05]

pctech, yes you are right Xilo use BT for FTTC
I have just asked them what they charge if you go over the monthly cap and it is £1.10 + VAT per GB for overage.....which is reasonable but hopefully I wouldn't go over the 50Gbs against 30Gbs that I have with Idnet and the other thing is that their Peak time is 8.00am to 8.00pm The good thing about that is my daughter (who is the main culprit when it comes to using the internet)  comes home from work at about 7.00pm can then wait the hour and stream/download till her hearts content

[kerrso05]

Guys what I have found strange is that Idnet are keen to look after Gamers. Honestly I never thought that this company would appeal to Gamers but maybe I am wrong, maybe it's a case of "Never judge a book by it's Cover" I always assumed that Idnet was a company that had a big business clients not gamers..........again the saying for that is "Never Assume anything because it makes an ass of U and me"   

[pctech]

Gamers and business tend to have similar needs Harry, they both want the network to have low latency and be responsive, in order to deliver this the network has to be planned in such a way that it's internal and external connections are never running at full capacity and that plenty of excess capacity is available to cope with peaks in demand.

It isn't possible for a network to be designed to allow everyone to use their connection to its full capacity all the time but the vast majority of customers won't do this anyway.

An ISP will measure the amount of traffic going over each of its connections at peak periods.

So for example IDNet might notice one of its links to the London Internet Exchange has 7 Gbps of traffic going over it (a good majority of UK ISP traffic goes over that exchange)

So if we assume this link has a capacity of 10 Gbps it is said to be running at 70% utilisation.

Depending on the network management policy of the ISP and how many new signups or higher capacity connections have been ordered recently they may decide to upgrade that link.

I suspect IDNet would probably not let utilisation get even that high before adding capacity, a consumer ISP would probably let it get to 100% then look at traffic management.

In addition to link capacity router CPU utilisation has to be monitored as these are the 'engines' of the network, again consumer ISPs will probably buy something that is good enough at the time they buy it and wring the last drop of performance out of it.


A smaller, business focussed ISP will buy a more expensive, higher performance router that gives them plenty of headroom and upgrade possibilities.

[Ardua]

@PCTech. Thanks - a helpful explanation but it still doesn't explain why IDNet is so out of kilter with its main competitors regarding peak and off-peak times. From a layman's perspective, it would appear that IDNet's network utilisation is during certain times of the day closer to the 100% mark than say Xilo or AAISP. Am I also right in assuming that Netters who utilise their off-peak allocation to a maximum are possibly using torrents rather than just playing games? I am not being critical of IDNet, I am just trying to understand why they are so different? That said, I value the fact that my line runs at maximum speeds up and down for most of the day.

[pctech]

This is a personal opinion and not based on any inside knowledge.

I have no idea what IDNet's network or BT/O2 link utilisation runs at, only Simon would be able to tell you that nor indeed do I know AAISP's or Zen's utilisation.

AAISP did increase their prices last year http://aaisp.net.uk/news-vat-20.html whereas neither Zen nor IDNet did apart from adding the VAT increase, why this is I don't know, I can only assume the various smaller ISPs run their businesses in different ways and one may want to add a higher margin than another.

[kerrso05]

pctech and Ardua.......thanks for that information. pctech I think your information is spot on and explains the dilemma that Idnet are in very clearly and to be honest I feel a real "Heal" for looking elsewhere because they have always been great with me.

Also this morning I explained to my wife what I had been thinking of doing, moving to Xilo and tried to explain that this would help the pain and anxiety I face each  month when my daughter takes us over the allowance useage.
What my wife said has made me rethink and it is this:-

1 You have always been pleased with the Service you have gotten from Idnet, so why change?

2 You think the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill.....and it isn't always

3 If this is such a great deal from the new company Xilo then there will be loads taking it up and then you might find the Xilo are in trouble and may introduce traffic shaping or other methods to control your downloading

4 Idnet have said they will look at the caps after the olympics, so why not give them a chance and see what they come up with? to which I replied that Xilo have a special offer of free migration till the end of July and also Idnet have said they wont move the peak times.....to which she replied "give them a chance"

So you see the pressure is building and I don't know what to do. If I wait till after the olympics then I will lose the deal of free migration but as my wife says I might move and suddenly find that this new company Xilo can't cope with the numbers that come to them and I find that the service goes down the pan and I have a year (contract period) of bad service till I get back to Idnet
Oh decisions decisions......I just don't know what to do and now I feel worse after pctech has explained the problems that Idnet have.....and here I am walking out on them and they have served me well....oh dear, this is not easy 

[Ardua]

@pctech Thanks.

@kerrso I have been where you are. Even the thought of changing e-mail addresses became a big issue. Am I pleased that I stayed with IDNet - the answer is 'yes'. As you know, IDNet run a very good network. Fortunately, apart from visits by grandchildren we are not as a rule big down loaders. Best of luck with what ever decision you decide to take.

[kerrso05]

Ardua, thanks for that, so you can appreciate the dilemma I'm having. You say that you had a big issue with email addresses........well that also could be a big big problem for me because my work address is idnet and as I work from home part-time I need to be contacted with a simple Outlook Email address that Solicitors and clients can contact me at. They have all got used to that address and then I go and change it........yes I know it isn't hard to change and I could use my gmail address which is easy peasey but I just like Idnets......so like you Ardua I can see Emails becoming a problem 

[JB]

@kerrso05 Why not consider buying your own domain name for about £7 for two years. Names from providers such as 123Reg or Heart Internet come with included email forwarding to any address of your choice. If you move ISP you simply make a change on a web page and your email is forwarded to your mailbox on your new ISP.

As far as your family and friends know, there has been no change. The big advantage is you then have the same email address(es) for life. (eg. you@kerrso05.co.uk).

[kerrso05]

JB yes that is worth considering.....I didn't know it was a cheap as that....£7 for two years is nothing 

[kerrso05]

Mind you I don't see anything for £7.....but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place 

[pctech]

Harry, have a look at http://www.netcetera.co.uk

I use them for a domain (£5.95 for two years on a .co.uk) and £11 per year for just basic e-mail hosting, their support is also very responsive (usual response to a ticket about 20-40 minutes and that is 24-7, they are based on the Isle of Man)

1 and 1 also do cheaper but I ran into some issues and the support was found wanting shall we say.

[Rik]

Wanting an English speaker for a start...

[pctech]

Yeah

[JB]

Mind you I don't see anything for £7.....but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place 

http://www.heartinternet.co.uk/domain-names/

.co.uk domain names for £2.99 per year plus VAT = £7.18. I use Heart quite a lot, but have no connection with them. After setting up a domain name from their domain name management page you can set up any number of email forwarding options. Heart Internet were set up by the guys who established and later sold Webfusion/123Reg.

A couple of years ago when I was involved in an action group opposing the construction of a local animal products processing plant I was able to set up forwarding to all the individual members of the committee and also forwarding to a web site that I designed and maintained.

Fortunately, we won the appeal and the plant never went ahead.

Edit: After reading the posts below from Rik and pctech, I don't rate 1and1 too highly either and setting up email forwarding with them is more laborious.

[ukwiz]

Something to bear in mind when comparing packages and caps is that with Idnet uploads are unmetered and unlimited. This may not be the case for other ISPs which sometimes include upload bandwidth within the capped allowances.

I believe that the Zen packages are unmetered upload

[ukwiz]

4 Idnet have said they will look at the caps after the olympics, so why not give them a chance and see what they come up with? to which I replied that Xilo have a special offer of free migration till the end of July and also Idnet have said they wont move the peak times.....to which she replied "give them a chance"

I thought that migrations are free anyway, or don't Ofcom rules apply to FTTC?

[kerrso05]

ukwiz......it is free to leave an ISP as long as you have completed your contract but it isn't free to join another ISP so when I said "Xilo have a special offer of free migration till the end of July" I was meaning that if I was to join Xilo during the month of July then it would be free (normally it costs £50 + VAT) because they have special opening offer.

You will find that Zen and Xilo have unmetred uploads and so do some others but not all of them and you do have to take these matters into consideration.

But why are you worried because surely you aren't thinking of leaving this Great ISP - IDNET especially when it appears from your profile that you are a new netter 

[ukwiz]

ukwiz......it is free to leave an ISP as long as you have completed your contract but it isn't free to join another ISP so when I said "Xilo have a special offer of free migration till the end of July" I was meaning that if I was to join Xilo during the month of July then it would be free (normally it costs £50 + VAT) because they have special opening offer.

So there is  an activation fee charged by BT whether or not you have already been activated? ADSL transfers don't have a cost after the first installation

But why are you worried because surely you aren't thinking of leaving this Great ISP - IDNET especially when it appears from your profile that you are a new netter 

Quite simply, caps. 30GB is not enough

[Ardua]

ukwiz......it is free to leave an ISP as long as you have completed your contract but it isn't free to join another ISP so when I said "Xilo have a special offer of free migration till the end of July" I was meaning that if I was to join Xilo during the month of July then it would be free (normally it costs £50 + VAT) because they have special opening offer.

I thought that I have seen something on TBB that some ISPs were not changing an activation fee for a FTTC transfer in as the modem etc are already installed. Sadly, I cannot find the relevant thread.

[Ardua]

I thought that I have seen something on TBB that some ISPs were not changing an activation fee for a FTTC transfer in as the modem etc are already installed. Sadly, I cannot find the relevant thread.

Edit:  Found a passing reference to the fact that as of April 2012, BT Wholesale charges ISPs £50 for a FTTC to FTTC transfer but as FTTC take up expands ISPs are hoping that this will fall to the normal ADSL migration charge.

[Steve]

Also it's £40 to go back to WBC or 20CN which may seem daft but I can underside why if your a fair distance from the cabinet. It gets you away from the long term contract

[pctech]

I believe that the Zen packages are unmetered upload

That is correct.

[kerrso05]

Guys I still haven't moved and here is the reason. As you know I was looking at Xilo which seemed very good. The reports seem very good and the reviews exceptional and then they released new packages for the FTTC which at first seem very good. I particularly liked:-

Fibre+ 50GB  - 80Mb/20Mb - 50GB Peak / UM Off-peak - Standard Priority (15Mb AR) - ex £24.99   inc £29.99
Fibre+ 75GB  - 80Mb/20Mb - 75GB Peak / UM Off-peak - Standard Priority (15Mb AR) - ex £29.16   inc £34.99
Fibre+ 125GB - 80Mb/20Mb - 125GB Peak/ UM Off-peak - Standard Priority (15Mb AR) - ex £31.66   inc £37.99

The I asked this question:-

"The other thing I wanted to ask is are Uploads unlimited or is Uploading data part of the overall cap?"

and here is the answer:-

Uploaded data does form part of your usage allowance.

This has put a stop to my thoughts of joining Xilo. I couldn't have uploading data forming part of my overall usage allowance, that would mean I would smash the usage allowance of 50Gbs each month. Naively I thought the 50 Gb allowance was for Download usage only but it isn't.

So it looks like Idnet have got me for another couple of months.....roll on the Olympics till we get these new caps.....I can't wait.....we have this month past our allowance by 3Gbs and I suspect it will end up at 5Gbs.....which isn't too bad....an extra £5....I can live with that.

Look at this speed  you can't be bad to that



PS and that speed is with wifi....not bad at all

[Simon]

Perhaps the grass isn't always greener...