Be Excellent To Each Other

We're looking at a potential house, but being in a rural area everything is 512k maximum.

Naturally not a lot can be done about this, but I understand you can get broadband packages with better contention. So although you are still stuck at 512k, you make better use of that 512k by not sharing it with 20 or 50 other people.

So would a low contention package on a 512k connection easier to live with than a standard connection?

It's kind of a deal breaker in terms of a potential move as I'd be looking to work from home and 512k seems awfully slow if I have to upload huge files.

Hmmmm.

I'd chose the house first, then worry about a net connection afterwards.

I survive on 1 -2 meg. Just download/upload things when I'm about to have an essessess.

Well yes, except one of the criteria for choosing the house is that I can work from home instead of doing 80 mile round trips to the office most weekdays. The problem is that from time to time I need to use bandwidth heavy sites such as stock footage services or upload hulking great big files (95 meg on Friday for example).

So if it's not possible to work from the house we might as well stay here on a connection that I measured this evening at 5.5 meg and have me still commute.

OK, as you were then.

I don't have a real clue about how "contention" operates, mind.

My understanding is that you might have an 8 meg line, but it's shared with 50 other people. So the 8 meg is only a theoretical limit.

I have a feeling my current office is an 8 meg at 20:1, but home is 8 meg at 50:1. So when I was using Revostock just now, being peak time on a Sunday it was running pig slow despite it being an 8 meg connection because it's peak net usage time.

So in theory a 512k connection on a 10:1 contention might not be that bad.

That's the theory anyway. But no idea about the practice!

Phone up the current incumbants and ask them. Gmail yourself a file from a zip drive or something to their computer and time it?

It's a bog standard domestic BT package, the kind I wouldn't touch with a 200 foot bargepole while wearing a chemical warfare suit! It's gonna be 50:1 for sure. And I can recall what that was like as I had a 50:1 512k here until a couple of years ago.

Maximum my local exchange allows is 2meg, IIRC. Needs must.

Most ISPs are just the basic BT package. But I understand this is BeeX and we is spesh over this sort of thing.

I am with Vivaciti, they are an entanet reseller, might be worth giving them a call.

They do business and well as home isp. Worth a punt.

If you're in a rural area with a lower population density, contention probably isn't going to be an issue.

Traditional BT ADSL packages were 50:1 (residential) or 20:1 (business). I think these are still your only options with a BT-operated connection, and if it's all that rural, you probably can't get any LLU providers.

I strongly suspect you will be stuck at 512 down / 256 up in that house, I'm afraid, unless you can find an affordable deal on an SDSL dedicated line. You're talking many hundreds of pounds a month though, I think - you should check that though.

It's not super rural, that's the annoying thing. Probably about 4 miles from the exchange, but apparently the limit for faster is only 3km which is what, about a mile?

I assume this is an unbundled exchange as I'm not with BT here but got ramped up to 8 meg about 9 months ago with no warning. When I first got this connection in 2003 I was restricted to 512 as the exchange wasn't unbundled then.

Looked at SDSL costs, ouch. Since I'm currently having to pay for two broadband connections anyway I wouldn't have an issue with going to about £50 a month, but £125 for 512k? They can get to fucking fuck!

If the place has got HSDPA/3.5G coverage, you should be able to get somewhere in the region of 3mbit with a suitable datacard or mobile device.

Ahead of you there. Had a look at the map on the 3 site and it's very borderline. It might work.

I checked the Jesusphone and it had full signal strength, but no 3G or Edge. There's a macrocell mast about a mile down the road but many rural masts omit 3G.

3.2K is 2 miles

Malc

Chinny.. Tell me to sod off if I'm prying but why are you moving now?

Is it a sell/buy jobber or rent?

Just the current climate is all. I find the property game dead interesting as it is, let alone in times of crisis like now.