Broadband Advice

[Steph]

I would appreciate it if you guys could help me out a little here as I'm not very wise in the ways of good broadband haha.

Currently (you will probably all laugh at this) I am with Tesco Broadband and have a SpeedTouch Thompson router or something (came with it) for roughly 4-5 years and am looking for something better. My connections on Xbox are really dodgy and recently I can't even connect wirelessly to it because that feature effed up or I stood on the ariel.

If anyone has any suggestions and/or advice on the matter, I would be extremely grateful as I have looked over a lot of sites including comparison ones and it's quite a lot for me to take in. Should maybe try looking for 'Broadband for Idiots' guide or something.

But I am looking for it to be capable of online gaming (xbox) and connecting to my laptop simultaneously. The latter connection being wireless would be preferable. But I would like it to have an ethernet port because that wireless connection device thingy for the xbox is extortionate and am I eff buying that as it stands, if I'm honest. The download has to be unlimited for me and regarding the speed ... mine said it was 50mb but is it hell ... might be the speed it connects to the PC or something. But yeah, speed, I'm not so sure, I don't know what's best to go for ...

So if you guys have any advice on the matter, or even just tell me what you currently have/what it can do etc, it would really help me decide.

[Jason]

Ok, first things first, have a look here (http://www.btbroadbandinformation.com/bt-postcode-checker/). It'll tell you what speeds you can achieve in your area - it's no good getting a 20MB package if your line can only handle 8mb.

After that, you'll want to have a look around at the various packages. For online gaming and light surfing simultaneously you'll probably not need more than a 2MB connection. If you want to be downloading or streaming video at the same time, I'd look at upping that to approximately 4MB. Realistically, unless you're doing almost industrial levels of downloading or uploading, or are massively impatient, anything more than 10MB is overkill.

As for your router, I imagine most broadband providers will supply a router with the package as default, and I'd assume that wireless would be a default option with most of those routers. Of course, most providers will list or tell you which router they supply with their package and you can do a quick google search to confirm what features that router has, although I'd guess wired ethernet connection should still be a standard.

If there are any you're looking at, feel free to link to them and we'll do what we can to go through them. :)

[Steph]

Thank you for taking time to help me, Jason.

I put my Post Code through that site and it said my maximum is 3MB but in general 1MB (cry haha) and so I looked for lower broadband and found one at O2 here (http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/packages.jsp), the standard package being the one I'm interested in.

When I went through it, they checked the available speed in my area and said the maximum is 6MB so that sounds better but I'm unsure this is accurate if the other one states 3MB, maybe it differs between the providers?

But yeah it more or less provides everything I'm looking for, it doesn't appear to tell me if it has ethernet ports, although as you said, I'll hope it's just standard.

Thank you for the advice though it makes absolute sense that if my phone line can only achieve 3MB that anything like 10-20MB broadband would be rather pointless.

[MyNameDidntFit]

Virtually every wireless router/modem will have at least a single Ethernet port -- most will have several.

[Rob]

Jason hit the speed on the head :)

Since you are doing gaming on the connection then you want to make sure you go with a wired solution from your phone or cable company. The quality and speed will most likely be better then any wireless option available. Traditional cable networks are still really good and dependable for net connections over their copper lines. Phone ISP's can be hit and miss because their quality of service is dependent upon the distance between you and their hubs. Fiber is the best choice, but its a newer tech and probably not available.

Where you are might be different but generally speaking based on the transmission lines and physical limitations...
1 Fiber > 2 Cable > 3 Phone > 4 Wireless

After you get the service into your home then wired/wireless from the router to your xbox/pc are both acceptable for gaming.

I don't know how many broadband ISP's are in your area or what services are in your price bracket but asking around to see what your friends use is probably best. Definitely check out reviews/complaints before signing any service contract because some providers tend to have spotty service and thats no good when your knee deep in a zombie horde.

[Steph]

Thanks guys for this advice it's really helped, I appreciate it =)

[Lance]

Another excellent tip - if you want any sort of broadband, NEVER, EVER, move to Australia or you'll go bankrupt with a decent connection (which is still slow compared to the rest of the world)

[Steph]

Another excellent tip - if you want any sort of broadband, NEVER, EVER, move to Australia or you'll go bankrupt with a decent connection (which is still slow compared to the rest of the world)

Ah crap really? How is that?

[Jason]

Another excellent tip - NEVER, EVER, move to Australia (which is still slow compared to the rest of the world)

Fixed.

[Rob]

Oh snap!

[Lance]

Fixed.

...

Yeah, but it could be worse - I could be a Brit

[MyNameDidntFit]

Ah crap really? How is that?
Rather bad.

Fixed.
Down here, slow is dead.

[Steph]

Rather bad.

Sarcastic git haha, I meant why is it that Autralia is slower than the rest of the world?

@Brett ... what's that s'posed to mean? :P

All this country bashing :rolleyes:

[MyNameDidntFit]

Because our population is spread over a massive area for its size, thus any sort of decent internet infrastructure would cost an extremely large sum of money. Basically, in the capital cities, we have reasonable internet, but everywhere else it's shit.

The 'reasonable' internet in our capital cities is still crap compared to that in the US or over there in the UK/EU. Basically: it's slower, has bandwidth limits and is more expensive than other modern countries.

:)

[Lance]

Sarcastic git haha, I meant why is it that Autralia is slower than the rest of the world?

@Brett ... what's that s'posed to mean? :P

All this country bashing :rolleyes:


lol Sorry Steph, it's all in fun - Jase knows we don't REALLY have anything against him because he's a brit ;)

[Jason]

Speak for yourself... I'm prepping the nukes as we speak. :p

[Lance]

Good luck aiming through all that ash :P And by Ashes, I'm talking about what you stole from us last year

[Jason]

Good point. I wonder what effect volcanic ash has on an ICBM's guidance system?

Ah well, we'll find out shortly. Good luck, Belgium. :p

[MyNameDidntFit]

Speak for yourself... I'm prepping the nukes as we speak. :p
Jasmine, you country could barely fit a missile silo in it, so stop talking out your butt ;)