Moving into a Flat - Broadband Choices

[+John Teacake]

Hi All,

 

I am moving into a new flat, I havent done this before. One of my main concerns is the Broadband.

 

A few things...

 

No Virgin Media which makes me sad, I always said if I could I would switch and I thought Virgin Media would be available in said area.

 

BT Infinity Which I understand is FTTC, Is not available and is not on the rollout plan(s)

 

What are my options? I get a BT Socket Connected.

 

What are the bestest cheapest providers in the UK. I did a quick check online and it says that I can get a max of 17mbps.

 

Also having tried PFSense as a geek project on my current Satalite broadband I am not as impressed with it as I thought I was. What are the best (I Presume ADSL Routers) are the best?

 

I am a VERY heavy user in terms of been a geek, Virtual Servers, Torrenting, I am wanting to run a TOR Exit Node for a project.

 

I am thinking these next. I have always liked the look of DreyTek Kit, Never owned or used it before.

 

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2860.html

 

Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Anyone had any experience with this stuff?

 

 

[Crisp]

I'm with Sky ADSL2+ broadband, get 11 down 1 up. Running on pfSense / Draytek 120.

 

Only problem with Sky is that you're ment to use their supplied router, it's their T/C that say you have to use it. Although you can use your own with some easy tricks to get the user / pass off the router they send.

 

Just go for the most relaxed FUP you can find (Be used to be good?).

 

Be customers are now part of Sky.

[+BudMan]

Since not in the UK, can not help you with your ISP choice - but am curious to your exp with pfsense and what parts were you not impressed with?

[ybrett23]

<<< is a geek himself, i use sky bb(its not that bad tbh never had any down time in 13 months)

cant get a static IP but its never changed since day one :-)

i get 13mbps. no traffic shaping or limits what so ever 

i do torrents , and run 2 servers one of which is exchange.

[44MLX]

http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/

 

Great site to find broadband deals.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Sky provides an unlimited service without data caps or fair usage policies. I have a 40Mbps connection with them and typically download 0.5-1TB a month without issue and have found the service to be excellent.

 

Whatever you do, avoid TalkTalk like the plague.

[+John Teacake]

Since not in the UK, can not help you with your ISP choice - but am curious to your exp with pfsense and what parts were you not impressed with?

 

Hehe, I knew BudMan would pick up on that :D . To be honest I was on a small Juniper box and I moved it to a box with more RAM/Faster CPU and Gig Network Cards and PfSense had to be tweaked the hell out of to get the same if not worse throughput on my sat connection. I honestly don't think its still the same. Don't get me wrong it works. The interface is fairly good. Snort is a PIA the arse to get configured correctly, But thats by the by. Alot of people have had this at the PFsense Forums. Its only been a week since I played with PFsense so I am not giving up just yet.

 

Its looking like Sky is a good all rounder. Is this ADSL2+ up to 24mbps? I might get it bundled with the TV package.

[+BudMan]

snort is an package to pfsense, so please don't lump any issues you have with it into pfsense distro.

To your throughput problems, was this with or without snort in the mix?

What sort of tweaks are you talking and what sort of throughput should you have, and what were you seeing. Sat type connection so very high latency I take it..

[Brian M.]

Just go for the most relaxed FUP you can find (Be used to be good?).

Every service will be BT wholesale, so the speed will be the same.

[+John Teacake]

snort is an package to pfsense, so please don't lump any issues you have with it into pfsense distro.

To your throughput problems, was this with or without snort in the mix?

What sort of tweaks are you talking and what sort of throughput should you have, and what were you seeing. Sat type connection so very high latency I take it..

 

This is with and without Snort! I understand that its a package and not needed. I am talking about various tweaks on the Advanced Settings. I have an 18mbps package and I cant get higher than 6mbps at the min. I was able to push 12 on the Juniper box.

[+BudMan]

If your on 18, and the juniper was only doing 12??  What is the issue with your connection?

 

I can tell you that my VM with only 512MB ram given to it running on 1 cpu of a AMD Turion II Neo N40L, has no issues handling my 25mbps connection - I see 27+ on it, etc.

 

I peg my connection and it never skips a bit

 

 

I would really suggest you get on the pfsense forum for settings for your connection type..  I am quite sure you can ask around here, and people having much faster connections are not having any issues handling the pipe.

 

Or guess not even worry about it and test it when you get to your new flat with your new isp..