Pre order questions

[BlueDanGroup]

Hi,

I'm currently using Demon dialup and am finally getting bb in due to BT discontinuing Surftime, tbh I needed the shove. I'm not staying with Demon however due to the FUP which applies to their broadband products, plus various other complaints I've read about them. ADSL24 seems to come across as good however :)

How long does it usually take BT to switch a line to be adsl compatible? And how long for an adsl24 account to become active? Also, during the line switch will it still work as a standard phone line until the switch and suffer a small amount (if any) downtime, ie would I still be able to use Demon at a local rate in the meantime.

Could I order early and request a start date of 1st April (including switching the line/turning off surftime) and activating the adsl24 account?

And... during the first 10 days the line is checked to see which is the quickest stable speed between my house and the exchange. Do I need to have equipment plugged in at this end during this process, and to I need to try downloading stuff on purpose?
Also the extensions after the nte5 box aren't that neat, if I think they may have effected the speed could I rip them out/replace them and request another test/setup? Accepting the fact my service could potentially be disrupted for another 10 days.

Finally, Netgear DG834 or Linksys AG241? I've been offered the Netgear (used) for 20 quid but a review on dabs.com says it has some problems with voip and everything else slows down when using p2p, ok it would anyway but more than with other routers. Has anyone got any experience of this or was it a fault with older firmware?

Sorry for going on, and ta.

[James]

Hi there.

There will be no downtime when signing up/being switched on for broadband. Once you order, within 24hrs BT will give us an activation date (typically 5-7 days from date of order...)

Your phone line will continue to work as it does now and the same when you have broadband. If you signup to us today theres a chance BT might give us a date of the 1st April, but if not it will be the 2nd/3rd/4th probably.

During the first 10 days of your broadband (starts the day of your activation), you are advised to leave your router on all the time as this lets BT's monitoring system perform a true check of your line and what it is capable of. You can however just use the Internet as normal - nothing special needed.

I would remove/tidy up all extensions *before* your activation date as these could cause the BT system to think your line has interference/noise and thus lower the speed. Make sure you only have wires 2 and 5 connected in each extension socket and indeed the back of the faceplate on your master socket. Take all the other wires out - they are not used and will cause interference on the broadband side of your line. The inital 10 days is a one-off process so you need to be ready for that :)

I would personally use the Linksys AG241. The Netgear DG834's have some odd problems, especially when it comes to holding sync on marginal lines (from past experience).

Thanks

James

[staticshock]

lots of questions which our resident eggheads will be happy to answer

When they get up that is:eek: ;)

[tboorman]

lots of questions which our resident eggheads will be happy to answer

When they get up that is:eek: ;)

I think James has answered them all already!

[staticshock]

2mins to late:mad:

[staticshock]

Hi there.
I would personally use the Linksys AG241. The Netgear DG834's have some odd problems, especially when it comes to holding sync on marginal lines (from past experience).

Thanks

James

More info james on the netgear issue please

I am out of my 10 day period but my sync is still trying to rise above 4000kbps when this happens it seems to lower my d/stream db to below 6db and i start to loose my gaming and voip connectiion.

I have to use DMT tool to resync but this lowers my d/stream rate to 3600kbps I am not bothered if i stay at 3600 but i need to get it steady, as i am middle of a match online and the guy in front of me starts flying around.

I have today tried to use the DMT tool to keep my d/ stream db around 6 as this seems to give me my best performance? is this the best thing to do??

Hope this makes sense and my first point was is the netgear bad at keeping sync on a line that is 3.2km from the exchange??

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3968 kbps 448 kbps
Line Attenuation 55.0 db 28.5 db
Noise Margin 6.7 db 18.0 db

[BlueDanGroup]

Thanks for the reply James,

After a bit more digging I found out the Netgear router seems to have problems with lots of connections at once, which would explain p2p being a bit iffy with it. Will also be getting the Linksys due to your comments about the NG having trouble holding sync tho I don't think my line would be noisy, only 320 meters to the exchange from here (as the crow flies) according to dslzone, and builders broke the old line last year so it was changed to a fresh length of cable by BT.

As for the extensions, I'll just unplug the faceplace for now and connect the filter and modem to the master/test socket (I planned to put the router downstairs in the garage anyway so the line is as short as possible), then maybe buy some cordless phones and disconnect the old extensions and replace the faceplate rather than rewire.

Re. the activation date. Say I order tomorrow (Sunday) and BT tell ADSL24 the line would be switched and ready on the 3rd of April (as an example) - that would be the date ADSL24 start to bill me and then on the 3rd of every month afterwards? That's the impression I get from your post. Just checking as I would rather the bill come at the start of every month after wages have gone in at the end of the last one, just incase :)

I only mentioned the 1st of April as from then onwards there would be no surftime service, unless BT kills it as soon as they receive the order to switch the line. Either way I would still have Demon's local rate DUI in the meantime.

[BlueDanGroup]

Forgot to ask, it's very unlikely but if I did go over the usage caps what happens?

Suspension, notified by email/phone, charged extra or something else?

Also do bank holidays qualify as off peak in the day or not? They don't on off peak unmetered surftime but I thought I would try my luck as there is a four day weekend approaching ;)

[edit] I did post something before this but apparently it won't appear until an admin/mod clears it, maybe because it was a longer post.

[James]

When you initially sign up, the first months payment is taken straight away. However, you are correct in saying that all subsequent payments are taken from the day of activation. If you signed up today, and BT give us a date of the 3rd April - then your next bill won't be due until 3rd May (as you already paid first month upfront), and then its the 3rd of each month thereafter.

Pings should be good, we have lots of customers who play online games, and we very rarely have any reported problems as to ping times or packet loss (both of which could be caused by networks along the way to your game servers so would affect any ISP)

If you happen to go over the cap in a amonth, there is a one-off £5 admin fee plus the difference to the package you use up to. You will not be cut off or capped however. You can fully track your usage on the "My account" section to our website one you are live.
1st April is a sunday so its unlikely BT will activate it on that day. Its likely to be in the week (2nd april onwards)

Thanks

James

[BlueDanGroup]

Thanks for the answer James, my post didn't appear but I guess you saw it.

I don't play online, I just thought I would sort the line out here so I get less chance of the connection being slower than possible or even dropping out, due to ADSL being more sensitive to a poor phone line (it seems) than dialup.

I should be ringing BT to cancel surftime and then ordering tonight or tomorrow in the day.

[James]

No problem :)

James

[BlueDanGroup]

Ok, finally got around to ordering and the line should be ready on the 5th.

I did a speed test on the Demon DUI for the comedy value ;)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/106248799.png

That turns out to 5.1kb/sec dl and 11.5kb/sec ul, which is odd :confused:
Tried turning off the modem h/w compression and it didn't really change.
I should only be getting 33.6kbps ul on a dialup connection (and I do). I'll be gone in just over a week anyway :)
#
Btw, I knew you could find out someone's ISP from their IP but not their (rough) location.

[James]

Yeah - most records for IPs show the general location too.

Welcome on board :)

James