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Author Topic: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited  (Read 5151 times)

dazzactl

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02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« on: August 19, 2008, 11:27:41 PM »


I am glad to announce that my BT contract period finally runs out on 16 Sept.  I am counting down the days with eager anticipation.  The main reason is cost.  At £24.00 per month, BT is a rip off.  :P

I have decided to switch to O2 broadband (an available LLU provider).  The ratings on this site are very postive and I will save a lot of money.  But this also raises a question of whether to go for the Standard v Premium service.

Please consider the following stats.

DG834G Router Statistics

Connection Speed      3776 kbps   448 kbps
Line Attenuation      48         14
Noise Margin         8         22

Downstream Attenuation    48        Approx Line Length    3.55               
dslMAX          5312 kbps       IP Profile       4500 kbps               
adsl2+ (21CN)    5984 kbps       IP Profile       5000 kbps               
adsl2+ (LLU)       5984 kbps       Throughput    5296 kbps

(note that the noise margin is normally lower - l was down to 2 to 4 so was sync at 4288kbps+)

With a line attenuation of 48, there is no benefit to signing up to a up to 16mbps service because it is no way that I will sync above 8mb.  This leaves me with the conclusion that i should go for the standard service. :graduate:

On the other hand...  What if...  The standard service is dslMax; while the permium service is adsl2+ :-\

I am concerned that by selecting the standard option O2 will provide a dslmax service (i.e. the current equivalent of my BT service), and I will missing out on the benefit of adsl2+ instructure.

Does anybody know whether the standard option also uses the adsl2+ instructure?  Can I save an additonal £2.50 and still get the maximum potential of my line?  I welcome suggestion on how to spend my extra £2.50.  ;D

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kitz

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2008, 11:53:45 PM »

If your exchange is Be/o2 enabled you will be on the same MSAN using the same technology regardless of the product you sign up for. Theres no dslmax (thats a BTw thing) and no IP profiling in the way that BTw do it on their DSLAMs/MSANs with Be/o2

Be/o2 set the maximum speed according to the product you choose, the exception is Be Pro when they switch something called Annex M onto your line so you can get the faster upload speeds.

In your case the limiting factor is the length of your line, so you will get the same maximum speed (adsl2+) regardless of which product you choose, so you'd be wasting your money going for the more expensive product.

Their DLM is a lot more flexible than BTw's too, and the staff are more amenable to making changes to try and get the best from your line.

Your current sync is a bit lower than what it should be and from what you have said it looks like there may be a bit of noise on your line.
Make sure you've done all the usual things you can yourself to try and improve your line
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/lowSNR.htm
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm
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mr_chris

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2008, 01:22:33 AM »

dazzactl - as Kitz says... all Be/O2 connections are ADSL2+ regardless of which service you order, as long as Be's LLU is available at your exchange.

So you can relax and order the Standard package, and hopefully get a little bit more from your line :)

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Be/O2 connection based on my own experience. And no IP profiles!! Yay!
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UncleUB

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2008, 08:51:05 AM »






dazzactl - as Kitz says... all Be/O2 connections are ADSL2+ regardless of which service you order, as long as Be's LLU is available at your exchange.

So you can relax and order the Standard package, and hopefully get a little bit more from your line :)

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Be/O2 connection based on my own experience. And no IP profiles!! Yay!

Does that mean if your router re syncs then you are connected at the speed it re syncs at,no waiting for your IP profile to adjust,
Sorry to hi jack your thread dazzactl,its just I like yourself am leaving BT because of cost and awful support.I am going to sign up with O2 at the end of next month.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2008, 08:53:45 AM by UncleUB »
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kitz

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2008, 04:20:05 PM »

>> then you are connected at the speed it re syncs at,no waiting for your IP profile to adjust,

Yes thats correct UB :)
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UncleUB

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #5 on: August 20, 2008, 04:37:47 PM »

Thanks Kitz,I must be getting better as you only needed four words to reply to me. :D
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kitz

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2008, 05:05:38 PM »

 :lol:
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dazzactl

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2008, 10:56:53 PM »


I have successfully switched to O2.  So long BT.  They tried to keep me by offerring £5 off.   I asked for £15.00.

Now for the good news.  MY Router is syncing at over 5000kbps, and my speedtest.net results is rising above 4000kbps.  And the upload speed is three times better, so my ability to upload of family videos is greatly improved.

Now for the bad news.  The connection with O2 seems to drop out quite frequently.  We occassionly find websites locked out or downloads stopped.  I have checked my router (I reconfigured the Netgear instead of using O2) to find it searching for the DHCP client.  I seems to take about 30 seconds to 1 minute before reconnecting.

Does anybody know what is happening?

Should I switch to the O2 router to avoid in the future?
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kitz

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2008, 12:44:28 AM »

A couple of suggestions

>> We occassionly find websites locked

Use another DNS service such as OpenDNS as a backup to O2/Be's.  Their DNS servers are about the only major complaint you see about them.

>> The connection with O2 seems to drop out quite frequently.

Its possible that your sync speed is just a tad too high for the line, do you reboot the router in the mornings and then it drops out each evening?
or alternaticely it could be that your line is one of those which has a large daily SNR fluctuation..  you could monitor it for a few days to see if theres anything obvious, or failing that you could always ask them to increase your Target SNR.

Before you do that though make sure you have tried to make the best of your line.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/socket.htm



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UncleUB

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2008, 10:52:17 AM »

The O2 DNS servers,is it something of a big problem,should it put me off signing up to O2?Does this website locking out happen very regularly or is it just to now and again?Is it easy to set up Open DNS.
Not long before I switch now and  I am wondering if this will give me nightmares.  :scare:
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kitz

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2008, 01:17:59 PM »

>> O2 DNS servers,is it something of a big problem

On occasions webpages etc will fail to load.

>> should it put me off signing up to O2?

I knew about the problem before signing up - it didnt put me off.  (Same as many many more did).

>> Is it easy to set up Open DNS

Very easy takes about 1 or 2 minutes.  Aside from Be/o2 customers quite a lot of users from other ISPs use open dns too. 
iirc floydy uses opendns after he started having dns problems with his isp.

Theres full instructions for the different operating systems from here
https://www.opendns.com/start

Or

If you manually configure your DNS when setting up your new isp details after migration, it takes about 10 seconds to add in the open dns server after adding your ISP ones.
The nos are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

I have Be's set first, and if they do go flakey, then it automatically switches over to openDNS.   
Therefore Ive never ever noticed a problem.







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UncleUB

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Re: 02 Standard v Premium or Be Value v Unlimited
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2008, 01:26:49 PM »

Thanks Kitz,very re assuring .I'm sure when I move over I will get help(hopefully)  :)
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