[Gllug] BE Broadband (was Off Topic: Backup ISP)

[Martyn Drake]

On 28 March 2011 23:16, Jason Clifford <jason at ukfsn.org> wrote:

> BT stated that they would be pursuing other partnerships to accomplish
> the same ends.

Until (rather if) they do implement such partnerships, I am currently
happy where I am.

> That doesn't mean they wont be applying "Fair Use Policies" to restrict
> usage once you pass some usage level - only that they wont now tell you
> what that usage level is.

No, but again I'm not a particularly a heavy user - bandwidth wise.
The bulk of what I use is uploading the contents of the household hard
drives to online backup services such as that of my employer and
Dropbox.  The rest of the time is limited to email, web browsing,
remote home working and other light bandwidth use.  The occasional
YouTube video, iTunes movie rental or music download here or there and
the usual OS updates being the exception.

> What is a very heavy user?

My definition would be a bandwidth hogger.  Constantly transferring
large chunks of data regardless of protocol all hours of the day.

> There is no such thing as a good router. Every single one has it's
> issues and these will often vary depending upon which exchange you are
> connected through as the kit in exchanges is by no means uniform.

So the question is not "What is a good router you can recommend?" but
rather "What router is less crap?" (or more sensibly: "What router is
likely to be better dealing with the vast selection kit at the
Exchange?").

>From experience when I was deploying home networking for staff at MPC
with BT Broadband we used Drayteks.  Worked like a charm for the
majority of the time and I loved them dearly despite the cost (MPC
paid for them, but even so!)  When I was with Sky, the supplied
Netgear wasn't too bad dealing with what was thrown at it, but the
Thomson stuff shipping with Be was abominable.  I can't afford to keep
chucking different routers at an ADSL line until we see which one is
better dealing with the Exchange.  At least with BT Infinity the Home
Hub 3.0 "just works".  Unlike the Thomson supplied type A of the Home
Hub 2 which didn't, and the Siemens branded kit of type B worked
okayish.

Martyn
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