[GLLUG] Broadband/cable provider [OT]

[Christopher Hunter]

On Wed, 2013-03-06 at 11:06 +0000, JLMS wrote:

> Residential broadband is clearly intended for consumer mostly
> situations, if one has anything to serve it seems to me like
> residential broadband is the wrong solution (fixed IP addresses? Why?
> )
> 
> I have used everything from AOL, Virgin, BT and several others and
> read with amusement all the horror histories that I would normally
> expect when discussing the setup of a server in a datacentre. I have
> always been able to browse the web, read email, download videos (and
> distros, even with bit torrent, which is just a tool btw) and do most
> other tasks that a residential user would reasonably expect.
> 
I frequently work at home.  I need to transport lots of large manuals,
diagrams (and, frequently, video instructions too).  My home network
provision covers several computers, a couple of Android phones, an
Android tablet, a NAS box, a back-up NAS box, a Raspberry Pi print
server, a suite of test instruments (that are all network connected) and
a burglar alarm.  I also make plenty of use of VOIP.

In my experience, Cable Camden were brilliant and connected 98% of
households around here.  By the time Virgin-on-the-ridiculous took over,
they had just under 30% of households.  This has fallen each year, and
now is under 20%.  Nobody around here (muswell Hill) has a good word to
say for them - they have frequent, extended outages and a "service" that
has progressively degraded over time.  Their much-vaunted "fibre
network" is mostly rotting old coax - put in at the lowest price by the
cable companies and now degrading at an alarming rate.

Over the years, I've used many service providers in many areas, and none
of them were particularly good.  BeThere were just "less bad" than all
the others.

Luckily, we are the FTTH trial area, and my fibre is being installed on
Friday....

C.