Starting from scratch - ISP recommendations

[Woofage]

Zen Internet is offering free installation on fibre at the moment. I'm quite tempted myself as we've had excellent service from Zen for the past 6 years or so.

[ian]

1. Will the "home hub" work with my NAS?

Yes.

2. Can I change the password on it, or otherwise mess with the settings myself or is it locked down and sneaky?

Yes, you can change all the usual settings that might find on a basic home router. You can turn off the wifi sharing but then you get locked out of the free BT Openzone wifi, which seems reasonable. The Home Hub itself doesn't seem to squirt out electrons with the vigour of my previous all-bells-and-whistles Belkin router (and does have external aerials), but it's reasonable enough.

3. What other drawbacks are there to BT Infinity? I'm aware of their less-than-stellar record on customer service, so what has been your experience?

Customer service: shit. They installed one of my extensions on the wrong side of the microfilter. Millions of tortuous calls and emails later, I gave up and put one of the old microfilters back on the extension. They never did close out the support case. That said, the service has been rock solid other than that, and by and large I never need any support.

I'm not too worried about them inspecting my packets, let's face it, given cause there's always a legal provision for obtaining them, and I don't see BT going out of their way and spending money snooping on me. I don't believe in piracy and I'm getting too old for p0rn.

I can't say I've noticed any significant slowdowns in the evenings. I don't do anything that would get throttled, so can't comment on that. I have the unlimited service.

4. Does anyone else use BT with a VPN service?  Any problems?

All my work stuff goes via VPN OK. I don't bother for personal stuff.

5. What are my other alternatives for FTTC speeds and a tinfoil hat level of security?

Won't it all be going by BT at some point anyway?

[MattH]

I don't have infinity, but I do have BT ADSL (the business variation thereof as I wanted static IPs etc.). I went with BT when we moved house mainly due to having children of an age where net streaming etc. is important to them, and having to tell them to wait until after 6pm with A&A was a pain - doubly so during school holidays. My internet costs have come down drastically, and we use it a lot more.

You don't have to use the Home Hub, though you'd have to provide your own that's compatible with Infinity (googling around shows people are doing that).
I never bothered even getting the business hub, as a result no-one shares my net connection but I can still use free openzone when I'm out and about.

I do miss the friendly side of A&A (I've also met some of their people in meatspace, when I was picking up a server they'd been hosting - a good bunch), but the odd support call I've put in to (business) BT has been handled efficiently enough.

[Adam]

I'm just in the process of switching from BT Infinity to Plusnet, mainly because BT retail don't do static IP, which I need for work.  BT business would be another £10 pm in extra cost.

Apart from that, the BT service was rock solid, 40Mb download.  Plusnet Fibre will end up being about £10 pm cheaper overall though.

[hulver]

I use Plusnet fibre which I've never had a major problem with. Use them for phone and internet. A few minor problems on a house move were sorted quickly and money refunded to my bill.

Since they've got rid of the bandwidth caps, I don't have to bother managing when I download things (it was previously uncapped between midnight and 8am).

They do traffic shaping, but are quite upfront about it, and I think it's for good reasons. You can find how they do it on the web site.

The supplied router is ok, I get 40mb download over a wireless N connection. Range isn't fanstasic, the bedroom on the other side of the house barely gets any signal, but the is a lot of contest for channels around here. There are no restrictions on upgrading the router.

With fibre you get two routers. One from BT which talks to the cabinet, and then another which does PPP over Ethernet to get out onto the net at large. So you can replace their router with any other that can talk the brand of PPPoE that it uses. Not sure of the technical details because I've been happy with the supplied one so far.

[Biggsy]

Plusnet still have capped options as well as "truly unlimited" options.  I got charged extra after exceeding my limit only last week.

Anyway, I hope to be switching from ADSL to fibre optic soon, so I'll have a new deal.  Got to clear a mountain of junk from office/workshop first so it's not so embarrassing having the engineer round.

[hellymedic]

I'm supposed to be on Infinity Plus ('Up to 76Mbps'). I get about 40, usually rock solid. Slowed down somewhat around Christmas but is now back up.
Seems OK for now - just.

[DaveJ]

We have Infinity and have had it for just over a year.  Its been good.  It was the 40Mbps product initially, now its the 76Mbps version.  On this machine, which is connected to the router by Ethernet, I'm currently getting 5ms ping, 67Mbps down and 12Mbps up.  Actual speeds, via speedtest.net, not just sync speed.

I use a Draytek 2930 rather than the BT HomeHub3, and thats been fine connected to the OpenReach modem.

The street cabinet is only 150m or so away, so that probably explains the speed.  I was disappointed not to get the full 76Mbps      Its been pretty reliable.  I don't remember it being down since we got it.  Certainly not for any length of time.  I run an ip phone off the Draytek, so I tend to notice downtime.

Dave

 

[Feanor]

Came home to find be ADSL off-line: no sync.
AAISP had advised they were migrating their BE-backhaul customers to TT.
This had failed.

Within 5 mins, I had AA-Support and the MD of the company on IRC working the problem, and it was fixed inside 10 mins.

I fucking love those guys.