The ISP BE Internet have just enabled the Gateshead exchange for their 24Mbps service in the last few days. I'm currently paying Orange £17.99 for 2Mbps and getting around 2.5Mbps download.
I just called the BE sales number this morning to see what the deal was. The guys english was OK but clearly wasn't a native. I asked where the call centre was and he said Bulgaria and apologised for his accent. This may not be a problem but its something worth considering.
I gave him my phone number and he said his system showed I was 2.3km from the exchange, which means they estimate my download speed to be 9Mbps and upload 1Mbps. I'm physically nearer to the exchange, but this is the cable length that his system shows him. 9Mbps is quite a bit less than the headline grabbing 24 Mbps!
There's a 12 month contract on the Lite service (slower upload speed) and a 3 month on the unlimited.
What do you think I should do. Should I change? I don't want to go through all the hassel of changing if I end up getting the same 2.5Mbps that Orange gives me. If the technology is the same, surely the speed will be the same?
No, Be use ADSL2+ so you will get better speeds than the normal ADSL Orange use. And i've heard Be are very good so you shouldnt have any problems, and from what i've heard they're quick to solve any problems you do have.
Be is very good, at least now it is very good. You should be able to get higher than 9Mb after optimization. The most important bit is you are only bounded by 3 months contract but not 12!
Joined: 13 Aug 2006Posts: 1689Location: Marylebone Central London
windmillhills wrote:
Hi,
The ISP BE Internet have just enabled the Gateshead exchange for their 24Mbps service in the last few days. I'm currently paying Orange £17.99 for 2Mbps and getting around 2.5Mbps download.
I just called the BE sales number this morning to see what the deal was. The guys english was OK but clearly wasn't a native. I asked where the call centre was and he said Bulgaria and apologised for his accent. This may not be a problem but its something worth considering.
I gave him my phone number and he said his system showed I was 2.3km from the exchange, which means they estimate my download speed to be 9Mbps and upload 1Mbps. I'm physically nearer to the exchange, but this is the cable length that his system shows him. 9Mbps is quite a bit less than the headline grabbing 24 Mbps!
There's a 12 month contract on the Lite service (slower upload speed) and a 3 month on the unlimited.
What do you think I should do. Should I change? I don't want to go through all the hassel of changing if I end up getting the same 2.5Mbps that Orange gives me. If the technology is the same, surely the speed will be the same?
Hi windmillhills
I am with Be* on the Un Limited package and they are good and very reliable their call centre is in bulgaria as the guy said but they know what they are talking about their is also a ticket system which is quick, you get a wireless router (BeBox} which is a SpeedTouch 780/718 whichever you get sent you can use your own by just spoofing the MAC of the BeBox they don't mind, interleaving is standard but you can request a change of line profile ie: snr a choice of 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15dB and a switch to fastpath which is done instantly.
An email account is extra which includes 5 addresses whatever@bethere.co.uk but most use gmail and the like, theres a dedicated bethere forum in the member centre which the staff troll regularly to answer query's.
Heres a link to a be speed graph Potential Connection Speeds .
Hope the info was of some help
Regards
_________________ ex Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange Blog
Wow Steve, that's a really comprehensive reply - thanks. Your networking knowledge is obviously way ahead of mine. What's the significance of interleaving - it's off at the moment with Orange and my 3Com 3CRWDR101A-75 wireless router. Also, I suppose the signal to noise ratio is set automatically by the ISP to get the best "reliable" line speed - is what you're saying, that I should ask to accept a greater line noise in anticiaption of a greater speed, at the risk of signal loss?
Interleaving is an error correction system that helps to stabilise connections that are close to the limit. With the adaptive services it comes into play more and more as the system pushes lines to the limit.
Higher SNR means a greater safety buffer against problems but the higher it is the lower your sync speed is and therefore the lower the speed you get.
If you could compare lines at a specific setting then you'd want the SNR to be as high as possible. Think of it as a currency to buy speed. More you have to start with the more speed you can buy.
Good luck with whatever you choose windmillhills, gawd your name is a mouthful LOL
Sheep454 wrote:
Also, you cant get interleaving on Orange llu, just thought i'd point that out =p
lol thats only after they manage a connection in the first place LOL
Regards
Lmao yeah fair point, i only found this out when i asked to be moved back to interleaved as i was getting bad speeds, and was told i was on llu and couldnt be moved back (This was back on november of last year, i've learned a lot sicne then "
I am 2 miles from exchange, mediocre line yet get these speeds:
I been with BE 2 months, quality ISP and i used to be with Orange.BE are just so much better that it's not even funny.
I play online games a lot, get around 20-100ms ping basically always, rarely goes above 100ms and i download files from 1mb/s-1.4mb/s average from best servers.
Bet Elhana knows more than whole of Orange technical support.
you get a wireless router (BeBox} which is a SpeedTouch 780/718 whichever you get sent you can use your own by just spoofing the MAC of the BeBox they don't mind
Steve,
As I'm considering a move to Be, and currently use a ST 585 router, any chance of explaining how you 'spoof the MAC' as it's not a term I've come across before.
I guess it is to do with the settings required by Be but would have no idea how to go about doing this. I read that it's also possible to use the setup wizard on the Be CD to configure the settings but there would be no router support from Be unless using the BeBox supplied?
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LoL
