Anyone know anything about how broadband actually works?

O2 are great. I was with Be* prior to O2 taking them over and effectively you get the same deal - no nonsense, good solid servive, very well priced, very reliaebl, and decent spped. I'm 2m+ from my local excahnge on a v. shitty line in N16 and the connection I get's around 11mb which ain't bad. I would, however, recommend you dump the shit-house router they give you & buy something else instead...

O2 broadband seems pretty good- I've got it.

The router, however, is not so good- keeps losing the wireless, then finding it, then losing it, then finding it- cycles every 30 seconds.

Pretty annoying.

that's a fucker.
it happens a bit with my wireless now, and as my music is on the network, it means that itunes resets the location of my library back to the c drive, and i have to reload it. PITA.

if your with BT it duz not duh @~?!!@~@

huh?

O2 here, not too shabby, no wifi problems, would like more range but then, who wouldn't. got it set up when I was on O2 for my mobile so it was half price, left o2, still half price.

yes wireless but doesn't have the modem built in so of limited use (although you can use it with a separate ADSL modem).

had a look on eBay and it's only worth £10-20, which may explain why they didn't bother collecting it. It does have two aerials, better range than my current router and is wireless N so might just keep it and use it.

wireless router?

A cable router, so no use to anyone on ADSL, and if Virgin are giving them away free, won't all their customers have them anyway ?

to my knowledge, Virgin routers only work with virgin cable modems, they have their own proprietary firmwares which you cannot change. So probably worthless to most people.

whats the haps with sky broadband, any good? Thinking about doubling up with the sky tv and broadband package when I return, should cost me like 30gbp for the whole package
was with be before and their package was really good, download times was topping out at 17mb, which was cool

O2 are great. I was with Be* prior to O2 taking them over and effectively you get the same deal - no nonsense, good solid servive, very well priced, very reliaebl, and decent spped. I'm 2m+ from my local excahnge on a v. shitty line in N16 and the connection I get's around 11mb which ain't bad. I would, however, recommend you dump the shit-house router they give you & buy something else instead...

Why are the O2 reviews on broadbandwhateverthatdomainis.co.uk inferior to the BE ones then?

A cable router, so no use to anyone on ADSL, and if Virgin are giving them away free, won't all their customers have them anyway ?

to my knowledge, Virgin routers only work with virgin cable modems, they have their own proprietary firmwares which you cannot change. So probably worthless to most people.

Not exactly. Virgin give you a cable whatsit that plugs into the cable connection and then you use Cat5 to plug a Netgear wireless router they also supply into that.
Perhaps on the cheaper (non-wireless) plans you don't get a router but on the wireless ones you definitely do.

well, it's a d-link dir-615, it is sold to be used with ADSL too, so presumably the worst case scenario is you'd need to flash the firmware?

anyway, I looked into ADSL modems and it's not worth splashing the cash on one so will carry on using my bebox.

to my knowledge, Virgin routers only work with virgin cable modems, they have their own proprietary firmwares which you cannot change. So probably worthless to most people.

well, it's a d-link dir-615, it is sold to be used with ADSL too, so presumably the worst case scenario is you'd need to flash the firmware?

anyway, I looked into ADSL modems and it's not worth splashing the cash on one so will carry on using my bebox.

Just looking at its pics it looks like a normal wireless router to me. It doesn't look like the little cable-specific box I have.

two things I reckon - be's product surround (brand, messages, corporate writing style) is much better, plus I suspect their customer service might be different?

it's the same product under the bonnet

Why are the O2 reviews on broadbandwhateverthatdomainis.co.uk inferior to the BE ones then?

Their speed is also consistently higher than O2's though..
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_4=1&isp_86=1&commit=Compare

Their speed is also consistently higher than O2's though..
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html?isp_4=1&isp_86=1&commit=Compare

Lower contention ratio for the BE direct punters.

Boom! We have a winner.

Just looking at its pics it looks like a normal wireless router to me. It doesn't look like the little cable-specific box I have.

In areas where NTL have not dug the road up if you sign up for Virgin cable- you get a BT ADSL tail circuit, hence a standard ADSL modem.

whats the haps with sky broadband, any good? Thinking about doubling up with the sky tv and broadband package when I return, should cost me like 30gbp for the whole package
was with be before and their package was really good, download times was topping out at 17mb, which was cool

It's Easynet ADSL, not bad as far as it goes.

we were on proper cable, it doesn't have a modem built in but it connects to a cable modem with the screw up type connectors

In areas where NTL have not dug the road up if you sign up for Virgin cable- you get a BT ADSL tail circuit, hence a standard ADSL modem.

interesting, didn't know this, it does explain why my BE never slows down, ever.

Lower contention ratio for the BE direct punters.

we were on proper cable, it doesn't have a modem built in but it connects to a cable modem with the screw up type connectors

Not looked at the pictures- sounds like a wireless access point then?

i.e. it plugs into the cable modem in order to create a wireless LAN?

In areas where NTL have not dug the road up if you sign up for Virgin cable- you get a BT ADSL tail circuit, hence a standard ADSL modem.

That's different again to the 'cable' modem this lot were talking about and the cable whatsit + wireless router I haz.

goes into

which connects with cat5 to..

giving you n wireless

http://www.liquidsilver.org/2010/07/virgin-broadband-50mbit-install/

just had a look at sky's broadband in your area, they say the most I'll get is 3.5mb max download, which is rubbish. I'll probably go back to Be if thats the case.
also whats the best wireless router out there, need a good one that won't keep dropping out on me, or need constant resetting, now I've actually got an uptodate laptop..
used to have a netgear one and it kept falling over..

The less money you give those wankers at Sky, the better.