A couple of questions about NTL

Soldie

Hi folks, I have a couple of questions about NTL broadband. About 6 months ago NTL came and replaced the cable leading into my house, for TV. I only recently discovered that the new cable they had put in actually provided both Broadband and Telephone too. They hadn't actually told me that when it was put in, so I had just assumed that it was a replacement cable, for TV only. Long story short - this has lead me to consider switching to NTL for Broadband (I'm currently with Eircom). However, I'd like to know a couple of things.

What 'type' of broadband is it? Is it DSL (the same system as Eircom/BT etc.), or is it cable broadband? If it is the latter, what difference does that actually make, and how does it differ to DSL - technically and in terms of quality? Also, is there anything else I should know about that?

I heard the cable broadband has some kind of issues with contention, particularly at peak times - that it's not as consistent as broadband, is this true?

How are NTL with downloading, such as torrents and usenet? Do they have any packet shaping, or do they block any kind of traffic/ports? How are they with the download limit - are they strict? I've exceeded my Eircom download limit several times and they've never bothered me about it, is it the same with NTL?

Lastly, how are the ping times to UK & Europe? I play a lot of games online and I'm very satisfied with my current ping times with Eircom (~22 to UK), are they the same with NTL?

Sorry if these have been asked before - I assuming that most of them have, but I couldn't find much about it.

Thanks for the help.

mollser

Soldie wrote:

How are NTL with downloading, such as torrents and usenet? Do they have any packet shaping, or do they block any kind of traffic/ports?

If ya wanna download torrents, absolutely forget NTL. They just do not work anymore, and I'm thinkng of jacking in their bb service cause it is just terrible, on these grounds alone.:mad:

MiloFoxburr

Usenet speeds are perfect no issues with NTL on that front thats for sure

nava

mollser wrote:

If ya wanna download torrents, absolutely forget NTL. They just do not work anymore, and I'm thinkng of jacking in their bb service cause it is just terrible, on these grounds alone.:mad:

Hi

I'm also with NTL and they work ok with me, downloaded something yesterday about 350 and didn't take long, maybe 20 or less.

Make sure you forward the ports.

Regards

mollser

nava wrote:

Hi

I'm also with NTL and they work ok with me, downloaded something yesterday about 350 and didn't take long, maybe 20 or less.

Make sure you forward the ports.

Regards

But how?? Other posts on here claim encryption doesn't work (I agree). Am thinking its a geographic thing - D18 for me - where you based Nava? I've tried Utorrent and Bitcomet, both now brutal. Azuereus is always firewalled on my PC no matter what I try...

<apologies for thread jack>:o

bk

I suggest to people who are trying to test torrent performance to try downloading a Linux ISO (like Ubuntu 7.04), as they normally have lots of good quality seeds and therefore you can get a good test of download speeds.

Neamhshuntasach

i'm with NTL and my torrents have not been slow in a few months now. they were for a while but eventually sorted itself out. for example, i downloaded a 700 file in less than an hour and it wasn't even greatly seeded. just forward the ports through a high number, 5 digits. the lower ones tend to be slow

Dariukas

no matter what i do my download speed went totally rubbish good few months ago... I was using private tracker, before that i used to get full speed no problems, now i barely get over 20kbs....