How is NTL 12mb BB rating? opinions wanted

goz83

Anyone have any comments on NTLs 12mb BB. I got a phone call yesterday from a rep telling me that they have just upgraded my area. I immediately jumped down his throat "DOES THAT MEAN I CAN ORDER BROADBAND?" "yes" he said. Long story short I ordered the 12mb costing €40p/m on top of my TV package which includes a free router i think. This sounded like a call from heaven because I have been a bitterly disappointed Clearwire customer since late January and i'm sorry I didn't consult the boards first but I had little option. Also Eircom was not an option either. I had a brand new line installed by them and Eircom BB IS available in my area (i can pick up 4 wireless eircom signals right now) but strangely it was not available to me through my brand new line. wonder if it's because i reported their sorry asses to comreg for trying to make me pay the previous owners bill....

Anyway. Enough ranting.....Any inside news on the NTL BB? I know their customer care is the best in the world and all but how is the BB?

Cabaal

Broadband is fine in my view, works pretty well

goz83

Thanks Cabaal. even that small sentence helps put my mind at ease. i've been waiting 3 years for ntl bb to be available in this area. they kept saying "it'll be 6 months" up until last month. then the call came out of the blue. i'm chuffed now because i've been suffering with clearwire for too long. 2 year contract??? not a chance ther're sticking me with that bull****

mivec

id also like to know im moving into a new house next week and have ordered the 12mb line wondering what the contention ratio is gonna be like etc as nobody i know has ntl broadband

Phlann

If you're a bittorrent user you might want to look elsewhere, apparently NTL are unfriendly towards p2p software.

But I suppose if your options are really that limited you may as well sign up with them.

paulm17781

Phlann wrote: »

If you're a bittorrent user you might want to look elsewhere, apparently NTL are unfriendly towards p2p software.

Clearwire are on of the worst for port blocking. I think they also throttle but am unsure. In any case, UPC will be better than Clearwire.

tylerdurden94

Ive never really had any problems with it so i would be happy in recommending to people.

Hank Scorpio

lately torrents work badly for me on eircom

i keep get the error mapping failed no matter which port i try.

i think alot of isps throttle, im not a heavy downloader typically

thebman

a friend had Clearwire, trust me you'd be better off going back to dial up than keeping clearwire.

I'd jump to NTL in a second if I was with Clearwire. They do restrict torrents but most people say they are getting 30KB/s around here on them and that's what they are complaining abou which is fine IMHO. Compared to Clearwire, its fine anyway.

I think you should move but I'm not an NTL customer, just reading opinions around here for a while as I'm thinking of switching to them (half to convince the housemates though as living in rented accomodation).

Moriarty

Couple of posts deleted for warez talk. Remember: talking about warez, even indirectly, will get you banned.

acalmenvoy

No probs here, 2 months into contract, first 6 then 12meg, yes, there is somethin funny happening to torrents but you get them eventually, use Rapidshare mostly and it flys. If you told me 6 months ago I could down 100mb in a couple of minutes I would have called the men in the white coats...:D

goz83

cheers for the posts guys. I have the ntl installed since yesterday afternoon. The guys were in and out in 10 minutes and were kind enough to leave the codes on my desktop if i wanted to install to other computers. I got the wireless router which is a big plus because of what i said in my OP. I haven't focused much on speeds and know nothing about torrents but compared to Clearwire this NTL is heaven versus hell. I've packed up the "Clearly not BB equipment" and i'll be drop kicking it back to their head offices. the 12mb ntl is only a tenner more expensive than the considerably lower speeds of clearwire 1/2mb and I got the router thrown in saving me 50 euro comparing to clearwires asking price of 80 or 90 euro for a router. I reckon i've made the right choice. Hope i don't eat those words in a few weeks.

tylerdurden94

I hope everything runs smooth for you and hope in a few weeks you will report back on how its been running for you.

GerardKeating

Phlann wrote: »

If you're a bittorrent user you might want to look elsewhere, apparently NTL are unfriendly towards p2p software.

This is often repeated bogus "fact", torrents work fine, cannot speak for other p2p software

christophicus

GerardKeating wrote: »

This is often repeated bogus "fact", torrents work fine, cannot speak for other p2p software

I am not going to say that it is "fact" but it is the case, at least for me and by the sounds of it many other people aswell. I rarely get over 100 KB down on a torrent, infact I would be lucky to get it over 2 or 3 torrents.

AtomicHorror

I'm due to have the 12mb BB installed tomorrow afternoon. Assuming all goes well I'll let you guys know how that goes and how it works. Where I am is (I think) an area that has only recently been opened up for UPC BB, so I'm hoping for low contention!

40coats

christophicus wrote: »

I am not going to say that it is "fact" but it is the case, at least for me and by the sounds of it many other people aswell. I rarely get over 100 KB down on a torrent, infact I would be lucky to get it over 2 or 3 torrents.

Have you changed default ports and turned encryption on? I have and mostly get spedds of 400 plus.

christophicus

Indeed I have, although admittidly it was a few months ago that I tried. Its so bad that I don't even use torrents anymore.

Phlann

GerardKeating wrote: »

This is often repeated bogus "fact", torrents work fine, cannot speak for other p2p software

I'm pretty sure NTL have openly stated that they use traffic-shaping technology to limit bittorrent speeds (at least during peak hours).

Have a look through the NTL/UPC traffic shaping thread and you'll find plenty of complaints about it.

I notice you're in Galway... funnily enough, my friends are on NTL in Galway too and tell me they've never had any trouble with bt speeds there.

Chris_533976

Nope, I'm in Galway and no BT problems for me. I only download (legal) music through BT, and it usually floats along at about 400kb/s. (on the 6mb service). Thats perfectly good enough for me.

dhaumi

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Nope, I'm in Galway and no BT problems for me. I only download (legal) music through BT, and it usually floats along at about 400kb/s. (on the 6mb service). Thats perfectly good enough for me.

I'm in Oranmore. How come you get 6Mbps? I thought the highest you could get with them was either 3 Mbps or 8 Mbps (but only in certain areas: Dublin, Kildare...).
I thought of switching to NTL for a minute, but I'm very satisfied with BT. The speed is amazingly fast, the connection stable. When I download torrents, I often reach the 250-300Kb/s range, which is good for 3Mbps. They never throttled me or charged me for exceeding the download cap...
All that for 56 euros, pretty hard to beat in Galway...
Out of curiosity, I'd like to know the speed 12Mbps-subscribers manage to reach? It should be around 1Mb/s...

Phlann

He means BT as in 'bit torrent', I assume he's on NTL.

Esat BT don't currently provide a 6 meg package, as far as I'm aware.

Jokah

Had the technician call out to the house today to install the 12 meg broadband.

He took one look at the connection on the roof and said "other" cables haven't been updated.

So the grey NTL cable is on the side of my house because I remember them installing it...but there are no extra cables coming out of it to test the line.....the tech guy agreed the right cable was there but some extra were missing...

I knew this would happen as the exact same thing happened to a friend one street up two days ago...I rang NTL on Friday to confirm my suspicions but they said everything was in place...of course, I never believe NTL until the service is actually working...

So the sales and account guys in NTL say everything is activated and in place, but the tech guys say the right cables are not coming from the box....

The tech guy said he turned up on a street one day with 3 calls and the same thing happened..

So, for those with 12 meg broadband, the right cable is going alongside my house delivering the service to the street, but nobody can access it???

The old black cables are there delivering the old signals, but not the new one..

Anyone have this problem before and how did they get it rectified??? As in, how do I explain the problem to the Accounts people?

Thanks...thank god I didn't get rid of my 2mb eircom line just yet...

Single Malt

regards ntl and torrents....port forwarding. The router is the problem, not the ISP. The Netgear routers are cheap. You need to open ports for certain apps, and that includes gaming.

Phlann

Single Malt wrote: »

regards ntl and torrents....port forwarding. The router is the problem, not the ISP. The Netgear routers are cheap. You need to open ports for certain apps, and that includes gaming.

There's a 20 page thread at the top of this forum detailing the issue and the efforts users have made to circumvent it. Thread also includes, I believe, links to articles which confirm that NTL is controlling the use of BitTorrent technology over their networks, mostly during peak hours (but not necessarily limited to those times).

Chris_533976

Phlann wrote: »

He means BT as in 'bit torrent', I assume he's on NTL.

Esat BT don't currently provide a 6 meg package, as far as I'm aware.

Yeah, thats it. I'm on NTL, when I said BT I meant Bittorrent. Didnt think

Single Malt

Well with forwarded ports I was getting up to 900kb/s on a good ratio BT. The ports on the router are now closed and my IP is not static anymore. This is not an NTL issue, as this happened recently. I also have gaming connection issues as a result. This whole issue of speed throttling has been going on a hell of a lot longer than my network problems, and while these issues were being talked about I was getting excellent down speeds. The problem is that most people use the BB out of the box, without proper network configuration. Static IP's and port forwarding are required for effective BT speeds, as your app cannot find the ports to connect to.

dhaumi

My bad. Was very tired when I read this post...

Freddie59

christophicus wrote: »

Indeed I have, although admittidly it was a few months ago that I tried. Its so bad that I don't even use torrents anymore.

You are very obviosuly not familiar with torrent technology from listening to the success of others on this post.

christophicus

Freddie59 wrote: »

You are very obviosuly not familiar with torrent technology from listening to the success of others on this post.

Well that seems somewhat hostile, and you are indeed incorrect. I was a member of a well known private tracker before, and they are VERY strict about keeping your ratio up and making sure that you only used their tracker system, not peering directly to other users, so I am reasonably familiar with how torrents work .

acalmenvoy

christophicus wrote: »

Well that seems somewhat hostile, and you are indeed incorrect. I was a member of a well known private tracker before, and they are VERY strict about keeping your ratio up and making sure that you only used their tracker system, not peering directly to other users, so I am reasonably familiar with how torrents work .

Oh how I miss D*m*n**d

thehomeofDob

acalmenvoy wrote: »

Oh how I miss D*m*n**d

Meh... that was an awful tracker compared to the actual private trackers.

OT. Not having got NTL myself, I can only quote comments from colleagues that have it. Speeds are generally okay, but contention ratios are a bit high, so your speeds can drop when the line gets busy. With encryption forced, and ports opened and 8meg line regularly gets 400kbps on a well seeded torrent.

christophicus

thehomeofDob wrote: »

Meh... that was an awful tracker compared to the actual private trackers.

++

OT. Not having got NTL myself, I can only quote comments from colleagues that have it. Speeds are generally okay, but contention ratios are a bit high, so your speeds can drop when the line gets busy. With encryption forced, and ports opened and 8meg line regularly gets 400kbps on a well seeded torrent.

NTL don't have an 8 meg line.

AtomicHorror

AtomicHorror wrote: »

I'm due to have the 12mb BB installed tomorrow afternoon. Assuming all goes well I'll let you guys know how that goes and how it works. Where I am is (I think) an area that has only recently been opened up for UPC BB, so I'm hoping for low contention!

Installation delayed till tomorrow evening. They gave me good notice and explained the issue. Slightly off-putting but I guess if it were BT Ireland they just would have failed to show up and then offered an explanation after my third phonecall to them. On that note I have to go make my third phonecall in my ongoing effort to cancel BT.

AtomicHorror

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Installation delayed till tomorrow evening. They gave me good notice and explained the issue. Slightly off-putting but I guess if it were BT Ireland they just would have failed to show up and then offered an explanation after my third phonecall to them. On that note I have to go make my third phonecall in my ongoing effort to cancel BT.

Been happy enough with my dealings with UPC up until now, but as of Monday found out that my installation is delayed until Friday. Was not informed of this, found out by accident during a call from the UPC house move team who were planning to come and install analogue TV the day after my digital TV and BB were due until I set them straight... starting to get that BT/Eircom feeling

mickger

Can we get an idea of how many people have been upgraded from 6 to 12 and what area you are living in? Anyone who has post here and let us know.

Kotek Besar

I have 12mb NTL here in Waterford. I'm downloading from usenet at (at least) 11.3mbps.

mickger

benifa wrote: »

I have 12mb NTL here in Waterford. I'm downloading from usenet at (at least) 11.3mbps.

Are you a new customer or did you get upgraded from 6 to 12megs?

Kotek Besar

mickger wrote: »

Are you a new customer or did you get upgraded from 6 to 12megs?

Existing customer on 3 meg + analogue TV.

I called to cancel my account so that I could join as a new customer and get 12 meg without TV for €46 per month, 1st 2 months half price, + free wireless router.

Disconnections rep matched the new customer offer for me there and then, and my speed jumped from 3 to 12 meg just 5 minutes later.

AtomicHorror

12mb Chorus NTL in North Kildare.

tylerdurden94

Existing customer got upgraded about 3 weeks ago and living in Dublin.

christophicus

tylerdurden94 wrote: »

Existing customer got upgraded about 3 weeks ago and living in Dublin.

Nope not all customers have been upgraded. I am on the original 6 Mb package waiting to get upgraded to 12 Mb.

mickger

christophicus wrote: »

Nope not all customers have been upgraded. I am on the original 6 Mb package waiting to get upgraded to 12 Mb.

Yep me too and am in Waterford. Rang them about 6 times to get upgraded but no luck.:mad:

Kotek Besar

mickger wrote: »

Yep me too and am in Waterford. Rang them about 6 times to get upgraded but no luck.:mad:

Do what I did. :cool:

Aquos76

If you are an existing pagage on the 3mb package and are looking for the free upgrade to 6mb, then you will have to wait, however, if you are looking to go to the full 12 mg package, that can be done straight away. Give tech support a call and tell them exactly what you are looking to do. It may cost you €10 for changing packages.

All existing customers who are looking for the upgrade of their existing package should be complete by 7th June.

I was given this information from a "team leader" as they like to call themselves within UPC.

Jokah

Just got a 12mb line on Friday.

One thing I noticed is that the line is better hooked up via Ethernet than going via wireless...

There is a short time delay when operating over wireless using their netgear equipment...better if the router is hooked up directly....

The Line is fantastic though...very happy with it....

Took them a long time to upgrade the area but the 2 year wait has been worth it....

dango

Jokah wrote: »

Just got a 12mb line on Friday.

One thing I noticed is that the line is better hooked up via Ethernet than going via wireless...

There is a short time delay when operating over wireless using their netgear equipment...better if the router is hooked up directly....

The Line is fantastic though...very happy with it....

Took them a long time to upgrade the area but the 2 year wait has been worth it....

I just got 12mb today but speedtest.net shows a down speed of 2mb. I'm using wireless as my old desktop doesn't have a network card. NTL support are baffled. Did you find that the wireless made that much of a difference? Did it take a day or two to get up to speed?
Thanks!

Jokah

What I noticed was the desktop, when using the supplied NetGear USB wireless key, the connection was slow but acceptable...only hitting about 9mb download.....when I hooked the desktop up to ethernet directly..the connection speed did improve and went up to the top speed then of about 10.8-10.9mb

Now I did this type of testing over a week at various times during the day to compare the results and it was quicker via ethernet...

But of course, wireless will always be that small bit slower..

I got a brand new laptop recently and that responds to the connection very well..that connects via wireless and the two work very well together.

I consistently get a great connection speed whatever time of day and the connection was fast from the moment I tested it...I have had it just under a month now...

Happy to date..

goz83

Hey guys. Not far from a year later I can say that everything is good with NTL. That's a big surprise. Speed seems fine although i dont test it but its fine for me. I use it wirelessly all the time and i have not had any down time to date. Although the tv is still ****e.