The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Bionic on July 18, 2014, 03:39:09 pm
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I wasn't sure where this topic fitted so I hope its in the right place.
If you use it, is it any good?
Is your supplier any good?
Who do you use?
We are having megga problems with our BT broadband. Its currently running at 0.51mb download speed and thats the fastest its been for a while. I know that if the speed is under 2mb you can get a grant from the Welsh government to have satellite installed, hence my questions.
thanks
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my sympathy Sally .... we had that problem last year ..... I suggest you email your complaint to BT (if you haven't already) goes to English (or Welsh etc) not 'British' people..... They respond very quickly and seem to get things done then. I emailed last week about failing 1571 ... they phoned back within an hour and had obviously listened to the previous phone calls I'd made to India!
(suprising how much fast you can get things done when they don't go all the way to India and back!! :innocent:)
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Linda,
Unfortunately I have done that several times and aren't really getting anywhere. They said they only guarantee to get us between 0.512 and 3.5mb. Well I would be very happy with 3.5mb but we are right down at the other end of the scale.
Someone that Geoff knows is getting 10mb with a satellite broadband. I can't even imagine what that is like.
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It will depend how far away you are from your local exchange or repeater thingi. 3.5mb if you are close 0.5 if you are far away.
Do you have any close neighbours who you can ask to see what they get to compare? And find out what your exchange is called and you can check to see what it's upgrade dates are.
Also, how is your mobile signal? (check all providers) you might get better mobile broadband which will be cheaper than satellite.
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We only have 1 close neighbour and her speeds are ok. We are a couple of miles from the exchange but it isn't due for an upgrade.
Our mobile signal is pretty bad and only works with a broadband booster so that's out of the question.
I'm still doing my research with other providers for broadband but so far it seems to get 10mb with a wireless connection (OH says it is wireless rather than satellite that I am looking at ??? ) it will only cost me £3.50 more a month. That will more than pay for the time I am currently spending trying to access things.
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We have satellite (outside Machynlleth) as well as slow DSL (6 miles from the exchange). The satellite works well but the DSL is actually better for normal web stuff, because the satellite has slow response time due to all the data having to go up to the satellite and back. The satellite is a lot more efficient for bigger uploads and downloads -- slower to get started but a lot faster to finish.
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The problem with satellite is the latency (as described above) and the high monthly charges. The WAG grant only goes towards the capital cost.
It's all part of being a 'rural peasant' as opposed to the 'urban elite'. Whilst it is not considered economical to run quality broadband to us peasants it is of course fine to string up power lines and pylons from rural Wales to keep the lights on in the cities.
On a less cynical note can you not get a 3G mobile connection? That may be a better route to investigate if you can.
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The problem with satellite is the latency (as described above) and the high monthly charges. The WAG grant only goes towards the capital cost.
It's all part of being a 'rural peasant' as opposed to the 'urban elite'. Whilst it is not considered economical to run quality broadband to us peasants it is of course fine to string up power lines and pylons from rural Wales to keep the lights on in the cities.
On a less cynical note can you not get a 3G mobile connection? That may be a better route to investigate if you can.
No, mobile is crap here. We need our broadband booster to get a good mobile signal in the first place
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No, mobile is crap here. We need our broadband booster to get a good mobile signal in the first place
Some areas can also get these group wireless connections
http://www.bluewaveinternet.co.uk (http://www.bluewaveinternet.co.uk)
but they tend to be concentrating on outlying villages. Can't comment on how effective they are. Otherwise all we can do is keep moaning to AM's and generally putting the pressure.
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Hi Sally
If that close neighbour is one across the road ... then your speeds should be similar .... anything less and they are fobbing you off! Have you tried ringing a different BB company and asking them what speed you would get... I know they exaggerate but would give an idea.
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Thanks Linda, that's a good ideas.
Otherwise we are looking at Resqnet. They prove wireless broadband locally.
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No, mobile is crap here. We need our broadband booster to get a good mobile signal in the first place
Some areas can also get these group wireless connections
http://www.bluewaveinternet.co.uk (http://www.bluewaveinternet.co.uk)
which provider is that with ? We use the 3 cube and are more than happy with its speed !!!
but they tend to be concentrating on outlying villages. Can't comment on how effective they are. Otherwise all we can do is keep moaning to AM's and generally putting the pressure.
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We are about 8 miles from Talley exchange and could write a book about our dealings with BT over the years. - they said we could have Broadband -twice and failed to connect it.
The WAG will pay for the hardware but were not interested when the provider changed satelites and saddled us with a £150 bill (they wanted 450) to replace the dish etc.
That said it works well with the occasional outage for £30 per month with a 20GB monthly allowance and speeds which are fine most of the time- i often upload around 1 GB of data at a time.
Company is Broadband whereever. BTwas costing around £30 for line rental plus snail mail internet connection so replaced BT with mobile on works reasonably well on vodaphone.
There is a local provider whose name i cannot remember who supply a service via masts. This was absolute rubbish about 6 months ago according to my neighbour who went on telly to complain about it. May be it has now been sorted!
Regen
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:wave: Regen .... you cant be far from Sally or me then.
There are a couple of local providers .... Bluewave being the other one which wasn't on TV but just as unreliable.... the have it at Cwmdu but it rarely works. I know a couple of people in Cwmdu who did sort their BB using satellite. I could find out more... there is NO mobile signal in Cwmdu at all.