download films on Waitrose, Zen or 'be'

[johngood_____]

At the moment I'm with virgin net 'plan2' ( 'not' on the new cable) and have
learnt recently from virgin that my £17.99 a month package, was capped at
2MB data stream and that I could be switched to 5MB IP stream for the same
money I'm paying them. So I asked them to upgrade me to the faster IP system
and Virgin told me to wait 10 days or so for the system to pick up speed.

It's now three weeks and I've just done a line test with www.speedtest.net
which tells me that my download speed is 1001 kb/s. That's at 2045hours this
evening.

I use the internet myself mainly just for web browsing and emailing, but my
son upstairs uses his pc for constantly downloading films. (we're talking 24
hours a day downloading). I thought that his using the pc like this might
put him
and me into the special 'heavy users' catagory. I have tried to understand
virgin's traffic management policy, but cannot. Could I be getting such
slow
download speeds because of my sons usage? Although when I got the speedtest
result this evening he was not downloading anything and he has not done so
for a couple of days.

When I looked at the ' Which ' magazine online they recommend Zen and
Waitrose broadband. The waitrose capps at 5GB a month and one of the Zen
packages at 2GB a month. Would anyone be able to guess roughly for me;
what my son's perpetual film downloads would clock up every month, so I
might know which of the different packages to aim for?

A friend has recommended 'be' internet provider. They say that their
downloads are not capped. Could this be possible? Everybody else is
talking about capping so I'm wondering if what I'm offered is too good to be
true. 'be' require me to be tied into a 12 month contract , so I'm
wondering if they really do not effect some complicated kind of capping
especially since it's only £14.99 a month. [ incidentally 'be' told me over
the phone that my connection to the exchange could give me a maximum of 7 to
8 MB/s download speed whilst everybody else I've ever talked to about it
including virgin and bt tell me that the maximum speed i could possibly get
on my line is 5 MB/s. Would that be because 'be' are using different
equipment or are more fanciful in their expectations?]

Would be grateful if some of you knowledgeable guys who know about this
stuff might recommend one out of: Zen, Waitrose or 'be' for someone with
my and my son's user profile. Thanks for advice.

 

[Rod Speed]

At the moment I'm with virgin net 'plan2' ( 'not' on the new cable)
and have learnt recently from virgin that my £17.99 a month package,
was capped at 2MB data stream and that I could be switched to 5MB IP
stream for the same money I'm paying them. So I asked them to upgrade
me to the faster IP system and Virgin told me to wait 10 days or so
for the system to pick up speed.

It's now three weeks and I've just done a line test with
www.speedtest.net which tells me that my download speed is 1001 kb/s.

Thats a pretty useless measure of the connection speed.

What does the modem say the speed is ?

That's at 2045hours this evening.

I use the internet myself mainly just for web browsing and emailing,
but my son upstairs uses his pc for constantly downloading films.
(we're talking 24 hours a day downloading). I thought that his using the pc like this might put him and me into the
special 'heavy users' catagory. I have tried to understand virgin's traffic management policy, but cannot. Could I
be getting such slow download speeds because of my sons usage?

Yes. And it isnt just the download speed that matters, most of the time its
actually limited by the upload speed with torrents and other movie downloads.

Although when I got the speedtest result this evening he was not downloading anything and he has not done so for a
couple of days.

When I looked at the ' Which ' magazine online they recommend Zen and
Waitrose broadband. The waitrose capps at 5GB a month and one of the
Zen packages at 2GB a month. Would anyone be able to guess roughly
for me; what my son's perpetual film downloads would clock up every
month, so I might know which of the different packages to aim for?

Impossible to say, because it depends entirely on what he is downloading
and how many at once, and where from and how many seeds the sources
of the movies have etc. There is a hell of a difference between the current
popular favourites seeds wise and say obscure unusual stuff movie wise.

I can burn up 100G a month without even trying and I dont even bother
with the most popular movies and mostly dont download movies either.

A friend has recommended 'be' internet provider. They say that their downloads are not capped. Could this be
possible?

Yes, there are a some operations that arent.

Everybody else is talking about capping so I'm wondering if what I'm offered is too good to be true. 'be' require me
to be tied into a 12 month contract, so I'm wondering if they really do not effect some complicated kind of capping
especially since it's only £14.99 a month.

Yeah, thats a real possibility.

[ incidentally 'be' told me over the phone that my connection to the exchange could give me a maximum of 7 to 8 MB/s
download speed whilst everybody else I've ever talked to about it including virgin and bt tell me that the maximum
speed i could possibly get on my line is 5 MB/s.

adsl1 can do 8Mb and you can do a lot better than that with adsl2+

Quite a few isps do limit the download to less than the technology can do tho.

Would that be because 'be' are using different equipment
Yes.

or are more fanciful in their expectations?]

Unlikely given the consumer law protection you have if they cant deliver what they claim.

Would be grateful if some of you knowledgeable guys who know about this stuff might recommend one out of: Zen,
Waitrose or 'be' for someone with my and my son's user profile.

Not everyone who reads here uses the english systems.

 

[Woby Tide]

At the moment I'm with virgin net 'plan2' ( 'not' on the new cable) and have
learnt recently from virgin that my £17.99 a month package, was capped at
2MB data stream and that I could be switched to 5MB IP stream for the same
money I'm paying them. So I asked them to upgrade me to the faster IP system
and Virgin told me to wait 10 days or so for the system to pick up speed.

It's now three weeks and I've just done a line test withwww.speedtest.net
which tells me that my download speed is 1001 kb/s. That's at 2045hours this
evening.

I use the internet myself mainly just for web browsing and emailing, but my
son upstairs uses his pc for constantly downloading films. (we're talking 24
hours a day downloading). I thought that his using the pc like this might
put him
and me into the special 'heavy users' catagory.

Depending what films he is downloading some Be users have received
letters telling them to stop downloading certain films after Be were
approached by the film companies owning the copyright. But so will
most ISP's going forward

A friend has recommended 'be' internet provider.  They say that their
downloads are not capped.  Could this be possible?  Everybody else is
talking about capping so I'm wondering if what I'm offered is too good to be
true.  'be' require me to be tied into a 12 month contract ,

only on their cheapest package is there a 12 month contract, on the
£18 contract it's 3 months, or you can leave for £40 at any point. You
can actual swap packages month to month so you could go on the lowest
package but when you want to leave, upgrade and reduce the notice term

wondering if they really do not effect some complicated kind of capping
especially since it's only £14.99 a month.  [ incidentally 'be' told me over
the phone that my connection to the exchange could give me a maximum of 7 to
8 MB/s download speed whilst everybody else I've ever talked to about it
including virgin and bt tell me that the maximum speed i could possibly get
on my line is 5 MB/s.  Would that be because 'be' are using different
equipment or are more fanciful in their expectations?]

different equipment and technology ADSL2 v ADSL


they certainly are good for your sons usage, the speed very rarely
dips even at peak times

 

[DanB]

At the moment I'm with virgin net 'plan2' ( 'not' on the new cable) and
have
learnt recently from virgin that my £17.99 a month package, was capped at
2MB data stream and that I could be switched to 5MB IP stream for the same
money I'm paying them. So I asked them to upgrade me to the faster IP
system
and Virgin told me to wait 10 days or so for the system to pick up speed.

It's now three weeks and I've just done a line test with www.speedtest.net
which tells me that my download speed is 1001 kb/s. That's at 2045hours
this
evening.

I use the internet myself mainly just for web browsing and emailing, but
my
son upstairs uses his pc for constantly downloading films. (we're talking
24
hours a day downloading). I thought that his using the pc like this might
put him
and me into the special 'heavy users' catagory. I have tried to
understand
virgin's traffic management policy, but cannot. Could I be getting such
slow
download speeds because of my sons usage? Although when I got the
speedtest
result this evening he was not downloading anything and he has not done so
for a couple of days.

When I looked at the ' Which ' magazine online they recommend Zen and
Waitrose broadband. The waitrose capps at 5GB a month and one of the Zen
packages at 2GB a month. Would anyone be able to guess roughly for me;
what my son's perpetual film downloads would clock up every month, so I
might know which of the different packages to aim for?

A friend has recommended 'be' internet provider. They say that their
downloads are not capped. Could this be possible? Everybody else is
talking about capping so I'm wondering if what I'm offered is too good to
be
true. 'be' require me to be tied into a 12 month contract , so I'm
wondering if they really do not effect some complicated kind of capping
especially since it's only £14.99 a month. [ incidentally 'be' told me
over
the phone that my connection to the exchange could give me a maximum of 7
to
8 MB/s download speed whilst everybody else I've ever talked to about it
including virgin and bt tell me that the maximum speed i could possibly
get
on my line is 5 MB/s. Would that be because 'be' are using different
equipment or are more fanciful in their expectations?]

Would be grateful if some of you knowledgeable guys who know about this
stuff might recommend one out of: Zen, Waitrose or 'be' for someone with
my and my son's user profile. Thanks for advice.

Sounds like you need at least 50gb. I use Demon, 50gb fair usage policy,
£19.99 a month.