Ntl Broadband

happy_acid_face

Can anyone tell me what ntl broadband is like? I recently moved into an apartment and want to install broadband. the apartment is ntl cable and digital t.v ready (i just have to get it reconnected) but it has never had ntl broadband. A Few more questions...

Does Ntl broadband installation involve any drilling of holes etc. that i'll have to run by my landlord or does it come straight from the box i already have?

Does Ntl digital, or cable for that matter, slow down its broadband service at all? Or do either of them interfere with each other?

Is it an honestly reliable service or will i have some problems with the connection dropping from time to time?

Is there anyone here that has Ntl Broadband that can tell me what they think?

thanks to anyone who replies!

Mossy Monk

moved to the broadband board. better responce there i would think

bk

happy_acid_face wrote:

Can anyone tell me what ntl broadband is like? I recently moved into an apartment and want to install broadband. the apartment is ntl cable and digital t.v ready (i just have to get it reconnected) but it has never had ntl broadband. A Few more questions...

With the exception of a few problems recently due to the network change over, it is very good, if not one of the best BB services in the country.

happy_acid_face wrote:

Does Ntl broadband installation involve any drilling of holes etc. that i'll have to run by my landlord or does it come straight from the box i already have?

It comes in over your standard TV cable. They attach a little blue modem to the TV cable and the modem attaches to the TV.

If your PC isn't near an existing TV point, you have two options:

The installer will run the cable and create a new TV point next to your PC, this may involve drilling, but they are typically very neat. Also most landlords are happy to allow this as it im,proves the value of the room being rented (remember that TV point can also be used for analogue NTL TV or digital with an extra box). Most rented rooms come with this. So do ask, but it shouldn't be a problem.

Alternatively you can put a wireless BB router next to the modem, next to the TV and connect the PC to it via wireless. Works fine, sometimes NTL will give you the wireless modem for free, so don't forget to ask when ordering.

happy_acid_face wrote:

Does Ntl digital, or cable for that matter, slow down its broadband service at all? Or do either of them interfere with each other?

No, they use completely separate bandwidth (and frequency) so no interference, etc.

happy_acid_face wrote:

Is it an honestly reliable service or will i have some problems with the connection dropping from time to time?

Well personally I find it to be rock solid. I frequently work from home and use it all day using VPN/VNC and therefore I would notice the smallest downtime. It very rarely goes down and is much more stable then my old DSL connection.

On the other hand some other NTL users haven't been so lucky and have had problems. But that is true of any service, you jsut won't know till you try it.

happy_acid_face wrote:

Is there anyone here that has Ntl Broadband that can tell me what they think?

I have and think it is excellent, I will miss it when I move to my new place which only has slow, expensive Smart fibre service.

leeroybrown

I've been an NTL Broadband customer for about 9 months. In that time the service has generally been excellent with the exception of a few outages which can mainly be put down to teething problems with the service upgrades. Since they have been completed in my area the service has been rock solid with almost no connection drops. If you exclude the upgrade issues it's probably been as stable as the rather reliable DSL line I previously had.

Whenever I've dealt with NTL customer service they have been good but I've had no serious problems. If the service is known to work well in your area then you should be fine.

eoineen

NTL will refuse to drill any holes, irrespective of tenure. I had them install a long co-ax cable so that I could extend it across the room if necessary. I'd say go wireless and that solves any drilling problems. I use a linksys router with my cable modem and it works just fine, but of course I use a mac.

No slowdown for me although the up and download rates have been bad on NTL bb for the last couple of weeks. No one here can explain why it seems to have slowed in recent times. Do not think it is because of joint cable / bb use.

There have been outages earlier this summer but it has been reliable and on ever since. Ive been using it for almost one year and I like it a lot. I'd say go with their basic cable modem package. Certainly better experience than I have had with eircom in the past. Don't expect any customer service though.

Hope this helps you somewhat.

bk

eoineen wrote:

NTL will refuse to drill any holes, irrespective of tenure.

Huh, yes they will, if you want a new TV point for the BB, then they will drill holes (with your permission of course), I'm looking at the hole they drilled in my ceiling right now.

eoineen wrote:

No one here can explain why it seems to have slowed in recent times. Do not think it is because of joint cable / bb use.

It isn't, NTL Ireland have been bought by UPC (who also own Chorus and are one of the biggest cable companies in Europe) and over the last few weeks, they have been changing the BB infrastructure from the NTL UK system into their own system. At the moment all traffic is going through Amsterdam (where UPC are based) and therefore a lot of congestion is happening on their international pipe. There are supposed to be setting up peering in INEX which should hopefully sort this problem.

po0k

w00t - thanks bk, was wondering why the jitter was so bad.

lensman

eoineen wrote:

NTL will refuse to drill any holes, irrespective of tenure.

the two guys who called to install an extra point in my place refused to use an existing hole that RTE Relays (remember them) made over 30yrs ago, the hole was made at the corner of the window cill & went under the frame to gain access to what was at the time the living room & is now a bedroom, just to be helpfull I removed the 15yr old mastic sealent from the hole but when the boy's called they said " a no M8 we have to drill a nu howel caus we can't go near the bleedin winda yano,.. wor naw alowed" then they said the drill's "wor F**k*D" and
"kud I charge the battorieess"

mang87

At the moment ntl give me:

Pings of 100+ to irish gaming servers
200k/sec on a 6Mb connection
And until recently a LOT of downtime.


Although for the past 2 weeks or so there's been no downtime, and I've experienced very stable service. But this ping situation is killing me. Routing through amsterdam is ****ing ridiculous.

Nevyn

Just because the place is ntl digital ready it does not mean that you can have thier boardband ring and check with them.