BT Infinity

MattC59

Anyone got it ? Any good ?

I've got BT's standard broadband which (in my area) has always been pretty good and the support I've recieved has always been fine, so I'm thinking of upgrading to BT Infinity.

However............. my sister has just done the same and now has a service which is slower than her standard service.

Anyone got any feedback ?

Cheers.......... M

upperoilcan

If your sister's is slower now after being put on to fibre then she has something very wrong...

Get in contact with BT as something is a miss....

BT Infinity is THE fastest B/B in the country.
However you will have to check the Infinity website to see if its available from your exchange area..

McBain_v1

All of the broadband availability checking programs that I have used rate my area as 'crap'. I'm not in a rural area, I just think that a combination of distance from exchange, new build without cable and terrain that screws up satellite reception have conspired against me

What really irks me though is the cost of these broadband packages. I haven't come across one that could be described as value for money. At the moment I am getting along fine with my '3' dongle which works out at about £8.25pcm with a 12GB download limit (1GB pcm) - this is fine for me.

upperoilcan

B/B will be determined by the qualty of the copper/Aluminium in the ground from the exchange to your premises,distance from the exchange can be a factor if your 5 or more miles from the exchange..
(rare) but i have seen it in more rural area's.

bompington

upperoilcan wrote:

B/B will be determined by the qualty of the copper/Aluminium in the ground from the exchange to your premises,distance from the exchange can be a factor if your 5 or more miles from the exchange..
(rare) but i have seen it in more rural area's.

It's not so much the distance that's a problem for us, it's the time it takes them to wrap all those fiddly little bytes round the pigeon's leg.

Gizmodo

I had BT Business Broadband which was giving me pretty good figures (about 5MB/s download and 0.8MB/s upload from what I remember).

I upgraded to Infinity (normal home use Infinity not Business) in the summer and I can definitely tell the difference. Not so much with the download speed (which I get between 15 and 25MB/s) but more on the upload speed (now about 8MB/s). I really only see a download speed difference when watching BBC iPlayer HD content on my TV - basically it never has to stop to catch up with the stream. But more when uploading photos from my PC to a website - where before if I wanted to send a load of 11 mega pixel images to a photo service I may as well go out shopping and call in for a pint on the way home - now the delays are tolerable.

Normally broadband is copper cables from your house to a green box on the street somewhere, and from there more copper cables to the exchange. The distance of copper is the major issue in speed, not the physical distance from your house to the exchange. In my case the copper goes 0.5 miles South from my house before then travelling 2 miles North, past my house again, to get to the exchange - the green box is in the wrong direction for me.

Infinity is copper from your house to the green box, but then it's Fibre Optic cable from the box to the exchange.

The new broadband router will take a couple of days to settle down and learn the best routes, so your Sister's problem may sort itself out.

I did have 1 problem not longer after installation. The white box which connects the Home Hub to the phone line overheated and failed. BT sent an engineer and replaced it no problem, but I recommend you don't put the Home Hub on top of the white box.

usedtobefast

I've been on BT Infinity now for about 2 months and regularly have speeds > 25Mb/s download ( about 1.6 Mb/s upload) and as the last poster commented the most noticeable difference is the performance of BBC iPlayer.

Oh and because I hadn't shopped around in years I've saved about £20 a month with my new package :-)

davelakers

We got Infinity installed last Tuesday, upgrading from standard BT Broadband.
I have used speedtest.net a few times and Im only getting 20mb/2mb against a promised 40mb/10mb. The cabinet is 50 metres away from my front door and I have been rpomised fantastic speeds.

I have been advised that it takes about 10 days to settle down, but if it hasnt Im not going to be happy.

griffsters

Still on 2MB and no sign of infinity. Broadband Britain, my arse!

Not in the sticks either...

Gizmodo

I can't believe it was only 12 years ago I was upgrading the 33kb/s to 56kb/s modems in our comms room - yes KILO bits per second. When I started in the PC industry we were using 1200b/s download and 75b/s upload modems to connect to Prestel - yes bits per second, no Kilo or Mega there!

Oh how we moan about what we have and always want more But where would technology be if we didn't?

iainf72

I've had it for a year and get about 39mb/s down

If you're not getting decent speeds and you're near the cabinet, it might be they've got an old profile against your account which caps you. That's what happened to me. Mind you, mine is via a reseller for BT so I don't get it direct from BT (although they installed it etc)

jgsi

I know I have been out of things 'networking' for 4 years now, doddery pensioner and all that... but a home router needing to settle down..?
It only knows 1 route surely? Default gateway to the main exchange switch router ?
I need to know (not really )

Still cant get it here though.. but our download speeds ok for iplayer stuff on the Bravia, even for HD version (but that's con as well .. can't be more than 720, not 1020)

MattC59

I wasnt' aware that routers needed to settle down either, nor that they would search out the best route, but IT isnt' my strong point.

That said, I looked at http://www.speedtest.net and it gives me the option of checking my connection through different servers. Apparently, I'm getting a 26ms Ping with 7.24Mbps download and 0.88Mbps upload speeds through a server hosted by 'Trance FM' in London. Oddly, there's a server hosted at Vodaphone, just up the road and the connection is slower........... but as mentioned, what do I know !?

I think that the 'green box is at the top of the hill, so the copper wire distance shouldn't be that long, is there any way that I can find out which box I'm connected to ?

(oh yeah, Infinity is available in my area)

Cheers........... M

davelakers

I tested mine again, this time "wired" using the ethernet cable.

36.8Mb down
2.01Mb up

Up load speed is still very poor but I'll talk to BT when the 10 days is up and ask them to check/change my profile. Unless any one knows if I can do it myself?

Gizmodo

MattC59 wrote:

I think that the 'green box is at the top of the hill, so the copper wire distance shouldn't be that long, is there any way that I can find out which box I'm connected to ?

that's the problem then, all the data has to go uphill so it'll definitely be slower
The only way to know what box you're connected to is to ask a BT engineer, or a neighbour who has asked a BT engineer.

Gizmodo

JGSI wrote:

I know I have been out of things 'networking' for 4 years now, doddery pensioner and all that... but a home router needing to settle down..?
It only knows 1 route surely? Default gateway to the main exchange switch router ?
I need to know (not really )

I was similarly puzzled by that also, So a quick Google later led me to: http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/speed_guide/speed_basics.shtml which says:

At first we won't know exactly how fast your broadband will be. To find out, a number of tests are run from your telephone exchange which will cause your speeds go up and down. You may even get disconnected a few times. Don't worry, this doesn't mean there's a problem, so please bear with it. During this time we'll find the best balance between speed and reliability for your line.

You can help the testing process by rebooting your router (switch it off and on again) three or four times over the first 10 days. You'll get better results if you can do this in the morning.

So it's not your hub learning routes, it's the equipment at the exchange learning just how best to send the data based on your particular physical connection quality. I feel better now

McBain_v1

All sounds a bit of a ruddy faff if you ask me.

Special K

One word:
Crap

MattC59

Special K wrote:

One word:
Crap

Care to elaborate, as otherwise your comment isn't worth the time you took to type it.

nevman

Special K wrote:

One word:
Crap

Hang on,sisters been put on fibre,is getting slower and now its crap-I`m confused?

MattC59

nevman wrote:

Special K wrote:

One word:
Crap

Hang on,sisters been put on fibre,is getting slower and now its crap-I`m confused?

My sis could have had the 'settling down issues' but was getting a really bad connection.
As for 'Special K's comment...... ????

Special K

Numerous faults on the line.
Support noticeably worse than the last time I was on bt.
During one support call I was told I needed to wait for upgrade of router which was nonsense and just a stalling tactic that assumed the customer had no idea.
Highly variable speed. Often dropping to 1mb download.
Expensive compared to other services. This may not count for much as the newer introductory offers add better value than the deal we got.
Home hub is the worst router I have ever owned. Drops signal. Rubbish bit of kit.

Special K

Numerous faults on the line.
Support noticeably worse than the last time I was on bt.
During one support call I was told I needed to wait for upgrade of router which was nonsense and just a stalling tactic that assumed the customer had no idea.
Highly variable speed. Often dropping to 1mb download.
Expensive compared to other services. This may not count for much as the newer introductory offers add better value than the deal we got.
Home hub is the worst router I have ever owned. Drops signal. Rubbish bit of kit.