Is 2GB per month enough?

[honey5]

Originally Posted by dave

Name one

bulldog
honey x

[Curlyben]

Bethere*
+ [Good speeds etc]
- [Very limited availability]
* [Update BE* have been bought by O2 as of 22/06/06]

While they have been purchased by O2, they haven't made any changes to the way they do business, which is damn good.

I'm surprised Bulldog are in this list as they no longer offer domestic connections and since they where purchased by Cable & Wireless, pre-pipex, the services has gone to sh!te.
They should be in the barge pole section.

[honey5]

been with them for 4 yrs or just about so guess that contract is still standing
honey x

[Curlyben]

Originally Posted by honey5

been with them for 4 yrs or just about so guess that contract is still standing
honey x

Been with who ?
BE or Bullcrud ???

[Conniff]

These ISPs may state no download limit, but they all have a 'fair usage' policy which amounts to the same thing.

[honey5]

Originally Posted by Curlyben

Been with who ?
BE or Bullcrud ???

bulldog and i do "use" the puter that being said i had problems last w/e with them, hopefully sorted now
but am thinking of going with BE, have requested and recieved mac from bulldog
honey x

[angryweasel]

Originally Posted by honey5

honey x

Take a look here. I can't speak for the rest of the info. but Fast4 "unlimited" and in the "good" section - best do your research carefully.... (and they have "merged" with oft. bankrupted "breathe internet" in recent weeks.)

Fast4 - ISPr Forum

It seems that at the minute low-cost ISPs are such for good reason. For example the one I used last year was unlimited, then came the FUP, then the 60 Gb cap, then the 15........that's when I jumped ship.
If you're happy with your provider and it seems value for money, I personally would stay with them - if the net is important to you, don't risk locking yourself into 12- 18 months contract

Google for "bandwidth monitor" to find an array of free software that will monitor useage for you - you can eat 2Gb surprisingly quickly

[MrShed]

Originally Posted by Conniff

These ISPs may state no download limit, but they all have a 'fair usage' policy which amounts to the same thing.

There is one(very surprising) exception AFAIK - Tesco.net....

[Conniff]

Originally Posted by wino

I was thinking of subscribing to sky broadband. The basic package is 2GB per month. We download approx 50 songs per month the rest is browsing and CAG (of course) would this be enough?

Originally Posted by dave

In fact, I saw Bookie's claim in the Torygraph the other day; it claimed that watching videos on the Torygraph website didn't affect download limits.

On the web version, it stated that it did affect limits, but minimally.

BTW, it also claimed a week before that Tim Berners Lee invented the Internet.

...and this from a supposed respectable newspaper.

Originally Posted by Bookworm

I stand corrected. (Told you they lived for the stuff! ) My understanding of the d/l limits were that they meant "proper" d/l, not surfing, but I have to say I haven't looked at them closely, so will bow to greater knowledge in that field.

Just a little note.

Don't get download confused with 'bandwidth'

When you download anything (which includes a webpage) your pc sends out packets of acknowledgement and these uploads are usually included in the download limit unless it specifically says so.
Every time you download a music track, you send back these packets to the uploader.

Watching streaming videos has little download effect, but does affect the bandwidth used which is what a lot of ISPs are complaining of in regards to the BBC.

Just out of interest, Virgin have just signed a deal with the BBC that there will be no traffic shaping of BBC streaming.

[patdavies]

Originally Posted by dave

BTW, it also claimed a week before that Tim Berners Lee invented the Internet.

It is a very common (and seemingly becoming more accepted) that WWW=Internet:Internet=WWW

[locutus]

Originally Posted by wino

I am currently on Orange £17.99 per month unlimited usage but I need to cut my out goings down so thought sky would be a good bet. But I don't want a whopping big bill at the end of the month because I've used more than I should

As dave said, download this DU Meter Home Page for your last 2 months to see how much you use. then as Curlyben said, Sky do offer a package for £5.00 per month. If 2 gig ain't enough you should look into that one.

[elixier22]

"Bytes n stuff data allowances"

Right folks in order to help you out your data issues I thought I would update you on an important aspect of mobile internet.

Rounding of data -> Most ISP's esp mobiles round your data UP to the nearest KB so if you have used 1023 you will be charged for a meg. This means that over the course of the month you could have used alot more than you first thought as they charge you for data rounding.

Lost packets and network re transmits. Sounds complex. Not really. This just means that whilst your data is moving from the cellsite to your phone (otherwise known as a packet) sometimes for whatever reason a packet might become carrupt or just not reach you at all. This can happen for lots of reasons and usually happens thousands of times per minute without you knowing. This will take up MB allowance without you ever knowing about it. The information lost must be re sent which of course takes up extra data. This data is not displayed on your counters.

Take warning. Get an uncapped plan. O2's fair useage is about 7GB even though it says 3GB. Vodafone allow you to have up to 10GB on their policies though though they actually do unlimited plans which are tuly unlimited (corp) T-mobile and orange stay away from

[WebFerret]

honey5 said:
"Tiscali
+ [ ]
- [One of the worst ISPs about]"

Not true in my case:

I've been with Tiscali now for over 4 years - £14.99 per month uncapped 8mb speed (although only get 3.5mb actual - same applies to all ISPs - you never get the full 8MB - it's called globle traffic shaping!) - the fair usage policy simply asked you not to download large files between 6 & 11pm of a day, which I adhear to - otherwise I have unlimited use.

Only had two issues during my 4 years, in being unable to connect for about a week (due to infrastructure updates - lol) but they credited my account to compensate - otherwise I'm very happy.

I regularly exceed 100GB per month (being a gamer and updates and all!) so I would hate to have to keep an eye on my usage.

In my opinion it's best to get an unlimited service so you never have to worry about you usage.

As mentioned before - some sites are heavy in usage when visiting - I regularly clean out my cookie and temp internet folder and can find well over 250mb simply viewing internet pages in a very short space of time - if you stream video (like the BBC news web site) then this will dramaticly increase further.

So in answer to the original post question - No I don't think 2GB is sufficient, unless you simply use it to e-mail!

So go get unlimited - you will be better off in the long run.

(Tiscali is about to sell out to another ISP - still unsure who, or how/if the service will change - worth considering that Tiscali currently is uncertain!)

Cheers - happy surfing..........

[elixier22]

NTL / Blueyonder haven't existed for a long time now. These companies were bought by Virgin Media (Their cable service is the fastest I have seen of any ISP - ever)

[elixier22]

Errrrr Bulldog do offer home and business services. They always have.

Originally Posted by Curlyben

While they have been purchased by O2, they haven't made any changes to the way they do business, which is damn good.

I'm surprised Bulldog are in this list as they no longer offer domestic connections and since they where purchased by Cable & Wireless, pre-pipex, the services has gone to sh!te.
They should be in the barge pole section.