Sky Broadband

[Tak]

Mic and I have been looking at switching over to this and were wondering on peoples views of it.

I've worked out we can get faster broadband, free weekend calls and add the movies to our TV all for £3 more than we're paying out currently on it all seperately, but I don't want to switch if its just gonna be major hassles.

I know Daz had just switched to it when we were at the Swansea meet but I also know hes recently been webless *confuzzled Sam*

Remember - laymans terms please - when it comes to PC stuff you sometimes have to treat me like you would treat a very very dumb blond :embarassed:

[Daz]

I moved out, my folks now have Sky broadband and are happy with it :)

Which package were you looking at? The free one is very limited - 2GB cap a month which isn't going to be enough for a heavy browser. Not sure if it's indicative of all of them but I had to change the Sky router because it was flakey and kept dropping the connection. Once I did that the service was good as gold.

[Tak]

Looking at the max one

[Daz]

Same one we got. Installed on the day they said and the service has been reliable, about all I can tell you really :) Not sure what luck you'll have with their router.

[Mark]

Are you saying you used your own router then? Sky's router was the biggest turn off for me.

[Daz]

I did. It's not supported of course, but you can extract the DSL username and password out to use in whatever you like.

Oh, the other downside is the 12 month term. Not a problem if the service works well of course, will only become one if the services takes a nose dive.

[Mark]

Might be back on the cards then. My exchange has been Easynet/Sky LLU'd already.

(Sam, if you know what telephone exchange you're on, I'll gladly look it up - it affects what service you can get from Sky).

[Tak]

(Sam, if you know what telephone exchange you're on, I'll gladly look it up - it affects what service you can get from Sky).

No idea I'm afraid - wouldn't even know where/how to find out :embarassed:

[kaiowas]

2GB cap a month which isn't going to be enough for a heavy browser.

How heavy do you consider a 'heavy' browser? Admittedly a lot of my net time is spent at work but there's 2 of us here who spend most evenings online:

http://www.kaiowas.co.uk/images/usage.gif

[Mark]

Sam - Just to confirm, you're on Portsmouth North, which is LLU enabled, and therefore you can get the Max product.

Good news for you. :)

And Kaiowas, I'd consider that to be a light user (at least as far as tech savvy types go). Given the fact I typically pull down 50-100GB, I'm definitely a heavy user. PN have never bitched at me (yet). :)

[kaiowas]

I know I'm a very light user in terms of overall net usage simply because I don't engage in filesharing or gaming. However daz suggested that 2gig would not be enough for "heavy browsers" which I'd say we qualify as.

[Tak]

Both Mic and I d/l stuff and Mic runs GW for at least a few hours every day - longer when he isn't at work

[Mark]

If you're not downloading much (what windows update/AV updates etc. need, the odd song off iTunes etc.), then 2GB is enough. Start downloading and it'll be gone in no time. The vast majority of users who don't know better would get away with 2GB.

Even if I'm not here, 2GB would last me about 5 days. :eek:

[Daz]

If you're not downloading much (what windows update/AV updates etc. need, the odd song off iTunes etc.), then 2GB is enough. Start downloading and it'll be gone in no time. The vast majority of users who don't know better would get away with 2GB.
You see I'm not so sure these days. Between youtube and Google video I expect the average users monthly bandwidth usage has crept up a lot in the past 12-18 months.

Though maybe kaiowas's stats prove me wrong :dunno:

Put it this way, my folks place (4 very occasional, very light users, no more than an hour at a time and never every day) use >2GB in a month.

[Mark]

Don't think my parents even get to 1GB, never mind 2.

But you're right, videos will eat that up far faster than most things.