I'm thinking of dumping NTL and looking @ ADSL

So i'm looking at 2mb dsl and more specifically Bulldog, but before I order, I've got a few questions which I'm sure someone (Spud?) will know the answer to.

1 - I would need to purchase a modem, any recommendations?

2 - Do they supply the microfilters etc that I will need FOC?

3 - ?40 per month for 2Mb isn't quite as good value as it looks with NTL offerring 1.5Mb for ?38 (soon to be ?35) are there any other BB providers I should be looking at?

To be honest with the cost of a BT line (?75), modem and filters (~?50?) and associated charges, it's beginning to look very expensive to get set up, are there any offers I should be aware of?

I realise that's alot of questions, but I'm a bit lost on the whole ADSL thing and it seems like an expensive option, so opinions are welcome

The only advice I can offer is as another cable user. Of all the ppl I know on BB the ones who "appear" to have the most issues and non-consistent service are the non cable users. Maybe just how I see things, but I was not as impressed when I had the chance to use BB via a BT line.

I have no issues or service consistancy problems, I'm just looking at other (faster) options available to me.

I genuinely thought that ADSL was cheaper, but it looks like that may not be the case

Sorry tackyon but I disagree totally... I sit their laughing at my cable using friends, connection stablility is truely pathetic on their cable connections...



Its the effort of changing lines, if cable has 1.5mb i'd just go with that... saves a lot of effort and fuss.

@PCA, this should be some help

Not the case for me at all Spud, I've not had those problems with cable at all

Of all the ppl I know with BB, just over half are thru a BT line, and they are the ones who have the most problems. It may be localised to my area, but like I said, it is just my experiences.

They experience variable packet loss, generally slower pings too. They also have the most downtime. Most of the ppl I know around here on TW BB switched from BT lines to get better performance.

PCA, i didnt realise NTL did not offer faster than 1.5meg, that is real shit LOL A year back I had the 1 meg, now 1.5, and it was only costing me 35 quid, BT couldnt even compete with that, and as far as I know no-one who uses BT can get 3 meg like I currently have.

Apart from shit that was outta TW hands, I have had no issues that have lasted more than a few hours.

also i have almost neva had any probs with my cable BB it is usually the STB that fuks up and then U encounter the hell that is CS!!! that has only ever been my only prob with NTHell not theh prob. i think in the 2 odd years i had BB i have had 1 or 2 outages that were not due to fukt STB and both those were sorted within hours. my only real bug with them is the UL speed! 750/128 great down but sucky up!!

had my BT dsl line for a few years now and have never had anything to complain about....but that may change when they start capping my d/l limits i may well be looking towards bulldog when that time arises

Like I said Bass, may just be that dsl is crappy in my area. I know many ppl have moved to smellwaste from BT due to shitty service.

sounds very very very likely it is your area. Since I don't know anyone who has had any/many problems with BT beyond the odd slowdown or what have you that always happens with computers. I'm not with them now, but BT were perfect for over a year. Never had any problems. Especially regarding the ping part, ADSL is better for gaming due to the lower latency you get, and the higher upload.

In the meantime, I have friends on both different cable services. There lines aren't too stable going on the last years track record, as said they are worse off for games, they have dodgy transfers too and from other people (everyone blames MSN of course but its only ever Cable users that get transfer time outs). Telewest (blueyonder) are really crappy though (whereas NTL really doesn't seem to have many/any problems), one of my friends uses it and gets slower speeds than NTL/BT, much worse ping and well he's had lots of problems with them. The guy who uses NTL who lives just over the hill doesn't have much problems with them, except cursing NTLs name over the terrible Digital Package you get and the crappy phones

Anyways, this thread isn't even about BT or telewest; its about BulldogDSL and NTL And it seems i'm the only person on them on these boards using bulldog

As far as technology arguements go; ADSL vs Cable, ADSL has the better upload and better latency (as said, its more suited to gaming because of this combination too), cable has a tiny bit faster download from my experience as I suspect they have a bigger cache too (although that is when the damn thing works, last year it must have bust about 50 times That's when you get f*cked up images everywhere and urls bring up the wrong material ). It's a newer technology and it shows.. that doesn't mean companies deliver on either side of the high end service, but as far as technology goes, DSL is top tits. I would prefer SDSL to ADSL in the uk, that offers 16mbit up and down if i'm not mistaken

As far as the companies go, NTL have terrible customer support, BTs is still pretty solid, although based in India In my experience BT provide a very consistant service, never had a single problem with them (that wasn't related to that crap modem anyway ). Similarly, as of late NTLs uptime has been decent too. BulldogDSL have never even given me a reason to contact their tech support, but I made an enquiry and got a response within several working hours (about politik's ip block which is tracked to some polish isp ). On that front they win. For price they also win, because, well its cheaper... and since being bought out by Cable and Wireless, they seem to be improving the service at a daily rate.

In terms of recommendation, I'd just stick with NTL to be honest, its not worth the hassle changing phone lines... although if your having trouble with NTL (which you don't mention), BT are a better company to deal with and see changes say if your telephone breaks.

The only thing that would make me even consider changing suppliers is the upload speed, and so far no-one has surpassed TW.

Bulldogs 2 meg service is very cheap tho, gonna have to keep on at TW about this as I have no doubt they will soon launch a 3 meg service in my area at a lower price than I currently pay.

NTL haven't pissed me off any more than usual, just looking at my options.

one other thing not mentioned so far is contention ratios. dunno how much is import tho. not sure bout TW but i believe NTL is 20:1 but most dsl is 50:1 for home consumers.

Yeah I forgot that too. I forget the figures but I am sure cable, atleast TW, was way better. Like purple nightmare said tho, not sure exactly how important that is.