Internet Service

Geek UK · Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Shanklin

Does anybody know the best high speed internet service provider on the island? I understand that BT haven't released the exchange near shanklin yet and so it's impossible to take advantage of the cheap deals offered nationwide. I was wondering if anyone had a good speed uncapped connection?

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Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

What sort of speed you looking for?

You plug in you connect, sometimes it's quick other times it's slow. It also depends on how your connection is made, if you're wired straight into the router you'll have a faster connection than if you connect through a wireless card or adapter.

Suppliers quote "Up to" figures because the maximum speed is controlled by how many connections are made to the server.

I'm with Wight Cable through a BT line, they advertise up to 20MG/S. I doubt if I've ever received it. The average Island wide apparently is 7.5.

Uncapped is a misnomer whether you're talking speed or bandwidth a server with unlimited resources doesn't exist, it's just a marketing ploy.

Geek UK · Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Shanklin

speedwise, 7-8meg would be fine, the cap I'm referring to is the data allowance. i am an online gamer and i have a lot of data to send around the world too in the form of music mixed and mastered on my PC.

I'm just looking to find a decent deal around 10 mbps with no data cap (per month)

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

Like I said there's no such thing as uncapped.

A mate of mine is on 3 mobile Internet, he pays £16 a month for 15Gig of bandwidth and if he doesn't check himself can burn that in a couple of days. All he's doing is streaming pod casts.

What you need to do is workout how much you roughly burn a month and buy accordingly. If you read any of the small print from suppliers who advertise unlimited, you will find a clause that says unlimited is deemed to mean reasonable use. In most cases these packages are cheap and so the reasonable use will mean 3 or 4 gig tops.

Like I said, go to someone like Wight Cable knowing how much you need and ask how much they will charge you. Or do like I do with Wight Cable, as I never know from one month to the next how much I'll burn, pay up front in cash. My limit is 3Gig which is £17 a month but because I'm always in credit I can go over the 3 without it costing me penalties.

Also while you're talking about speed, how quick is you computer?

If you're a gamer I take it you've got a dedicated machine just for that purpose, with another one for your music.
Mixing both on the same PC will slow you down. All resources especially if you're using Windows should be optimised towards 1 or the other.

Regular cleaning of the rubbish Windows both collects and produces is a must. Then and only then will you benefit from any decent Internet speed.

Natalie · Joined: 05 Aug 2010 Posts: 10

Hi Geek Uk

I would be very interested to know how you get on with finding a package suitble for your needs. We are looking at moving to the island next year and my daughter (unusually for a girl) is into online gaming and is forever downloading stuff from steam etc...

In the Channel Islands we are limited to C & W and our internet speed is supposed to be 4GB but we are lucky if its 2GB and this costs us £25per mth plus line rental for home phone of £7.99.

I hope we will be able to get something a bit better than this!

Natalie

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

Hi Natalie

I think you're getting Internet speed mixed up with bandwidth.

Internet speed is the connection rate at which your computer and the server it is connected to communicate and is measured in Megabits per second. Bandwidth on the other hand is the measurement used to determine how much you can stream or download in a given amount of time usually a month and is measured hopefully in gigabytes, if anyone is getting less than a gig a month then change your provider immediately.

Mobile Internet providers offer huge amounts of bandwidth for little money because they know that not everyone is going to use it because signal qualities vary all over the country, and who can wait around forever for a movie download on a mobile set up with a 12KB per second or less. But if you're like my mate and have a pretty good connection and go over, these companies sting you big time.

The Island's average Internet speed is 7 or so Megabits a second. That's 7million bits of information per second. South Korea boast 14.6 and Berkeley California have a staggering 18.7MBS.

As mentioned in my last post, it's not just the connection speed that is important but the state of your computer. If you're a Windows user how often do you defrag your hard drive? the Windows filing system is terrible and files get spread all over the hard drive. How many restore points do you have clogging up disc space? You only need one, but I've cleaned peoples computers who have had restore points stretching back months.
Cookies so you don't have to remember passwords to sites, browser favourites so you don't have to type in addresses, extra tool bars in your browser like Facebook buttons and gadgets, all very convenient, but all slow your computer down.

Think of your computer like your car. If you load your car to the hilt you won't get so far on a gallon of fuel as you will if the car is empty.

If you're a gamer, you need a dedicated machine just for gaming. A high spec machine, not a bargain from PC world, but something that can cope with gaming. If you don't then it won't matter how fast your Internet connection is.
Forget pretty pictures on your desktop and chatting with your friends on Facebook. All you should have is a bare bones operating system and browser. If you're using Windows then you need to keep it clean, by running anti virus and spyware programs and regularly use clean up tools to delete cookies and all the rest of the rubbish that the Windows operating system collects and creates.

On my site that appears in my signature below, there is a PDF book in the downloads section that explains how to use a few basic free programs to keep your computer in tip top condition.

sparkie1984 · Joined: 06 Oct 2010 Posts: 60

im surprised virgin media havn't bought wight cable out, like they did with the mainland!!

broadband will be of interest to me in the future once we settle for good!

for now i guess ill have to rely on my "3" mobile wifi dongle.....

wight cable dont even offer a pvr do they? i briefly checked their site out and it seems quite old technology.

im guessing most use sky for tv

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

I only use a TV for watching DVD's, so I can't comment on that side of things.

All I know is Wight Cable's broadband has been ideal for me, it's cheap reliable and quick enough for what I want.

In3dLimited · Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Chale

Hello Everybody,
Firstly, I'm new here.
(No dramas).

I currently live in Chale, which as most of us know, is a big joke lead-in when talking about Internet speeds.
For example: The Landline Broadband will download at 0.33Mbits, (When the connection doesn't drop out,) yet a Mobile Internet Connection will run at about 1-2 Mbps at least.

So, after stumbling on this Site, I would like to offer the following Information:

Firstly, as I understand it: Wight Cable got as far as Hunnyhill in Newport, when They were updating the Exchanges with Optic Fibre.
The reason that they stopped there was, apparently, that the Council didn't want Them to dig up any more roads.
(Confirmation would be nice, but it seems likely.).

Secondly, if You're interested in getting a High-Speed Internet Connection in the middle of Nowhere, like Myself...
It might be worth considering one of these:

http://www.broadbandwherever.net/products/tooway.aspx

If You look at the prices, You'll see that they aren't unreasonable...
Considering that You don't have to pay any Line Rental to a Phone Line Provider, and if it's Your only Internet Broadband Option, You'll be happy to have seen it.
(I don't work for Them, or Anything... Always shop around for the best deal... Be sure to notice the £200 Hardware cost, and £120 Installation fee as well.
This may be what it's worth, but it's a lot to pay up front, for Someone who's taking out a Contract.).

The other thing is, if You already have SKY, (again, I do not gain by mentioning Them,) or various other Telecommunications/ Media Distributor's Company's Bills every Month, They often offer Packages that include an Internet Connection at a very competitive rate.

So, even if like Myself, You can't get an Internet speed faster than Dial-Up, if the cost is low enough, It might be acceptable to You.

I hope that this has been useful to Someone.

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

Wight Cable can provide broadband to any land line. I for instance have a BT land line and Wight Cable provide my broadband.

I get download speeds of up to 786KB's/second, which I think is pretty quick.
But of course this only works if the server you are downloading from is equipped to transfer at that rate. If it's a popular site with lots of traffic you're unlikely to benefit from having 8Meg broadband when you're downloading a large file, as there isn't a server in the world that can give thousands of users that amount of bandwidth all at the same time.

In3dLimited · Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Chale

Although You make an excellent point, regarding Internet Connection Speeds, I'd like to clarify that the 0.33 Mbps speed was optained through an Internet Speed Test.

Even if the Site experiences a high volume of traffic, it is considerably slower than the average speed test.

Wight Portal · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 326 Location: Carisbrooke

In Chale it would seem you're limited to providers.

There's Plus Net, which is basically BT bragging speeds of up to 20mb/s
Orange, O2 bragging the same.

Eclipse looks interesting, although on the comparison site it also bragged 20mb/s, on their own site they have a speed test tool. I put in Chale Stores phone number and they came back with a minimum of 7mb/s with the maximum being 8. This is a better measure than relying on the up to marketing ploy where you might not get above 1.

So check them out at:
http://www.eclipse.net.uk/broadband-and-connectivity

In3dLimited · Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Chale

I have a feeling that Chale Stores probably has a better Telephone Connection, as there are a lot of Houses around that Area.
I live nearer to the Wight Mouse.
Only on the way out to Freshwater.
It would be interesting to see what I'd be quoted.
Are these in any way legally binding, or can I just get the, "It was just an estimate", fob off?

barns101 · Site Admin Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 56

In3dLimited · Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 4 Location: Chale

The Website provided tells Me:
Broadband:

Minimum: 2.5Mbps
Maximum: 7 Mbps
Estimated Download: 4 Mbps...

That sounds really good, the only thing is...
I know that if I buy Broadband with, "Up to x Mbps.", there's no legal obligation to provide me with the maximum available connection.
4 Mbps would be great, even though a friend of mine in Newport gets over 10Mbps, for the same price.

The next hurdle is, once You force a legally binding contract to provide a 4Mbps Connection on average, You then have to adhere to a, "Fair use policy".
This is decided by the ISP.

I'm just saying, it isn't easy to be a winner, when an ISP. Is holding all of the Cards.