All,

Telewest have kicked up the speed of the broadband packages by 50% again

Source here - http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/getContent.jspx?page=bbs_evenfaster



:thumbsup: :D

Well that will lower my ping on Americas Army at least, cool, Merry christmas to me!

I notice they keep putting download speeds up but not upload...

3mb becomes 4mb download... but 384kb upload...

thats pretty crap really, if you've got more download you need more upload to send more packet requests, also you'd assume with such fast download speeds they'd be accomadating people who actually use their connection and need upload speed for uploading to web-sites, sending files to friends etc...

from what I hear telewest broadband is really unreliable too... although I put that down to my mates networking skills lol

the upload is kept low to combat P2P, and because the vast majority of legitimate net users don't need it.

Originally posted by xafier
from what I hear telewest broadband is really unreliable too... although I put that down to my mates networking skills lol

Well, I have been with telewest since 2001 and I haven't had longer than an hours outage (that I noticed). Tech support has always been on the ball, I don't use their portal or mail or anything, but for internet access with consistent d/l rates of 160KB/s (1280kbps) (1.5mbps connection) and in my experience 99.99% uptime at £25 a months is hard to beat.

I can't think of single other provider that keeps adding 50% on to customer download bandwidth. without increasing the prices or putting caps on data downloaded (that will come, £/GB, guaranteed though :( )

Having just upgraded to 1.5mbps down and 256kbps up, this is even better news. Soon my downloads will top 200 KB/s.

Having said all that, I have 256kbps upstream, and with the amount of files I transfer to and from work/webservers etc, not to mention phan fm (on 24/7 with only a *few* outages 8) ) a symetrical line would be great

symetrical lines (i.e same downstream bandwidth as upstream) are just a lot more expensive. think DSL

3 cheers for Blueyonder.

Is the upgrade imminent or if not when it is effective from?

I do web development and various other bits of development work from home, with a 512k/256k ADSL link connecting our network to the Internet.

On the whole I'm happy with this - I can do all my work, Mrs P. can do what she wants to do while I work, listen to digital radio, etc. We don't do much streamed video watching, or download much....

Which leads me to my question....what do the telecoms people expect folks to be doing to need a 4Mb link? Seems like it's almost an invitation to download big files.....like warez or video?

Surely if the powers that be wanted to curtail dodgy copying and P2P they'd restrict the download speed as well as the upload speed?

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
Which leads me to my question....what do the telecoms people expect folks to be doing to need a 4Mb link? Seems like it's almost an invitation to download big files.....like warez or video?

Surely if the powers that be wanted to curtail dodgy copying and P2P they'd restrict the download speed as well as the upload speed?

Joe

I think it is because the content providers are looking presenting a lot more FMV integrated with websites, to the point of having a 'video web site' and that they are gradually trying to wean net users onto a more passive model of consumption of internet content.

As far as the p2p thing goes, Since most people sharing files on p2p are on consumer connections then restricted upstream connections will slow down file transfer considerably.

Unless of course you use bit torrent, where its common to download files at full bandwidth speeds.

At the moment I am updating a 400mb folder of academic notes in PDF format and this upstream bandwidth is driving me nuts.

don't you realise, more is always better.

Seriously, there's still a lot more that can be done as bandwidth gets cheaper.

Maybe one day there will be no broadcast tele, you'll choose what you want to watch and pull it down over your gigabit network link.

Restricting bandwidth because of one potential illegal use is an idea worthy of the RIAA and MPPA.

Originally posted by JoePritchard
I do web development and various other bits of development work from home, with a 512k/256k ADSL link connecting our network to the Internet.

On the whole I'm happy with this - I can do all my work, Mrs P. can do what she wants to do while I work, listen to digital radio, etc. We don't do much streamed video watching, or download much....

Which leads me to my question....what do the telecoms people expect folks to be doing to need a 4Mb link? Seems like it's almost an invitation to download big files.....like warez or video?

Surely if the powers that be wanted to curtail dodgy copying and P2P they'd restrict the download speed as well as the upload speed?

Joe

Yay.

Telewest are great.

Originally posted by Lickszz
Is the upgrade imminent or if not when it is effective from?


If you as a moderator read the source provided, it would say Dec 04 / Jan 05 ;) :D

Originally posted by xafier
I notice they keep putting download speeds up but not upload...

3mb becomes 4mb download... but 384kb upload...

thats pretty crap really, if you've got more download you need more upload to send more packet requests, also you'd assume with such fast download speeds they'd be accomadating people who actually use their connection and need upload speed for uploading to web-sites, sending files to friends etc...


It's due to the way broadband internet over cable works. There is about 10 (probably a lot more, I can't remember the exact figure) times as much bandwidth available for download as their is for upload. Nothing that Telewest can do about it.

Originally posted by Bookey
If you as a moderator read the source provided, it would say Dec 04 / Jan 05 ;) :D

I did actually have a scan through it but didn't notice the date.

I'm not really interested in the reason why they are doing it or a lecture about the speed improvement. Just want to know the damn dates. :D

which areas of sheefield are telewest areas anyway?

Originally posted by khizman
which areas of sheefield are telewest areas anyway?

Here - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/Bookey/telewestcoverage.gif

Originally posted by khizman
which areas of sheefield are telewest areas anyway?

tons of places, but not where I live! :(

Originally posted by march
It's due to the way broadband internet over cable works. There is about 10 (probably a lot more, I can't remember the exact figure) times as much bandwidth available for download as their is for upload. Nothing that Telewest can do about it.

Have a read of this - http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/getContent.jspx?page=h_glossary_hfc

Also all Telewest services use downstream more than upstream, TV is very much a one way process so providing 6 x 30Mbits downstream to 6 x 5Mbits for upstream is ok. Most voice runs at around 64kbit (-ish)
With VoIP becoming wider spread the call will use more bandwidth but in doing so providing better call quality.