BT, Broadband, satellite

concentrik

concentrik

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Currently enduring our third BT Broadband service failure in as many months and not relishing the prospect of another protracted Kafka play involving Indian call centre....

I'm seriously considering satellite broadband maybe like this:

www.toowayonline.co.uk/

Anyone done this? If it was useable aboard I'd be impressed. While pontooned, of course.

[BTW if there's an effective way of getting BT's attention I'd be pleased to know it]
 
I have used satellite broadband professionally, providing web access in the middle of fields to people ranging from Rolls Royce motor cars to Lloyds TSB finance at the Goodwood FOS and other outdoor events.

Satellite broadband works.
You need a 1m dish AT LEAST
The dish alignment is critical, the best setup tool you'll ever buy is an audio tuner.
Pay for all the uplink speed you can afford.
Forget about playing online games, far too laggy and the channel sharing ratio is poor.
Heavy rain will reduce your speeds to dial-up equivalent and if the dish is not rock solid a breeze will drive you nuts!
 
So whats wrong with BT?-used to be here in Highlands we had poor speed etc but these days a consistent 7 mb or so!
I do know our local exchange is linked into a main fibre optic cable-link to exchange is by overhead wires and suspect individual lines go right to exchange in village centre!
 
You can get fast free wifi onboard, just buy the appropriate antenna from Ebay and it comes with the software to de-encrypt any router, the antennas generally cover around 6 miles from the boat, so coastal passages can be covered. In the marina its perfect.
 
ukmctc said:
it comes with the software to de-encrypt any router
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate please, perhaps with a link? I've not heard of any software which can crack a wireless access point security key...... but perhaps I've lived a sheltered life!
 
concentrik said:
Currently enduring our third BT Broadband service failure in as many months and not relishing the prospect of another protracted Kafka play involving Indian call centre....

I'm seriously considering satellite broadband maybe like this:

www.toowayonline.co.uk/

Anyone done this? If it was useable aboard I'd be impressed. While pontooned, of course.

[BTW if there's an effective way of getting BT's attention I'd be pleased to know it]
Click to expand...

Why are you thinking of making the jump from BT to satellite? BT aren't the only show in town when it comes to broadband.

If you want great service why not try someone like Zen. We had all kind of problems with Orange, which they blamed on anyone but themselves. Switched to Zen, and had faultless broadband for 2 or 3 years. We took a chance and switched to Sky when we moved house and, so far so good.
 
Richard10002 said:
Why are you thinking of making the jump from BT to satellite? BT aren't the only show in town when it comes to broadband.

If you want great service why not try someone like Zen. We had all kind of problems with Orange, which they blamed on anyone but themselves. Switched to Zen, and had faultless broadband for 2 or 3 years. We took a chance and switched to Sky when we moved house and, so far so good.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should make myself clearer - the service interruptions are caused by infrastructure faults, which are owned and operated bt BT wholesale, who then sell on to retailers like Zen, Orange and (yes) BT. It wouldn't make the slightest technical difference who I was paying for the service, ulimately and for all practical purposes it is provided by BT (wholesale). There is some difference between retailers in how they handle fault reports. Bearing in mind that if a fault is escalated to BTW (BTWholesale) by a retailer (Zen, Orange, TalkTalk) and it turns out NOT to be an exchange fault for example then BTW will bill back the job to the retailer, who will seek to recover it from you and me. So many of them are reluctant to escalate, requiring the subscriber to repeat endless futile 'tests' in the hope that the fault (or the customer) will go away....

I understand that some retailers have access to exchange equipment directly so the above wouldn't really apply - but not at our toytown exchange. And some operatorsown their own infrastructure (Hull I think?)

Anyone with inside knowledge of the Byzantine workings of BTW, I'd be pleased to receive enlightenment.
 
concentrik said:
Currently enduring our third BT Broadband service failure in as many months and not relishing the prospect of another protracted Kafka play involving Indian call centre....

I'm seriously considering satellite broadband maybe like this:

www.toowayonline.co.uk/

Anyone done this? If it was useable aboard I'd be impressed. While pontooned, of course.

[BTW if there's an effective way of getting BT's attention I'd be pleased to know it]
Click to expand...

I was obliged to use satellite for broadband a few years ago when, having moved house and been assured by BT that adsl was available, found it wasn't.

The only affordable option was about £30/month for hybrid 1/2meg download speed via satellite and 'uplink' via landline at modem speeds so there weren't any problems with dish alignment. I did have a lot of hassle with Paypal however, because the receivng station was in France so my IP address was French, so Paypal assumed I was a French hacker and kept freezing my account!

http://www.satelliteinternet.co.uk/

I'm afraid BT and BTW are a law unto themselves as happens when they are in a monopoly position (just like Paypal in fact).
 
I thought that BT Openreach 'owned' the infastructure. They then rent out the line etc to who ever wants to pay them such as Talk-talk and anyone ese providing a service through 'wires'. The exception is virgin media who have their own wires where it is profitable to do so.
 
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