BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

BT rang me to say I can now go on Infinity.
Is it worth the £6 a month extra?
I have a Dell PC which was top of the range but that was in 2004- it must be totally obsolete by now but does what I need. However upload/download sometime seems to go on a go slow.
Also they say I need 1GB of Ram- it only has 512MB. Would that work, if not can I increase it?
They want to connect to the Master socket, I have two but don't know which(if either) is the master,all the cables are under the carpet and I can't see a connection box outside the house.

I'm getting 10.1 download, 0.77 upload. They promise 48.7/10.9.

I don't download films/albums etc. or play online games.
Can the above problems be sorted, will I see a difference and-do I actually need it? And of course will it be worth it?

All advice welcome and as you can see-needed.
Thanks,
Gordon.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I am on infinity and it is a lot better

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I switched. If you use BBCiplayer it helps avoid pauses.

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...ity-61836.html

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I sometimes watch iplayer and don't get any pauses.
Just gone through the above thread(saw you were on it, MargaretR, didn't know it was there) but it doesn't help very much.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Do you use any on demand services(like sky) that require internet?

How are you testing your internet speed?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

No, Restless, I don't use any on-demand services.
The readings I got were from the BT Desktop Help site.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

master socket.
thinkbroadband :: BT Master Socket Identifical Tool for BT Broadband Accelerator / BT I-Plate

Use this guide to help determine master socket.

However 10MB is perfect for your needs. Upload is a bit rubbish but i imagine good enough for what you need. Upload is rubbish for most of us on DSL....

Think of this as a scale-- Now you think of how far you are from the Exchange which is somewhere close to town I guess....

Peel Area = 20MB (i know I get that speed)
Clayton-Le-Moors 4-6MB (i lived there for a while) further away you are the slower the speed.

BT infinity would be essential for me if I was with BT. But 20MB is more than fast enough for me. For now

IMO the best way to test your speed is to use something where the speed is for certain going to be fast. For this test I use newsgroups or a Torrent that is seeded well(Torrent is getting used a lot these days for distributing free software)

I have found online speed testers to be somewhat inaccurate. I have had them say 4MB when I have downloaded Ubuntu via torrent at 20MB.

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

This is a decent enough test site. And you can embed the results. Here is mine

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2508626468.png

So much for 2.5 upload speed....

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Thanks, Restless, I ran the speedtest and got 10.21 download, 0.97 upload so slightly higher readings than BT gave me.
What do you mean by 'embed the results'?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I've had infinity for a few weeks Gordon, and in comparison my laptop is like grease lightening, and I'm just had my Sky box wire to the Internet today and will be watching plenty of on demand programs from sky, to me its Bean more than worth it

Press share results then press forum then copy and paste the code here. Embed is what I did with my results

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2508961607.png

Ah! I've a lot to learn. Thanks, Restless.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Better off telling them you were thinking of switching to another supplier, that way it won't cost you an extra £6 per month ;)

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Ping times on BT are never very good.

I just upset my lad when I did this test, he was playing on xbox live at the time :D

Virgin upload speeds are quite poor now compared to BT

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2509170524.png


This was my lad showing off on facebook when he moved house and had his broadband installed

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...1&d=1360878988

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

M speed is a bit poor compared to others.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2509196696.png


this embedding is a bit tricky at first.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Claytoner!

Hey my mum is on BT infinity. So you might be able to get the faster speed with talk talk....

1ms ping!!!

:)

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

He tested it on the Preston server and he is 60 miles away.
I can ftp from him at very nice speeds as in this picture, that's a 735,557,632 byte file downloading in about 9 1/2 minutes using Filezilla at this end and server is a DNS-320 NAS box at the other end. File name rubbed out intentionally :rolleyes:

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/a...1&d=1360885914

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Nice...

Just got the Google Nexus 4... you would love it! :D

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

So have you kicked the Kindle Fire into touch then Rob?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I like my SGS3 and for a tablet I have a Note 10.1 which I tether to my phone for internet when needed

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I had a 9" JXB(from china) I gave it to my mum when I got the Kindle. The extra screen space is nice but the tablet was low spec and wow you really do notice a big difference on an android device with the higher specs.

Nice s3. My friend has one of those. Are you a Samsung fan or is it just coincidence that s3 and note(or was it contract package deal)?

I have managed to root the Kindle Fire HD. After rooting there is an app you can download that does all the work to get an alternative launcher installed and get play store installed.

Then I used a script that was designed to stop automatic updates. You don't get a choice to say no to the kindle to stop the updates from happening, the device just turned off and updated! If that happens Root would be lost.

By rooting and installing a custom launcher etc it breaks the book apps that the kindle was originally designed for. This was warned but since I won't use the Kindle to read books and that I use it as a Tablet(well it is a tablet afterall) this does't bother me.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

You see when you can do all those things it does help to customise a device to your own needs...but forgive me for saying this.....wouldn't it have been easier just to buy a tablet in the first place...or is it that you like a challenge in life?:D

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

No haha karma for that one. It is a tablet! It being modified and locked up the way it is tries to convince people it is a Kindle and not a Tablet. Though convinced will prob be 100% happy with it

No. But some android developers do like a challenge. So I am safe to hope that sometime soon somebody will release a guide to an easy way to get cyanogenmod mod to be flashed on the Kindle. I like the Kindle as it is now so I am happy to wait.

I never bought it because I wanted a device to read books. I can do that with any android device I have come across. I wasn't expecting the Kindle to have a version of android to be so heavily modified by amazon. I never read up on it in detail beforehand. It was an impulse buy for sure. :D

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Not a Samsung fan no, I had an S2 before the S3 but picked them for features. The top end HTC's have fixed batteries and no sd card slot. I use both on the S3

I like the digitising pen on the Note, I didn't think I would use it and bought the Note for its specs but find I use the pen a lot

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

The samsung has a stylus pen that has a fine point right? That's a good feature.

Fixed battery. That's one the downsides to the neuxs4

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I went on the BT site to look at Infinity. You can run a test to see if your PC can handle it.
AllI can get is ' Platform not supported'.
Is this because I only have 512MB RAM or old computers(2004) just not up to it?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Sorry, I was checking if I could go to Windows 8, not Infinity.
The requirements for 8 say it needs 2 GB of RAM.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I've had it for a few months now and on Friday had my Sky Box wired to the Internet, on Saturday when my daughter was here she said her Sky Box is connected to the internet but she only has ordinary broad band and it took 2 hours to download an half hour program, I've just tested mine and I downloaded 4 one and a half episodes of Lewis as a experiment, it took around 10 minutes to download the lot about 6 hours total, when you start downloading you can start watching the program virtually straight away and the good thing is if it's from a channel that use adverts, they're cut out so no need to use the fast forward for adverts:)

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Yeah essential if you use it for streaming or you download a lot and essential for things like skys ondemand services.. make you you are on an uncapped connection ;)

Gordon time for an upgrade perhaps

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I think you're right, Restless. I rang up Dell technical today(Heaven knows what that cost) and they said even if I added RAM the whole setup couldn't use Windows 8. By the time I've paid for RAM,Windows 8 and whatever else I'll need I'll still have my old clunker but I'll be well on the way to a new PC in terms of spend.
Problem is-which?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I've just bought a Dell 17" laptop for £370 including PaP windows 8, great machine this is my 5 Dell computer Gordon I like them

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Prob best total upgrade. New machine altogether. It seems like I upgrade every 3-4 years. How people make them last 10 is beyond me :D but then again. I am unlucky. I had a pc blow because of a power cut. £600 down the drain :(

Are you using XP or win7. Do you own an original copy? If so you can upgrade for £50. Why do you want Windows8 ? Just wondering... I would find someone that has it and try it for yourself before deciding on getting it

I am just building a PC to go under my TV. I ordered this case.
Powercool HTPC-006 Aluminium HTPC Desktop Case w/ Remote - Cases - Large Image from A One Distribution
Had to be specific in size to fit in the space on the tv stand... :D

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I have XP, Restless. I was a little worried that it won't be supported for security updates after next April but someone said if I carry on using Norton that will cover me. Is this so?
The XP came with the PC(Dell) so I have(somewhere) the original info.
You obviously have mixed feelings about Windows 8. Why?
I just thought to get the latest Windows, take advantage of BT Infinity and get something a little faster a new PC( or laptop) might be a good idea. After all 8 years is very old for a computer. And now I've started looking???

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I would think that's your best move Gordon, better safe than sorry.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Do you need the extra speed you should get with infinity?
Don't confuse internet speed with PC speed. You might be assuming web pages are slow because of your internet connection but it could be your PC that is being slow.
If not then why pay more money for something you may not use?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Of course you're right, Neil. For what I do I probably don't need Infinity or even Windows 8.If I can run iplayer, get Amazon, BBC news, Accyweb and a few emails I'm happy.
But it's a 'toys for boys' thing! Once you start looking at bigger, better, faster you lose common sense.
At the moment the cost of a new computer is holding me back from doing something hasty!

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

New pc. Change choice of virus killer (Norton sucks for resource hogging) it's about time I think. You don't really need infinity right now and in time it will be cheaper

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Well I'm glad I got infinity Gordon, now I've got Sky anytime, and my computer is like grease lightning, I'm quite happy with infinity

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I got rid of Norton a long time ago, have been on Bullguard for about 3 years now, and I'm quite happy with it

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

What is like grease lightning? You probably only use a browser and for a forum like this you wont see much speed increase from an increase in broadband speed unless your original speed was pathetic. Then again you are in Ossy with BT so you were probably getting a pathetic speed.

I hate all this upto in broadband speeds its a con. They should install it and if you only get 2Mb then they should charge you less. Why should people pay the same money for vastly different speeds just because of the poor BT network?

As for Sky on demand - can you start watching an on demand program instantly or do you have to wait while it downloads?
With virgin you just find it in the list, click play and your watching it in a couple of seconds just like youtube on a pc

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I agree that Norton is not good and really slows your machine down. If you have a slow PC it should go. I would recommend the free version of Avast. Download it from here avast! Free Antivirus | Download Antivirus Protection Software
It will keep asking if you want to upgrade to a paid version, just keep selecting the option for the free version. I use it on all our PC's and have not had a virus problem since starting to use it. I think it was Accyman who recommended it 4 or 5 years ago.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I use the McAfee Net Guard which is free with infinity

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I used to be a McAfee fan and it was all I used. In my opinion it went the same way as Norton, I was a Norton fan before Mcafee

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

You can watch it almost immediately Neil, it actually say available to watch after its down loaded about 3% takes very little time to download, an hour program is about 70 seconds. the reason I said its like grease When I log on first think in a morning one touch and its there, rather quicker than it was before:D

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I've been using Bullguard about four years and its never let me down, it informs me or tells me its stopped anything trying to sneak into my computer:cool: I'm quite happy with it

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Ya Dell recommend Mcafee, but have replaced it with Bullguard on my new Dell laptop,

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

Same here, keep using the free one, works for me.

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I use avg on Windows machines. So which is better avast or avg

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

I used to use AVG but changed to Avast after a recommendation and have been happy with it since.

I don't see the point in paying for something when you can legally get it for free. I laugh at people using hacked versions of Norton etc when Avast is free

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

AVG is free too (u know that obviously)but they offer the paid version that has the firewall too. Does avast give firewall for free?

Re: BT Infinity-worth the extra?
 

No but there are other free firewalls available