Someone once told me that if you were still waiting for the computer when you had lifted your finger off the key then it was not fast enough. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but imagine typing and not seeing the text come up straight away. It is hard for us to know what we should expect from a broadband connection. I have just completed a connection that costs £58 per month and only runs at 2Meg. Now all of you on 'upto' 8Meg MAX will be thinking that 24Meg will finally make your Internet seem fast. Not so. There are reasons why this 2Meg connection not only seems fast but allows the subscriber to really get on with their work. One reason is contention ratio, it is a business class connection not shared with 49 teenagers downloading music and films. It is shared with 19 other business people who check the occasional email and move the odd file between home and the office. The other interesting thing is connections that pass through BT's IP Stream are squeezed and throttled to allow for people watching TV services over the Internet. This is because the usual £17 per month is actually not enough money to supply everyone with what the service is capable of. If only one or two use the maximum potential then they get a lot for £17 per month, more like £58 worth. But due to IP-TV, where people watch TV programs over the Internet, it simply can't be done with the existing setup without some compromises.
So when you're using your unlimited 8Meg £17 per month or less connection you are actually being limited. What may have seemed like an amazing £58 per month connection 6 months ago, will now feel like a 512k connection or possibly less. Your results oh http://www.speedtest.net/ may come out quite favourably because this test is optimized to squeeze the maximum out of your connection. However the protocols you might use for your daily work usually perform best on a network that is not congested.
On a 2Meg connection that is not congested my new subscriber is able to flick instantly though the screens of his PC at the office in London from the comfort of his country farm house. true he could save himself about £40 if he was prepared to use a basic home Internet connection like most people. However he would probably end up making the commute to London at least once a week due to shear frustration of working his PC over such a slow connection. At £14 for a rail ticket and £3.50 for a cup of tea it would be cheaper to stay at home most days.
All Broadband's claim to be fast so how can I know that one claiming to be slower and very expensive actually will be faster? Well that is the Gadget Max secret. A faster Internet connection would not necessarily be right for you. Cheaper might be better. I have to look at the whole picture, what is the real value of the Internet to you and is your connection causing you to lose out in some way? There are many ways to get an Internet connection, not all options are open to everyone and not all options will be suitable. We have three types of Wireless deal available and several ADSL options.
The best quality Internet connections are those shared with the fewest people and routed through that fastest routes. They cost more. The ones that claim extravagant speeds for a super bargain price are a bit like those super high magnification binoculars sold in some news papers. They do have the super high magnification but they don't help you see better. For two reasons, at super high magnification they are much harder to hold still since every twitch of your hand is magnified. Also larger magnification requires larger lenses to bring in enough light, they are cheap so have small lenses so the image is dark. With the over advertised super fast broadband it's 'up to' 8Megs and your actual speed could be much lower than what they advertise. The fast speed and cheap price also attracts the type of subscriber who will use up every bit of bandwidth. If they throw the router and connection fee in with the deal then they lock you in for a long contract so you can't escape once you discover it's very slow. They only said 'up to' 8Meg, they never said always above 2Meg.
At Gadget Max we know that it's your experience of the Internet that counts. So if your computer is slow then you will experience a slow Internet. We also know that how your phones are wired and what router you use can make a dramatic difference. Some people have a fast Internet but their wireless link is weak and so the Internet experience is poor.
There are many ways Gadget Max can help you get the most from the Internet.
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