ISP Reviews by Russ314

For anyone interested, we have just moved our broadband package with Xilo from the standard package (BT) to the Pro 24 75GB package (uses Talk Talk). We have a long, noisy phone line and the only option at the exchange is BT or Talk Talk. Much as I wanted to get away from BT, was put off by TalkTalks's service reputation until I noticed the Pro 24 75GB package from Xilo. Took the plunge, it went live today and is a great improvement. These are my results, with some tweaking of SNR margin to get best stable speed (modem is Billion 7800N, faceplate filter at master socket):

This morning with BT

Line Attenuation Downstream 63.0 dB

Line Attenuation Upstream 28.0 dB

SNR Margin Downstream 4.1 dB

SNR Margin Upstream 21.0 dB

Modem Sync Downstream 2816 Kb/s

Modem Sync Upstream 448 Kb/s

BT IP Profile 2000 Kb/s

speedtest.net 1.86 Mb/s down, 0.38 Mb/s up


This evening with Pro 24 75GB

Line Attenuation Downstream 54.5 dB

Line Attenuation Upstream 32.0 dB

SNR Margin Downstream 3.8 dB

SNR Margin Upstream 6.5 dB

Modem Sync Downstream 3573 Kb/s

Modem Sync Upstream 1020 Kb/s

speedtest.net 3.07 Mb/s down, 0.78 Mb/s up

Not only is this at least 50% faster than BT, it is also much more stable. With BT, iplayer frequently stuttered at standard quality; with Pro 24 75GB, can watch iplayer at HD with no stuttering. This is by far the best connection that I know of in the village - most people suffer with 1 to 1.5 Mb/s connections on BT. The support from Xilo has been fantastic - more expensive than the cheapo packages, but worth it.