Speedtests - how acurate are they?

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That would be fine if the ISP puts your connections in different cards in the dslam but if the whole dslam goes it wouldn't help. Having diffferent ISP's is one option but if the whole exchange goes down you would still lose the lot.

 

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If one line was sdsl and the other adsl, surely they would be on different cards? Use two different ISPs and they would be on different DSLAMs. Nothing is foolproof - if you have a power cut, you lose the lot. More to ponder: One router with 2 cards; or a sdsl and a separate adsl router? You have to balance cost of the system to the cost of downtime - given the scenario Ken has given, I'll stick with my recommendation.

And to answer Harry's points - LLU unbundling doesn't make you fully independent of BT - and if the copper PSTN line to the customer's premises is crap, it's probably BT your ISP will be going to, to get it fixed. I said 'essentially' not 'entirely' and my point still stands - use the bt speedtest in preference to any speed site on the internet - unless, as another poster has said, your ISP specifies their own recommended site.