Which Home Broadband provider?

[ChrisH]

I know this question has come up before but things change with all providers. Last time I saw this question I would have recommended PlusNet but no more!!!!!
They introduced some traffic throttling a while back which at first was ok but now its just a nightmare. At first I didnt mind that newsgroups only downloaded at 50% of my max speed at peak times. Fair enough, web downloads were still full speed etc. Now I get pitiful d/l speeds from newsgroups and they have pulled all their newsgroups :x . Other issues include cant connect to team speak servers on certain port ranges or it takes 10 attempts to connect to our TS server yet I can connect to others on other port ranges straight away. I can no longer play on certain game servers because I get a ping of 500+ these are regular servers I used to play on and the problem seems common if you read their forums.
Last but not least the nail in the coffin seems to be selling to BT :P

Cable isnt an option, my house was built after they did that in this area. I just need a decent ISP for my gaming/DL needs. I dont mind paying for a premium type package as long as I get decent service!!!!!!

Please recommend me a decent ISP who you have experience with.

TIA

ChrisH

[timbo343]

Am with Tiscali at the mo, and havent had any problems what so ever (touching wood).
I think we have been fairly lucky with our home bb conenctions as we havent had many cut outs. We use nildram at work and they seem to carry out a lot of maintance work over the night.

[eduabncs]

I'm with pipex, and never had a problem with them. However if if ever need to move it'd probably be to Nildram after hearing all the good things about them.

[john]

I use Freedom2Surf part of the Pipex / Nildram group. I find F2S is good for my needs.

[ChrisH]

I had Nildram before Plusnet and didnt keep them on when I moved because they wanted to charge me loads for reconnecting. I seem to remember them being ok otherwise .

[webman]

I'm with f2s as well, no problems.

[indiegirl]

Demon Net here. The only problem I have with them is their overseas callcentre, but the actual ADSL is top notch. There appears to be no throttling and my connection has *touches wood* never gone down in the year I've been with them at my current address, and for a year previous at my old address.

£20/mth and no download limits - perfect for a heavy-user like me...

[SimpleSi]

I beleive I've seen an article recently that said the days of "unlimited broadband" are over - they are too many users now and the ISPs have to do something to give a reasonable connection to most people during peak times.

So, if this means cheesing off a small proportion (in terms of total customers) by traffic shaping then ce la vie

I didn't realise that this had already happened to me until I read about Telewests experiments around here.

I kept wondering why downloads seemed to be taking a long time

What i'm saying is past performance is no indicator of future

regards

Simon

[tom_newton]

I think we'll see an overall trend towards per-meg charges in future - especially as convergence between IP traffic and voice continues.

My favoured ISP is Easynet (aka UK online) - very reliable.

[Elky]

The only thing I will say is to stay well clear of Sky Broadband! I didnt do my research before switching from BT to Sky (tut tut). I got my MAC code form BT, was disconnected on 23rd January and had an activation date of 24th for Sky. It's now 13th February and I still have no boradband at home. After lookng at a few forums, I've seen that some people have waited weeks, if not months so I'd advise you to stay well clear!

[western]

i am with sky, it was a bit of an issue getting it right but at £5 a month waiting 3 weeks for connection and 3hrs of complaning does not seem that bad (in 6 months it will be free for 8mb 2gb limit or £5 for 8mb 40gb or £10 for 16Mb unlimited)

[woody]

I am with f2s.net Moved about 4 months ago from tiscali. Had one problem after another with tiscali and got nowhere. They moved me to LLU without asking, the LLU never worked, and just rub salt into the wound, I had to wait about two weeks before I could be realeased from tiscali LLU to join f2s. (no mac codes for LLU) I still got members of the indian call centre ringing me asking if my problems had been solved even when I had cancelled my contract!!!

V. Pleased with F2s. I am on the 14.99 package with 5gb cap. You get charge £1 per GB if you go over. I time my downloads from news servers between 1am and 6am when it's uncapped.

[everton4europe]

I am with zen using Zen 8000 Active paying £21+vat a month 20gb download limit. up to 8mb, and up to 8 static ip addresses as standard.

Never had a problem with them, and it is a uk call centre as well (based in Rochdale)

[ChrisH]

Ok im hearing plenty of positives for f2s anymore companies?
Im not looking for large transfer limits, so long as its unlimited off peak I dont mind. I wasnt going to bother changing as I expected to move within 6 months but its looking like next year now :s .
I probably wont even bother getting upto 8 meg either or see if I can get away without interleaving on as all my pings to game servers are now 50% higher than when I was on 2 meg

[Golfpapa1]

I'm with Zen too. Excellent service but not the cheapest provider around.
Static IP, 20GB limit (although you can buy more) and only a one month contract.