Renewal time for our leased line

[mikkydoos]

Hi all,

 

Our 50mb Virgin leased line is up for renewal at Easter so time to start looking at possible alternatives.

 

We've been pretty happy with Virgin - couple of short down times in 3 years - but they're expensive and their support is less than good.

 

 

Who in your experience is good on service, reliable and value for money? (Did I really ask that about an ISP?!?)

 

 

Top tier ISP suggestions if poss please. Not too happy with going for companies that resell. And certainly not BT.

 

 

Included filtering and firewall might be an option but I'm fairly happy with Smoothwall currently - but again their support is flagging compared to what it used to be IMO.

 

 

We're Birmingham based if any vendors are reading.

 

 

Cheers in advance

[exa_damon]

Hi Mikkydoos !

Exa Networks have been supplying educational establishments with superior internet services since the late nineties ! I personally am familiar with the Birmingham area and have worked with quite a few schools there making the sometimes difficult transition to a new provider. We can offer all the help and support you will need along with providing the right solution for your needs - not just the most profitable for us ! I will PM you if I may, and can visit at your convenience.

Regards,

Damon

[mikkydoos]

@ exa_damon

 

Please do.

[Michael]

Hi all,

 

Our 50mb Virgin leased line is up for renewal at Easter so time to start looking at possible alternatives.

 

We've been pretty happy with Virgin - couple of short down times in 3 years - but they're expensive and their support is less than good.

 

 

Who in your experience is good on service, reliable and value for money? (Did I really ask that about an ISP?!?)

 

 

Top tier ISP suggestions if poss please. Not too happy with going for companies that resell. And certainly not BT.

 

 

Included filtering and firewall might be an option but I'm fairly happy with Smoothwall currently - but again their support is flagging compared to what it used to be IMO.

 

 

We're Birmingham based if any vendors are reading.

 

 

Cheers in advance

 

You do realise the majority of suppliers are using BT networks aren't you?

[mikkydoos]

I sure do. But dealing with BT direct is the worst experience imaginable.

[2ilent8cho]

Zen , Technical people at the other end instead of script readers, UK based call centre, downtime in the last 6 years? Zero with the exception of planned maintenance which is updates on the core router, normally told weeks in advanced and are usually just a 15 minute window in the early hours of the morning. Cheapest? Nope, but you get what you pay for.

[bossman]

@mikkydoos

 

We went with BT and I found it very good and the service has been excellent.........so good in fact!!!

 

Why not try them through BT Business in your local area, you may well be surprised

[ellsandell]

The Networking People Ltd - (based out of Lancs).

[mikkydoos]

@mikkydoos

 

We went with BT and I found it very good and the service has been excellent.........so good in fact!!!

 

Why not try them through BT Business in your local area, you may well be surprised

 

Already got a BT business line as a backup for me in case the main line goes down. They disconnected it in July without us asking for it and I still haven't managed to get it reconnected.

 

Never again.

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi there,

 

We'd be pleased to provide a quote/advice. We support quite a few schools in the West Mids, and know quite a bit about Link2ICT. If you'd like me to visit or would like an initial call, let me know,

 

kind regards

 

Lee

[mikkydoos]

@Wave9_Lee

 

OK. Please PM me. Thanks.

[mikkydoos]

Also for any suppliers... I think we're looking at moving our filtering away from Smoothwall too. I've had the pricing through and its not making me smile - 3 years upfront again! What!

[SchoolsBroadband]

hi @mikkydoos,

 

we've quite a few schools using our service in the Birmingham area and they have been for the past 6-7 years.

 

You can take our leased lines services with or without our Lightspeed and Fortinet content filtering & security package. We're one of a few ISP's to have a strategic partnership accreditation with Virgin Media Wholesale so we should be able to offer you a very competitive leased line price.

 

I'll send you a PM

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Tefters]

Exponential-E come highly recommended from me, used them for 6 years now and very reasonably priced.

Support is top notch and we carved 1mb out of our 100mb pipe as a Vlan with them for SIP with ease.

We only take the line as everything else is managed by us on-site (firewall and web filtering).

 

Forgot to add that we have had 2 legitimate working hours downtime with them over the 6 years which were less than 10 minutes each.

They are extremely organised when it comes to planned downtime and communication out of hours.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Tefters

[Tefters]

Also for any suppliers... I think we're looking at moving our filtering away from Smoothwall too. I've had the pricing through and its not making me smile - 3 years upfront again! What!

 

Just out of curiosity why are looking to move your web filtering? I know 3 year pricing is yuck but losing control and putting filtering in someone else's hands is a royal pain.

[TechMonkey]

Also for any suppliers... I think we're looking at moving our filtering away from Smoothwall too. I've had the pricing through and its not making me smile - 3 years upfront again! What!

 

We got Smoothwall through AIT had the option of quarterly, monthly and yearly. That was on a 3 year contract. No price difference as far as I could tell.

[Blue_Cookeh]

Look at a Sophos UTM appliance, VERY competitive pricing and does everything Smoothwall does and more. I feel like I rave about it, but honestly I've never regretted it.

 

They offer appliances, software for your own hardware, or a VM.

[mikkydoos]

Just out of curiosity why are looking to move your web filtering? I know 3 year pricing is yuck but losing control and putting filtering in someone else's hands is a royal pain.

 

$$$$$$. Thats the only reason. Smoothwall are trying to get customers to renew now by offering incentives (1 year free) - to up their turnover this financial year according to the rep.

 

But my quote is coming in way over. I really don't want to change it but am being told money is pretty tight. Lets see what they'll come up with - not due until march!

 

 

And they want 3 years up front. WHY do they structure their pricing like that. It makes ZERO sense to me.

 

@Blue_Cookeh They told me 3 years ago they didn't recommend using a VM because of......... I cant remember. Something to do with the routing for the firewall.

Edited November 21, 2016 by mikkydoos

[mikkydoos]

We got Smoothwall through AIT had the option of quarterly, monthly and yearly. That was on a 3 year contract. No price difference as far as I could tell.

 

Who's AIT @TechMonkey ??

[TechMonkey]

@mikkydoos

https://www.ait.co.uk/

I think they used to be called Altman.

[mikkydoos]

@mikkydoos

https://www.ait.co.uk/

I think they used to be called Altman.

 

 

Aaah. I know who Altman are.

[Blue_Cookeh]

$$$$$$. Thats the only reason. Smoothwall are trying to get customers to renew now by offering incentives (1 year free) - to up their turnover this financial year according to the rep.

 

But my quote is coming in way over. I really don't want to change it but am being told money is pretty tight. Lets see what they'll come up with - not due until march!

 

 

And they want 3 years up front. WHY do they structure their pricing like that. It makes ZERO sense to me.

 

@Blue_Cookeh They told me 3 years ago they didn't recommend using a VM because of......... I cant remember. Something to do with the routing for the firewall.

 

Sophos UTM works fine in a VM so long as your underlying infrastructure is sound.

[mikkydoos]

Sophos UTM works fine in a VM so long as your underlying infrastructure is sound.

 

Aahh. Misread your post. SOPHOS UTM. Thought u said Smooth UTM. My bad.

[markwilfan]

$$$$$$. Thats the only reason. Smoothwall are trying to get customers to renew now by offering incentives (1 year free) - to up their turnover this financial year according to the rep.

 

But my quote is coming in way over. I really don't want to change it but am being told money is pretty tight. Lets see what they'll come up with - not due until march!

 

 

And they want 3 years up front. WHY do they structure their pricing like that. It makes ZERO sense to me.

 

@Blue_Cookeh They told me 3 years ago they didn't recommend using a VM because of......... I cant remember. Something to do with the routing for the firewall.

I got 5 years for the price of 3. We're using smoothwall as a vm and works perfectly as a firewall, router and filter.

[colly72]

+1 for Zen and Sophos UTM. We've used Zen for almost 6 years and apart from when a water board contractor cut through the cable with their digger, we've had 0% downtime. So much easier to talk to real technical people, than BT too.

 

Sophos UTM is a great product. We've got the fullguard package which protects almost everything and provides Email protection, WAF, endpoint, etc. Recently introduced Meraki wifi and BYOD and the Sophos interacts very nicely with it.