Home ISPs

[crispybits]

So looking at getting a new ISP at home, just wondering what the general thoughts are on here about the various providers.

 

With Virgin at the moment, it's OK but speed isn't great. Had Sky before who I liked for speed but when I moved Virgin were significantly cheaper.

 

TalkTalk are offering some really tempting deals but I don't know if they're trustworthy enough yet given all the problems they've had in the last few years.

 

Any recommendations peeps?

[Davit2005]

Although I've never used PlusNet, I'd be considering for my next Home ISP.

 

Currently with BT but had no dealings with Tech support, I swapped to BT Business a few months ago and BT consumer tried to charge me £150 for leaving, they refunded with no issues once I brought up the charges.

 

Too many bad issues/history with Virgin Media, was a tad cheaper but disappointing upload speed, lousy support and rubbish hardware from my own experience. Left VirginMedia twice now due to tech support. I was with the original Cable and Wireless, NTL and then VirginMedia, customer support and the actual service both deteriorated when VirginMedia took over NTL.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Davit2005

[Jawloms]

If you go with EE Broadband through Quidco, you'll get £125 cashback, which is nice. However you also get a crappy router which doesn't let devices which have IPv6 turned on access the Internet, and the Wi-Fi keeps dropping off every few minutes. I may not be selling this to you brilliantly.........

 

I was with PlusNet. Never had a problem. And you can get a fixed IP for a one off payment of a fiver.

[protocol]

I was with PN and am now with BT on Infinity 2. PN failed to provide their advertised speeds so as a good will gesture they cancelled my contract free of charge. TalkTalk are awful and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. There's also the less known like Zen and HyperOptic that I've heard good things about but don't think they have as much coverage as the big name providers.

[Rob_D]

I've been on TalkTalk's fiber package for araound 4 years now, and I've not had any major problems and get a good connection speed, and one of the few providers that give you deals that include line rental.

 

And if you're in York then TalkTalk are now piloting to-the-house fiber.

https://www.talktalk.co.uk/shop/broadband/ultra

[Blue_Cookeh]

Had tons of issues with Virgin Media and their broken 'bandwidth management' system and proxying, which seems to break YouTube regularly. How about stop messing with my traffic? Their tech support couldn't work out why we were being throttled down to 0.2Mbps every day (despite being on their 200Mbps plan) and just went silent on the issue so I got them to terminate the contact since they couldn't deliver their service.

 

Been with BT for a good 3+ years now and they've been flawless really. Started out on their employee plan and went over to normal consumer when I left, never had problems. Just now looking at EE Home broadband since it's vastly cheaper, and my parents haven't had any issues with them either.

 

The key thing with any home broadband provider is don't use their supplied router if you can help it, they're complete junk every time. I bought a £10 Openreach modem from eBay and hooked up a Wireless AC capable router running DD-WRT and our connection has been rock solid, our router & connection uptime is nearing 200 days now.

Edited August 4, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh

[edmokeski]

There's also the less known like Zen and HyperOptic that I've heard good things about but don't think they have as much coverage as the big name providers.

 

Pretty sure HyperOptic only do blocks of flats. Personally, I'm stuck on BT DSL (FTTC available on every cab in neighborhood except mine. argh!) while the block of flats across the road get 1Gb on HyperOptic. Terribly frustrating. Am about to switch to Virgin for better speed (not hard to beat the 6-12Mb I get on a good day w/ BT) after Mrs finally got fed up enough w/ slow speed to drop her long-held objection. Apparently she had them long ago and swore never again. I'm sufficiently new in this country to not yet hold a grudge against them. Will see if they fix that for me in the next year!

 

ps - If you're in London, there's also Relish, depending on coverage. They finally put up a new antenna nearer my home and promise 30Mb now, but going to try Virgin before I opt to rely on Relish's 4G.

[jbunoomally]

In terms of a decent service, excellent tech support and you are given control and stats of your line, i found Andrews and Arnold the best home ISP i have used yet - and i've used quite a few. I've got ftth, but and it's not the cheapest out there and comes with usage caps, but i get really low latency and decent speed (and they are happy for you to use your own router).

 

JB.

[Vasriel]

I'm with Sky and I get their advertised download speed of 35MB.

 

The problem I have is the standard Sky Fibre Hub, the Wireless strength is terrible and is only 2.4GHz. The new Sky Q Hub supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz

[DanTheLacky]

I have been with virgin for years, never had any issues and always get fairly good speeds. However currently looking at some other providers as we don't use much bandwidth and need to save some £££'s.

I think everyone has bad support from different ISPs. I must say that BT was pretty awful with my parents support and refused to accept their crappy (should say faulty not crappy tbh) equipment was too blame.

[Blue_Cookeh]

In terms of a decent service, excellent tech support and you are given control and stats of your line, i found Andrews and Arnold the best home ISP i have used yet - and i've used quite a few. I've got ftth, but and it's not the cheapest out there and comes with usage caps, but i get really low latency and decent speed (and they are happy for you to use your own router).

 

JB.

 

I really wish I could go to A&A, they seem like a stand up company that know what they're doing - just a shame on the really low usage limits

[SamanthaD]

I'm on Plusnet - little bit of faff with OpenReach getting it setup but tbh not Plusnets fault. Can't comment on customer service as I've never had to use them - I get steady 50MBs+ download speeds at all times of day. Happy customer!

[MatthewL]

I was with/Dad is still with PlusNet since moving to them in dialup days. Cannot fault them one bit, best ISP I have dealt with, only other one I'd possibly consider via a BT line would be ZEN.

 

He's on an ADSL package and as its an exchange online line when it was sorted for FTTC the speed difference wasn't worth it for him but he's pulling a good 20Mb down. The few faults with the line they have always sorted and never been waiting long, had refund for services when its been down (now I know we can claim it!).

 

I'd be tempted to go back to them if and when BT sort out FTTC here, currently on Virgin but I'd be tempted to drop the speed for customer service if I am honest.

[jbunoomally]

I really wish I could go to A&A, they seem like a stand up company that know what they're doing - just a shame on the really low usage limits

 

It's worth giving them a shout to see what package they can offer - i'm on 250GB a month and i only occasionally need to top-up. Obviously everyone's usage is going to be different and only you can judge what cap (if any) is suitable.

 

JB.

[dapaulio]

Plus net fibre and I don't have any complaints. I had to send their router back as i burnt it out which they replaced no problem.

I keep theirs as a spare now as I use my own.

[MatthewL]

On the topic of how much bandwith I use, when I was at home and there were 3 of us using it, I was surprised how little we did use and I thought I was really heavy. PlusNet had a tool that allowed you to see your usage graph.

[dapaulio]

Yeah they also give you an off peak time bracket that doesn't count towards your download cap between if my memory serves me correctly 12midnight and 6am. Not that you have a download cap but you still have fair usage. Very good for those scheduled downloads. [emoji12]

[MatthewL]

Yes I forgot about that, I've been on a Virgin connection for 4+ years due to the BT offerings been so poor in town compared to the village I used to be.

[Blue_Cookeh]

The two of us manage to chew through about 7-800GB a month, and we both work full time!

 

That could be because we rely on streaming rather than TV, though.

[Zoom7000]

I've always been with Virgin Media as no one else can come close to the 200Mbps speed. BT said the most I'd get on Infinity is 51Mbps. I had some issues in the past with high utilisation with VM and ended up getting a years free broadband. But they've now fixed those issues and I've got a flawless 200Mbps.

 

I called up the other day as my contact had expired. I was paying £47/Month for 200Mbps broadband and phone (I never use the phone line to make any calls). I pulled the standard line of I'm leaving if you don't give me a better offer. They offered it to me for £39/Month. I said no I gave my 30 days notice. They called me back a few days later and offered me the whole package of 200Mbps and phone line for £25/Month (Inc line rental). I accepted it straight away!

 

Rule of thumb, if you are out of contract, always threaten to leave, never accept their first offer and then actually give your 30 days notice to leave. They will call you back and don't worry if they don't, you can always cancel the cancellation anyway before the cancellation date. But 99% of the time they will call you back to keep your custom!

Edited August 6, 2017 by Zoom7000

[Danp]

I have been happy with BT, use my own router and a Raspberry Pi with Pi-Hole to block adverts, but BT now stop you from using anything than their own DNS servers, grrrrrr

[DGardiner]

im with bt, used to have dropouts all the time, i dunno maybee actually using the home network was above its remit - replaced the homehub (i had multiple versions all the same) and have never had a dropout since! and actually have control of my router!

[DGardiner]

I have been happy with BT, use my own router and a Raspberry Pi with Pi-Hole to block adverts, but BT now stop you from using anything than their own DNS servers, grrrrrr

 

Im still using openDNS? i think anyway, i havent noticed any name resolution issues - have you got the parental control crap enabled?

[Danp]

Im still using openDNS? i think anyway, i havent noticed any name resolution issues - have you got the parental control crap enabled?

 

Nope, removed that right from the start. I get a pop up on browser every time I enable my Pi-Hole saying you have to use our DNS servers to continue

[DGardiner]

Nope, removed that right from the start. I get a pop up on browser every time I enable my Pi-Hole saying you have to use our DNS servers to continue

might wanna check they havent stealth enabled it, im sure last year it became opt out as mine got enabled one day and i remember seeing a message like that.

 

if not thats shit, they over subscrible their dns servers and they run like crap