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

 

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.

[contink]

Vote for Nildram here...

 

I've been with them now for over a year and had one downtime. Sure you have to pay for the connection but that's only if you're moving house or starting fresh. As an existing ADSL customer I think it's still free (check the website).

 

FWIW though, I've never regretted the charge having seen the joys of Freeserve, PlusNet, Talktalk, etc... What it cost in money it saved in hair retained

[SimpleSi]

I just checked out the Zen website (was interested in the 1 month contract - might be able to persuade Mum to try it out and its unbelievably informative and upfront about real download speeds (but no ping times unfortunately Chris)

 

Worth looking at for the info if your on ADSL

 

regards

 

Simon

[Golfpapa1]

I originally went for Zen specifically for the 1 month contract. I was waiting for Talk Talk to activate in my area and was going to swap to them.

 

However I've been so impressed with Zen and have read all the horror stories with Talk Talk so decided to stay with them.

 

Been with them since May last year and had no problems at all.

(Well two problems but one was BT ballsing up at the exchange and the other was my router throwing an unexpected fit, so no fault of Zen's).

 

I get regular download speeds in the range of 750 - 900k/sec

[sqdge]

No-one championed BT?!

 

I am contractually obliged to be nice about them, being the son of the inventor of broadband (well, him and a guy called Eric) and thus receives BT Broadband at a significant discount. I've never had any problems with them, but then I guess I wouldn't.

[woody]

[woody]

Earlier on this thread, I spoke of freedom2surf being very good, and they still are. But I've decided to change ISP to help my brother out. He has taken over a reseller of entanet broadband products which at the time was in it's very early stages. When he started just about two months ago, there was just a hand full of customers. Now the numbers are steadily growing everyday. This is due to word of mouth / forum. So I have migrated across, and who knows, when he is competing against the big guns, he might consider employing me

 

He is very knowledgable on ADSL and provides all first line support himself via an online helpdesk, MSN and a freephone number which he mans from tea time onwards. (How many ISPs do you know of who have a freephone support number?)

 

For anyone who is interested, the website is http://www.adsl24.co.uk

 

You can read some customer reviews HERE

 

[EDIT] It's also worth a look at the kind of controls / info you get when you join up: Account Overview

 

As I said it is in its early days yet, but it's only a 1 month contract so worth a try if you are fed up of bad aftercare / support and want a personal service.

 

Oh, and to freedom2surf's credit, when I rang them up asking for my MAC, they promptly delivered one into my inbox without any fuss within the minute. Even leaving them has been a breath of fresh air, compared to Tiscali, my ISP previous to f2s.

[Ric_]

@woody: The only problem I can see with your brother's personal support service is the fact that two of his support services require your broadband to be working

[woody]

@woody: The only problem I can see with your brother's personal support service is the fact that two of his support services require your broadband to be working

 

LOL. I didn't really give a full breakdown of the support options. Because my brother can only man the phone from after teatime, (as you've probably guessed he holds a day time job but hopefully not for long if the isp goes well) he does provide a mobile number to be contacted on for day time support. The cost of contacting him on a mobile is kept to a minumum because he rings the customer back. For not so urgent calls, a message can be left anytime through the day on the 0800 number and my brother picks it up when he gets in.

 

So the answer is, support is still available even if your broadband is broken

[Friez]

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.

 

Please clarify -- per meg? Do you mean per mb/sec or do you mean per meg downloaded?

 

If it's the latter and ISP's try this I forsee a lot of ISP's losing a LOT of custom very damn fast. Consider the amount of us that play games lots -- thats a lot of data going back and forth. And god forbid any of us try downloading a few hundred megs of DirectX SDK or whatever... A bill for a few hundred in a month? That'll make people close accounts quick and UK telecoms will regress back into 56k for all but the die-hard.

 

Other European countries provide cheap, fast broadband (see: the netherlands, I have a friend who pays less than me for BB and is about 10 times faster) so why can't we? It's BT trying to squeeze as much cash out of us as possible if you ask me!

 

As for me, I'm with PLUSNet, They're not too shabby but I hear they've been acquired by BT (which is probably why you've been throttled). I've not suffered such throttling problems (or not noticed) but the only thing I cannot abide is their cheap and nasty customer service.

 

I was on the phone to them once for TWO HOURS and then they just hung up on me.

[saundersmatt]

I'd recommend Be Unlimited if you're in an area served by their LLU Service, see my experience of them here