Which is the best home braodband provider? Don't sat SKY!!

[CHR1S]

What's the issue with their 'snooping' policies? Been looking into getting Virgin and haven't, as of yet, seen anything to make me wary!

 

There isnt really any snooping, as such. There is traffic shaping of P2P (more like throttling of bandwidth on these ports) and the whole phorm issue - Virgin Media sticks with Phorm ? The Register - but that seems to have gone now. I don't think they have gone down the deep packet inspection path as of yet but it was mentioned.

 

If you only use newsgroups via SSL and download off peak then you wont have any issues at all.

[capncrunch]

Plusnet - Plusnet  |  Home & Business Broadband Internet Access & Phone Services UK

 

I have used them for 5-6 years never had a problem, I also have a couple of friends who use them equally never any issues. Only niggle I had was a high ping on a game server I used to use and I found their customer service excellent and they resolved it quickly.

[Bezwick]

Will have to go with Virgin too, been using their network since it was Diamond Cable and then NTL. To be honest its always been consistant since then, good reliable service. I have the 10MB broadband and its usually around 9.8 when i test it. Upload speeds are very pants though. My only real complaint is their Customer Service it has always been and still is terrible. However you so rarely need to use them that i feel the Pro's outway the Con's. They also have the advantage of not needing a spepearate phone line, so if like me you dont want a landline they are, as far as i know, the only company that you can have broadband without phone.

[MK-2]

They also have the advantage of not needing a spepearate phone line, so if like me you dont want a landline they are, as far as i know, the only company that you can have broadband without phone.

 

that's true. they do charge about £5 extra a month for you having broadband without a phone line though

[Dins]

I always found Virgin Media very good.. but agree their tech support were dire. You can however use their newsgroups, if youre able to, talk to their upper level techies to get problems resolved very quickly. I had a problem with excessive packet loss a while back... rang their tech support and got fobbed off with excuses and got sent new routers and modems etc etc which didnt solve the issue. Got onto their newsgroups at 11:30pm one night and put the problem on there and one of their 3rd line techies replied within half an hour detailing my problem, the cause, and an engineer was now booked to come and resolve the faulty NIC that was casuing the issue on one of their routers!

 

Im gutted where i live now though im not in their cable area... ended going with O2 as the missus has a contract with them so was quite cheap. On their 20mb all rounder package and we get 10-15mb depending on time of day.

[owen1978]

Fibre is always the best! If not available go with BE

[SpuffMonkey]

Virgin for me too - 20Mb has been solid and just offered upgrade to 30 at no additional cost - fab!