Home Internet Provider?

[tech_guy]

Currently with leeching Sky for BB at home but can't complain as the service rarely drops. £17.50pm for unlimited as I don't have their crass tv or telephone packages.

 

Unlimited is very important as I usually download around 10GB a week and on top of that iPlayer is chugging away on various laptops and wiis and xboxes most evenings.

 

Been looking at the Tesco unlimited offering which bundles line rental as well for £16.25pm for first 12 months then £20.25pm after. Speed checker reckons I'll get between 8 and 16 download speeds which is fine.

 

The big question though is a simple one. Are Tesco any good? Is their service reliable? Is there anyone here with them?

 

Moneysupermarket is showing their offering as a good deal.

 

Feedback / advice much appreciated.

[tommej]

https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/homepage

 

Everyone on Be seems to think they're fantastic!

[Arthur]

Tesco Broadband doesn't look like particularly good value compared to Sky...

 

Well lets break it down...

 

Broadband - £2.50

 

You must have line rental MUST be paid for which is a further £13.75 a month

You must also have telephone package with a minimum cost of £9 a month

 

So in reality - £25.25

 

Fair Usage Policy puts it at 100GB.

 

My Sky package on the other hand

 

£5 broadband

£7 telephone AND line rental (admittedly I haggled)

Total cost for me £12

 

Fair usage policy - does not exist on my unlimited package!

[IanT]

I've been with Be Internet for 4 years now, not a single problem with them, excellent service, good speeds.

 

I get a excellent sync on my line 22Mb out of 24Mb (exchange is next road on).

 

Only down side I will say.... if you are interested in any fibre products from Be\O2.........you will be waiting sometime they are still testing these.

[Norphy]

Another vote for Be. Can't fault them at all. Not the cheapest but very very good.

[glennda]

I'm with o2 which is be and its pretty good, sky run atop easynet connects network.

[JJonas]

Currently with Plus Net, but thinking of leaving. What are Sky like? as I hear tech support from them is not very good.

 

Will tell you about my Plus Net problem maybe some of you can help...

 

Been with them for about two years with no problems, hardware wise using the Thompson router they provided along with a 10 metre ADSL extension cable. This has been working fine in this configuration for more than a year.

All of a sudden with no configuration changes notice my speed has dropped from around 6.5Mb to 1Mb. Call them up, log a speed fault and they tell me the enchange has downgraded my speed due to a fault and they arrange for the line to be retrained my speed goes back up to 6.5Mb. About a month later I start getting a lot of disconnections and my speed drops again so I log another call they notice the disconnections and suggest I try a different router and they arrange another line retraining. So I use my old Linksys router I had in storage and just to make sure I unplug the ADSL extension and plug the router into a new ADSL filter and plug it staright into the phone socket on the wall. So far this is working for me with two exceptions

 

1. the Linksys takes ages to connect (more than five minutes before the light changes from red to green)

2. my speed still drops periodically to 1Mb but a reboot of the router sorts this out.

 

Plus Net will supply me with a new router for £40 or a new 18 month contract but im not convinced the router is the problem.

 

So what do I do?

[chazzy2501]

I'm with ADSL24 Office 45 @ £30 a month. I gives me a lower ratio, 45GB of data during peak hours (8 til 8) and true unlimited off peak and weekends. With no monitoring, port blocking, or minimum contract.

[plexer]

BT here.

 

Ben

[Sdrawkcab]

If it's performance you want, I'd reccomend checking out Xilo.net. I'm currently paying £17.99/month for the 16mb Pro Home package, and the extra cost is definitely worth it. Speedtest.net actually shows me getting 18mb down/1.9mb up even though I'm paying for 2mb less downstream! There are no useage limits, no port forwarding, guaranteed 50:1 contention, free static IP address AND their tech support is really really good. The only downside is that there's no free equipment so you have to buy your own router and set it up, but for a techie person that shouldn't be a problem.

 

I was with Be before, and while they were generally good we did have quite a few intermittent speed issues which the tech support were not very helpful with. I think for the "average" internet user, they're probably your best bet as they're much cheaper. If you're a power user I'd definitely reccomend going with Xilo though.

[Oaktech]

also with BT, somewhat by-proxy as I'm leeching off the parents via a wireless ptp link. The quality of connection has been variable, we pay for 8mb and we usually get between 2 and 6mb at peak times and a consistent 6mb off peak. The customer service is a complete joke. Any issue, bargain on spending on 45 minutes - 2 hours to get it fixed if its anything other than a simple fault and god help you if you have a non standard setup as they will always blame your gear, and try to patronise you. I have to get a bit shirty and flop out my CCNA to get them to take me seriously. If there is any kind of exchange problem, or line fault expect the fix to take up to 4 days.

 

Basically, in the next two years I am expecting the situation to reverse, and the parents to leach off me, at which time I will probably go for Xilo, as i have all my own gear (cisco 1721 router, firebox x50 firewall. God bless GoIndustry DoveBid!)

[Banford]

BT Infinity - 36.5Mb Download 10.0Mb Upload. Unlimited. Worth every penny. Our exchange is over 5km away and the best any standard ADSL provider can do is around 0.5Mb.

[Sdrawkcab]

also with BT, somewhat by-proxy as I'm leeching off the parents via a wireless ptp link. The quality of connection has been variable, we pay for 8mb and we usually get between 2 and 6mb at peak times and a consistent 6mb off peak. The customer service is a complete joke. Any issue, bargain on spending on 45 minutes - 2 hours to get it fixed if its anything other than a simple fault and god help you if you have a non standard setup as they will always blame your gear, and try to patronise you. I have to get a bit shirty and flop out my CCNA to get them to take me seriously. If there is any kind of exchange problem, or line fault expect the fix to take up to 4 days.

 

This doesn't happen at all with Xilo. They basically assume that you're experienced enough to have tried all the obvious stuff, and go straight to "proper" tech support. That being said, if they pass the issue through to BT and BT find that the fault was with your gear, the amount BT charge Xilo will be passed on to you. This shouldn't really be a problem for you though, as you're probably phoning your ISP as a last resort when nothing else is fixed.

 

That being said, this might be standard practice for all ISPs. I just got stung by it because I replaced a dodgy filter with one which turned out to be broken out of the box.

[nicholab]

I now migrated back to be and it is great I am on the lower package and I get 10/1mbit on thinkbroadband speed test. I have steamed lovefilm and BBC HD with no problems. I also use ADSLnation micro filters as that make a big difference to you connection. I notice that Xilo uses be for LLU line.

[Arthur]

If it's performance you want, I'd reccomend checking out Xilo.net. I'm currently paying £17.99/month for the 16mb Pro Home package, and the extra cost is definitely worth it.

Xilo looks good, except for the 75GB usage cap. Does this only apply at peak times or is it all the time?

[MatthewL]

PlusNet here, cannot fault them been on them since dialup. Best service I have had and UK call centre in Sheffield.

 

JJoanas - I had a similar issue and they managed to retrain my line ok, if it doesn't get resolved escalate it as they are normally good sort these issues out. Get on their support forum or via twitter.

 

It is the only ISP I would recommend as I live in a none cabled area ADSL is my only option.

[Sdrawkcab]

Xilo looks good, except for the 75GB usage cap. Does this only apply at peak times or is it all the time?

 

I'm not sure, but I have a feeling the caps are only in place at really odd times, like 12pm-6pm or something. I pay for their pro package though, so my bandwidth is unmetered all the time.

[mrbios]

Paying £26 per month for 6 months for sky unlimited, sky TV, phone and line rental...can't complain considering that includes sky sports up to £40 something after the 6 months is up though, but i'll still probably keep it.

 

Best provider i've ever had is BE, being an enthusiast gamer they're the most suited to tweaking your own settings but just too damn expensive.

[synaesthesia]

Just about to move to Sky myself (calls, tv, broadband) as Virgin really do take the pee. I'm about to go to the media with one of my complaints, that they don't provide easy contact methods other than phone which isn't always possible for certain types of people. For instance, just before Easter I emailed a query (to an address I obtained otherwise) asking them very specifically to reply by email due to my disability. So this morning I got a reply back, with, and I quote:

"PS: Please direct all future queries via telephone to 150, we are unable to accept support queries or complaints via email"

 

Naturally, I flew off the hook and they can either sort it out or I will go absolutely haywire with them. Diabolical people. That's without my complaints about their limited unlimited service, poor complaint resolution times, rubbish router with rubbish wireless range and rising prices because they have to, yet in the same breath saying they're upgrading our speed "free of charge". Oh, go away Virgin.

 

Sky though, thanks partially to a deal and also to Quidco, 12 months with unlimited broadband, line rental and entertainment extra TV package, 27.50 a month.

[mrbios]

Only one downside to sky, I've been on them for about 3 weeks now and less than 6months ago i bought a Netgear DGN2200 router at the cost of nearly £100........sky don't let you use your own router :| There are ways of getting the username and pass from your router to use your own, but a few individuals have reported being cut off by sky for breaking T&Cs by doing so. Luckily the sky router isn't too bad though but i'd still like to use what i've paid for.

 

On the plus side, british people are always on the other end of the phone when you need support.