OT - best broadband ?

I know, a wide-open question. Any opionions on the best broadband package at present ? Suppliers to avoid ? Simon.

Reply to
sm_jamieson
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Try uk.telecom.broadband IMO: Sky - s**te (Ordered a service in February. Still doesn't work. Sky couldn't give a toss!) Currently using Nildram/Pipex. OK, but nothing special. Throttled to f**k on certain P2P activity. Entanet resellers (like adsl24) seem to be good value. And have a look at

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(or is it co.uk?). They list user ratings.

Reply to
Grumps

In article , sm_jamieson writes

None of them;!..

They all seem to be getting as bad as each other but then again most all rely on BT except the cable companies who have their own set of problems!....

Suppose Eclipse aren't too bad though their customer service isn't what it used to be...

Reply to
tony sayer

Andrews & Arnold seem to be getting a lot of +browny points at the moment.

Reply to
Tony Williams

Thats a broadband supplier ? Sounds like a "suits-you-sir" bespoke taylors. Simon.

Reply to
sm_jamieson

It is.

They're rather more orientated towards the techy user, and I'm giving serious thought to cancelling my "free" Tiscali connection and paying for A&A myself, in order to get an ISP With Clue.

Reply to
Huge

Well they charge Saville Row prices.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Cap

And give you a Savile Row service, ime. I'm personally with Zen now, who are also top notch. I don't think it's any surprise that both companies target small businesses in the main. Domestic users just tend to go for cheap, cheap and cheap, and they get what they pay for in that case. I'd definitely avoid Orange - they put their own equipment in at my kids exchange and bolloxed many connections completely. The CS droids could only read from the "what does the supplied modem say" script (supplied modem never used and lost in the attic somewhere) and no-one in support seemed capable of correlating sudden losses of service with recent work.

"Have an adequate day."

Reply to
John Laird

Had a look, they seem to have rather low download limits for the price. I'd really want an unlimited download capacity. Several large programs or a DVD download, and you're done for the month ! Simon.

Reply to
sm_jamieson

Look more carefully. The limits are download applicable only, and only during office hours Monday to Friday. Unlimited at all other times.

Been with them for five years, and they're excellent.

I think the OP needs to give more information, though. 'Best' in what sense? Cheapest? Highest download limits. Best customer service? Etc? These are all conflicting requirements.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Well, I know what I want, but its a compromise against cost. I would have 8Mb, unlimited downloads, website with full scripting capabilities, contention ratio 1:1 etc. A single fixed IP address (so I can monitor my house from work etc) Customer service - I don't want any technical advice for my end, just them to fix it within 1 hour if its broke ! (!) Simon.

Reply to
sm_jamieson

Hmmm. Well, I can speak for Andrews and Arnold (AAISP) re the above.

8Mb/s (subject to state of your BT line), unlimited downloads outside 0800-1800 (and also, usually, during Christmas week). Unlimited uploads at all times (unusual). Fee includes 1GB of web space, with Perl and C scripting. Not sure which contention ration you're talking about, but AAISP have quite a lot of backhaul slack. Outside office hours I usually get full download speed on my connection, far end allowing.

As many static IP addresses as you want (within reason; I have 40!) free. Customer service gets you a real techie. They are *extremely* good at chasing BT to fix things, since most of it is usually a BT problem. On one occasion I reported a fault at 0900 and went out for a few hours. While I was gone, BT closed the fault, citing my router (nonsense). AAISP reopened the fault and it was fixed by the time I returned. In theory they only work office hours Mon-Fri, but in practice they fix theor own problems pretty quickly.

Also includes one .co.uk (or related) domain name; no transfer penalties. Use of their nameservers and mail servers, either as primaries or as backups; your choice. Run whatever you like on the line as they filter nothing.

Another CS example: I wanted a new domain name at 1720 on a Friday. I emailed, and it was set up before 1740.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Broadband wise i've been with Pipex, Metronet, Freedom To Surf and have now been with Zen for over a year and I can honestly say that Zen are pretty much perfect. The connection very rarely drops and is always at full throttle and when you need to speak to someone they're English and second to none.

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Reply to
RedOnRed

Don't touch Tiscali - they lie to customers and the engineers can't fix the many problems in a reasonable time. They lied about the last server and said it was down to spammers sending emails when it wasn't. Beinternet looks OK. Don't forget that ISPs use English for contracts under English Law and a non-English dictionary in which the words have a different meaning once put in to a contract. Some ISPs are also breaking the Law by having a misleading or one sided contract - under the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

Reply to
brian

Far too expensive and 1GB a month during 8am to 6pm is silly. You can use more than that by using Youtube, listening to internet streams and receiving emails. Don't forget this figure includes ALL data sent to the user by the ISP. I think they are a bit too expensive. If they were able to supply a decent service they would not have such a low limit. Definitely a company to avoid unless you like the name or to be restricted.

Reply to
brian

Look up your exchange on 'samknows' and see what LLU ISPs there are for your number, then check out feedback on them at 'thinkbroadband'.

For info on LLU look up 'LLU wiki'

I'm on UKOnline 1Mbit LLU, =A39.99/mo unlimited, took longer than expected to get connected but very good since.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

If.. Your in a cabled area and can put up with the less than just so

*customer service .. Virgin media nee ntl aren't that bad and do offer quite a good service..

Well we use 'em anyway!...

  • mind U all telecoms companies are pretty poor these days...
Reply to
tony sayer

But remember if you don't like the ISP, you can't (as yet anyway) as easily and cheaply jump ship and migrate to another one.

Reply to
chris French

You won't get that from an ADSL supplier. Some are offering an additional level of service that BT Openreach will fix problems on their side in 20hrs vs. the usual 40.

SDSL services can be provided with a better service level, but are more restricted on distance/bandwidth.

Other than that, there are leased lines. Budget about £7k install and a similar amount per annum for one of those at 2Mbit depending on distance to the nearest POP.

Reply to
Andy Hall

I'm also looking for an ISP at present but have higher than normal upload bandwidth requirements such that a bonded arrangement may be an option, so I have been looking at suppliers of that.

In general, from those that I have called so far, it is very clear that those focussed on the domestic market are just playing the numbers game, attempting to minimise churn and all the rest that goes with that particular trough.

It also appears that the smaller, business focussed ISPs are likely to do a better job than the larger players but not surprisingly are a little more expensive. I am slightly concerned about the financial aspects of some that I contacted in that they are typically in the

Reply to
Andy Hall

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