[UK] Looking for a New ISP

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Hello!

I have decided that Virgin Media are starting to get a little above their station with charging me when I don't even know what for.

What I currently have:

Up to 8Mb with free evening and weekend calls - ?14.99 a month.

The reason I chose this is because the BB only package costs ?19.99 a month, so I get more, for less. However, this month I am being charged ?23.11 or something strange. I have emailled them to ask what it is for as I don't think anyone has made any calls from our phone?A Limited Choice:/b>

We currently do not get digital in our area. My BB connection connects at 7.4 or so through my phone line. However there is a Sky dish on the house so I know Sky has been at this house before. I would be interested in it again but I have heard Sky as an ISP are complete tosh?

The other option is BT. I like the look of their HomeHub, although I would want my PC wired to it (I hate wireless). However, again I have heard bad things about BT. BUt then again, I have heard it is one of the UK's most popular routers?

I know Be internet is good and have heard good things about Zen, but both are not available in my area.Things to Note:/b>

My housemate recently bought a Buffalo WBMR-G125 which is refusing to work with Virgin Media (they don't want to give me the settings), so this would be wasted money (although she did buy it not very long ago) if I got a BT homehub. I also like Virgin Media because I know torrents and download speends get throttled in the evenings, but overnight and inthe day they work my connection to the max!Information from Sam Knows:/b>

Standard ADSL RAG results

You can receive 2Mbps ADSL

You can receive 1Mbps ADSL

You can receive 512kbps ADSL

You can receive 256kbps ADSL

You are approximately 928 metres from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!

AOL is not yet available in your area

O2 / Be Unlimited is not yet available in your area

Bulldog (C&W) is not yet available in your area

TalkTalk (CPW) has not yet unbundled your exchange

Sky Broadband / Easynet is not yet available in your area

Edge Telecom is not yet available in your area

Entanet is not yet available in your area

Lumison is not yet available in your area

Newnet is not yet available in your area

Node4 is not yet available in your area

Pipex is not yet available in your area

Smallworld Media is not yet available in your area

Tiscali is not yet available in your area

Tiscali TV is not yet available in your area

Orange is not yet available in your area

WB Internet is not yet available in your area

Zen is not yet available in your area

So, this is it. So many services not available in my area, my choice is limited. I don't mind paying ?20 a month or anything slightly more, but nothing over the ?25 really. I would apreciate Sky TV as this would improve our reception loads, but I am still not entirely convinced with them as an ISP.

Any advice would be g:)at :)

[zeroday]

Have you looked at any of the other Be packages? Since your speed is quite limited, maybe you could check if the value package is available from Be in your area?

[McSmiggins]

Just make sure you're happy with the whole Phorm deal if you go with BT (I voted with my dollars and left ASAP when it started after a rather long argument over their ability to safeguard data)

Personally, I went to Zen, have a look at the broadband checker on their site, sometime's I've seen some of the checkers like the one you've used have said you can't get it when you can. They only do up to 8mb though, but if they're support is a tenth as good as their business support (I've never had to call their home support) then it's probably the best I've ever run into.

[Bhav]

Sky are not complete tosh. I've used them as my ISP since their broadband service launched and only once was there a short outage. Speeds are great, caps are generous (and there is no cap on its Max service)...and it's cheap!

Edit: you can't get Sky Broadband anyway so that one's off the list

[loople]

Just to clarify, it sounds like you live pretty close to your exchange, but your exchange hasn't had any third party equipment installed so you are limited to using standard ADSL from any ISP (who buy from BT wholesale).

Sky, O2, Virgin and many others who offer the really cheap/good value plans only offer those packages at exchanges where they have their own equipment installed. They all tend to have a standard ADSL service as a backup for customers not within their coverage. O2 call it 'access', I think sky call it something similar. They both charge ?17.50 for unlimited 8mb ADSL (provided you're a sky or o2 customer). I'm currently with O2 broadband using their access package and it's ok - I get an employee friends and family discount to ?12.50 though which makes it much better value.

Prior to O2 I was with http://www.adsl24.co.uk who were a great ISP - they don't offer unlimited plans (which is a sensible thing to do IMO) but they have very generous download limits and are a 'dedicated' ISP - i.e. they just give you broadband and don't require you to buy their phone, tv or double glazing.

[Emohawk]

Prior to O2 I was with http://www.adsl24.co.uk who were a great ISP - they don't offer unlimited plans (which is a sensible thing to do IMO) but they have very generous download limits and are a 'dedicated' ISP - i.e. they just give you broadband and don't require you to buy their phone, tv or double glazing.

We used to offer unlimited but Enta doubled the price, so we looked at what people were using, spoke to them about it and then moved them onto the best package for them. Double glazing? I'll suggest that on Monday ;)

I am on Be* and dont have any problems with them.

Zen is BT Wholesale based so you can have it anywhere. Only 4 exchanges are LLUed with their own equipment and im not sure if they do ADSL2+ on those exchanges. I USED to have an enta connection at home before I moved away and for the price it was good enough for me. Any big downloads I did overnight...

Another edit.

Unless you go on BTs highest plan they will throttle you to hell and cap you if you use more than 30gb. Zen is good, yet pricey. Enta is good for the price but can suffer slowdowns during offpeak when everyone wants to download the world. IDNet are also good.

The Homehubs are the Thompson 585n (i think thats the model number) with a custom firmware that ruins the router completely. You would be better off buying a Netgear or Speedtouch and going somewhere else. I have a 585v7 BeBox and a Netgear DG834G v4 (broadcom based) and works superbly. The Homehubs sync lower than a vanilla speedtouch due to BT messing with the firmware...

Edited September 6, 2008 by Emohawk

[Lt-DavidW]

I could have given good advice but your area means you have little choice.

Be and BT are the only two decent services I can recommend that are available to you.

If you can't get Be, I'd reconsider leaving Virgin. If it comes to it, threaten to leave and see what they can offer...

[Max Veteran]

BT is great. Been with them 7/8 Years, no problems. None of my customers have had a problem either.

The Home hub is basically a glorified router. It has ethernet ports if you want to do wired networking. My only gripe with the Home Hub is the amount of time it takes to start up.

[Kenji]

Sky are not complete tosh. I've used them as my ISP since their broadband service launched and only once was there a short outage. Speeds are great, caps are generous (and there is no cap on its Max service)...and it's cheap!

Edit: you can't get Sky Broadband anyway so that one's off the list

He can. He just wont be able to get ADSL2+ from them.

[Emohawk]

He can. He just wont be able to get ADSL2+ from them.

Incorrect. Op said no Be* at exchange. Be* only do LLU no BTW IPStream.

[Kenji]

Incorrect. Op said no Be* at exchange. Be* only do LLU no BTW IPStream.

I know that. But the post I quoted said nothing about Be*.

[Emohawk]

I know that. But the post I quoted said nothing about Be*.

Wine + reading = gone sorry!!

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Ha ha, well, things have developed further :)

Not sure how long I have on my contract with Virgin Media, but last time I was able to get out of the cancellation fee as I said I was moving from a cabled to a non-cable area and that I planned to take the services I could with me but I didn't know the number or postcode of the place I was moving to. The guy waved the charge so I simply stopped using the service. However, I was true to my word as I did sign up again to their services. This time though, it will be a bit more tricky as I will have to get my MAC code out of them before I "move house".

Looked at Sky and spoke to an advisor online. Worked out and confirmed the following:

Base Price: ?10.00 (Internet Max Service)

Added TV: ?17.00 (Standard box with variaty channels. I might add movie channels for an extra ?1)

Added Line Rental + phone service: ?10.00

Monthly Total: ?18.50

Yes, I would be paying more (?3.49), but then I would also have Sky TV, so no more rubbish signal on analog! Line rental, I would save ?1.75 a month (BT charge me ?11.75) and the phone service they would provide me with is the same as I get now, free evening and weekends. The guy said if I ordered there and then, he would give me the first three months free to! Setup charge is a one off ?30 and I'd get a free Netgear (the 834GT) router. Virgin Media did offer me either a wireless router or free digital box but my area can't even receive digital. They declined to swap it.

Even if Virgin Media force me to pay till the end of the contract, it'll be ?14.99 a month, where I will be receiving Sky and all their stuff for free so it balances out anyway.

I'll see what happens as it'll all be rushed together. I will have to get my MAC code, order Sky, then tell Virgin Media I am moving and won't be at the house starting in October.

[Si_]

I would seriously recommend going to O2. As their LLU service isn't available in your area, they'll put you on their resold BT package 'Access'. It's 17.50/mo if youre an o2 customer and means you'll be going through their customer services which is some of the best i've come across. I've heard nothing but bad things about Skys broadband package and customer services.

[Bhav]

I've heard nothing but bad things about Skys broadband package and customer services.

Well then here's a first: Sky Broadband is excellent and I've never had any problems with its packages or its customer services.

[Plarkster]

Bhav Well then here's a first: Sky Broadband is excellent and I've never had any problems with its packages or its customer services.

I agree - I've been with Sky for nearly a year now and it's been great! ?26 for Sky+, 8MB Broadband and free evening and weekend calls is a bargain!

(Why do I always f-up the quoting!)

[WelshBluebird]

I've only had one or two small problems with sky really. I don't like the fact they lock you into using their router (though you can get the username and password out of it and use your own router, but I wish you could do that without having to fuss around).

The only niggle I've had is that once or twice I've lost the internet connection. The router would still stay connected to the exchange, but the actual internet part wouldn't connect. I left it for a few hours and it was working again though.

[mosi]

I've just switched our home broadband from Freedom2surf's old mega package. Unlimited bandwith, 8mbit connection for ?25 to o2's ?17.50/month plan with the same connection speed/bandwidth. Our connection should go live with o2 tomorrow or tuesday hopefully.