| x404.co.uk http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/ |
|
| ISP Recommendations http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16354 |
Page 1 of 1 |
| Author: | belchingmatt [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | ISP Recommendations |
Me again. My parents are considering changing ISP. Currently with Demon but looking for a good reliable service, good price and a quick churn. They live in a remote village so cable is not an option, and the best speeds they've been getting are around 6Meg (last time I checked). Anyone here changed recently and/or have recommendations or warnings? TIA |
|
| Author: | JJW009 [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:34 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
Go to SamKnows.com and find out what is available. No point comparing options they don't have! Also be aware that if they have a Demon email account they wish to keep, they may have to pay the ongoing costs for that. Speed is determined by two things: distance from the exchange, and the contention ration. The former is decided by where you live and not who you get your broadband from (unless it's cable or FTTC). The latter, basically you get what you pay for. In the end there really aren't that many suppliers. TiscalliOpalTalkTalk have the vast majority of the LLU market. Most of the smaller operators are simply resellers for BTW or TT. Even the LLU operators are reliant on BT Openreach for the copper to the house, which is where 99% of all faults are and where the customer support process breaks down. You can have the absolute greatest supplier in the universe, but if there's a HR Dis on the local loop then it's down to Openreach to fix and there's not a damned thing anyone can do to ease the pain. My only recommendation would be to get LLU from Be if they're serious users and it's available on their exchange. In my experience they give the best performance. If they're not serious users, then just get the cheapest because there's really nothing to gain on the customer service front unless you value empty reassurances from a friendly voice. Strangely to my mind, many people do because it makes them feel loved and important even though it simply adds expense and achieves nothing material. If their line is reliable at the moment, then they should never need to call customer services anyway. If the line is unreliable now, then it will be until a man in an OR van comes and fixes it regardless of changing operator. When looking for the cheapest deal, consider packages that include line rental and TV. For the record, I work for a relatively small telecoms company that amongst other things resells ADSL products from BTW and various LLU operators. It's a cut-throat market which makes a loss in many cases, hence so many ISPs going bust and being swallowed up. |
|
| Author: | belchingmatt [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
Cheers JJ. I wasn't sure if there was a comparison site for the UK so I'll have a look there. My parent's are reasonably light users. My mum does listen to a lot of podcasts and does use youtube, but the only time they'v ever gone above 10gb was when I was visiting. Funnily enough they do have an exchange building in the village, but I'm sure it's just a really small sub-station that has never been upgraded. As I mentioned they have never had better than 6meg. As for contention ratio, I'm sure they'll be happy with the service they have now or better, and they aren't concerned about keeping their email address either. The pc guy who helped my parents hasn't done a very good job, and had a bad attitude by the sounds of it (comments and gestures). His job was to get the entire contents of an old HDD onto their new one and sort out their email. Instead he's moved a few files. I can't find old emails or bookmarks. He has configured the email but all they have in the inbox is the last 30 days of email. I haven't looked into it yet but I'm assuming they are kept on the server for 30 days before deletion, those 30 days are just too exact for my liking. I don't think he's made an attempt to recover the bookmarks, and didn't even install firefox for them. He just said IE will make do. There goes my weekend. |
|
| Author: | tombolt [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | ISP Recommendations |
If your exchange is not unbundled, much as I hate to say it, I think you're best off with bt. Certainly avoid sky. I'm connected at 1.8 meg, but despite being on their top package, after 7pm, I can't get any more than 0.3 meg. |
|
| Author: | JJW009 [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:58 pm ] | |||||||||
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations | |||||||||
The thing is, for a lot of "mum and dad" type people, they wouldn't even notice that was slow. My parents are on dialup because they can't justify the expense of broadband just to check emails and pay the odd bill. If the Sky package is basically free broadband, then as I said "you get what you pay for" and for many that's just fine. |
||||||||||
| Author: | tombolt [ Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | ISP Recommendations |
You're absolutely right, for browsing it's fine, but the annoying thing is trying to watch iplayer et al. It's fine when I'm at work (or having a day off), but won't work when I'm at home in the evening. I rather resent paying for sky's top unlimited package and despite using less than a gig a month, essentially being throttled. But as you say, for most it would be fine, so they might as well go for the cheapest package they can find. Just don't pay extra to sky, because you won't get it. The only reason I stick with them is my utter hatred of dealing with bt. |
|
| Author: | MrStevenRogers [ Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:53 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
i moved back to BT from Be* when BT put fibre to the cabinet (which is about 50M from the house) BT also replaced all the wiring from the cabinet to the outside of the house for free when i signed up to infinity and a 18 month contract it costs about £25 pm (with calls) but i paid line rental a year in advance (£120) at this time all is working just fine 40Mb down 10Mb up constant ... |
|
| Author: | belchingmatt [ Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:28 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
Sam knows is saying that the only service available to them is ADSL. Also the slowest speed is claimed to be 16meg. Only four ISPs appear, BT, Plusnet, Orange and Eclipse. Why no Demon or others, is samknows independent? I'll run a speedtest anyway, but it looks like it will be down to cost and contract length. I think they'll move over to webmail so that should make things easier for the future. It looks like you get a wireless router with every package, I guess they can have a spare. EDIT - I checked with Demon and BT and my parent's have a line speed of 6meg. Funny how the lowest packages are stating up to 16meg. |
|
| Author: | JJW009 [ Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:25 am ] | |||||||||
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations | |||||||||
It only lists providers with equipment in the exchange. Demon would be a BT Wholesale product, resold by Demon. I think Orange do good deals if you have a mobile phone. |
||||||||||
| Author: | belchingmatt [ Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
They do have a mobile, and it may even be with Orange. I'll ask later if I can manage to speak to them, although I probably can't offer much support as my HDD died earlier (see hardware thread). |
|
| Author: | steve74 [ Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
I can heartily recommend PlusNet, although they're now owned by BT they don't have the same terrible, convoluted support lines as them and it's run as a separate business. PlusNet's call centres are based in Sheffield, so no Indian call centres to deal with - though some might argue a Yorkshire accent could be just as hard to understand!! I've been with PlusNet for, ohh, at least 8 years - maybe longer. No real problems to speak of in that time. They were doing a £3.29 a month package a while ago, but I notice that they has now risen to £6.49 a month - still a decent deal though. |
|
| Author: | l3v1ck [ Wed Jun 06, 2012 1:17 pm ] | |||||||||
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations | |||||||||
+1 About 15 year in my case (Well 15 if you include my time with Force9 who were bought out by Plusnet and fitted into their systems.) |
||||||||||
| Author: | Spreadie [ Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:03 am ] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations | ||||||||||||||||||
+2 I'm still with Force9 (PlusNet), having joined within a couple of weeks of their launch. I think I still have the original setup CD I picked up from the Choice Peripherals store in Rhodesia. |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Author: | Spreadie [ Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: ISP Recommendations |
Something else to consider - Plusnet have just upped my monthly allowance from 80 to 120GB. 
|
|
| Page 1 of 1 | All times are UTC |
| Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group https://www.phpbb.com/ |
|
