Grrr need new ISP

[Dakaras]

Well Ive always been very happy with Nildram and then Pipex, but since Pipex have jumped into bed with Tiscalli my access to Eve online servers has been blocked between 5pm and 11pm....Nothing Pipex can do about it so Im on the hunt for a new ISP.

Mustnt have anything to do with Tiscalli, I get 5 down and 3/4 up with Pipex atm so would like to stay close to that. No limits and no port blocking.

Anyone recommend a good one?

[MadduckUK]

if you can, get Be

[Bluecube]

I second that. I've got Be in their incarnation as O2 Broadband. If you've got a contract with O2 it's even better as I got the basic (upto 8Mb) package for only £7.50 a month.

I've been very pleased with the speeds and reliability I've had with the speed being 100kb/s faster than what it was with Orange. I can get around 260kbs right on the very edge of the exchange limits.

[Dakaras]

Cant get it as yet

[Zak33]

Zen £25 per month though.

[Ciber]

I've heard plusnet are good for gaming. I did have a look at their website, but the lack of info on contention ratios put me off a little, but then noone is upfront about contention ratios these days it seems. Have a look yourself: PlusNet rubbish|rubbish Home Broadband Internet & Home Phone Packages UK

[lilcompt]

get bt home hub its great 19.00 for 6 months thereafter 25.00 for me its wrth it they gave me free norton anti virus and firewall even if it anit good thats worth 50£ it self. you get 5gb online space. free phone and evening and weekend calls FREE.
just check what suits youu have a look. BT.com: Broadband Internet, mobile and fixed telecommunications products and service from BT for home and business.

[geezerone]

Second for plusnet - their 'Pro' account is plugged as for gaming but the difference between the BBYW is that no throttling takes place on all traffic but gaming is treated as Gold on both packages. There is a 10GB monthly allowance for 'PRO' and for the same price you can get a BBYW option 3 with shaping but 20GB. Horses for courses.

If you are gonna sign with PN would you go via my link below so I get a referral at no expense to you just plusnet plz

With plusnet when you get friends to join via your account you save money every month so with enough you get free BB!

[lilcompt]

bt had unlimited i forgot to mention that sorry. its not 50£ its 60£.

[Blitzen]

You got SKY TV at home?

If so get BB with them.

If not, get the SKY £15month package and get 16mb BB for only £10 month more.
TV and fast BB for £25.
Its unlimited and there is none of this 'p2p blocking' or traffic shaping.

Most cant get 16mb but if you are less than 2km from the exchange you shoudl certainly be hitting 10mb+

[adam_weisshaupt]

VIRGINMEDIA is an ok ISP - their prices are OK, transfer rates are ok [down, that is - upload is very very very slow] and their customer service is excellent, in my opinion [had a problem with my connection and they sent an engineer onsite to fit an additional filter to my cable modem which solved the problem]. no download caps either [even their newly advertised "traffic shaping" is unnoticable to me]. And you don't need a BT landline [so you don't have to worry about getting ripped off for an analogue (!!) phone line, crap customer service and incorrect billing].

[kopite]

Another vote for sky here.

I am on the max package paying 10 quid a month for unlimited and its great Not capped and no shaping from what I have seen so far

[306maxi]

get bt home hub its great 19.00 for 6 months thereafter 25.00 for me its wrth it they gave me free norton anti virus and firewall even if it anit good thats worth 50£ it self. you get 5gb online space. free phone and evening and weekend calls FREE.
just check what suits youu have a look. BT.com: Broadband Internet, mobile and fixed telecommunications products and service from BT for home and business.

The homehub is a total PoS.

I'm with BT and after a few months of issues (my line stayed at 512kb after moving from Orange) my connection has been very stable and my ping is much lower than most other people I play online with even though some of them live much closer to the servers.

People harp on about download speeds but pretty much anything over a couple of meg will be adequate to game with. Ping is far far more important if you for instance play online FPS's and the best way to get the best ping is to get your connection from a company which actually has equipment in your exchange and who isn't just reselling a BT connection.

[imroberts]

I've heard plusnet are good for gaming. I did have a look at their website, but the lack of info on contention ratios put me off a little, but then noone is upfront about contention ratios these days it seems. Have a look yourself: PlusNet | Home Broadband Internet & Home Phone Packages UK

The reason PlusNet, along with many other ISP's, are not particularly upfront about contention ratios is because this is no longer clear cut.

Back in the days of fixed rate broadband, i.e. 500k, 1mb, and 2mb, each connection type came in two flavours, "Home" which was 5:1 and "Office" which was 20:1, so for example you would have Home 500 which is 512k with 50:1 and Office 500 which is 512k with 20:1 contention.

Nowadays most ISPs use IPStream Max and IPStream Max Premium, which have speeds of "up to" 8mb downstream, and speeds of "up to" 448k and 832k upstream respectively for each product. Likewise the contention is as equally vague as the "up to 8mb" speeds are, with contention "roughly" equal to 50:1 on IPStream Max and "roughly" equal to 20:1 on IPStream Max Premium.