Decent ISPs?

[torched_geek]

Looking for a new ISP, peeved off with my 'friends' at AOL, who have decided to throttle me or at least it appears. Need a new ISP, which will put up with a high usage (two gamers (myself and my dad), one crazy woman who likes to stream music and other **** and my sister, who is an anime freak and watches tons of it online.)

Needs to be under twenty quid and would prefer a low contention ratio and no bull**** please.

Thanks,

Torched-Geek
Help me quick.

[alsenior]

i hear good things about be and o2. they don't have limits unless you starting to affect others and are apparently very good and even have fast path which makes a slight difference with games

[TAKTAK]

good ISP's=

Sky (if you have sky tv and your exchange has been unbundled)
Be*/O2

check to see what services are available to you using 'Samknows', when there click on LLU.

[PeterStoba]

Virgin are good for me

[Phil_P]

freedom2surf

http://www.freedom2surf.net/

£19.99/month gets you 16MB download/1MB upload speeds (ADSL2+), unlimited usage, static IP, no ports blocked (they are happy for you to run servers), 200MB webspace + domain name (allowed for commercial usage), 20 x 200MB email accounts. Support is in the UK and NOT your average read from a script call centre type (you get to speak to a technician straight away)

Downsides:
Contention ratio is 50:1, Now owned by Pipex who are in turn owned by Tiscali, but I've been with them since 2004 and haven't noticed any drop in service since the takeovers.

Overall I have no complaints and if the package/price meets your needs then it comes highly recommended for a no bull straight up ISP.

[SuicidaL]

i hear good things about be and o2. they don't have limits unless you starting to affect others and are apparently very good and even have fast path which makes a slight difference with games

fastpath is currently only available on Be*. i can only vouch for o2, but they have been superb since i've been with them. a bonus with them is the uk tech support, the only time i had a prob it was sorted within 90mins. well worth a tenner a month for 16meg.

[N3il]

Virgin are good for me in terms of rock solid stability and good speeds. Downside is on days when i hit their cap it slows right down

[kopite]

Zen

Its more expensive than other Isps but the service is the best out there

[CrazyMonkey]

I'd say the Virgin Media 10mb/20mb package but the pricing of those i am unsure of...

I use the 20MB package and download HEAVILY - They only throttle me after 5pm and by then i am gaming and no longer HEAVY downloading.

As you want under £20, i'd go with O2 - They are excellent too.

[torched_geek]

I live in a rural area where 1meg is the most i've ever gotten and don't have Sky TV, so BE is out of the question, as are Virgin Media and Sky Broadband. O2, are more than £20 a month unless you have a phone contract with them (which I don't, their payasyougo is far too good in terms of price to bother with their contracts). The person who suggested Zen obviously wasn't reading the original post and Tiscali is the worst rated ISP in the country (with Pipex fifth worst, both of them rated worse even than AOL).

Any more suggestions?

[Blitzen]

Zen

Its more expensive than other Isps but the service is the best out there

Like you said...its expensive for what you get. For that price the speeds are very poor.

[Blitzen]

Try DSL Zone

[Jay]

There are no decent ISPs left unless you are prepared to pay over the odds.

[peterb]

You can have it cheep, good or fast - any combination of two of those, but you are unlikely to find an ISP with good customer servce, no throttling, unlimited downloads for £20 - let alone less.

Zen is one of the best for CS - but not cheap - £35/month for 50GB download limit at up to 8Mb/s. The reliability is excellent - and I personally don't hit the max - but it is worth it for me for 8 static IP addresses etc.

You didn't say if you were on an unbundled exchange or not - if you are, you have the option of faster speeds and or lower cost - and I'd guess that static IP addresses are of no concern to you. (few of the low cost no frills packages offer that - or if they do, it is extra)

[Nelsaidi]

Be or Virgin, anyone but AOL << THEY SUCK!

[Triplea4UK]

I would say risk going with Virgin because if you sign up online they did offer a 30 day trial as such so if you don't like it then just cancel it.

Sky
Be/o2 are rated highly by people here but by what you are saying you wont benefit from them.