Need new ISP, any advice?

[kungpo]

I've been with o2 for a couple of months now - only criticism is the Wireless Box iii is crap. When I first got it, I got about 1.9 mbs. Then the router died so I plugged in my old Netgear DG836N as I wasn't keen to be without internet for a few days while they sent a new router out. They changed my profile to ADSL from ADSL2 and the speed went up to 3 mbs. Don't know whether it's the new profile or the router that makes the difference.

Incidentally, I was on a BT wholesale connection prior to o2 and was getting about 1mbs at best. I'm about 3km from the exchange.

[Chan]

3-4Mb nothing special at all.

I would suspect Virgin would be quicker (but obviously you are having issues).

This is whats up with virgin in this area:



Pretty much same story everyday in the evening, get huge variation from 1-20mb, makes playing online games very difficult due to lag spikes.

But if all I'm going to get is 2-4mb with ADSL I guess I'm **** outta luck will just have to call virgin again to complain.. maybe eventually they'll do something to fix it.

[daniel_owen_uk]

That's what I would do, only ever really used 3 virgin connects, the 10Mb at my parents does about 1200KB on usenet, the 10Mb at my sisters does the same and the 50Mb of my friends... is very quick.

[watercooled]

That's what I would do, only ever really used 3 virgin connects, the 10Mb at my parents does about 1200KB on usenet, the 10Mb at my sisters does the same and the 50Mb of my friends... is very quick.

That's what you should be getting - 10 Mb (Megabits) = 1280 KB (kilobytes).

[daniel_owen_uk]

Yes.... I was expressing that the lines I had used were very good, and as a result provided the sort of speeds you would expect to see.

[watercooled]

Oh right sorry I though you meant you weren't getting what you expected.

[spiral out]

Do you know how much bandwidth you use a month?

There are some highly rated ISP's that don't throttle/traffic shape. But if you need 20GB a month then prices will be more than you like, .e.g.
Fast.co.uk
ID Net
Newnet
Zen

Don't know fast but any of the others are all good ISP's.

I have been with IDnet and Zen and would recommend them both. I'm currently with Plusnet and there ok though don't get full speed at all times, but they have been having a few problems.. Will be going back to IDnet once my exchange is 21cn enabled.

[floppybootstomp]

If they're available in your area: Be/02 or C & W.

I've been with Zen for almost 8 years now, pricey but good, soon be changing to C & W.

If I walk 20 metres down the road I can see the 02 but 02 can't supply their service here. Odd.

[daniel_owen_uk]

You know their internet doesn't come from there right?

[floppybootstomp]

You know their internet doesn't come from there right?

Yep. I just find it a little ironic/amusing, is all

The reason given by 02 is that BT only have a certain amount of 'slots' left in the Greenwich exchange for rental by other ISP's than BT and all available slots are taken.

And that BT are keeping all new slots for themselves.

That's what 02 told me, how true it is I have no idea but 02/Be certainly isn't available for me.

[daniel_owen_uk]

In which case do you have a whole host of other LLU companies you can choose from?

[watercooled]

BT aren't allowed to reserve so many 'slots' - LLU is there partly so BT doesn't have a monopoly and reserving slots would be unfair competition. By slots I'm assuming they mean the amount of customers and AFAIK a BT exchange has to allow up to every customer to go LLU.

[floppybootstomp]

In which case do you have a whole host of other LLU companies you can choose from?

Yes, but they are not offering a significantly better deal than the one I currently have.

In my opinion 02/Be are offering a better deal, but it's unavailable to me.

BT aren't allowed to reserve so many 'slots' - LLU is there partly so BT doesn't have a monopoly and reserving slots would be unfair competition. By slots I'm assuming they mean the amount of customers and AFAIK a BT exchange has to allow up to every customer to go LLU.

I'm simply quoting what 02 told me, I have no idea about the hierachy or indeed what a slot actually is.

[Shooty*]

Someone was recommending Virgin to me last night. I ask ed about the awful customer service, and she said it wasn't a problem as she's never needed to use them.

I'm moving house next Friday. Anyone got views on Virgin?

[watercooled]

Some of the worst customer service in existence (the tech support are helpful though IMO) and they try to rip you off frequently so check your bell every month but the broadband is generally very good - you normally get advertised speed unless there's a lot of people using it in your area so it can suffer slowdowns at peak times. I.e. cable internet is normally very good, the company is crap...

Edit: Oh I forgot to mention the engineers/technicians who come out to install/sort stuff out are very polite and helpful in my experience.

[abaxas]

I'm moving house next Friday. Anyone got views on Virgin?

Virgin do some freaky traffic management on your uploads.

If you are a normal net user, I'd recommend. However if you use the up, use someone else.