Recommend me an ISP (that isn't Virgin)

[Mutley]

I have been a Virgin customer for many years - before they were Virgin, before even NTL.

For years, I have a solid reliable service from them. Until now. Over the last 2 months, the broadband I get has turned to crap in the evenings. I'm on the 20mb service (20 down 2 up).

Many evenings, my download bandwidth drops to about 700k, but worse, but pings and latency go through the roof making even browsing difficult let alone playing games.

The response is 'high upstream utilisation...it might get fixed in some months time'. I.e. they're over subscribed, and it will get fixed at the next upgrade. Well stuff that for a game of soldiers, I ain't paying good money for that.

I really don't want to change, but feel forced to. I get phone and broadband from Virgin, nothing else.

Can anyone recommend a good ISP in the Reading area? 20Mb down would be good, with decent upload too. Low latency is important as well.

TIA!

Grrrrrrrrrr

Chris.

[Dareos]

High Utilisation is a complete nightmare mate, sorry to hear you are in one of those areas. Might be an idea to speak to a tech and find out which Docsis you are on, if its Docsis 1 then moving to 30/50/100 meg will get you on Docsis 2/3, but get them to check the utilisation on that line before making a decision on this. 30 meg is the same price as 20, just turn the superhub into a modem to avoid complications if you want to use your own router.

Most agents wont know how to check which line you would move to (if you can, already on docsis 2/3 dont bother, its the same line) so ask them to contact 2nd line to find out, or tell them to check your postcode on Badger and see the 2 lines that its possible for you to connect to.

hope this helps bud

[floppybootstomp]

Zen. I've been with them since 2003. But they're not cheap.

Almost switched to Plusnet but didn't.

I also hear 02 is good but I can't recieve 02. Which is kind of weird cos I can see the O2 from where I live.

Anyhow - Zen - no probs, great service but it no a budget thing.

[Mutley]

Zen. I've been with them since 2003. But they're not cheap.

Almost switched to Plusnet but didn't.

I also hear 02 is good but I can't recieve 02. Which is kind of weird cos I can see the O2 from where I live.

Anyhow - Zen - no probs, great service but it no a budget thing.

Virgin ain't cheap either!

Looking on ThinkBroadband, Zen and Be seem to be highly rated.

The pain of it is, I don't have a BT line, so I'll need one fitted. I have everything cabled up just how I want at the moment. Also with ADSL I don't know what line speed I would actually get.

[Mutley]

High Utilisation is a complete nightmare mate, sorry to hear you are in one of those areas. Might be an idea to speak to a tech and find out which Docsis you are on, if its Docsis 1 then moving to 30/50/100 meg will get you on Docsis 2/3, but get them to check the utilisation on that line before making a decision on this. 30 meg is the same price as 20, just turn the superhub into a modem to avoid complications if you want to use your own router.

Most agents wont know how to check which line you would move to (if you can, already on docsis 2/3 dont bother, its the same line) so ask them to contact 2nd line to find out, or tell them to check your postcode on Badger and see the 2 lines that its possible for you to connect to.

hope this helps bud

Excellent advice, thanks mate. I have a feeling I maybe on Docsis 2. When they rolled out 50meg, IIRC they put the 20m service and 50 together. That may not be the case anymore because of the 30meg service. But I'll ring and check.
The superhub kinda puts me off, but as you say, it can be turned into a modem - I have a perfectly good Netgear WNDR3700 I'd rather use!

What is 'Badger' by the way?

[edp]

I looked into this a few months back and found the following:
O2 or Be are good, use the same network so depends on their package pricing and customer support as to which to go with.
O2 seem to offer good deals and you can get cashback through websites like topcashback or quidco when signing up.
O2 do have traffic management in place depending on which package you choose, bear this in mind.

[gss03]

Been with O2 for the last 6 months. Faultless service since install. Never had the need to call them for support yet so would recommend them to anyone looking for cheap BB.

They have deals for o2 customers pretty much all the time. I managed 12months BB, with 6 months free and £12.50 for the other 6.

[fraknyerk]

I can vouch for Be*. Their customer service is top notch as well.

[Betty_Swallocks]

20Mb down would be good, with decent upload too. Low latency is important as well.

Good luck on that. Unless you live within a stones throw of the exchange your chances of getting 20Mb on ADSL are non existent. I live about a mile away from our exchange and my line has been tested and would give me no more than 4Mb under perfect conditions. The chap who tested it told me that under normal circumstances I'd be lucky to get more than 2Mb.

[Dareos]

Sorry Mutley, didnt see the Badger question. Its a tool we use to determine historical usage, traffic management and other things.

[dave87]

Good luck on that. Unless you live within a stones throw of the exchange your chances of getting 20Mb on ADSL are non existent. I live about a mile away from our exchange and my line has been tested and would give me no more than 4Mb under perfect conditions. The chap who tested it told me that under normal circumstances I'd be lucky to get more than 2Mb.

I'm not too far from the exchange (but not next door to it, however) and I'm currently getting 22,3xx kbps. If I run a more aggressive profile I get 23,xxx kbps, so it can be done.

I'm with BeThere if it helps

[Zybros]

I've recently switched from Aol who we've been with since the internet was 1st available in our area, since the service was terrible, we switched to eclipse internet who have a much higher data allowance 100GB and unmetered useage between 11pm - 9am, plus online videos buffer much faster now since eclipse is one of the few ISP's that have signed a legally binding contract with ofcom not to throttle the connection, there support is pretty good and they are patient with people like who dont realize that when you turn off the router it resets your details xD. Sorry if i rambled to much lol 10/10.

[Firdelore]

I don't recommend BT. That's one thing I'm sure on.

[Sputnik]

I had the same problems with Virgin and eventually switched to Be, Admittedly I only got ~8.5mbps But, it was consistent 24/7 and it was better than the snail speeds or no service at all from Virgin.

IIRC the samknows site gives you the approx speed you can get on your phone line.

[nonstandard]

I'd recommend Be as well; good speeds, good customer service, never moan or say you've exceeded your quota. They were bought out several years ago by O2/Telefonica, and O2 use the same equipment in the local exchanges. The folks who started Be now appear to have a new business offering fibre-to-the-home, but no actual availability yet. BT Infinity would probably be interesting if you're a hungry leech - first reports say it's very fast, but there's a natural resistance to having anything to do with that firm.