Need Advice On ISP

[Clstrphbc_donut]

My Girlfriend needs a cheap (£20 max per month) ISP that doesnt need to drill through walls to give you your internet. Don't start with Bulldog, have been put off them for life after what I've heard about their customer services. Connection for price being the biggest factor. Her mums considering BT and Demon, which i'm cautious about.

Have recommended Blueyonder (Telewest) as their increasing speed (So she'd get 4meg for £25), but drilling through walls is a big no-no because her mum has just spent thousands on her new house, unless you can convince her otherwise. which i VERY much doubt as I and my girlfriend have tried plenty of times and failed.

Oh, and it may (in future) need to be split (via router) so please keep that in mind also.

Opinions?

TIA.

[mjhants]

Not sure I understand the 'drilling' issue. How about a wireless router hidden near an existing telephone socket with ADSL splitter? Then wireless card etc in PC or laptop.

[Wiczy]

Freedom to Surf offer up to 8mb for £25. They are a decent ISP too

[gazzy]

wanadoo aint bad for a cheap option. But they do have a cap on all the different packages. You can order the liveBOX for an extra £4 a month whick is basically a modem and wirless router. They also give you all the bits you need for the wireless system to work.

[Trippledence]

Plus will give you uncaped 2mb for 21.99, or a p2p restricted 2mb conection for 14.99.

Just trough your bt line, you can pick up a modem for like a £5er if its only going to be used on one computer. Really good Service and Support, that;s what would keep me with them at the end of the day.

[TheAnimus]

problem with a non-ADSL provider is the abality to change.

ADSL has more easy to switch to competition.

I'd have to recomend F2S above plus, only reason to go for plus is if you want usenet access for binaries. (which i'm guessing she won't). Deamon ain't bad, they had an awsome standing back in the day for been the expensive company, which still puts me off them a bit (been a true cheapscape at heart).

[Clstrphbc_donut]

See, this is the stupid thing....

Her mum doesnt give one about drilling for sky, but when it's something that doesnt benefit her, she is a *&%$ about it! Completely unfair when my girlfriend is paying ~£120 for housekeeping per month!

Everytime we mention Blueyonder, and a small, small hole in the wall in which a cable will pass through, to give her the best internet I've EVER had, she goes on one, saying "You are NOT drilling holes in my lovely walls!" Sometimes, i just want to slap her for missing out on Blueyonder!

What i need to know, is what kind of router I'd need to, yep, she's being a bint and sticking with gAyOL So, no wires, need wireless modem/router for AOL and i need to know how to set it up, and may well be asking how to re-configure it soon as her mum wants to move yet again! (After 6 months in her current house!)

Stuff it, ima convince my girlfriend to move out! I'm wound up with formatting a celeron 1.2GHz with 128 ram, coz her mum doesnt realise that ISNT suitable for XP!

Ps. Sorry if this is a little nasty, but im drunk, and her mum is annoying!

[nur5ey]

Jesus... tell ya girlfriend to stay there and stuff the internet connection.......£120 a month for board and lodgins god If only......

[darrensen]

Go with Plusnet. (www.plus.net) they are going to offer 4mb and 8mb very soon. At the moment it's 2mb for £14.99 per month. I have installed plusnet at 15+ homes and noboday has complained. The Customer service is great, the most ive been on hold for was 8 mins. Normally its around 3 mins.

NEVER EVER GO WITH BT, you'll regret it and DEMON suck big time as well. I was on hold for 32 mins when trying to disconnect from them......and they couldnt even get that right so i had to call them up again and hold for 27 mins this time!!!!

bottom line STAY AWAY FROM BT AND DEMON!

Its future proof as well, you'll get a free adsl modem but you may as well buy a wireless router for about 60 quid!

Hope this has helped!

EDIT: see this thread http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=52114

[PinkPig]

I've been with Pipex for ages and I've always been fairly impressed - I'm not into heavy downloading and I don't really know how amazing the speed is, but I've barely ever had any noticeable downtime in 2 years. Their unlimited 1Mbps service is £23.44 per month.

[Shinobi]

Yeah but haven't Pipex just started throttling/traffic management? Pipex used to be good but they've started to go downhill lately.

Plusnet or F2S would be my choices.

[madmonkey]

I would NOT recommend Plusnet. Their service is OK at best. Their business practices are somewhat dodgy at times too. If you want a no hassle, great service subscription look elsewhere. My recommendation would be eclipse internet. I've had them in the past and they were great.

[peterb]

BT are OK once it is working (and in 99% it works out of the box) - and up to 2Mb depending on line quality - BUT they are planning to introduce useage caps sometime (it was supposed to be Jan 05, but has been repeatedly postponed) Zen are one of the m,ore expensive ISPs, BUT you get access to theit newsgrou8p server (if that floats your boat) and their customer service is second to none! Both will support a network on the other end of a router.

[Rabs]

Go with Plusnet. (www.plus.net) they are going to offer 4mb and 8mb very soon. At the moment it's 2mb for £14.99 per month. I have installed plusnet at 15+ homes and noboday has complained. The Customer service is great, the most ive been on hold for was 8 mins. Normally its around 3 mins.

NEVER EVER GO WITH BT, you'll regret it and DEMON suck big time as well. I was on hold for 32 mins when trying to disconnect from them......and they couldnt even get that right so i had to call them up again and hold for 27 mins this time!!!!

bottom line STAY AWAY FROM BT AND DEMON!

I agree with your points apart from Demon, yes it may be a bit hard to cancel but that would depend on the time of day etc you called.

OK, first question you should ask yourself is what are you going to use the connection for? Light use ie www, email, gaming etc. or will it be all of the previous + heavy downloading.

For light use I'd recommend Plusnet - Broadband Plus at £14.99 pm for a 2Mb - no P2P (may as well be none but limited at all times to 10KB/s - dont believe the marketing). Be sure to read the contract terms though on this (cancellation policy etc) - good points - high speed www, email and good pings for gaming

For heavy use I'd recommend Demon at £19.99 pm for a 2Mb UNLIMITED - free modem etc - No BS, just a nice fast connection.

Do not go with Tiscali - poor, poor speeds and customer service, AOL - awful software - good speeds - not networkable unless on a £24.99+ package, BT - Caps (yuck) + bad customer service.

[Byatt]

Yeah but haven't Pipex just started throttling/traffic management? Pipex used to be good but they've started to go downhill lately.

Plusnet or F2S would be my choices.

Aye - avoid pipex - yes, their 1Mbit service is actually a 2Mbit service throttled down (so it's more like 1.2Mbit) , but at peak times pings are nasty (150 for two hours last night, that's becoming more common) , dropoffs, spikes.

I'll probably be using freedomtosurf at uni soon - not convinced by plusnet.

[Splash]

Been with Plusnet for a while now (just over a year) and their service was fantastic to start with but I have to admit they've been slipping and I've been looking elsewhere of late.