Broadband suggestions please

[Tom Scott]

I've just been ont he phone for 45 minutes to nthell to get my cable modem swapped as its an old Surfboard 3100 which doesn't support 10mb properly so it keeps dropping connection intermittantly and can't deal with bittorrent or anything basically. They've failed to swap it out twice now and I'm not going to pay £35 a month for a terrible service, so I've just given them 30 days notice.

I've just ordered my BT landline and need some suggestions of 8mbps ADSL providors (because I haven't got a clue about them as I've not been on BT for 7 years). I'm looking for a completely uncapped providor who don't throttle ports etc and I don't mind paying a premium for it....

Suggestions please... Thanks in advance.

[yamangman]

You'll pay a premium for ISP's with large caps, you'll pay next to nothing to ISP's with no cap and no shaping, as support and QoS tends to be crap - though not always.

Demon Internet is one.

[zulander]

Tho Demon are being taken over soon so that could all go down the pan.
Most Adsl max provider cap to some degree the Enta resellers i.e. UKFSN, Aquiss etc generally offer a 30gb "peak" allowance and 300gb off peak. Others like Namesco have a 60gb package and u top up if u go over this but dont throtle or slow down connections like say Pipex or Nildram. New Net have a package that has around 100gb download included in the price. If you really want uncapped unthrottled then you will probably have to look at something like Zen who offer this for somwhere around 70-90 quid. Cant remeber the price exactly but its more aimed at business. Are BE in your area? They might be (no pun intended) an option 24 meg possible but indian call centre that isent the best apprently

[EtheAv8r]

I have been with F2S (Freedom 2 Surf) for 3 1/2 years.... it works fine for me. They did have a reputation for great service and excellent customer service, but than got taken over by Pipex and went through a torrid time Customer Service wise - but as I have not had to use that I was not affected. I understand they are making significant efforts to improve this.

I have recommended them to many friends & family, and all simply signed up online, and the service was enabled when F2S said it would be (generally 10 days to 2 weeks from order), it worked, and all are happy at the moment.

ZEN are supposed to be very good, also Nildram are well rated.

Check out www.adslguide.org.uk

[BritBrat]

Zen are the best, caps are download only and no upload is counted.

But to be honnest, if I was you I would stick with cable and buy my own router.

You won't like ADSL it's a big diference from 5 years ago, I am lucky I have a unlimited 2Meg with no port blocking or traffic shaping but the bad news is you can no longer get these accounts.

[Tom Scott]

Zen are the best, caps are download only and no upload is counted.

But to be honnest, if I was you I would stick with cable and buy my own router.

Can't do that on NTL, you have to get the modem from them as the MAC address needs to be registered on their network. They won't replace my modem so I simply have to put up with paying for something I'm not getting, or leave.

[muddyfox470]

how about namesco (www.names.co.uk) they are reasonably cheap, use no traffic shaping and the customer service is top notch

ian

[colincliff]

just signed up with bethere. They sent me a nice new wireless router which i wasnt expecting!

service turns on tomorrow (i ordered last friday)

All seems pretty good so far... and i could get 24meg - if i lived next door to the telephone exchange

[peterb]

Some cable modems allow you to set the MAC address to whatever you want - so you just set it to the same as the one you have!

[dave87]

Can't do that on NTL, you have to get the modem from them as the MAC address needs to be registered on their network. They won't replace my modem so I simply have to put up with paying for something I'm not getting, or leave.

On most modems there is the option to change the MAC address is there not?

[yamangman]

I must admit i've never used cable, but why do they need to register your MAC address? Is it just to force you to use hardware you aquire from them? Do you not provide credentials for net access?

[HoldenBurn1000]

Im with Eclipse and managed to get 6Mb in my flat for £21. Set up was not the quickest thing in the world but the everything else seems fine. Id give them a look.

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

get Bulldog!

[Rack]

From what I've seen Cable is better than ADSL, would consider getting your own modem if possible. telewest are NTL, but you could always move over just for a laugh & a modem...

Seems like Pipex are buying up a bunch of the smaller providers recently in order to get more market share. Don't they also own Be or bulldog, and they bought someone else recently?

[harry1]

cable is always better, think about it, fresh cable install, or dsl running through 50 year old cables, know what i woul dprefer

[zulander]

Pipex bought Bulldog a few months back not sure at the moment but can imagine that sooner rather than later they will impose throttles on traffic etc like they do with every other branch of the Pipex tree ie Nildram