Changing ISP - any suggestions?

[Marco01]

Right, I'm not entirely too enthused with the service I am currently receiving from Tiscali, and haven't been for a while. It has got significantly worse over the past month. With an 8MB service I am connecting at between 700kbps and a max of 2.7mb at the moment. Not too impressive. I have never connected above 5mb, and that was maybe a year ago.

I was considering Virgin broadband (cable), but my road isn't covered by their service. The other ISP I was looking at was 02 which has a lot of good reviews. However, recent reviews, since Jan 09, are pretty bad. Not sure what to make of it.

Any suggestions? Not sure if things are different in London to the rest of the UK. I know I'm not far from my telephone exchange (about 1k).

[mrbios]

I high recommend BE/o2, they have had some awful problems recently with congestion but that is all fixed now (maybe one or two dodgy exchanges still but they are slowly getting there)

I was on the bad end of an 8-9 week congestion problem with them but i can still say i wouldn't go with any other ISP, now that they have sorted their network out and learnt from their mistakes it is definately one of the best ISPs in the country!

[Nox]

If you have an adsl2 enabled exchanged, you have a choice of one ISP imho...

Bethere, pop on their site and i think there's a checker there - jumping to adsl2 roughly tripled our speed - we went from 3-4meg downloads to 11ish

Otoh if you live next door to me and download a lot - try dial up? :D

Nox

[Mr. Orange]

not BT, download speeds are decent, i get 770kbps max if i download in from something in the UK, also im on BT Option 3... Virgin Media Fibre Optic Broadband looks tempting =]

[Marco01]

Glad to hear 02 have sorted their problems out. They're 20MB package is £14.99 a month - only a couple of quid more than what I am paying for a 8MB connection.

How would I go about finding out if my exchange is adsl2 enabled? Not heard much about bethere but will check em out.

[!TIMMY!]

I high recommend BE/o2, they have had some awful problems recently with congestion but that is all fixed now (maybe one or two dodgy exchanges still but they are slowly getting there)

I was on the bad end of an 8-9 week congestion problem with them but i can still say i wouldn't go with any other ISP, now that they have sorted their network out and learnt from their mistakes it is definately one of the best ISPs in the country!

Im with Be as well and would defo recommend. Good customer service and I was affected for a total of around 5 weeks with their probs, but since then my line is soooooo fast for gaming. I love it!

[Jasonkruys]

It all depends how far away from the exchnage you are, as to whether you will see a worthwhile improvement with ADSL2. When you say 'connect at' do you mean actual download speed or sync speed? What is your sync speed and current SNR (Downstream margin) and attenuation?

[Kenman]

If you use Electric, Gas, and Landline, as do most people, then I can recommend Utility Warehouse, a combined service of those three plus your BB, up to 24Mb. I have found that I am saving the cost of BB and Phone per month, with the combined billing. Sadly with my old Modem/Router, only specified for 4MB, I'm just getting 7Mb approx. Well satisfied.

[Crafty1980]

You get what you pay for IMO... I'm with zen.co.uk and have been for the past 8years... They are absolutely SUPERB! I've never EVER had a dropped or slow connection. It does cost a bit but worth every single penny - especiallly if you hammer the net regularly with big downloads...

[cje]

I've got BT. Yes, I know :surrender::wall:

[GeordieNo1]

IDNet here, not cheap but I must have a reliable connection for work, been with them 3½ years, spot on :)

Sky are doing some good all in deals, as are Talk Talk (note you mention O2 Op, same thing ;)) if you`re looking for an all in deal.

Take a look here: http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ and here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

[Ammok]

My eighteen month contract with bt is up on the 23rd May, thank God. So I'll be switching soon too.
this is good
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-broadband
got lots of different options, something to suit everyone here.

[garreh]

I high recommend BE/o2, they have had some awful problems recently with congestion but that is all fixed now (maybe one or two dodgy exchanges still but they are slowly getting there)

I was on the bad end of an 8-9 week congestion problem with them but i can still say i wouldn't go with any other ISP, now that they have sorted their network out and learnt from their mistakes it is definately one of the best ISPs in the country!

Totally agree with you! I use to have BeThere and their customer support is top notch. I too suffered from congestion and bad pings... But thanks to their community forum (for members only) we was able to talk to others and staff who listened and updated all exchanges. Pings dropped within a few weeks and no slowdowns whatsoever. Top stuff :trophy:

Not sure about them now... The whole O2 merge I know little about but I hope they are still good

[nate]

would not recommend sky, constantly have poor connection with wireless even thought i am directly above router.

[Ammok]

I've decided to go O2, I can get eight mb for 7.63 so that'll do me.

[nate]

wow 8mb for £7.63? thats good.

[Solari]

I'm with ADSL24 but keep getting random periods where I'm still connected but no traffic can be passed :( I've swapped out all my microfilters and tried a different router so might be time to change :(

[Ammok]

wow 8mb for £7.63? thats good.
Actually, it got better, I can get 18mb(where i live) for 9.63 a month, however, you get three months free, so 9 x 9.63 is 86 and divide by twelve and its only 7.22 a month.
30 quid for the modem though, but i might get that back.

Offer open until May 31st.

[thesis]

O2 all the way. Best value for money and very reliable connection. Used to get 20MB/s with their 8MB package ;-) but really even 8MB is more than enough for the 99% or users.

[blissfulbelfry]

I've decided to go O2, I can get eight mb for 7.63 so that'll do me.

if this is the same package we have, you need a pre-paid mobile phone and have to put a minimum of £10 credit on to it every 3 months. If you don't the amount shoots up.

Customer care is excellent but the connection has been a little iffy but recently no problems. Doesn't really matter about the speed as we don't download anything and our phone line speed is the bear minmium. Still it is a lot better then the dial-up speed. :banana:

[Ammok]

if this is the same package we have, you need a pre-paid mobile phone and have to put a minimum of £10 credit on to it every 3 months. If you don't the amount shoots up.

Customer care is excellent but the connection has been a little iffy but recently no problems. Doesn't really matter about the speed as we don't download anything and our phone line speed is the bear minmium. Still it is a lot better then the dial-up speed. :banana:

Your right BB, it would go to 12.50 a month if you didn't top up. I'm on o2 pay as you go, but the missus is on 02 15 quid monthly contract, ditched her virgin one, so savings all round really.

[Urrys Currys]

i would highly recommend Virgin Media for gaming, now at 10Mbit and i get 0.1% packet loss to melborne australia... check yours at http://myspeed.visualware.com/voip/index.html or Be* unlimited / 02 (02 get thier connection supplied by Be*) Be* unlimited is said to be the UK's best broadband, but since i done have a Bt line to my house, i dont know.