Can anyone recommend a good ISP?

[Smiffy]

I'm with Plusnet at the moment, but a bit cheesed off with the flakey connection speeds I'm getting. Been with AOL before and had no problems, other than a bit pricey in comparison, and was with Sky before switching to Plusnet but I dropped the TV service and cannot get Sky broadband on it's own.
Will be changing when my contract ends in April and just looking around at what deals are available.
I'd ideally like a broadband and telephone line rental package as that's what I have with Plusnet and like the idea of just paying one bill for everything. Looking at BT at the moment also TalkTalk but keep reading bad reviews on both.
Can't get cable around here so that knocks out Virgin.
My line has an 8mb limit on it, so any super duper 20mb promises are no good to me.
Any other recommendations/thoughts?
Many thanks
Rob

 

[Tommo21]

Smiffy, it's pot luck these days mate. I'm with orange, used to be wanadoo, used to be freeserve, used to be aldi, used to be woolworth......

 

[RichardC]

When I lived in London I was using BE and they were superb. Was getting 18meg and 1.2meg upload. Im now with Plusnet as I have limited ISP's in Maidstone and have a crappy 1.8meg connection

 

[vig]

Rob
A couple of lads that work for me signed up with talk talk and both have had no end of trouble when they eventually got their hardware.

I was with Zen for about 7 years and never had a hint of a problem but the subs were far higher than others.
I suppose you get what you pay for.
Now with sky, too early to comment at the moment but I got my telephone line rental for free for 12 months as part of the package

 

[bigslice]

hi smiffy if you go onto broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk there is a section to see what other people in your area have. this might help you.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

I have just changed to Talktalk
I had separate Broadband (Orange £19.99 monthly)
BT Line rental at £12 monthly
plus about £30 of calls monthly (its my business line)

Now I get the whole lot for £26 monthly and my ADSL speed has gone up from 5 to 7.

The switchover was seemless, so personally I cannot fault them, but I know some who have had shockers.

If a customer asks this question, I would normally say O2

fragger

 

[Fyldewhite]

It's a difficult question as it depends on your circumstances. For me I'm getting most of the cheap Sky channels and a Sky+ box and 4Mb connection / 10Gb limit broadband for about £7 a month more than I used to pay Pipex for less bandwidth. However, both Pipex and Sky have been fine as regards the reliability and service.

I've heard TalkTalk, BT, Tiscali are all OK too.

 

[Region3]

I've been with Tiscali for ages and I don't remember the last time I had a problem with them. I'm in an 8meg area and I get about 6 - 6.5 usually.

They might be a little dearer than others, but it works, all the time.

I heard shocking problems with Talk Talk when they first started, but they're part of the same group as Tiscali now (not sure who bought who) so I'd hope they'd be a lot better now.

 

[John_Findlay]

I went with O2 as they were rated best broadband provider by Which? Spot on unlimited broadband for about a tenner a month. Faultless so far.

 

[Ethan]

I am with Zen too. Not the cheapest but reliable and fast. Doesn't seem to have the highly variable speeds I used to have with Virgin.

Whatever ISP you choose, I would recommend that you choose a web based email address so that you are not tied to an email address at the ISP and then have to change email addresses if you decide to leave the ISP.

 

[painterboy]

In the last 6 years have been with Orange (awful)and when using their help line was on more than one occasion blatantly lied to. Then onto Tiscali who for a couple of years OK.
Then a fault developed( had difficulty connecting to the Internet),and after several phone calls was told the line was the problem which was also with Tiscali.
This went on for several weeks with them saying BT 'were being awkward'.

In the end transferred everything to BT and for the last 15 months or so it's been trouble free.
BT are a few pounds more per month,but it's been super smooth and have never had a moments trouble connecting to the Internet.
And at least BT cannot lay the blame on the line!
Incidentally,if your IP also provides your line and you have to call out BT to check the line and no fault is found you will get a call out charge.

 

[Smiffy]

Thanks for the information lads, certainly given me food for thought.
I was with Sky and had a very good broadband service but lost it when I decided to ditch Sky TV in favour of FreeSat.
I went over to Plusnet because of their competitive pricing but as I say, my internet connection is a bit flakey and every time I phone them they blame someone/something else. If it's not BT it's the weather. I also took my line rental over to them from BT, but lost two nice touches from the BT service, namely 1571 (BT's answerphone solution) and caller display, which I really do miss to be honest. I'm seriously tempted to go back to BT to get these back but keep hearing and reading bad feedback on their broadband service.
Prior to this I was with AOL, initially on dial but then went over to their broadband service about 7 years ago. They were OK despite lots of people advising me that their software would "take over my computer" I never had any such problems.
My contract with Plusnet finishes in early April, so I only have another 8 weeks or so to put up with them. But I thought I'd start looking around now rather than leave it to the last minute.
Various speed tests I do on my line throw up stupidly fast downloads speeds, sometimes as much as 80gb! I know that this is impossible.
These are just two of my latest tests...I wouldn't mind if I were getting these speeds but my pages just crawl open sometimes and downloading an mp3 file can take forever.

 

[AMcC]

We have been with Madasafish, for a few years now and they do a broadband package with telephone line rental, free evening and weekend calls, normally works out just under £30 per month. Reliability has been very good. Think they are now owned by bt but line rental alone is cheaper than bt standard. Certainly worth a look.

 

[haplesshacker]

Iv'e got an Orange 'Livebox'. It's not been the most reliable as I often have to pull the power lead and reset it! However it's costing me nowt. So I can't complain too much.

 

[RGDave]

I use an all-in-one phone and broadband from the Post Office.

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=68600711&mediaId=87500743

Includes phone line and some calls. BT line rental is £12 ish? so that makes the broadband about £14. 8 mbps,(max) runs at about 3.5 average, better than most in this area according to the speedtesting site.
I'd recommend it, although as ever, it all depends where you are down the line. The fastest scores recorded are over 6 mbps, but they are clustered around the exchange.

 

[bobmac]

You're lucky.
Here's the results of the test I've just done

 

[bigbiffa]

ive just changed to sky from o2 as i play a bit of ps3 online,and the connection was b'llox with 02.So far no complaints with the broadband. I get family pack tv /phone/broadband for £34 p month.

 

[Leftie]

BT. Never had a problem. If cable isn't an option then you are using a BT line anyway. In the unlikely event that it does go wrong, there is only one company involved so they can't blame anyone else.

 

[Smiffy]

You're lucky.

Bob.
I'm not getting those speeds mate. They would be impossible.
Just showing the stupid results I'm getting when I test the speed of my line.
A few more taken this morning...









See how you get two insanely fast results, followed by one that looks "normal" then another stupidly fast one.
Somethings not right somewhere and it's driving me mad.
Apparantly, at those higher speeds I can download an mp3 file in 1 second, a 35mb video clip in 3 and an 800mb movie in 51 seconds!! It would be lovely if I was getting those speeds, but my machine crawls along at a snails pace most of the time.
Speedtest.net is a reliable method of testing your line speed. When I was with AOL & Sky I regularly checked on there and the results were always consistent with what I was expecting.

 

[CannyFifer]

i'm with Virgin but only because Pipex mucked me about as it's meant to be good or so my mates say.