My UK-Online is closing, are 'BE' any good?

juno_first · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:12

Uk-Online is closing on 14th January.
SKY who have always owned UK-Online will soon be running the show themselves & have offered me the 1st 6months for free :confused:

Although Ive heard lots of damning reviews about SKY broadband.

Ive been with UK-Online for 4 years & averaged 100gig/month download, 90gig month upload & never had any issues with 'fair usage' or reducing speeds during peak hours.
Logging on around 4mbits, which has now increased to 5mbits as UK-Online approach their closing date.

UK-Online use the LLU 'Easynet', which I know to be ok.
'BE' use their own LLU at my exchange (Longton, Stoke) & I'm unsure of any issues with their LLU?

'BE' have an unlimited policy, but dont say how many GB this entails in the 'fair usage', although their 'Value' package is limited to 40GB.
Has anyone had any issues with 'BE' regarding the 'fair usage' policy?

Does anyone recommend another ISP for the Longton/Stoke area?

Thanks guys for any help

Thomss · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:52

Be* have been amazing for me.
No downtime at all, I can pull 500GB a week and have no email / complains from them.
Excellent pings for gaming too...

Love them!

Khazzer · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:53

I have been with BE for about 18 months, they do not throttle lines or use any packet shaping. Unlimited is pretty much unlimited. Generally I have found their service to be second to none. The fair usage policy is here: https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/fairusagepolicy

The only constraint stated about downloading for the unlimited package is:
"If it's felt that any Be member's Internet activities are so excessive that other members are detrimentally affected, Be may give the member generating the excessive web traffic a written warning (by email or otherwise). In extreme circumstances, should the levels of activity not immediately decrease after the warning, Be may terminate that member's services."

Zarf · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:54

Be are awesome, Count yourself lucky to be in an area supporting it. Sky isn't bad either on LLU, it's only their resold BT wholesale product that's horrible.

See if you can get Virgin Cable as well, since even Be won't get you more than the ~5Mb you are currently on ... you're still the same distance from the exchange. Cable speeds are entirely down to whether or not VM is oversubscribed in your area. Most people are fine and get exactly the speeds they pay for 24/7, but a few people get utterly shafted for months - VM aren't very speedy when it comes to installing new equipment and relieving congestion. Best thing to do is ask your friends/neighbours who have VM what they are like.

The longton exchange serves quite a lot of people too, I wouldn't be surprised if BT put in FTTC or FTTP in the next year or two, so don't sign up to anything long term.

shine · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:56

I made the switch from UKOnline to BE last year and they have been fantastic. Just as a good as my connection with UKOnline.

juno_first · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:59

If I stay with SKY, as the 1st 6 months is free it will cost £90 for the next year, else 'BE' will cost £269.

Forgot to mention I need a static IP, which SKY dont offer anyway.

Zarf · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:06

juno_first said:
If I stay with SKY, as the 1st 6 months is free it will cost £90 for the next year, else 'BE' will cost £269.

Forgot to mention I need a static IP, which SKY dont offer anyway.

Just use a DynDNS updater, Then you keep the same address even if you change ISP's in the future.

juno_first · 8 Jan 2011 at 15:51

Just checked my next door neighbour who is with SKY & his connection is:
down 4096 (appears to be capped at 4mbits)
up 157 (this appears fubar)
Plus it keeps disconnecting every few hours & sometimes stays disconnected for 3 hours.
My neighbour has phoned SKY many times but they wont fix it.
I told them their upstream looks bad & should be at least 576kbps.

My connection with UK-Online atm is way better:
down 5126
up 960
It only disconnects once a week too.

Ahh DYNA DNS updater, good idea though I dont think the site I log-on will accept this method

Zarf · 8 Jan 2011 at 16:13

juno_first said:
Just checked my next door neighbour who is with SKY & his connection is:
down 4096 (appears to be capped at 4mbits)
up 157 (this appears fubar)
Plus it keeps disconnecting every few hours & sometimes stays disconnected for 3 hours.
My neighbour has phoned SKY many times but they wont fix it.
I told them their upstream looks bad & should be at least 576kbps.

My connection with UK-Online atm is way better:
down 5126
up 960
It only disconnects once a week too.

Ahh DYNA DNS updater, good idea though I dont think the site I log-on will accept this method

Your neighbour probably has an internal wiring/microfilter/router issue. UK-Online and Sky are essentially the same, they both use the same network (Easynet) so his sync speeds and connection reliability should be the same as yours currently are. You and he are both plugged into the same equipment back at the exchange.

ISP wise I can recommend Xilo, their 'Pro16 Home' package would suit you and it comes with a static IP.

Matteysan · 8 Jan 2011 at 18:23

juno_first said:
Just checked my next door neighbour who is with SKY & his connection is:
down 4096 (appears to be capped at 4mbits)
up 157 (this appears fubar)
Plus it keeps disconnecting every few hours & sometimes stays disconnected for 3 hours.
My neighbour has phoned SKY many times but they wont fix it.
I told them their upstream looks bad & should be at least 576kbps.

My connection with UK-Online atm is way better:
down 5126
up 960
It only disconnects once a week too.

Ahh DYNA DNS updater, good idea though I dont think the site I log-on will accept this method

That sounds like a problem with your neighbours line to be honest. I've been with Sky for 2 years & only had 2 downtimes & that was for all of 2 minutes while the router had new firmware pushed to it.

Granted at the moment I'm getting some time outs but it doesn't appear to be just Sky.

Sky LLU is alright, It is the Connect package that is woeful. To answer your question though BE are a very good ISP, But then I'd say Sky LLU is very good also.

Randomface74 · 8 Jan 2011 at 18:24

BE are good but I'd say go to Virgin 50/100 if u can.

SimonR · 8 Jan 2011 at 19:17

Another Be* user here. My broadband stopped working at 3am one morning whilst I was gaming on my XBox. A quick call to their tech support and 10 minutes later I was back up and running. They really are one of the best ISPs around. Propper tech support (though I've only used it twice in 3+ years. Very few outages and no traffic shaping or peak slow-downs. I would recommend them in the bat of an eye.

MikeHiow · 8 Jan 2011 at 19:38

Sky are fine here - I use them for my backup connection. There are some very helpful and knowledgeable support techs there as well, many of which frequent the unofficial Sky support forums and TBB.

After speaking to one of them over PM, and requesting some changes to my line, he did it the next day he was in work and I managed to squeeze just under 5mbit/s out of my line with some further tweaking with DMT.tool, where previously I synced at 3mbit. My neighbour on a BTW product syncs at 2500.

Given the savings to be had by sticking with it and going Sky, I'd personally stick with them. You will likely be connected to the same DSLAM, so your line stats probably will not change - essentially keeping your connection the same to the exchange (Sky own Easynet afaik).

Why do you require a static IP? Is there any reason why you cannot use a dynamic DNS service.

juno_first · 8 Jan 2011 at 22:03

I need a static IP as I frequently visit a webpage which can only remember your username/password if your IP is the same as before.
The last time I had a dynamic IP, it was a pain because this website also has word recognition security & if you ganything wrong >6 times your membership is revoked.
The website is a very good err site where I get HD films.

icedbullet · 8 Jan 2011 at 22:41

I am in the same situation as you. I had a uk online account until just after christmas when I switched to Be (the top package). My experience with them has been pretty poor. The router was delivered late, they couldn't set me up on a static ip address, so I compromised and went on a dynamic ip. This was on the 27th December, I then got a call at saying my static ip was ready for use. Got home and I had no connection at all...so I contacted support again and they said they had no idea what the issue was and it would take 5 days to find out.

So I am now without a proper net connection because of Be. They promised me that the switch from uk online to Be would take 2-3 hours of downtime max.

juno_first · 8 Jan 2011 at 22:54

icedbullet said:
I am in the same situation as you. I had a uk online account until just after christmas when I switched to Be (the top package). My experience with them has been pretty poor. The router was delivered late, they couldn't set me up on a static ip address, so I compromised and went on a dynamic ip. This was on the 27th December, I then got a call at saying my static ip was ready for use. Got home and I had no connection at all...so I contacted support again and they said they had no idea what the issue was and it would take 5 days to find out.

So I am now without a proper net connection because of Be. They promised me that the switch from uk online to Be would take 2-3 hours of downtime max.

Ouch that sounds bad, the main reason Im going to BE is a static IP, good tech support & the fastest speed from my line. Which I feel is worth paying extra for.
Other people say BE have good tech support, hmm is anyone else with BE having trouble with a static IP?

MikeHiow · 8 Jan 2011 at 23:55

It isn't like your IP is going to change every five minutes - is re-authenticating to this website once a week/fortnight/month really going to be an issue?

juno_first · 9 Jan 2011 at 00:23

MikeHiow said:
It isn't like your IP is going to change every five minutes - is re-authenticating to this website once a week/fortnight/month really going to be an issue?

I suppose re-authenticating the site once a week is no big deal, although if my LLU changes (as the IP setup will) Im concerned SKY tech support may not be able help if eg. I get regular drop-outs like my neighbour with SKY.
I asked my neighbour again & a BT engineer recently fitted a new connection box & he's even using a 4" phone cable to the router. It dropped out 3 times in 5 minutes while I was there.

Im going have to bake a decision soon as my ISP ends on 14th & the mac is only valid until 21st.

MikeHiow · 9 Jan 2011 at 12:31

Sky use the same kit that UKOnline as they bought Easynet and that infrastructure. (For completeness of information, I believe they've since sold Easynet, but retain the infrastructure).

I do not think your neighbour's issues are Sky related, with perhaps the exception of his router being funny.

I've found Sky tech support brilliant, especially with the more knowledgeable of them frequenting online forums.

I do not have these regular drop out issues and I have a crap line that is tweaked for speed (thus away from stability), with a forced low SNRM.