Help me choose a new ISP

mickyflinn said:
I agree

Its when you have problems then you see what type of service they provide
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Indeed. Only ever had issues while with Sky. BTO engineer came out, ran a new cable from the master socket to the pole, also switched the pair of wires from the pole to the DSLAM and it's been sound ever since.
 
Plusnet/BT/Sky + Quidco depending on who has the cheapest overall deal. Hardware wise the N66U is ancient and way past EoL support, as it includes a modem chipset without open source support, you can’t use a 3rd party firmware either.
 
Avalon said:
Plusnet/BT/Sky + Quidco depending on who has the cheapest overall deal. Hardware wise the N66U is ancient and way past EoL support, as it includes a modem chipset without open source support, you can’t use a 3rd party firmware either.
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Actually I've got the one without a modem, and I've loaded Merlin onto it.

Do the mentioned ISP's have different latencies, or are they all the same?
Who provides the best router?
 
Stovehead said:
I left Plusnet 5 months ago but their billing system has been not fit for purpose for the past 2 or so years. Have a read of their forums before signing up. The staff are generally friendly and service decent (with a good line) but the billing system was another matter.
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What's wrong with it?
 
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hooblah said:
Actually I've got the one without a modem, and I've loaded Merlin onto it.

Do the mentioned ISP's have different latencies, or are they all the same?
Who provides the best router?
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Not having the modem side of things on the router means you can have firmware that’s only 3 years out of date on Merlin, realistically you need to move back to DDWRT which ASUS forked to produce its own software for current support, a lot changes in 3 years from a CVE perspective. ‘Best’ is a subjective term and without knowing what criteria/specific needs you have it’s not a straight forward question to answer, so what specifically are you wanting to do? Also you obviously need a modem, presumably you have one as few ISP supplied routers will run in bridge mode and double NAT is not a fun place to be.

Latency should be generally similar across the board, you have the same path to the exchange, but after that it’s down to your ISP’s patb back to core and the routing/peering in place a little out again and where you’re interested in. One thing that I will say is in the event of a routing/peering issue, you have a better chance of someone actually listening and understanding at somewhere like Zen than say TalkTalk. PN’s billing system does have quirks, but I personally only had a minor issue with it (enhanced care on a line but wasn’t billed for ages, had a fault and got enhanced care service with no back billing).
 
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I've stuck with them as they've been consistently the cheapest way for me to watch BT Sport (I'm a big rugby fan) and I've had decent service from them whenever I've had to call them.
 
Great reply, thanks.

I moved to Merlin because ddwrt stopped updates. Merlin has also stopped updates from what I gather. You're saying I need to move back to ddwrt? For what purpose? Tbh I have no idea why I installed custom firmware, it was more curiosity. Not sure if it actually does anything.
What am I missing by having an out of date router?
I'm currently on virgin fibre. The Netgear is being used as an access point to extend the range.

I don't have any specific needs. I'm not running a server. I have 10+ devices connected via WiFi, nothing via cable. It gets used for general internet, streaming, and soon gaming. Not sure what difference any of that makes?
 
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