Help me choose an ISP, fairly important to get it right.

Muel

Muel

Muel

Soldato
Joined
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Sheffield
Howdo.

I need some internets, when I say need, I mean that if I get it wrong and buy rubbish, I can't get extra freelance Web work in, so I will carry on barely having enough money to live on, so it's fairly important.

I want decent speeds (5mbps download, 0.5mbps upload. Minimum, not maximum), but more importantly it needs to be stable (none of this capping in the evenings ********, that's when I'll be working). I couldn't care less if it's "up to 50mbps" if I actually get 3mbps with a 300ms ping.

Also, if I could not be shouted at for stealing telly and softwares that'd be nice.

What I'm looking for is real life accounts from you lot, I.E: computer literate young men that I know and trust. :P

EDIT: I also need a home phone and line rental, as it's not connected at the moment.
 
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Well at the top of the ladder you've got Virgin 50 meg, it's the least limited of their packages and the limits are high enough to mean you shouldn't worry. As for them restricting illegal downloads, they've never bothered me, though I do have proper encryption setup on my traffic.

For none-fibre services, my personal favourite is o2, they impose no limits on me at all and have never contacted me once regarding my downloads. However, I am on an older package and get an o2 discount, so I'm on up to 10mb (I get 7) down and 1mb up (I get 1) but I only pay £7.50 a month. Nowadays their packages are more expensive and more limited but I think their top package will do.

People to avoid, TalkTalk, BT, Sky etc.

Hope this helps :)
 
as per ots, visit samknows and let us know what options you have.

when you say capping in the evening, what sort of work do you do and what sort of hours do you work, unfortunately most of the isp's have some form of capping, if its not on the amount you download, its restirctions of p2p usage etc normally during the "busy" times (ie when people come in from work).

just a case of which matters to you the most.
 
I can recommend BT Infinity if you can get it. A lot of connection for the money and the only thing they cap during peak hours is torrent traffic. Everything else is full speed 24/7. You'll need to be sure if you can get it of course, there's a line checker on their website.
 
SeeKified said:
I can recommend BT Infinity if you can get it. A lot of connection for the money and the only thing they cap during peak hours is torrent traffic. Everything else is full speed 24/7.
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The three things I've heard about Infinity from people on this and plenty of other forums are
1. It's rubbish compared to Virgin
2. You're capped on a lot
3. They don't like torrents

You must be very lucky to not have any of these problems!
 
ots3go said:
First off we'd need to know what options are actually open to you.

Does your cabinet have FTTC, what LLU operators are on your exchange, how far from the exchange are you... etc.

A trip over to http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker should give you most of the information we'll need.
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These apparently:

* BT Wholesale ADSL
* BT Wholesale ADSL Max
* BT Wholesale WBC (21CN)
* BT Wholesale SDSL
* AOL LLU
* O2 / Be LLU
* Bulldog LLU
* TalkTalk (CPW) LLU
* Sky Broadband / Easynet LLU
* Tiscali LLU
* Tiscali TV (via Tiscali LLU)
* Orange LLU (Formerly Wanadoo)

I am 262 meters from the exchange, no idea if that's good or not. :P

What I hadn't realised is how much line rental was, it adds £13 a month on top of what I'm already paying!

Are virgin fairly decent then? Problem is they insist on an 18 month contract, and I don't know if I'll be in this flat that long. :(

Can't get BT Infinity, and won't be in my area for at least 6 months.

Is it normally cheaper to get my line rental and broadband together or seperate?
 
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Depends who you get it from, decent companies charge the same as BT do, as far as I know o2 charge the same as BT and out of that list I'd definitely recommend o2 / Be.
 
was on aol for like err... 10+ years lol :P switched over to sky just to get speed boost, was on aol unlimited (throttles speed during peak time 5pm-11pm if you exceed 30-40gb in a month) and getting 3-4mb speed.

Im now with sky been for about a month so far no throttling speed, getting speed 6-8mb. Paying about £3 less month.

Bt infinity in in my area but no eta on when it will be turned on in my street, as soon as it's available i'll switch to that.

AFAIK sky only start throttling at 100GB in a month which i'll never go near tbh.
 
should have mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons to choose o2 is customer service. And one of the main reasons not to choose Sky is...you guessed it, customer service!
 
Leaning towards O2 now, just on what's on their site. Their "All Rounder" package looks about right, but only a 100gb limit on the fair usage thingy. Should be enough, but if I end up going over it I'll just have to upgrade to the "Works" package.


Aren't BEThere/O2 linked in some way? I thought they used the same hardware or something like that. So It'd just be a case of getting the cheaper one.
 
They use the same tech and often the same support staff. But o2's site is much better for managing your account (In my opinion).

100gb a month equates to just over 3.2GB per day which is 130MB an hour / 2.1mb a minute.

Personally I use a lot more than that but I'm more or less constantly downloading at 500kbps, it depends how much you're going to be using your internet and what for? Also if you live close to the exchange, you'll want higher limits to take advantage of the ~20mb speeds, I only get 7ish where I am.
 
Bethere offer short contracts + no limits (former customer but took virgin recently and regret doing so) also they'll do the same with the phoneline so!
 
For me selecting ISP is like this:

Can the house get Virgin cable?
YES = Get 50mb, get their TV and get their phone in a package to suit.
NO = Get sky BB, get their TV and get their phone in a package to suit.

Sorry I can't be of much more help but that is what I would do. Sky BB my parents have had no issues with and that includes family members torrenting and taking the mick at times.
 
Sky Broadband LLU is great. Sky Broadband Connect (non LLU) is total pants.

As for the rest I've no idea as I've been with Sky for years.
 
sky, price is great as you want phone line as well, you will get t.v as well, I think they are doing all 3 items for £20 a month
 
Redgie said:
They use the same tech and often the same support staff. But o2's site is much better for managing your account (In my opinion).

100gb a month equates to just over 3.2GB per day which is 130MB an hour / 2.1mb a minute.

Personally I use a lot more than that but I'm more or less constantly downloading at 500kbps, it depends how much you're going to be using your internet and what for? Also if you live close to the exchange, you'll want higher limits to take advantage of the ~20mb speeds, I only get 7ish where I am.
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BT and O2 both reckon I'll get around 13mbps down, 1mbps up, so I'm happy having a 20mb package, as it means if they boost it in the future I'll automatically get more right?

Tealc said:
Sky Broadband LLU is great. Sky Broadband Connect (non LLU) is total pants.

As for the rest I've no idea as I've been with Sky for years.
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Really don't want to go near Sky, heard nothing but bad about their customer service.
 
Muel said:
BT and O2 both reckon I'll get around 13mbps down, 1mbps up, so I'm happy having a 20mb package, as it means if they boost it in the future I'll automatically get more right?



Really don't want to go near Sky, heard nothing but bad about their customer service.
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Show me an ISP that does have good CS though tbh.
 
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