Help to select a new ISP

Namistai

Namistai

Namistai

Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2007
Posts
775
Location
Shrewsbury
I could do with some views on what ISP to change to. I'm currently with Zen on an up to 8mb service through BT wholesale (actually getting just under 1mb), and whilst Zen has always been a great company to deal with we do have connection problems - partly due to our distance from the exchange, and I suspect partly due to BT wholesale being a bit dodgy in our area (at least at our distance from the exchange!). The problems are reasonably frequent ping spikes, and at least daily drops in connection (sometimes takes an hour to get back online).

I use the connection mostly for browsing and online FPS gaming, with occasional downloads through torrents.

I've read through many pages of this forum to gather ideas, and think I've narrowed it down to two options:

- Sky (LLU)
- Xilo (on CPW LLU)

Firstly, are there any other recommendations that I should consider? The LLUs available to me (according to SamKnows) are AOL, C&W/Bulldog, Orange, Sky/Easynet, and Talk Talk (CPW). I think I'd prefer to try an LLU as I can't see any any other ISP on BT Wholesale beating Zen (although I welcome any opinions on this).

Secondly, of the two listed above (or any other options presented), which would you choose and why? Sky is significantly cheaper but on a 12 month contract, vs Xilo being more expensive + connection fee but on 1 month contract.

All views welcomed :)
 
I use Sky and have no problems.

However, if you have a fault with your line which is causing your ADSL sync to drop, changing to an LLU probably won't solve this. I'd be inclined to use Zen's excellent support to get the issue of the dropping connection fixed before moving.
 
I'm with Xilo and they've been great, but i'm in a non-llu area so all the cheap BT wholesale ISPs are rubbish. Website control panel is nicely done and you can toggle interleaving through that. You can also have a decent sized block of static IP's for no extra cost. Only downside is no direct debit, so I have to paypal the money over every month (they send an email reminder)

Sky LLU is fine from what i've heard.
 
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Zarf said:
Only downside is no direct debit, so I have to paypal the money over every month (they send an email reminder)
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We've sent a few mails recently about DD - it is now supported (has been for 2 months) and if you've missed the mails (spam filtered or otherwise), just drop us a ticket on the account and we'll advise the steps to set it up.

vs Xilo being more expensive + connection fee but on 1 month contract.
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No setup fee on the CPW service you're referring to.

Matt
 
Matt, one thing it would be good to learn is whether it is worth going to a 21CN connection. I'm so far from the exchange, I don't know if it will help or hinder. I appreciate you probably need more details, but I'm of course reluctant to post my home phone number here! :p Please could you advise (if possible)? Happy to provide you with more details if you can provide me with a suitable contact method (e.g. email address or support ticket etc).

Cheers :)
 
sid-180 said:
There are another 2 companies which offer better value than Xilo that offer CPW wholesale services. Vivaciti and TitanADSL
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Whereas we don't have traffic shaping on our service, by default and are looking to increase the default allowance included very soon.

Namistai said:
Happy to provide you with more details if you can provide me with a suitable contact method (e.g. email address or support ticket etc).
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Drop us a contact via the site with all the details possible and we can have a look for you.

Matt
 
uno said:
Whereas we don't have traffic shaping on our service, by default and are looking to increase the default allowance included very soon.



Drop us a contact via the site with all the details possible and we can have a look for you.

Matt
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Fair enough! haven't heard anything bad regarding vivaciti or titanadsl's phone and broadband service so far, few people on other forums have praised them.
 
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