Looking for a Broadband provider in the South West

[Pickers]

As title, Help me out OcUK!!

I am moving from Southampton to Exeter in a couple of weeks with Pheebs. At the moment I am on 8Mb Bulldog (although only really get 2-3Mb speeds). Bulldog dont seem to cover Exeter, so we need to find a good ISP with no download cap, and good speeds. I dont really fancy ISPs like Wanadoo, or BT who provide their own equipment, I'd prefer to just have the line, and be in control of my own networking arangements beyond the phone jack.

Who are good companies to look for? Should we look at combined providers (i.e phone and internet), or BT line with a separate ISP?

Any and ALL advice is helpful and appreciated.

Thanks,
Pickers & Pheebs.

 

[csmager]

Have a look over at ADSLGuide.

It really depends on what price you want to pay and what you use the connection for - e.g. how much you download per month. You really get what you pay for with ISPs nowadays.

Most that claim to be unlimited are traffic shaped quite heavily, so you're usually better off with accepting a cap and sticking to it. Zen offer very good service, but a 50Gb Download limit and a price of £34.99. IDNet offer similar.

Nildram are getting good press round here - they have a 50Gb cap, but only during peak times. Schedule all your downloads outside this time, and you can do what you like, so I'm told.

 

[Radiation]

You also got cable in that area.

 

[tolien]

csmager's bang on the money, though you'd be well advised to take a look at Samknows and see what cable or LLU ADSL is available as well.
Barring that, your area's mostly irrelevant.

 

[Pickers]

It currently loooks like a telewest package (blueyounder, NTL or something) will be favorable.

We dont download an excessive amount, but I'd guess more than 1-2 gig (occasional game patches, trailers etc which can be up to a gig).

Now to make me look really dumb, will my current wireless modem/router work with cable broadband? At the moment it plugs into a phone line...
(belkin F5D7630-4A)

 

[tolien]

Nope. It's an ADSL router.

 

[Pickers]

Nope. It's an ADSL router.

curses...
Bah - gonna have to have a good think about this - spend a day looking around the interweb for deals and stuff...
Thanks for all advice so far!

 

[Pickers]

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange.php?ecode=WWEXTR
That doesn't look too good!! Looks like I'll be going NTL / Telewest.

 

[The Mad One]

You should be happy, telewest are actually a very good broadband provider at least they were before NTL took over i dont know if they have change since then, but my friend is on them in bristol and never has any problems with it.

 

[Freakish_05]

That doesn't look too good!! Looks like I'll be going NTL / Telewest.

I know I'm biassed, but Telewest ***!

No complaints whatsoever and pretty good value for money too.

 

[Duke]

Another vote for BY. Been using them for 5-6 years now and had no major troubles

 

[DreXeL]

Yet another BY fan here. Been with them for years and had very few problems

 

[WILD9]

And another BY vote, used them for 5 years with no caps, limits or shaping, and in all that time ive lost a connection for a grand total of 30 mins which happened once two years ago.

 

[Pickers]

Called up telewest this morning and sorted out phone/broadband with them... Not too bad from the sound of it! Now I just need a new router!