Need an Alternative to Virgin Media

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guildford, surrey
Well its the final straw, i cant take it anymore so im chucking everything to do with virgin media out of my house and cancelling it all because its so poor and slow, and im going to change, but im not sure who to. Ive been looking at sky 16mb for about a tenner a month, but i gotta change phone line aswell (but thats not a problem), also been looking at orange 8mb (currently on 4mb, but its more like 56k or less).

I need someone who will coem out and install it all for me, because i will get it wrong otherwise, also with sky ive heard they send you a £70 wireless router for free.

So anyone here with sky reccomend it? Or any other ISP for that matter.

THanks.
 
I would stay clear of orange I hear they are pretty bad. Sky are supposed to be pretty good but your best off checking how far away you are from your local exchange as the speed you get off ASDL2 ect depends on how far away from your exchange.

Also sky use something called intervealing and they don't turn it off so this can increase pings in gaming a bit but I doubt it will affect you too much. Also have a look at UKFSN, ADSL24 and BE as they are all quality ISP's.
 
1337z0r said:
I would stay clear of orange I hear they are pretty bad. Sky are supposed to be pretty good but your best off checking how far away you are from your local exchange as the speed you get off ASDL2 ect depends on how far away from your exchange.

Also sky use something called intervealing and they don't turn it off so this can increase pings in gaming a bit but I doubt it will affect you too much. Also have a look at UKFSN, ADSL24 and BE as they are all quality ISP's.


I only know 1 person on Orange, and she gets perfect connection 24/7, better than my supposed 20mb virgin anyway!
 
tsinc80697 said:
I only know 1 person on Orange, and she gets perfect connection 24/7, better than my supposed 20mb virgin anyway!

one person? i think a little more research is required when choosing a new isp, especially one with a minimum 12 month contract. it might be worth looking around.

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php (2nd worst)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20070321.shtml (watchdog survey. worst)
http://www.orangeproblems.co.uk

sure there are plenty of happy customers on orange but it's like playing russian roulette. you just don't know what you're going to get. some people are getting dialup speeds on 8mb connections, yes it really can be that bad.....

and like BT, their call centres are outsourced to india so good luck if you need any help. :)

and to the OP, all adsl isps require a bt line. you can get line rental from bulldog/talktalk/maybe others but i don't think they can put lines in?
 
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tomanders91 said:
BE look good, 24mb on all there packages :eek: , it requires a BT line though doesnt it? And they wont send someone out to install it.


All other good ISP's needs a BT phone line so you will have to give up your virgin phone line and have BT come round and sort out a BT line for you. Also check how far away you are from the exchange use a site like sam knows. As you may get 5mb on BE 24MB or you may get 20MB. But if your looking at any other ISP other than virgin you will need a BT phone line.

BE will send you the router and your account details it is easy enough to set it up. Theres also promo codes to get the activation for free instead of paying £24 for it :).
 
forgot to mention, bt will charge £125 to install a phone line. and you'll also have to get line rental from them for 12 months also. but you're still free to choose any isp though. :)
 
if you had gone for orange a few weeks ago you could have got a free laptop from *******. This is what i did. My router was uber easy to get set-up, simply plug all the correct wires in, shove the disc in cd drive and follow instructions. No configuring or anything.
Although virtually everyone i have spoken to says stay well clear of orange i personally am having no problem at all. I get around 4mbps on the 8mb unlimited connection and sometimes even higher, and for what i use the internet for 4mbps is plenty. Also with the unlimited package you get free calls to landline numbers (01,02 only though), this is capped to 2 hours per call but (as it says in the leaflet sent with the router) you simply hang up and re-dial.
 
ok that's 2 happy orange customers. i take it all back. orange are great. :D

i like them so much i even used the colour for my sig. :p
 
Orange suck. Really, what makes a good ISP is not just the service, it's when you have to ring them about an issue.

Be* would be top of my list if it's available and you have a short phone line.

Sky broadband if you are not a big gamer and have a short phone line.

Enta resellers rock. I'm on UKFSN and it's superb. ADSL24 are also a good Entanet reseller.
 
Ok virgin are cancelled, got 30 days though to find a new ISP, problem is, im quite far from the nearest bt exchange (2.37 straight line, but probably nearer 3km) so i think im only looking at about 6mb speed from that (which is still better than my current 4mb and at the same price) so would that be a good choice?

Are any of these any good? These are what im thinking of going for:

IDNET - does it require BT? Im switching to BT within the next 2 weeks.

BE - once again looks good, shame i wont get anywhere near the 24mb :p

ADSL24 - these look good, but for the 19.99 a month package its got a 30gb usuage, is that how much you download ,or does it count for everything you do o nthe inter?

These all require a BT line i think, what sort of speed would you get from 3km away?
 
tomanders91 said:
ADSL24 - these look good, but for the 19.99 a month package its got a 30gb usuage, is that how much you download ,or does it count for everything you do o nthe inter?
That's a 30GB allowance to use at peak times (classed as 8am and 10pm weekdays). Off peak you have a 300GB allowance to make use of. With Enta resellers you pay for what you use, rather than having one fixed price with light users subsidising heavy users and traffic shaping like most ISPs.

Both data downloaded and uploaded counts towards your usage allowances.
 
So for downloading, thats just what you download from the internet and stuff like torrents and things?

Is it likely to go over 30gb if i was just download game patchs, the occasional film/game (free game like FEAR combat or something :p not illeagal)?
 
tomanders91 said:
So for downloading, thats just what you download from the internet and stuff like torrents and things?

Is it likely to go over 30gb if i was just download game patchs, the occasional film/game (free game like FEAR combat or something :p not illeagal)?

everything you ever do online involves the transfer of data. browsing sites, msn, youtube, streaming radio, voip..... everything.

even me typing this post and clicking submit involves me uploading a little data (the text you're reading right now) from my browser to ocuk's server. it all counts. :)

and from your usage, you definitely won't go over. and you can monitor your daily usage too, either on their site or using a little app called enta tool.....

upload


remember all weekend is off peak and 10pm to 8am weekdays - you have 300gb to play with.
 
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oh ok so keep big downloading like films and stuff to weekends, does online gaming use 'usage' lol.

So its between ADSL24 and BE atm, both require a BT phone line and a local BT exchange center am i right? And i no BE send you through a load of stuff including a wireless router/modem, what about ADSL24? They both require ADSL Modem routers which are a modem and router combined arnt they? Like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-083-NG&groupid=46&catid=116&subcat=143
 
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All ADSL requires a BT phoneline, costing £120 for a new installation. New subscriptions to ADSL24 or other Enta providers incurs a £53 connection charge and you have to buy your own equipment.

Setting up is as easy as entering your login details to the router. Follow the guide that comes with it to find out where this is located. Online games use some of your allowance, although very little.

And yes, a ADSL router will include the modem.
 
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