Offer from my ISP -what do you think?

Angilion · 2 Sep 2007 at 02:42

I currently have an "up to 1Mbps" service from AOL, £18 a month.

They've offered a free upgrade to "up to 8Mbps"...if I sign an 18-month contract.

On the positive side:

I've found AOL's service to be fast and reliable. I get about 115KBps, or about 920Kbps, which is close to the stated 1Mbps. Better than average, I think.

I see no signs of throttling, port-blocking and suchlike.

There isn't a rigid cap. There is a fair use policy, but it seems to be set very high. For some reason AOL won't give out any details on it.

On the negative side:

AOL requires you to use their abysmal browser and associated software, which installs more crap (without even telling you what it's installing) before allowing you to disconnect. Half a dozen processes run for no apparant reason. Other browsers might or might not work (AOL blocks them sometimes), but you still need to have the AOL rubbish open and using resources.

AOL blocks a lot of email without telling you. It's probably over-aggressive spam filtering, but it blocks stuff that isn't spam. For example, every now and then AOL will block all email with the word 'forum' in the address. That's happened to me a few times, and again yesterday. That prevents me from signing up to new forums, since they usually send a verification email...which AOL blocks. They don't go to the spam section of your email (which is always empty) - AOL just block them completely. So you have to phone AOL tech support, which brings me to the next drawback...

AOL has random tech support. You phone their pay-to-use tech suport line. Sometimes, you will get tech support. Usually, you will get someone who has a helpfile and can talk you through reinstalling AOL...which takes >20mins because you cannot just install AOL. You have to watch a video showing you how to connect the blue cable to the blue socket and the yellow cable to the yellow socket. I am not joking.

If I could remove the "AOL-ness" from my AOL package and just have their internet conection, I'd sign up for another 18 months but as it is, I'm not sure.

Opinions welcome.

Zefan · 2 Sep 2007 at 02:45

I'd ditch AOL and go with Virgin Media, but I'm a total cable whore so don't listen to me

Snapshot · 2 Sep 2007 at 08:21

You can get an 8Mb/s service from almost any provider for at most £15 per month and mine upgraded my 2Mb/s service to 8Mb/s for free. I've been with Plus for over three years with few complaints but have a scan through the topics here to see which ISPs are currently in favour.

swinnie · 2 Sep 2007 at 08:24

well if you are only getting 920Kbps, what makes you think you will benefit from getting the 8mbps service?

Also, if you get a package that they supply you with a router, reinstall windows, install the router, but don't install the software! The only thing that will happen is that you will have to use www.mail2web.com for your email unless you know the server settings.

For browsing just use Firefox.

Angilion · 2 Sep 2007 at 08:49

I'm getting 920Kbps with a "up to 1Mbps" service. In other words, I'm getting almost the "up to" figure. If the "up to" figure is increased, so should the speed I get (though I very much doubt if I would get close to 8Mbps).

But it does raise another question - would I use the increased speed? I'm not finding my current service too slow. Patching gets a little irritating when the patches are 20MB and more, but it isn't a big deal.

thefish · 2 Sep 2007 at 11:15

ive just migrated last month from aol to adsl24.taol offered me the 8meg line and free unlimted phone calls for £18.99 with no contract.i was under thier fup and speed were a complete joke.i asked what my monthy usage was in the guy said i was downloading over 150 gig per mth.been on adsl24 and havnt changed my download habbits at all and ive downloaded around 30 gig with 4 days to go.not a problem with adsl24 though as i get a monthly allowance of 330gig.pings on aol for me were in the 60-70 mark and now with adsl24 im getting pings in the low 20s.i was with aol for 6 years and being honest wish i had moved years ago

Hxc · 2 Sep 2007 at 11:18

AOL don't require you to use their browser any more, otherwise how would you run it through a router? You can set the connection up manually and rid yourself of the horrible AOL bloatware.

mattyrigby00 · 2 Sep 2007 at 11:36

with the one which uses a router you dont need the AOL rubbish.

lsg1r · 2 Sep 2007 at 12:15

Angilion said:
I've found AOL's service to be fast and reliable. I get about 115KBps, or about 920Kbps, which is close to the stated 1Mbps. Better than average, I think.

thats good results for a 1meg. Can you get any line stats as it may not be worth you going ona upto 8meg connection if your line is poor etc.

I see no signs of throttling, port-blocking and suchlike.

There isn't a rigid cap. There is a fair use policy, but it seems to be set very high. For some reason AOL won't give out any details on it.

I've read its around 40GB iirc

AOL requires you to use their abysmal browser and associated software, which installs more crap (without even telling you what it's installing) before allowing you to disconnect. Half a dozen processes run for no apparant reason. Other browsers might or might not work (AOL blocks them sometimes), but you still need to have the AOL rubbish open and using resources.

Not if you use a router

I also kind of remember a mini program that works on aol too (from aol). Besides you can minimise the aol browser and use firefox/ie etc

A2Z · 2 Sep 2007 at 12:48

considering ISP's have been offering up to 8meg as standard for years now, its not really a 'upgrade' and i would not sign an 18 month internet contract if you paid me, the way things can change with ISP's

thefish · 2 Sep 2007 at 13:11

you can also connect using a modem without using the aol disk

wij · 2 Sep 2007 at 15:54

I'd certainly avoid signing an 18 month contract as ISP's can change so rapidly from giving a good service to being very poor.

Also another vote for ADSL24, been with them a couple of months (after previsouly being on Nildram for 4 years) and its been excellent. Also its only a 1 month contract, so if it does start to go down hill its very easy to migrate to another provider, although I can't really see the Enta network going downhill any time soon.

Angilion · 2 Sep 2007 at 19:26

thefish said:
ive just migrated last month from aol to adsl24.taol offered me the 8meg line and free unlimted phone calls for £18.99 with no contract.i was under thier fup and speed were a complete joke.i asked what my monthy usage was in the guy said i was downloading over 150 gig per mth.been on adsl24 and havnt changed my download habbits at all and ive downloaded around 30 gig with 4 days to go.not a problem with adsl24 though as i get a monthly allowance of 330gig.pings on aol for me were in the 60-70 mark and now with adsl24 im getting pings in the low 20s.i was with aol for 6 years and being honest wish i had moved years ago

From people posting about it online, it seems that AOL's throttling under the fair use policy drops you to 60Kbps, i.e. not far above a good dial-up. That's rather severe.

I'm not getting it, though, and I download as much as I want. I even run P2P for dozens of hours a week. It's the throttling period now (1800 to some time, I forget) and a download speed test has just returned 929Kbps for me. Pings are varying from 4ms (Google) to 65ms (OcUK), with most being 25-35).

I'm leaning towards "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". I'm satisfied enough with the service to stay with AOL (as long as I never need tech support), but not so confident of AOL that I'll cheerfully tie myself to them for 18 months for a speed increase I don't really want anyway. If I think that downloading a patch is taking too long, I just think back to downloading 3dMark on a 33.6 dialup and remember that I was well pleased with the upgrade from 14.4 at the time

Phemo · 2 Sep 2007 at 20:19

Angilion said:
From people posting about it online, it seems that AOL's throttling under the fair use policy drops you to 60Kbps, i.e. not far above a good dial-up. That's rather severe.

Are you sure it's not 60KB/s? That'd be 500Kbps - well above dialup speeds but still pretty poor.

mburn_83 · 2 Sep 2007 at 20:47

From my experience with AOL - I would ditch them. However if you feel you want to stay, reject that offer due to the higher monthly rate and 18 month contract.

Phone them up and say you want to leave due to the high bill poor speed.
They should match the up to 8meg deal and give you a lower bill on a 12 month contract.

Regards

M

Angilion · 2 Sep 2007 at 21:16

Phemo said:
Are you sure it's not 60KB/s? That'd be 500Kbps - well above dialup speeds but still pretty poor.

I haven't been throttled, but I've seen half a dozen people complaining about it online and claiming the throttling is right down to 60Kbps. They may be confusing bits and bytes, of course.

Angilion · 2 Sep 2007 at 21:18

mburn_83 said:
From my experience with AOL - I would ditch them. However if you feel you want to stay, reject that offer due to the higher monthly rate and 18 month contract.

Phone them up and say you want to leave due to the high bill poor speed.
They should match the up to 8meg deal and give you a lower bill on a 12 month contract.

Regards

M

It isn't a high bill or poor speed, though. It's a high bill compared with services capped to a few gig a month, but that's not a good comparison. The offer is at the same monthly rate I am paying now.

thefish · 2 Sep 2007 at 22:24

Angilion said:
I haven't been throttled, but I've seen half a dozen people complaining about it online and claiming the throttling is right down to 60Kbps. They may be confusing bits and bytes, of course.

they are correct although in all my speed tests i was getting 48 to 52 max even though tech support said i should have been getting 2 meg when throttled.glad to be away from aol and adsl24 is brilliant so far speeds are great and no throttling or blocking ports

allllec · 2 Sep 2007 at 22:49

Zefan said:
I'd ditch AOL and go with Virgin Media, but I'm a total cable whore so don't listen to me

Q F T

truebluecfc · 2 Sep 2007 at 23:29

I need an upgrade it seems also ... im on 2mb for £19.99 with tiscali yet they offer the same package for the same price but 8mb, giving tiscali a ring tommorow thats for sure.