Orange, Pipex, Eclipse Internet, which one?

tbs · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:13

out of these three ISPs which one would you guys go for, no recommendations, only the 3 choices ive named. i need to make a decsion by tomorrow to set it up for my girlfriend and her house mates in her uni flat.

Orange Broadband: Broadband Max £27.99 (upto 8Meg)
Pipex: Pipex Max (Broadband Only) £24.99
Eclipse Internet: Evolution Broadband Option 4 £29.99 (after first 3 months)

theyre all upto 8meg and theyre all unlimted downloads, but which one would you lot go for? ive had freeserve/wanadoo/orange for the last 4/5 years and i never had a problem nor downtime, but never used the other two before, but Eclipse Internet seems like it has good reviews about them.

Caged · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:21

Eclipse are utterly awful at the moment. I'm synched at 4800k or there abouts and the BT speed tester is giving me a download result of 250k. This has happened a few times this week and Eclipse don't really seem to know what's going on.

Phil99 · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:22

Eclipse used to be a good ISP.

I've just switched from Option 3 -> Option 1 and have seen absolutely no dip in speed. It's gone from average -> average. I'm on a 3Mbps line but I'm lucky to see 2Meg.

Since the Kingston take over it's been all downhill. They're even putting people on Tiscali LLU without telling anyone (like PlusNet) and once you're on it there isn't an easy way off it again, for the moment anyway.

It'll also be interesting for the future what comes of this. Not looking good at all.

tbs · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:24

im actually on ADSL guid at the moment, and the forums are saying good things about Eclipse :confused:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthr...=1697138&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

z0mbi3 · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:26

I'm saying good things about pipex. Had them ~8 months, no loss of service. Full 8 meg. Plus you know you're investing in a Hoff approved product.

tbs · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:27

z0mbi3 said:
I'm saying good things about pipex. Had them ~8 months, no loss of service. Full 8 meg. Plus you know you're investing in a Hoff approved product.

haha, and mini hoff... back on topic...

Phil99 · 20 Sep 2006 at 23:54

tbs said:
im actually on ADSL guid at the moment, and the forums are saying good things about Eclipse http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthr...=1697138&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

Post date = Thu 03-Mar-05

They were a good ISP then.

All the topics on the first page on there are complaints.

red11 · 21 Sep 2006 at 00:11

Avoid Pipex. Even the Hoff can't stop the masses from leaving them. If you plan on using bittorrent or other p2p programs then avoid Pipex.

tbs · 21 Sep 2006 at 00:29

hmm, then it looks like Orange is probably the choice, seeing as im on orange and its been good since 4/5 years ago

Caged · 21 Sep 2006 at 00:47

So who the hell do we go with then? I want an 8Mb service, not too worried about caps as long as they are fairly high. I don't want port throttling and I'm not paying Zen £35 a month.

z0mbi3 · 21 Sep 2006 at 08:38

Linoge said:
Avoid Pipex. Even the Hoff can't stop the masses from leaving them. If you plan on using bittorrent or other p2p programs then avoid Pipex.

Isn't this the way all ISP's are / will be going. Just for the record I'm not effected by port throttling in any negative way. Also I think you'll find this is only during peak hours. Anyone with common sense does their downloading while their at work

, and even then you can get around it at peak times by the tick off a box.

ste_bla · 21 Sep 2006 at 08:53

None of them are unlimited. Eclipse arnt that bad i get 100% of my speed 24/7 and 14ms pings to jolt.co.uk however this could be due to the fact im on an old package..

You have two choices in my mind, seeing it will be a uni flat then you need a very big cap (normally) or none if possible so;

UKOnline (cheap) - upto 8meg - £25
Bulldog (rubbish CS) - upto 16meg - £25
AOL (Rubbish CS but cheap) - upto 8meg - £30

jbloggs · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:07

What about considering Nildram ?

tbs · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:22

ive looked at Nildram, but the thing is, is that its got a connection fee, whereas the others i picked doesnt, and i dont think she wants to pay out £40 (even though it is shared out by 3 ppl) plus whatever the net fee is per month and also the BT line rental which is at £11 per month too

z0mbi3 · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:28

jbloggs said:
What about considering Nildram ?

Have you read the original post?

tbs said:
out of these three ISPs which one would you guys go for, no recommendations

tbs · 21 Sep 2006 at 09:30

hehe!

csmager · 21 Sep 2006 at 10:18

I know it says no recommendations, but honestly - i wouldn't touch all three! Unfortunately most of the other options involve paying a £40+ activation fee upfront. IDNet (30Gb/£24.99) Nildram (50Gb/offpeak/£25.99) and the like.

Ah well...

oxygene · 21 Sep 2006 at 10:29

I am with pipex atm. it was free to setup, but like the above said, fxp from abroad is unsteady, p2p and torrents dont get above 5k. Anyone know a way around this?

z0mbi3 · 21 Sep 2006 at 10:36

oxygene said:
I am with pipex atm. it was free to setup, but like the above said, fxp from abroad is unsteady, p2p and torrents dont get above 5k. Anyone know a way around this?

z0mbi3 said:
Just for the record I'm not effected by port throttling in any negative way. Also I think you'll find this is only during peak hours. Anyone with common sense does their downloading while their at work , and even then you can get around it at peak times by the tick off a box.

All you need to do is enable transport encryption in your bittorent client.

You shouldn't have any speed issues off-peak anyway.

jollygreengiant · 21 Sep 2006 at 12:26

I was on Pipex - they were great until they started limiting all p2p stuff.

Completely sucked - even using encryption didn't solve the problem entirely because you have to rely on the other folk using encrypton too or you don't get full speeds.

Pipex may have the hoff but they still blow chunks :mad: