Recommend a super cheap ISP for email/browsing?

NeilF · 16 Nov 2006 at 12:12

A relative is after ADSL just for email and browsing. Obviously the cheaper the better, as long as it's reliable.

Pipex seem to have a £6.50 deal, but I think that's tied into their £12.50 phone call package?

Virgin have an amazing £9.99 deal, but everyone seems to be saying Virgin is really bad these days?

Tiscali have a £12.99 deal.

NamesCo have a £11.95 for a 512K deal <-- Probably the most reputable/reliable company?

Anyone got any of these? Or an alternative?

Thanks!

zel · 16 Nov 2006 at 12:30

NewNet 12.99/month (bit cheaper if you pay yearly). 3GB allowance then payg at £3/4GB.

NeilF · 16 Nov 2006 at 13:25

zel said:
NewNet 12.99/month (bit cheaper if you pay yearly). 3GB allowance then payg at £3/4GB.

Not bad, but you have to pay:-
Connection: £35.24
Modem: £24.95

Not too bad though... Know anyone on it?

That Virgin deal is amazing in comparison though. For £9.99...
3 GB monthly download allowance
Free activation and modem
Free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines

Radiation · 16 Nov 2006 at 14:04

Stay away from pipex tbh, if they have sky and an easynet/sky llu where they live then they could get free adsl.

NeilF · 16 Nov 2006 at 14:38

Radiation said:
Stay away from pipex tbh, if they have sky and an easynet/sky llu where they live then they could get free adsl.

Nope... No Sky...

I'm tempted by Virgin cos it's such an amazing price! And as long as it works reasonably well it will be fine for them! The alternative I guess is NamesCo...

Avalon · 17 Nov 2006 at 15:30

Virgin for the money, it's also a short contract though they may charge you a disconection fee if you disc inside of 12 months.

tolien · 17 Nov 2006 at 15:45

You are aware that the "free calls" means signing up to get the line rental shifted over to them (and thus if your voice service breaks, it's Virgin's dodgy support you have to deal with)?
Wouldn't touch Tiscali, and the reply to your post about Virgin says it all. For nothing but browsing, I'd probably look at either Eclipse, Zen lite (£15.31 + VAT) or maybe Nildram's PAYG, though Nildram and Eclipse have both had their fair share of bad press recently.

Avalon said:
it's also a short contract though they may charge you a disconection fee if you disc inside of 12 months.

They will, as will any ISP offering free connection and/or hardware. Whether the free USB modem you get has any value is open to debate.

NeilF · 17 Nov 2006 at 15:53

tolien said:
You are aware that the "free calls" means signing up to get the line rental shifted over to them (and thus if your voice service breaks, it's Virgin's dodgy support you have to deal with)?
Wouldn't touch Tiscali, and the reply to your post about Virgin says it all. For nothing but browsing, I'd probably look at either Eclipse, Zen lite (£15.31 + VAT) or maybe Nildram's PAYG, though Nildram and Eclipse have both had their fair share of bad press recently.

They will, as will any ISP offering free connection and/or hardware. Whether the free USB modem you get has any value is open to debate.

Ahhh... I wasn't clear on their phone call system... Thanks for that... I think the two alternatives I've found then are:-
UKOnline - £9.99

NamesCo - £11.95 or NewNet - £11.95

Thanks...

meghatronic · 17 Nov 2006 at 18:28

In defence of Virgin.. I've been with them 4months, connected steady at 8mb and have good IP rates of around 700-1000kb. However, my afternoon ping in games jumps into the 100-200s which is very poor. It can be around 8 sometimes, but last week or so it has been dire. Downloads have never been affected though....