which isp?

LabR@t

LabR@t

LabR@t

Soldato
Joined
30 Nov 2005
Posts
13,915
My line is stuck at 35Mb and limited isp options currently with nowtv but the offer is about to expire.
  1. zen £29.99
  2. bt -
  3. sky
  4. now £31.99 includes unlimited calls
  5. plusnet £23.99
  6. talktalk won't even consider these
swaying towards zen are they still a good isp?
 
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Zen tends to be more expensive, but always has good customer support.

It's like picking gas/electricity companies, the source of the product is exactly the same.
 
Any of the first 5, 6 should generally be on the NFC list for residential customers. Sky own NowTV, BT own Plusnet, Sky and Now are basically identical, BT and Plusnet aren’t - I’d take Plusnet over BT generally, don’t forget to use Quidco or TCB. Zen historically have a perceived higher level of service, though that hasn’t played out so well in the current environment for some.
 
Bouton Aide said:
Not by far! You really can't compare these ISPS like it's gas/electric. You will get more issues on one ISP than other ISPs depends on their network setup.
Click to expand...

^ This

Yes in 90% of cases you are on BT / Openreach cables but the ISP networks are vastly different as is the level of service.
 
Signed up with zen, been thinking not joining then for few years after a decade with sky/now.
Finally be able to get a decent router ;) instead of locked into the sky junk.

Just wish I could get more than 35mb!

So decent router for large 4 bed house or mesh any suggestions?
 
LabR@t said:
Signed up with zen, been thinking not joining then for few years after a decade with sky/now.
Finally be able to get a decent router ;) instead of locked into the sky junk.

Just wish I could get more than 35mb!

So decent router for large 4 bed house or mesh any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You haven’t been locked to Sky hardware for over a decade, heck they’ve even made it easier now you can use made up details for u/p.

Router wise what do you need that is possible on the included in the zen supplied kit? Just without knowing that all you will get is people telling you why what they have is good for them, not what will do what you want.
 
LabR@t said:
Signed up with zen, been thinking not joining then for few years after a decade with sky/now.
Finally be able to get a decent router ;) instead of locked into the sky junk.

Just wish I could get more than 35mb!

So decent router for large 4 bed house or mesh any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Well you picked zen so enjoy because i also would recommend zen,

As for the router, the one zen supply i think may be good enough, better then routers from virgin media and sky that i know of,

Give the router a go which comes from zen for free i think.

If you want mesh wireless setup look here zen do a mesh service > https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8601-zen-internet-launches-everyroom-wi-fi-mesh-product

So click this i think it is the mesh service they do, > https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/everyroom

Dan.
 
Avalon said:
You haven’t been locked to Sky hardware for over a decade, heck they’ve even made it easier now you can use made up details for u/p.

Router wise what do you need that is possible on the included in the zen supplied kit? Just without knowing that all you will get is people telling you why what they have is good for them, not what will do what you want.
Click to expand...
Could never get it work on other hardware.
 
LabR@t said:
Could never get it work on other hardware.
Click to expand...

Literally anything that supports DHCP option 60/61 works with minimal effort, anyone who says they use MER should be ignored. That’s many *WRT based firmwares (Merlin for example), pfSense/OPNSense, Untangle and numerous other AIO routers, though you need to be careful as not all support it out of the box and some OEM’s may require you to use a specific firmware to enable support. I have done so on everything from ADSL to g.fast without issue, just need to supply login/password in the correct format, it doesn’t even need to be extracted using wireshark any more.
 
Avalon said:
Literally anything that supports DHCP option 60/61 works with minimal effort, anyone who says they use MER should be ignored. That’s many *WRT based firmwares (Merlin for example), pfSense/OPNSense, Untangle and numerous other AIO routers, though you need to be careful as not all support it out of the box and some OEM’s may require you to use a specific firmware to enable support. I have done so on everything from ADSL to g.fast without issue, just need to supply login/password in the correct format, it doesn’t even need to be extracted using wireshark any more.
Click to expand...


I run untangle in bridge mode as I never got it to work. Moving to zen will make it a breeze
 
LabR@t said:
I run untangle in bridge mode as I never got it to work. Moving to zen will make it a breeze
Click to expand...

Edit dhclient.conf with this at the end:

interface "eth0" {

send dhcp-client-identifier "skyusername|skypassword";

}


Obviously you need a 12 digit alphanumeric string for username and 8 for password. It’s literally that simple.
 
The single biggest reason to go with Zen would be the fixed IP address you get as standard. You can get one with Vodafone as well, but you have to ask whereas Zen just give you a fixed IP address and you can buy more if you need them. Altogether more civilised.

Great to see people using Untangle as well although I do wish you’d posted before that you couldn’t use it in router mode with Sky as it is very easy to make it work (as shown above). I’ve just gone with the new Home Protect Plus because it’s the cheapest way to get Wireguard, but the other apps are useful too.
 
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