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Author Topic: UK ISP recommendations  (Read 3814 times)

justboatonic

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UK ISP recommendations
« on: June 13, 2010, 10:33:38 pm »

Well seeing as the main dealer has b*lls up what should be a simple job, I feel like Im on a bit of a (downwards) roll at the moment.

About a year ago, I got brassed off with tiscali's poor service. Since this was an LLU, I had to pay a line cease and reconnect charge of about 50 quid and was without BB for a week. I migrated to IDNet but the speed they delivered was slower than tiscali and too expensive for the download limit.

I next migrated to ADSL24 Enta. 19 quid a month for the 30 gig download. My speed went up to 6 meg and had no issue. Then, ADSL24 migrated everyone from the Enta service to a new supplier, Murphx, who were supposed to be better.

They werent. Speed dropped a meg to just over 5meg. Then from 12 April, I started getting frequent disconnects which in turn, drove my profile into the toilet. Im now getting 1.3meg speed. raising tickets does nothing to resolve the problem so I've had enough.

I need to find another quality ISP to provide broadband. I dont really want an LLU service as it gets expensive when you want to migrate away, often needing to pay a line cease and reconnect charge. Im not too keen on long contracts although having done some research, it looks like I may have to consider a 12 month contract as an option.

The famous 'up to nnmeg' download speed etc doesnt impress me much. IMO there's only very limited circumstances you'll get anywhere near that. The best speed I've had out of my line was just over 6meg. Download wise, I need something that will give 30gig download in a month.

What's everyone's recommendations for alternative ISP's?

Thanks
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gondolier88

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2010, 10:44:20 pm »

BT- best hub, simple no hassle contract, they own most lines anyway- why fly british airways on an easyjet plane when you can fly british airways on a british airways plane!?!

There is a pattern forming here justboattonic- may I suggest you do some research next time you deal with a large business of any sort!!! :-))

 Greg
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wbeedie

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2010, 11:25:19 pm »

if you have Sky TV go for their broadband especially if they have LLU get your phone through them and you will pay UPTO £10 a month but have seen on an advert its free but dont know how this works maybe the bottom end the service but upto 20 mb iand plenty of people I have seen on the web say they are good ,unfortunately am on Sky connect as no LLU at my exchange
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pugwash

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2010, 02:13:50 am »

must say I Have had no trouble with TalkTalk as my service provider.  I also get line rental included and all
calls are free (except calls to mobiles) all my foreign calls are also FREE. Once your call reaches 60 mins they
will then charge you for the excess but all you do is hang up and re-dial - Just happens when my wife calls
her sisters!!
Pugwash
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Shipmate60

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2010, 08:32:43 am »

Tiscali was taken over by TalkTalk I have recently lost my BB for a week and had to pay to connect to an Asian call centre.

Bob
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Patrick Henry

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2010, 08:45:23 am »

BT works for me, free hub and no hassle at all. I had a small hiccup a while back, made a phone call to the help line, the guy talked me through each step (in plain English, not tech talk) to rectify the problem, and an hour later he called me back to make sure all was well.

One week later and almost to the minute he called me again to ensure everything was still working well...now in my book that's pretty good service.
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barriew

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2010, 09:15:43 am »

Having been with Tiscali before I moved last year, and moving to a house which had three different suppliers for calls, rental and BB, I decided BT was my best bet. Probably was, but I didn't realise what a mess all this unbundling had created. Because of all the different suppliers involved I had to wait 15 days to get a line, then another week for my BB.

Having said that, the service is fine. They promise up to 8M, anf I get around 7, so I'm happy with that.

My daughter on the other hand has just had a terrible experience with TT. It took 3 months to get BB, and about 3 weeks to get a line in a house with a physical connection, but no previous service.

I think the motto is you pays your money and hopes you will get service {-) %% {-) %%


Barrie

PS I do think the Hub is good, and you get free minutes on BT Fon and some Openspace WiFi hotspots.
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DickyD

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2010, 09:23:07 am »

I've been with BT all along and find them excellent.

As Rich said their IT back up is excellent and they always check back afterwards to make sure everything is still OK.

Not the cheapest, but no hassle. :-))
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meyer

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2010, 07:39:44 pm »

Dont touch TalkTalk with a barge pole
They were great for the first 6months but since the new year I can really only get online between 0800-1600 when I get a 6-11 meg connex
the rest of the time its round about 150kbits per second,  theres no point phoning their customer support because apparently they dont understand
a Scottish accent which is unsurprising really as I cant understand them  %%

I have had to resort to written comms and the last one didnt really inspire any confidence

From TalkTalk "there is a distinct possibility that this issue will be with us for a long time.We will update as soon as we have anything for you."

just to illustrate the problem, I hit the reply button at 19:20 hrs
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meechingman

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2010, 09:31:37 am »

I've been with ADSL24 for a few years, after escaping from Virgin. Their Entanet service went downhill as you've said but that didn't affect me too badly.

My problem was (and is, I suppose) a bad BT line, where the line attenuation suddenly jumped from 36dB to 48dB and where the line would drop out, especially when it rained hard. That resulted in an SNR of 12 or 15dB and a synch speed of 3500-ish. IP profile would drop to 2500, then creep up gradually before bombing again.

When ADSL24 offered their first LLU service - with Be as the carrier - I jumped at it, even though it costs around £7 extra a month. I now get an average synch speed of 8500, and no IP profile to worry about.

Andy
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BlueWotsit

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #10 on: June 15, 2010, 10:23:27 am »

suggest checking the following website

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/


Useful info, allows comparison etc etc
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malcolmfrary

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #11 on: June 15, 2010, 10:26:50 am »

Quote
My problem was (and is, I suppose) a bad BT line, where the line attenuation suddenly jumped from 36dB to 48dB and where the line would drop out, especially when it rained hard. That resulted in an SNR of 12 or 15dB and a synch speed of 3500-ish. IP profile would drop to 2500, then creep up gradually before bombing again.

When ADSL24 offered their first LLU service - with Be as the carrier - I jumped at it, even though it costs around £7 extra a month. I now get an average synch speed of 8500, and no IP profile to worry about
Looking at the ADSL24 site, they go by BT exchange area, and make no mention of cable/optic, so I suspect that they are using the exact same pair of wires that your previous supplier used.  Since this pair of wires also carries telephone service, there should have been a noticeable effect on that.  Noise and possibly poor transmission at the very least.  If it was reported as such, it should have been fixed as such and coincidentally have fixed the broadband problem.  You have filters at home separating the adsl and voice, the same happens at the exchange to give the adsl access to the broadband gear, presumably via another pair of wires connected to the ISP's equipment, or whoevers equipment the ISP is sub-renting it off.
It could well be that changing ISP has just resulted in the new guy checking the line and connections over properly before taking it over.
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meechingman

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2010, 08:32:00 pm »

Alas, when it was reported, Virgin were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Mind you, they were throttling the line so much in the evenings it made no difference. BT weren't in the slightest bit interested. The phone line worked, with 'no noise' when they checked it (I bet it wasn't midnight and raining when they did that!) and my broadband speed, according to them, was 'acceptable'. They gave no explanation for the jump in ;ine attenuation. My line still has that 48dB attenuation so nothing's happened on changing ISP's or to LLU. If I could get the attenuation back down to what it was (and what my nextdoor neighbour has) I'd be flying at well over 10000.
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Robert Davies

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2010, 09:05:52 am »

If I could get the attenuation back down to what it was (and what my nextdoor neighbour has) I'd be flying at well over 10000.

I'd be having a long hard look at my domestic telecoms cabling if I were you - failing that, if your telephone line is above ground, get a set of binoculars and inspect what you can see for insulation breaks/joint failures etc and use any findings when you report the line fault to BT - NEVER mention 'an internet fault' just the catch-all 'noisy line'.

-Rob
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meechingman

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #14 on: June 16, 2010, 09:15:53 am »

All done, checked and double checked. The only thing that I can't legally change is the BT master socket, which is as old as the house - 35 years. BT did some recabling in the street last week and all the phone lines were out for a short while. However there was no improvement when mine came back on.
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Robert Davies

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #15 on: June 16, 2010, 09:31:33 am »


Hmmm....

Once up on a time, I had awful variations in line attenuation, then, one day, the electricity substation across the road and down abit....  blew up(!) My connection speed jumped from 1 meg to 6.5 meg over night. Even when they replaced the substation my line speed stayed reasonable, so I'm guessing the substation was the source of the line noise (not exactly a leap of faith there!) If you have line problems at night, fingers have been pointed at streetlights as a source of noise. Some routers deal with it better than others - the winner on my line currently is a Netgear DG834GT with DGTeam custom firmware installed (build 1014).

-Rob
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HS93 (RIP)

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #16 on: June 16, 2010, 10:52:35 am »



this is a handy item if you have non cable broadband, replace your telephone extensions with these and you don't have to have filters hanging of sockets its all built in. and there cheap enough.


http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GPADSLS.html

peter
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Robert Davies

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Re: UK ISP recommendations
« Reply #17 on: June 16, 2010, 11:45:40 am »

All done, checked and double checked. The only thing that I can't legally change is the BT master socket, which is as old as the house - 35 years. BT did some recabling in the street last week and all the phone lines were out for a short while. However there was no improvement when mine came back on.

Far be it from me to suggest such a thing but....

http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/adsl_faceplate.htm

About 10 minutes work, including the 9 minute coffee break.

-Rob
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