Sorry, not exactly software, but ISP question

[Min]

Hi folks

Having had pretty good bandwidth from Tiscali for several years it dropped three weeks ago to about .3meg most of the time.

Tiscali are doing their usual thing of fobbing me off so I think it's time to change ISP. I work from home most days and not being able to make VOIP calls anymore or rely on bandwidth for webex meetins is proving problematic.

But who to choose? I've read loads of forums and user feedback but there seems to be so much contradiction.

So - who is your ISP, do you get good reliable bandwidth?
If you had to change suppliers who would you go to?

Thanks

Min

PS It may sound a bit pathetic but I have a compromised immune system so the fewer commutes I have to make into our London office the better.

 

[JohnD]

I use Virgin Media (formerly NTL) which I would not recommend. I got it because I had cable laid on for phone, TV and Broadband. Quite unreliable and the (no) Help Desk usually has no idea when it goes wrong. I don't bother calling them now, it usually starts working again after a few hours. Looking on the bright side, they no longer charge me a Premium Phone call to report a fault. They used to. How dare any company despise its customers so much that it charges them per minute to listen to recorded music while trying to report a faulty product? FFS!

I am also annoyed that I sometimes discover they have cut their prices and improved service for new customers and are continuing to charge me the old higher prices and poor speed. This is shameful business practice (insurance companies do it too) which punishes customer loyalty (or as they think, stupidity and inertia)

I just had a look at the "Which" report on ISPs, and O2 is top of their Best Buys table, scoring 5 stars for each of
Ease of set-up:
Value for money:
Customer Service:
On-line Help:

Zen is the only other Best Buy, but more expensive, and scores only 3 stars for Value for Money

"Which" also published a list of "Don't Buy" recommendations. these are companies with awful customer ratings. These are:
Karoo Internet
AOL
Pipex
Supanet
Onetel
Orange


BTW I now use my contract mobile phone as stand-by and for mobile access. It plugs into a USB connection and gives me reasonable speed. Vodafone charge (I think) something like 56p per day on the days I use it. I do not pay monthly subscription for it as I seldom use it.

 

[Diyisfun]

I went fron bt to virgin
No prob with bt for over 10 years (although slow)
Virgin been 3 months no probs only changed for V+ Box (its also cheaper than bt 4 times faster)
Its about packages that you sign up for

 

[JohnD]

It's also about Service and Customer Satisfaction.

Some companies are just awful.

 

[EddieM]

I use BT, their customer service is awful, but the service itself seems quite reliable, I'm not able to get cable so couldn't comment on that.

 

[djrock]

If you’re in a cabled area go for Virgin. You get less problems with it vs ADSL. I have had no problems with their customer service.

 

[drummerbod]

If you’re in a cabled area go for Virgin. You get less problems with it vs ADSL. I have had no problems with their customer service.

You might want to tell the Virgin customers that in forums like totalbroadband.

Quality providers I can recommend are...

Zen (though they use the BTmax product in many areas)
Be - had the odd issue now and then but support is good. It's ADSL2 so expect a speed increase of 50% to 90% increase over standard ADSL
Sky - very good value for money if you take the whole TV\phone package. Again, ADSL2 in majority of exchanges.

 

[djrock]

You might want to tell the Virgin customers that in forums like totalbroadband.

The 8 years I have been with them any problems have been fixed. Haven’t had very many problems! Only recently (about 3 years ago) after been upgraded to digital set top boxes they were crashing, no problem they came out and changed them.

Had no problem with getting money back when they charged for using dial up on the day of the broadband installation.

djrock

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

I use Tiscali also. A complete bunch of onanists, frankly, but my connection seems pretty reliable - perhaps because I am pretty near the telephone exchange.

This might be worth a browse, Min. This also is worth checking out.

 

[gbrown100]

Go to www.samknows.co.uk and type in your postcode to get your local exchange details. This tells you what ISP's are available.

I have used many ISP's over the years...
Currently I use BE as my local exchange supports them. They are pretty good, support is good and speed is excellent.

I used to use Eclipse Internet as their tech support is good, they were very reliable although in recent months they seem to be suffering since migrating some lines to tiscali.

I have always heard good things about Zen but they are expensive.

My parents are on plusnet which seems pretty reliable and support is pretty good too.

BT, Tiscali, Carphone, Sky etc - pot luck as far as I am concerned. Whilst BT wholesale still power a lot of the lines BT retail who actually administer and run are awful. In fact al these ISP's are let down by customer service as far as I am concerned.

Regarding slow speed, changing ISP's may not fix this... Keep an ear out for any noises on your line, sockets without microfilters, duff microfilters, duff devices on your line (an old fax or ailing phone). Basically if you can remove the faceplate on your socket and just have microfilter and router plugged in you may find speed will improve.

 

[diyfail]

I can't give you a positive recommendation, but I can add another "fail" for Virgin. Never use these clowns, it's fine until they screw up your billing, disconnect you due to errors with their accounting process, try to overcharge you for missed payments tht they simply failed to take from your established direct debit and refuse to answer your questions as to why they have overcharged you. I was with NTL for years and they were great (as in, the internet worked 360 days out of 365 and I never had to call them) then they went Virgin Media and it's been a colossal nightmare. I sent them a letter saying that their institution could have been better managed by a bunch of drunken hoodies playing "spin the bottle" as their method of making strategic decisions and pondering if a 4 year on magic mushrooms had developed their systems before coming to the conclusion that such a said 4 year olds system would have been positively world class when put against Virgins "lofty towers" (licence of parody - you may not sue me for liebel).

But to be blunt, in all truth they made such a horrific comedy of errors in relation to my account with them you'd be a fool in my opinion to place your chips there even with their dirt cheap price, even for free (no parody, all factual, I am more than happy to speak to your legal department Virgin Media and you know who I am because you have my letter).

I had BT for years, no problems. Others had problems with BT. But Virgin Media are ivy league clowns.

 

[Min]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate your replies.
I now know who to avoid, and a couple to check out.
I will also check out the technical suggestions from gbrown100.

 

[jaysta]

If you’re in a cabled area go for Virgin. You get less problems with it vs ADSL. I have had no problems with their customer service.

Just to back djrock up here I rate Virgin Media (NTL) that much that when I bought my house... I made sure it was in a 'cabled' area. My mum and dad don't have a problem with it and neither do I. Since I had it installed in 2000 at my parents house I have probably had problems with it 5 times and whenever I have rung them up I also haven't had any customer service issues. I've had no issues so far at my house.

Take it back to basics... BT based (ADSL) broadband is running on copper and is always dependent on how far you live from the exchange and what equipment your ISP uses at the BT exchange.

Cable broadband is running on fibre optic cable and it won't matter where you are (as long as you're in a cabled area).

I heard this news on the radio the other day, read about it here

However, a friend of mine uses O2 broadband because he isn't in a cabled area and highly rates them. He doesn't have issues with connectivity. I think he gets 4-5Mbps speed. Whereas I get 10Mbps depending on Virgin Medias traffic management thresholds.

 

[kjacko]

Read the news recently anyone?
Virgin cable rate as the best isp for speed and reliability
Tiscali and AOL come dead last.

I've been with virgin in my last 2 houses. Currently i'm on the 10mb service and its great. Had a slight issue with them traffic shaping my connection for absolutely no reason, *******ed them and they took it off.

There is not better bband solution in the uk as far as i'm concerned.
ADSL is just crap, fact! Hardly anyone gets the speeds they 'expect'........again in the news recently.

 

[drummerbod]

There is not better bband solution in the uk as far as i'm concerned.
ADSL is just crap, fact! Hardly anyone gets the speeds they 'expect'........again in the news recently.

I can't get Virgin BB and I live in the city of Southampton!

I have read many horror stories and have had poor personal experiences expressed to me with regard to Virgin. I wouldn't write them off, I would still give them a go.

But to state ADSL is crap is just stupid. You may want to tell my colleague who gets almost 24mbs and a latency of 18ms on ADSL that it's crap.

I get 5mbs, I was told to expect 4-5. I personally don't know anyone who didn't get the speed they expected. But then I have read many people who have had issues just as people with Virgin have had issues with traffic shaping, latency and the like.