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renzokuken
December 19th, 2006, 12:13 PM
Hi,

I've just moved into a new flat and want to get broadband installed fairly soon. I was using Pipex at my last address but I don't like their new packages.

I was hoping someone could recommend a decent broadband ISP (for the UK) which offers the usual 8mb speeds and unlimited downloading/usage, for somewhere around the £20-a-month mark.

I'm thinking about either Orange, Fast4 or possibly even Be 24mb Broadband (which is enabled on my exchange).

Any input, reccomendations, thoughts etc would be greatly appreciated. I've been reading loads of reviews and other things on various websites but don't know how much i should trust them.

Cheers


If only it was easy as
sudo apt-get install broadband

AlanRogers
December 19th, 2006, 01:01 PM
I was hoping someone could recommend a decent broadband ISP (for the UK) which offers the usual 8mb speeds and unlimited downloading/usage, for somewhere around the £20-a-month mark.[/code]You're asking a lot! I doubt that you'll get a reliable broadband fitting those criteria and I would strongly reccommend adding reliability to your criteria and then deciding which of the three you want to drop.

Pipex now own F2S, my own ISP, so I can't reccommend them in good conscience. I've had good feedback on both V21 (http://www.v21net.co.uk), PLusNet (http://www.plus.com) and MadAsAFish (http://www.madasafish.com), used by friends of mine.

derjames
December 19th, 2006, 01:03 PM
hi there, I am using Tiscalli at home... no problems so far...

rado_london
December 19th, 2006, 01:38 PM
NTL is a good ISP. And you need no configuration to get it running under Linux:)

purdy hate machine
December 19th, 2006, 01:55 PM
Everything you need to know right here > http://www.thinkbroadband.com/
There’s a great little tool for comparing service providers on the left hand side of the page.
I’m currently using Eclipse Internet (http://www.eclipse.net.uk/index.cfm?id=home_res) right now who are wonderful. :D

renzokuken
December 19th, 2006, 01:55 PM
thanks guys, i cant get NTL in my area and ive heard some very bad reports of tiscali.

the £21 pound PlusNET package sounds good though.

has anyone actually tried the Be or Orange broadband packages though?

EDIT: hey PHM, eclipse seem to offer everything i'm asking for, do you mind if i ask which package you are using?

AndyCooll
December 19th, 2006, 02:00 PM
Which version are you looking at? ADSL or RDSL? :cool:

jethro10
December 19th, 2006, 02:02 PM
I use PlusNet,
£22

30Gb "peak time" usage,
unlimited non peak.
very reliable and knowlegeable tech support. I have about 10 other friends and coleagues on it. Not one problem
J

renzokuken
December 19th, 2006, 02:20 PM
Which version are you looking at? ADSL or RDSL? :cool:

to be honest, i dont even know the difference

its looking like Eclipse Evolution package or the PlusNet one.......

thing is, i do a fair amount of bittorrent downloading in the evenings (mostly anime, TV shows, linux distros) and so have to consider the peak time download usage limits.

i reckon i download 6 or 7 tv shows (@ about 300mb each) a week and lets say one distro a month (700mb) and say add another 1gb on for various random bits and bobs.

so in total, uhhhh,

no more than 5gb a month i guess peak time. But from what i gather, off peak i can download as much as i like anyway?

Sorry, this is why i'm asking, last time i had to choose an ISP there was no such thing as "peak-time-usage" and "fair usage policies" so i am getting a touch confused

purdy hate machine
December 19th, 2006, 02:55 PM
Well it depends on your point of view. Personally I welcome such fair use policies if it means I can get a decent level of service whenever I need it. I rarely use the internet much during peek time, I spend most of my working day sat in front of a PC so I have no desire to spend my free time doing at as well... specially during social hours. Any p2p activities can easily be scheduled to operate after midnight anyway.

renzokuken
December 19th, 2006, 02:58 PM
Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against them at all, they are a good idea.

Its just that i only use my PC really after work in the evenings i.e. peak times, so i need to make sure im getting the right package without jumping in head first. I'm not a huge fan of leaving my PC on unattended during the day or overnight when i'm not there cos my PC caught fire a while ago and if i hadnt been there could have been potentially serious.

disabled_20220313
December 19th, 2006, 03:49 PM
I can give a reccomendation for Telewest's Blueyonder service.

Its not the fastest or the cheapest, but it is unlimted up/down, and they have pretty good service record with me.

Most problems will be sorted by an engineer that will actually come out and test the line. Rather than the usual ADSL provider approach of blame BT, then blame someone else.

Its also a plus that they host a debian and gentoo mirror too :D Super fast downloads.

Good luck finding a provider.

AndyCooll
December 20th, 2006, 11:55 PM
Basically ADSL is the one that comes through your telephone line, and RDSL is the one that comes via the TV.

ADSL gives you more choice and the prices tend to be more competitive. However you often need to look very carefully at what is and isn't included in each package.
If it's the latter then you may well be limited to NTL, Telewest or a few others. The benefit of these is that on the whole you tend to get more consistent download speeds and unlimited downloads. However you often pay a little more.

The above of course is simply a generalisation.

:cool:

ssam
December 21st, 2006, 12:15 AM
I have had months of trouble from tiscali. waisted many hours on the phone, being told that it would be fixed in x days, and then have to phone them again in x days when it wasn't. they would make me ring BT, and BT would tell me there was nothing wrong. i ended up with a patchy 512Kb connection (the fastest my line could manage), though was still charged for 2MB.

now i have moved to ukfsn (http://www.ukfsn.org/). the transfer was easy, with only a few mins downtime (though it took a while to get a MAC code out of tiscali). i can now get 500KByte sustained download (so maybe 4 or 8 Mb) on the same line. I have not had a chance to talk to their tech support people yet, so i can't comment on that. but before i signed up i sent them an email with a few questions, and it was answered within an hour, even though it was quite late in the evening.

they also support free software, which is good :-)

neaolin
December 21st, 2006, 12:20 AM
I'm happy with Nildram (http://www.nildram.net/). I don't pay anything extra for Usenet access.

Cyfr
December 21st, 2006, 01:13 AM
Do you have Bulldog enabled? The customer base is owned by pipex, but if you go with bulldog you'll get up to 24meg for £25 a month. No caps. No throttling. But shity tech support :p

Been with them 2years now, one 30min downtime one night, otherwise 1.8Mb/s downloads

ixus_123
December 21st, 2006, 02:06 PM
I've been with Demon for 4 years & am very happy with them

They are not the cheapest but their uptime is fantastic, I get a static IP, I can have as many computers routed to me connection as i like (some ISPs limit you - though how they check don't know). I also have no bandwidth limit or cap which is cool.

This is all for a theoritcal max of 8mb ADSL but according to speedtest.net I'm getting in the region of 3.7mb down which is fine for me

renzokuken
January 3rd, 2007, 11:00 AM
as an update,

i went for Eclipse Evolution Option 2. For £18.99 a month i get 8 mbps and unlimited downloads off-peak and a 30gb limit a month on-peak, which is fine by me

thanks for all your advice everyone.