UK Broadband ISP

[The Grum]

Hi.

Im currently with Tiscali who, after a year or so of resonablly good service, have decided to implement an "enhanced browser experience". This is a DNS hijack a la Verisign where they intercept mistyped web addresses and post a page full of ads. To make matters worse, this system also randomly redirects legit websites as well (slashdot!).

Can anyone in the UK suggest a decent ISP to switch to?

Thanks in advance.

[Voynix]

I have been using BT for several years. Notice that some ISPs implement fair use policies that filter/restrict some type of downloads. BT, for example, will throttle your torrents from 9am to 1am (down to 5-10kB/s) if you are a heavy downloader. AOL has cut off two of my friends due to high download traffic, Sky also implements a fair use policy ... I am pretty happy with BT despite their linux unfriendliness.

Voynix

[ScarletPimpernell]

newnet are good, not cheap though.

[diesel1]

I have used Demon for 12 years.

I started with them on 56k dialup, then tried Zen for broadband while keeping my Demon 56k account.

After 5 months I found Zen did not offer a password server, this meant I had to give their operatives my new mail/log on passwords!

So I changed my Demon account to broadband, keeping my static ip and email address.

They use standard connection settings so mix well with GNU/Linux.

Down time has always been when they have specified, only ever for major network upgrades and never longer than an hour or 2, perhaps 3 times in 12 years.

They are not the cheapest but having tried to help friends with AOL, Sky, NTL/Virgin Media and other providers when things don't work, I think they are worth the price.

I have downloaded hundreds of gigabytes of files and used many heavy bandwidth tools on a regular basis for many years and not had a problem. I can download at 700k/s and upload at 35-40k/s constantly, depending on the other end of course.

I did breach their limit for website traffic from my rendered images a few times but they simply sent me an email telling me that my site(hosted by them) would be unavailable for 24hrs. Fair enough.

@Voynix You have changed your/their torrent port from the standard haven't you? :)

Diesel1.

[loudmouthman]

Yep that s Tiscali for you, the not quite ISP is it.

Meanwhile I recommend to any of my own client the following ISPs

1. zen
2. eclipse
3. nildram
4. plus net

5. there is no 5.

[ssam]

UK free software network (http://www.ukfsn.org/).

not the cheapest, but seems to be good service. profits go to free software ( http://www.ukfsn.org/profits.html ). there is an rss feed of any schedualed maintance work, and information about net problems. static IP addresses.

i used tiscali in the past, and had big problems, which took hours on the phone to fix. they still owe me £70, and took money form my bank account months after i had left them.

[ScarletPimpernell]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

Go here and read through the forums, you'll get a general idea for who people are happiest with as their ISP.

Will probably provide you with a more rounded opinion than one or two replies here. :)

[nick.inspiron6400]

Well i have Virgin Media's 3 for £30.

TV,Broadband,Phone

No problems! And the broadband works with Linux. Probably because it is ethernet, and no crappy ADSL modems.

I also have a Virgin mobile.

[Voynix]

@Voynix You have changed your/their torrent port from the standard haven't you? :)

Diesel1.

yes, I have tried all different ports, even encrypting incoming and outgoing packages only provides a temporary solution as BT is very reactive. As long as http downloads work fine I do not mind my sleepless nights...

[rye_]

if you value bittorrent, avoid talktalk.
Though it is cheap fast and generally reliable, with a 40 GB per month limit.

Ryan

[Sunforge]

I'd give a vote for Zen. They are quite upfront about the limits they impose on their userbase and their tech support is solid.

If you can live with Zen's limits they'd be a good bet.

[buzzz]

Newnet! Or one of the Entanet resellers, preferably http://www.ukfsn.org

[alanandhispc]

I personally suggest firefly, www.fireflyuk.net (http://www.fireflyuk.net) i've been using them for roughly about 4 years now and i can't fault them.

They usually provide a wires only service, which always worked out best for me as i liked to have my own choice of ADSL router.

also, have a look at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php
they include more ISP's than more review sites do and as you see firefly/surfanytime (same company) are right up there.


Hope this helps.

Alan

[daverich]

we're with eclipse.

Very good service, very reasonable prices (14.99 unlimited use)

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[happy-and-lost]

We've been with BT for... 7 years now. It's very fast, 99.99% reliable, and if you ask them nicely, they'll always send you the latest broadband equipment to you for free. It's not cheap, though.

[The Grum]

Thanks for the help, guys. Much appreciated.

Eclipse looks pretty decent and aren't any more expensive than Tiscali (and hopefully have working DNS servers ;) ).

Ill give them a try.

[LookTJ]

Thanks for the help, guys. Much appreciated.

Eclipse looks pretty decent and aren't any more expensive than Tiscali (and hopefully have working DNS servers ;) ).

Ill give them a try.

If their DNS servers don't work...go here www.opendns.com

[curuxz]

I personally use BT,

dont ever ever ever touch Bulldog, pipex or tiscali SO MANY REASONS. you have been warned

[x0as]

I have downloaded hundreds of gigabytes of files and used many heavy bandwidth tools on a regular basis for many years and not had a problem. I can download at 700k/s and upload at 35-40k/s constantly, depending on the other end of course.


Are you on a business package? because the demon home & homeoffice are limited to 50gb/60gb downloaded over a rolling 30 days.

[rax_m]

When I lived in the UK I used freedom2surf (www.f2s.net)
I thought they were a no frills, reliable bunch.

[daverich]

Thanks for the help, guys. Much appreciated.

Eclipse looks pretty decent and aren't any more expensive than Tiscali (and hopefully have working DNS servers ;) ).

Ill give them a try.

You might have to manually input the i.p. addresses for the DNS servers.

They are on the eclipse website.

That's the only issue I've ever found with them.

Kind regards

Dave Rich

[bobbocanfly]

I use VirginMedia/Telewest, as it came free with our TV service for 6 months, they upgraded their backbone twice, so we decided to stick with them. Can upload at 40kbps and download at arounf 750/800kbs. I seed about a gigabye of torrent data a night (Mainly Slax ISO's and The Edukators DVD) and never had any complaints. THey also have some system so that when they are updating the backbone you can still get internet, just dead slow.

Think is is quite expensive (£80-100($200?)) a month, but for that you get TV, landline phone and the internet.

[diesel1]

if you value bittorrent, avoid talktalk.
Though it is cheap fast and generally reliable, with a 40 GB per month limit.

Ryan

My parents use talktalk, with a linux system. The new broadband package gives them 850k download speed(they are 300m away from exchange) for just £4 more than their original telephone contract

They don't download, they are used to 56k dial-up!

Diesel1.

[diesel1]

Are you on a business package? because the demon home & homeoffice are limited to 50gb/60gb downloaded over a rolling 30 days.


I was on a static ip dial-up account originally, when I upgraded to adsl they put me home with my original ip. I have never had any kind of restriction or warnings for any downloading, maybe I am just not quite reaching the limits?

Anyhow, I will probably get a warning in the mail tomorrow!

Diesel1.

[AndyCooll]

Can give another vote for Virgin Media (ntl as was). Been with them for 10 years now and has generally been a very reliable service. No download limits too. The three for £30 pack is fine.

As I mentioned, they provide a reliable service. However their customer services are poor so if things do go wrong it can be a mare. Thankfully this is rare.

:cool:

[tigerpants]

Can give another vote for Virgin Media (ntl as was). Been with them for 10 years now and has generally been a very reliable service. No download limits too. The three for £30 pack is fine.

As I mentioned, they provide a reliable service. However their customer services are poor so if things do go wrong it can be a mare. Thankfully this is rare.

:cool:

I use Virgin too. Its not cheap but cable is far cleaner and faster than phone lines which are limited by the amount of users on a given exchange and cable just works better with linux - no adsl faffing. Virgin have no limits and have never bitched about me DL gigs of stuff at a time.