Recommend an ISP? - Tesco any good?

[KillerHERTZ]

After 18months of pure hell with NTL, I have finally left & set up a line with BT (great customer support).

Which ISP shall I go with now?

BT - Up to 8mb, capped at 2GB

TESCO - 1mb and unlimited (no doubt will be upped to 2mb speed soon)

Tesco any good?

Or can you recommend another?

As long as its at least 1mb that should be fine, and ideally unlimited...

Around £20-£25 a month

 

[996jimbo]

I'm on PlusNet. I pay £15 (PAYG) for 1GB at a max speed of 8mb. Can't remember what it costs of I go over 1Gb but it aint much (I don't anyway) and they have all the other tarriffs like everyone else anyway.

www.plus.net

And they'll be doing a phone bundle soon.

 

[tmienterprises]

Go for madasafish.com - great service, 99.9% reliability - 8MB line (free upgrade) and 10.99 for first 6 months and 11.99 then on...

oh ... and did i mention - great customer service...

and no.... i dont work for them...

 

[llewellynd]

I use a Tiscalli bundle, 2mb line and unlimited calls to all geographic number for £22 a month.

 

[tinkypot]

Look at www.f2s.com - I and I'm sure a few other members use them. Faultless service and customer support as I've heard (never had to use it).

I'm on £14.99 pm @ 8Mb max and 5GB cap, which I have never got close to...

Alex

 

[SEM]

Have been with Demon Net for over 15 years now 24/7 helpline 2mb line from 1mb (free upgrade) and they have plans to upgrade again soon in all that time i've had no hassle in this time
Demon HomeOffice
Free set up and modem

£24.99 a month inc VAT

Speed
The service operates downstream at up to 2Mbps and upstream at up to 250kbps, offering always-on, unmetered access and unrestricted 24-hour TCP/IP traffic. The speed of a broadband connection is determined by the distance between your telephone line and the local BT exchange. While the majority will be able to receive 2Mbps, depending on your distance from BT’s exchange you may only receive 1Mbps or, in extreme cases, 500kbps.
Contention
The service is contended at 50:1 (i.e. up to 49 other users could share the bandwidth).
Web space
20MB homepage web space.
Email
Unlimited POP3 email addresses.
Fax to email service
No need to maintain a fax machine, rent a dedicated fax line. Keep faxes private by sending them direct to your email inbox

 

[Mozzer]

Look at www.f2s.com - I and I'm sure a few other members use them. Faultless service and customer support as I've heard (never had to use it).

I'm on £14.99 pm @ 8Mb max and 5GB cap, which I have never got close to...

Alex

Been with f2s for 2 years now without a problem, would not hesitate to recommend them.

 

[Ashley]

I use BT I know I pay more then needed but it always works, and I have no issues. I forget what it costs.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Thanks guys, will have a look...

 

[andy_k]

Tiscali get our vote - they seem to have really got their act together recently.

Push them for the best deal you can as they are flexible - we've got 8mb unlimited for 17.99 a month

Andy

 

[GrahamC230K]

Go BT. You get what you pay for.

 

[gotamerc]

I can recommend pipex I use them at home and for my business, go visit http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ they provide independant reveiws on all the providers, pipex are nearly always at the top.

 

[mapleleaf]

I use zen internet at home & work - good service & they manage my routers as well. costs about £25/month no limit on downloads as far as I know. lot sof options as well depending on what you want ie speed & contention. www.zen.co.uk

 

[big x]

I'm on PlusNet. I pay £15 (PAYG) for 1GB at a max speed of 8mb. Can't remember what it costs of I go over 1Gb but it aint much (I don't anyway) and they have all the other tarriffs like everyone else anyway.

www.plus.net

And they'll be doing a phone bundle soon.

I'm with plusnet too,however why are you on the PAYG tarriff when for the same price they offer unlimited ?
For a new user I wouldn't sign up for anything just yet...there are big changes coming soon is response to the carphone warehouse £9.99 a month unlimited broadband and unlimited free phonecalls package.Can't imagine why anyone would want to pay 3 times the price with BT !

adam

 

[MecrazyBenz]

After 18months of pure hell with NTL, I have finally left & set up a line with BT (great customer support).

Which ISP shall I go with now?

BT - Up to 8mb, capped at 2GB

TESCO - 1mb and unlimited (no doubt will be upped to 2mb speed soon)

Tesco any good?

Or can you recommend another?

As long as its at least 1mb that should be fine, and ideally unlimited...

Around £20-£25 a month

Found this good site with some very useful info on broadband in general.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

You can check the status of your nearest exchange. Gives you a good idea how far you are from your nearest exchange, and what speeds you are likley to get, and if there are any upgrades going on in the future, depending on which isp you go with.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Its quite misleading really when companies like bulldog advertise upto 24Mbps...it all boils down to the status of your exchange and the distance you are from it.

 

[Spinal]

Found this good site with some very useful info on broadband in general.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/

You can check the status of your nearest exchange. Gives you a good idea how far you are from your nearest exchange, and what speeds you are likley to get, and if there are any upgrades going on in the future, depending on which isp you go with.
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Its quite misleading really when companies like bulldog advertise upto 24Mbps...it all boils down to the status of your exchange and the distance you are from it.

Nice site!

Back to the original question, I've been with Blueyonder (Telewest, which I'm told is separate from NTL) and have had no complaints over the last 5 years. Every now and then in summer the local exchange overheats, leaving us without internet for a couple of hours; but they are quite fast in fixing it. Other than that, I haven't had woes. (Oh and customer support answers promptly even when you just got back from china at 3am )
Michele

 

[sparkyspost]

I used NTL for about 3 years, and they were fine, though I thought expensive for BB.
My friend has just changed/upgraded to BE which means that we will get upto 24Mb and as we are really close to the exchange (2 streets away) that is very close, and its something like 1.5Mb upload, compared to 256K with BT previously.
I think he pays 25quid a month for that. Their service support is in India. He didn't seem to have any problems setting it up, so he hasn't had to call them so we don't know if they will be another bulldog fiasco of overselling without the support.
I believe he also got the ADSL 2 wireless router modem all in one box for free with it. (You need ADSL2 for the higher speeds).

I think another thing to check is the get out clause, how much notice? whats the minimum period. Some are 12 months, but I think BE was 3, or two months notice or something.

A while ago there were some good dsl comparison sites like http://www.adslguide.org.uk - Don't know if they are still reliable or not.

A google search of dsl comparison returns this:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=dsl+comparison&meta=

Best of luck

Sparky