Recommend me an ADSL supplier (or tell me which to avoid)

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smartbrabus

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Following a house move I find myself needing a new broadband connection. Since the previous occupants of my house seem not to have bothered cancelling their ADSL service, my phone line is still "tagged", preventing me from signing up with anyone until the "tag" is removed by BT Wholesale. This gives me 7-10 days to decide on which ADSL supplier to go with.

I would say I am a reasonably heavy downloader (>30Gb/month) so would be looking for an "unlimited" type service at as high speed as possible - apparently my line will support up to 7Mb due to its farily close proximity to the exchange.

I previously had Virgin (nee NTL) cable broadband for the last 5 or 6 years, which I was very happy with, and don't think suffered any downtime during the time I had it...ever! Unfortunately cable is not an option where I am now...

I have heard some good things about the reliability and flexibility of "entanet" resuppliers - eg. ADSL24, UKFSN - does anyone have any experience of these?

Another option is going with BT (homehub etc), but there seem to be varying opinions on the reliability of that too.

Any opinions gratefully received!

TIA.
 
I have only ever used BT and in general only have praise for them. I doubt many other ISPs will transfer you to a ADSL line engineer to discuss SNR on your line etc in person.
 
Switched from Orange to Be about a month ago, they allow around 100GB/month within there "unlimited" contracts.
https://www.bethere.co.uk/

(LMK if you decide on them - they have a referral scheme ;) )
 
I've been using PlusNet for a number of years, can't fault them, I'm on the 8MB service and get / report about 6MB.

(LMK if you decide to use PlusNet - as they also have a referral scheme :D )
 
I'm on Demon (8 Mbps unlimited); at £17.99 it's probably not the cheapest, but have had no problems. My line is currently only rated (by BT) for 1.5 Mbps ... I'm getting 1.8-1.9.
 
Be careful going with BT if you are a heavy user = they do manage your connection from about 4pm to 11.30pm if you have used a lot the previous month. No, they don't specify what a lot is either. (I am talking about option 3 here - the 'unlimited' option).

They manage port 80 as well - as in - your browsing is slow too IF you are a heavy user... i think >30gb would qualify in their book.

Plusnet (as bt and plusnet merged) are the same with managing lines...
 
I used to be with plusnet - Very slow (stationary at peak times), and apalling service. I mover to UKFSN, who have been wonderful - not the cheapest, but good, consistent service.
 
I'd say the following:
Not Eclipse. Owned by Kingston, who I'm with, and they're crap.
Not Bulldog - customer service from hell

Hearing good things about Be, and have had good relationship with Pipex. BT best at sorting problems with lines though, anyone else and it's a long escalation process...
 
I've been with Plusnet since I went over to broadband a couple of years ago. I'm pretty happy with the service, availability has been excellent, it's quick (although I can see the exchange from where I live ;)) and not very expensive, although I'm not a particularly heavy user. I think their performance does vary according to which product you choose though.

Cheers,

Gaz
 
I wouldn't use Tiscali again. I switched to Demon 8 Mbps unlimited, although I only get 1.8-1.9 (BT rated my line at 1.5). No problems so far (6 months).
 
I used to be with plusnet - Very slow (stationary at peak times), and apalling service. I mover to UKFSN, who have been wonderful - not the cheapest, but good, consistent service.

Well, I'm with the Plusnet basic package £14.95 month (2mb) and it runs at 3400 kps (speedtest.net results) even at peak times!
Being owned by the gate keepers themselves, BT, I think the speed has defiantly increased in recent times.It used to average 1800 kps.
When I did have a problem the BT engineer came around the following morning.

adam
 
I have been using Demon for the last 3 years an have had no issues at all.

I have used www.ispreview.co.uk in the past to review alternatives. I would avoid Orange and Tiscali based on the feedback I have got from family and friends.
 
adslguide is a good source - im with eclipse - the support is good - albeit a long (5 min) wait sometimes. ALL emails get responded to.

not the cheapest, not the fastest, but the most reliable.

My brother, who is head of IT development in a multinational IT company in WC1 (think F1.com, handbag.com etc) uses them at home, as does a good mate whos the IT director for the company sorting the NHS's instrument (scalpels etc) tracking system... (note - he doesnt work FOR the NHS :p )

if thats not a reccomendation - what is?
 
SKY, £10 a month up to 16mb connection ( I get about 12 ) unlimited downloads - and I use it1
 
SKY, £10 a month

Presumably that's on top of other Sky services though i.e. you can't just have a 16 Mb internet connection for £10.
 

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