Need a good Broadband provider.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 14 Jan 2009, 16:51

Just moving to a new place (no cable access) and have ditched Demon.

Any suggestions for a good fast+unlimited service for my bt line?

Have been looking at Be but perhaps there's a better deal out there.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Jan 2009, 18:47

Do you mean good to mean? -

1. Cheap
2. Quality
2. A compromise for both

Personally I'm not too concerned with contention ratios so went for the cheap as chips Tiscali. £20 a month for unlimited 8Mb + free local/national calls + line rental is such a good deal.

I've have phone problems twice (both sorted out very quickly) and my broadband has never gone down in 18 months. There contention ratios probably aren't the best and they do pattern shape between 6pm-11pm but for the price I can live with it.

I hear BT are very good and Sky too, they don't pattern shape either.

Do you only want Broadband or phone too? Do you have/are going to get Sky?

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 14 Jan 2009, 23:33

ADSL24.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 14 Jan 2009, 23:48

They look good but there so called uncapped plan looks more restrictive than Tiscali's, which is actually pretty fair.

There Uncapped plan simply says don't use P2P services between 6pm-11pm, otherwise it's fine. I've often forgotten and left it running after 6pm and have never been told off. I suspect I would if seriously started taking the piss.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 15 Jan 2009, 01:16

I'd go with o2, they're basically Be but cheaper.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 15 Jan 2009, 11:27

Tiscali are useless. I left them because of their terrible speeds. It was like using dialup.

Orange kicked me out for using too much bandwidth. I called them & asked how I could possibly be using too much. The woman on the end of the phone said that I'd used over 40GB for 2 months running. Its funny how they have "unlimited" usage, but actually cap that "unlimited" usage at 40GB.

ADSL24 I've never had a single problem with. 30GB peak, 300GB off peak, no restrictions on any ports, excellent customer service... I just can't fault them.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 13:08

IronMonkey wrote:Tiscali are useless. I left them because of their terrible speeds. It was like using dialup.

That's a slight exaggeration, putting it lightly. You get what you pay for though. For £20 all in you cannot expect the best.

IronMonkey wrote:Orange kicked me out for using too much bandwidth. I called them & asked how I could possibly be using too much. The woman on the end of the phone said that I'd used over 40GB for 2 months running. Its funny how they have "unlimited" usage, but actually cap that "unlimited" usage at 40GB.

Presumably their terms of conditions say there is a fair usage policy. I suspect there is no limit per se (unless you know better) but the fair usage policy kicked in for you and you went over it.

40Gb over 2 months is a mammoth amount. I'm not surprised they got funny. Fair enough it wasn't for you though, for that kind of bandwidth you need a specialist. I don't get anywhere near that.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 15 Jan 2009, 13:17

Good as in not premium expensive (ADSL2 24 megs) and uncapped.

A lot seems to be pointing to either o2 or Be - I literally prefer Be as I dislike mobile phone providers as a brand.

13.50 for uncapped 'upto 8' meg broadband from Be sounds ok...

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 15 Jan 2009, 13:21

bradavon wrote:That's a slight exaggeration, putting it lightly. You get what you pay for though. For £20 all in you cannot expect the best.

No its not, they are terrible. Take a look at their forums - loads of people fed up with poor service & slow speeds & leaving. For £20, I expect better than dial-up speeds. Which is exactly what I get with ADSL24 - consistantly good speeds - 7.6Mb on an 8Mb line, and I think I'm currently paying about £18 a month.

bradavon wrote:Presumably their terms of conditions say there is a fair usage policy. I suspect there is no limit per se (unless you know better) but the fair usage policy kicked in for you and you went over it.

Yes, but nowhere in that policy (or anywhere else on their site) did it say there was a 40GB limit to downloads. They claim to have an "unlimited" broadband service, when in reality they cap it at 40GB per month.

bradavon wrote:40Gb over 2 months is a mammoth amount. I'm not surprised they got funny. Fair enough it wasn't for you though, for that kind of bandwidth you need a specialist. I don't get anywhere near that.

No its not a mamoth amount. 40GB is nothing. I get 330GB of bandwidth each month with ADSL24. I regularly use about 60-70GB, through downloading lots of large files - XBox Live game demos, Linux distros, the latest Windows 7 betas, etc.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 13:57

No its not, they are terrible. Take a look at their forums - loads of people fed up with poor service & slow speeds & leaving.

None of that makes them dial-up speeds

. Dial-up is 56Kbps, even the slowest BB in the world easily beats that.

I've learnt to not pay "too much" attention to technical forums. I've yet to buy any electrical item that gets 100% positive reviews. They've worked fine for me (including my LG BH200).

Yes, but nowhere in that policy (or anywhere else on their site) did it say there was a 40GB limit to downloads. They claim to have an "unlimited" broadband service, when in reality they cap it at 40GB per month.

That isn't on, it sounds illegal.

No its not a mamoth amount.

I doubt the average user even reaches 1Gb.

Mine is probably 2-3Gb. I rarely download large files. I buy enough discs already, don't play computer games and prefer buying CDs. Porn is probably the biggest thing I download

.

luckystars · Post by **luckystars** » 15 Jan 2009, 14:37

bradavon wrote:Porn is probably the biggest thing I download .

Which in turn, makes your cock slightly bigger too...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 15:37

Really? It's not worked for me, maybe I've not downloaded enough. Any recommendations?

.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 15 Jan 2009, 16:44

bradavon wrote:None of that makes them dial-up speeds . Dial-up is 56Kbps, even the slowest BB in the world easily beats that.

Don't patronise me. I'm well aware of the dial-up speed standards. I said it was like using dialup.

bradavon wrote:Mine is probably 2-3Gb. I rarely download large files. I buy enough discs already, don't play computer games and prefer buying CDs. Porn is probably the biggest thing I download .

Well thats nice for you. Why don't you buy your porn too, & make your usage even lighter? I never said I was an average user, but I'm not a heavy user either.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 17:34

IronMonkey wrote:Don't patronise me. I'm well aware of the dial-up speed standards.

Pot, kettle, black.

IronMonkey wrote:I said it was like using dialup.

Except clearly it isn't.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 15 Jan 2009, 17:41

Except it clearly fucking was when I was using Tiscali. They are shit. They gave shit speeds that are like dial-up.

Fuck off you TWAT.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 18:50

From when, until when did you use Tiscali?

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 15 Jan 2009, 22:09

Tiscali are horrendous, I remember back when Lineone got swallowed up by them and within days my lineone email account was being swamped by spam e-mails, over 100 a day!

A friend of mine's parents have tiscalie "broadband" and their speeds really are just a tiny step above 56k. Tiscali told them it was their location, which is bullshit as they live up the road from me. I keep telling my m8 to nag his parents into doing something about it, but they have an irrational phobia of messing with their PC stuff!

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 15 Jan 2009, 22:15

bradavon wrote:I doubt the average user even reaches 1Gb.

God you are ignorant on this subject. Ever heard of streaming media or legal download sites? You know games consoles can access the internet now. WOW!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 Jan 2009, 23:58

Fair point about streaming media, I'll concede on that one but I doubt most people in the UK use that. Yes a bit proportion but not most. Most do the odd bit of browsing and e-mail.

Games Consoles I am ignorant about, so won't comment on.

Tiscali are horrendous, I remember back when Lineone got swallowed up by them and within days my lineone email account was being swamped by spam e-mails, over 100 a day!

Did you ever work out what caused it? I guess not. My Mum and Sister use Tiscali for there e-mail and have never received any spam.

I remember opting for Tiscali as TalkTalk were getting such bad press. At the time they were the only two offering £20 for broadband-telephone-line rental. I think they still are.

The thing to remember with Tiscali is, they're a cheap and big ISP. Neither will get you a perfect service. The simple fact with ISPs is, the smaller ones are usually better. Plsu what I'm paying for my broadband and telephone is what some people pay for their broadband alone (just about).

New postPosted: 15 Jan 2009 10:09 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
Tiscali are horrendous, I remember back when Lineone got swallowed up by them and within days my lineone email account was being swamped by spam e-mails, over 100 a day!

A friend of mine's parents have tiscalie "broadband" and their speeds really are just a tiny step above 56k.

Likewise the lowest I've ever connected at is 6.5Mb but average 7Mb of the 8Mb I could get up to.

But definitely if you're paying for broadband but get dial-up, definitely get rid.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 16 Jan 2009, 02:28

bradavon wrote:Did you ever work out what caused it? I guess not. My Mum and Sister use Tiscali for there e-mail and have never received any spam.

Nah, they weren't willing to phone up Tiscali and get it sorted.