[Serious] UK Broadband ISPs

[bushmobile]

I'm thinking of changing... Any recommendations? Any horror stories?

[Louix]

NTL Broadband
We had loads of trouble switching to them
It was worth it though!

[bushmobile]

yeah, i've had plenty of problems with NTL in the past for other services.

[si_the_geek]

I'm with the 'other half' of the same company, and have had problems with their other services in the past - but the broadband has been fantastic so far (except for occasional outages, typically a 6-8 hour period every few months).

In terms of actual speed versus what is advertised, nobody can come close to cable - mine is at most 2% under, whereas non-cable is often about 60% under (depending on time of day, etc).

[thegreatone]

Telewest.

Advertised speeds none stop Of course, if you don't live in a telewest area then don't bother, if you live in an ntl area, don't bother. They've had really bad problems with the DNS servers and UBR's recently.

As for ADSL, i have no idea.

[Louix]

NTL merged with Telewest

[thegreatone]

I know this, there are also three main platforms of the network 2 main types of network, 3 main billing systems, and so on...

Just syaing, NTL area: Don't bother, Telewest area: do bother.
Ntl's network is dead. TW's network is in tip-top condition. And to verify this fact, they are keeping Telewest network engineers on, and laying off ntl engineers

[Louix]

I'd think they'd be using the same network
But I was wrong

[mendhak]

I was recommended NTL by VBFers and it's been great for me. I got 2MBps cable and I still paid more.

[thegreatone]

You havn't had any problems? DNS issues? sites not resolving? Slow gaming (if you do any) bad connection today?

[Louix]

I haven't

[mendhak]

You havn't had any problems? DNS issues? sites not resolving? Slow gaming (if you do any) bad connection today?

None. I have the feeling though, that I'm the only cable customer here. I think there are a lot of people here with them 'lives' things.

[thegreatone]

I'm a Telewest Blueyonder customer, 4mb.
Louix is an NTL customer. That's all i know about members here.

Odd though, alot of members were reporting bad problems earlier today, must have only been in Nottingham then, they've got it fixed mind

[Valleysboy1978]

Don't get cable so broadband is the only thing available. Talk Talk is supposed to be pretty cheap

[wossname]

NTL are a bunch of cretins. Their engineers are rejects from Dumb Academy.

However ProdigyNet are a great ISP, download speeds are fast and the coverage is good, but you have to supply your own hardware, but who cares, the default routers that ISP's give out are a pile of crrap anyway.

[disruptivehair]

We've been using pipex for years. Their tech support sucks but it's hardly ever an issue. We used BT for a while...of course they suck, but they suck at everything so it's hardly surprising.

[thegreatone]

Don't get cable so broadband is the only thing available. Talk Talk is supposed to be pretty cheap

English?

Also, i wouldn't bother with TalkTalk, everyone i know has had bad times with them, along with Tiscali

[Louix]

I was recommended NTL by VBFers and it's been great for me. I got 2MBps cable and I still paid more.

I think allot of people should take offence to that

[venerable bede]

I have just signed up for Virgin.

For £15.00 a month I get 300 free minutes talk time on my mobile + 200 free texts + free broadband which is 6 Meg in my area. The only downside is that there's a ceiling of 6 Gig.

Previously I was paying £23.00 for broadband alone and it was a lot slower.

[bushmobile]

Cheers for the responses guys

- can't get telewest so that's out of the equation.
- regarding NTL, it's not so much once bitten / twice shy, as once bitten really hard in the crotch / forever shy

- hardware ain't necessary, so i'll shall definitely check out prodigynet - no 12 month contract and no cancellation fee are a definite plus.
- the virgin one sounds like a good deal - how'd you manage to wangle that? I couldn't see it on the website.

lastly - has any one heard of Eclipse before? any opinions...?

[zaza]

I'm on BT - 8Mbps for £17.99. Runs at about 5.5Mbps. Never had any trouble.

[Valleysboy1978]

On BT too and not had any trouble with them