Broadband

[Mayhem 1]

Gentlemen:

I am now on a mission to find out which is the best broadband supplier.

So on that score, can you please tell me who you use and more importantly have you had any problems with them?

I will start I use AOL at the moment but........ it is starting to get really slow and the tech help is a joke!!!

Over to you guys for your suggestions, can we please be sensible with the replies guys as this is a genuine request for help and advice.

[Penfold42]

B.T. :sofa:

Only ever had them go down once in 3 yrs. :)

[Marc J]

I'm with Virgin Media and have never had a problem with them.

See http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/ for price comparison of what's available in your area.

[Mayhem 1]

Thanks for the quick answers chaps :beer1:

Anymore?

[Vectis]

I went from a £75-a-month 512K "managed" up-and-down-like-a-whores-drawers BT package to the Free-With-Your-Line-Rental TalkTalk package and am getting a rock-solid 2.5Meg connection (8 miles from the exchange via nasty overhead cables).

BT was always problematic. TalkTalk has been an absolute dream.

[Mayhem 1]

VV = :beer1:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Only ever had them go down once in 3 yrs. :)

There's soooo many things I could write....:sj:

[discomobiledj]

I'm with Sky and have Broadband Max which is £10 per month but have a steady 16meg download speed. Can't knock it.

[Cj_The_Dj]

im a another bt user :) lol

[Marc J]

B.T. :sofa:

Only ever had them go down once in 3 yrs. :)
There's soooo many things I could write....:sj:

Doesn't Tony's wife work for BT? :D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Doesn't Tony's wife work for BT? :D

Yep, hence the comment. ;)

[soundtracker]

Mines with Orange, used to be Freeserve, no problems at all, until this week when I got a letter telling me i've exceeded my fair usage allowance, which I don't really understand as I'm supposed to be on an unlimited deal!

[Marc J]

Mines with Orange, used to be Freeserve, no problems at all, until this week when I got a letter telling me i've exceeded my fair usage allowance, which I don't really understand as I'm supposed to be on an unlimited deal!

See http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/unlimited-broadband

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I use Virgin and Sky.

[soundtracker]

See http://fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/unlimited-broadband

Thanks for the linky Marc - job done!

[Jiggles]

Orange just now. But when my local exchange is fitted up O2 all the way. there CS is second to none! plus! if your an O2 customer 20 Meg for £7.50 :D

[Penfold42]

There's soooo many things I could write....:sj:
I know ....I know.

Doesn't Tony's wife work for BT? :D

Correct....:sj:

She knows all the numbers to press if we have problems........:)

[CRAZY K]

I went from a £75-a-month 512K "managed" up-and-down-like-a-whores-drawers BT package to the Free-With-Your-Line-Rental TalkTalk package and am getting a rock-solid 2.5Meg connection (8 miles from the exchange via nasty overhead cables).

BT was always problematic. TalkTalk has been an absolute dream.

Thats my experience as well.

Its a bit pricey in my area but I get 4.6 download speed ( just checked)
yee- ha !

and no problems in 3 years approx.

CRAZY K

[Steve the DJ]

Currently with PlusNet (http://www.plus.net/) (a subsidiary of BT), excellent customer service and a fairly solid 4MB (ish) connection.

I currently pay between £33 and £36 a month including broadband, line rental and unlimited calls to landlines 24/7.

I am seriously considering changing to Sky at the moment though, I have a voucher for a free Sky+ box and installation and the TV, Sky Talk (including line rental) and Sky Broadband Mid is coming in at £35.50 a month.

[nigelwright7557]

I use talktalks free broadband.

I pay £10-50 a month for the line rental and about £10 for free calls which comes with free broadband.
I think there is one package where yo upay about £7 a month for the broadband.

[Cheesey 1975]

Virgin for me as well

Not had a problem for while

[Sapphire Disco]

I'm Virgin but check out O2 I've heard it's the best value for money.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I'm Virgin but check out O2 I've heard it's the best value for money.

Unless you go back to Virgin's retention department and tell them you are going to 02 and they give you £20 off per month, free TV and free phone calls.:D

[djsteve10]

Currently use Orange, Got 8Mb broadband with free wireless router, As I have a mobile phone contract with them I get it for £10 a month which I don't think is bad at all.

[Tom]

I'm with Virgin. Payed for 4MB then a few months I got upgraded to 10MB for free. lol.

[Marc J]

Unless you go back to Virgin's retention department and tell them you are going to 02 and they give you £20 off per month, free TV and free phone calls.:D

I halved my Virgin bill that way :D

[CRAZY K]

I'm with Virgin. Payed for 4MB then a few months I got upgraded to 10MB for free. lol.

Out of interest Tom do you really get near to 10MB?

My computer man thinks this may be a con:D

I do a back test regularly with this---

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ (http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/)

CRAZY K

[Mission]

Been with Pipex for many years, £14.99 per month. Had the odd problem but on the whole OK for the price. Talk Talk not available here yet.

Use to be on Demon Internet when it was "Dial Up".

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Out of interest Tom do you really get near to 10MB?

My computer man thinks this may be a con:D

I do a back test regularly with this---

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ (http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/)

CRAZY K

Why would it be a con?

I get nearly 10Mb download with Virgin.

[rob1963]

I'm also with Virgin.

My monthly bill is around £55.

That's for cable tv with around 70 channels, phone line rental, phone calls & 2 mb broadband (which I find to be quite sufficient for my needs).

There was one occasion where my broadband was painfully slow for about a week, and another where I lost my service completely for about 5 days, but no problems other than that, so I'm generally happy with them.

[CRAZY K]

Why would it be a con?

I get nearly 10Mb download with Virgin.

Because certain users dont have the phone line connection quality to necessarily support that kind of speed.

Either because of quality of cable or distance from the main connection.

Possibly you live close to a main connection--I dont:eek:

Talk talk just increased mine from 0.9 to 4.5 even though their letter claimed it would be up to 8meg :( after increasing their special charge from £10 to £13 a month. 30 per cent increase:eek:

Im not specifically accusing Virgin here--talk talk qualify very well as you can see:)

CRAZY K

[rob1963]

Because certain users dont have the phone line connection quality to necessarily support that kind of speed.

Either because of quality of cable or distance from the main connection.

Possibly you live close to a main connection--I dont:eek:

Talk talk just increased mine from 0.9 to 4.5 even though their letter claimed it would be up to 8meg :( after increasing their special charge from £10 to £13 a month. 30 per cent increase:eek:

Im not specifically accusing Virgin here--talk talk qualify very well as you can see:)

CRAZY K

I find the speeds to actually be a little MORE than stated.

Just checked the download speed of my 2mb broadband at 2.056 :D

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Because certain users dont have the phone line connection quality to necessarily support that kind of speed.

Either because of quality of cable or distance from the main connection.

Possibly you live close to a main connection--I dont:eek:


No, I have cable broadband.

[discomobiledj]

Just done a speed check on mine which come back at 13512kbps (13.5mbps) and then had the following paragraph below:


Judging by your distance from this exchange, the maximum speed you are likely to achieve with standard ADSL is 6Mbps.

[Penfold42]

Am I the only one with B.T. :eek: :o

[CRAZY K]

Am I the only one with B.T. :eek: :o

Probably the only one in the UK
:Laugh: :Laugh: :Laugh: :Laugh: :Laugh: :Laugh: :Laugh:

Hang on your partner ( ex ) works there?


No, I have cable broadband.

Some of us cant have that:eek:

CRAZY K
Living in the sticks:(

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Some of us cant have that:eek:

CRAZY K
Living in the sticks:(

You got electricity yet? :p

[Marc J]

You got electricity yet? :p

You mean electrickery? :D

@00:50 :-

YouTube - Catweazle - The Beginning (Part II)

[CRAZY K]

You got electricity yet? :p

Should be here for the Olympics;)

CRAZY K

[Tom]

Instead of just relying one one website I thought I would give a few ago.

The first one was the link given and I got a download speed of 9288kbps and the upload speed of 467 kbps.

The next one I tested was this website (http://www.broadband-expert.co.uk/broadband/speedtest/). For download speed I got 9900 kbps and the upload speed was 470 kbps.

Another website was this one (http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/). The download speed was 9857 kbps and the upload speed was 470 kbps

And the last one was this website (http://www.speedtest.net/). To check your speed you need to click on London on the map of England. My download speed was 9978 kbps and my upload speed was 472 kbps.

Just thought I would share this. :)

[nigelwright7557]

You mean electrickery? :D

@00:50 :-

YouTube - Catweazle - The Beginning (Part II) (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3uhtkYQ3wNc)

I remember when that came out !

[Steve the DJ]

Instead of just relying one one website I thought I would give a few ago...

Interestingly all of the sites use the same application to measure your download and upload speeds called Ookla Speed Test by Ookla Net Metrics (http://www.ookla.com/).

[Creature]

i have been useing firenet ( http://www.firenet.co.uk/ ) for the last 5 years and cant rememeber the hlast time it went down

[DazzyD]

On landline-based broadband, I believe you can take the cover off your connection box and disconnect a wire to improve your broadband speeds (not sure if this is BT only). Something to do with a bell wire or something like that. I'll look it up and post better details.

I feel very deprived as I'm using 3 mobile broadband. I've just done a speedtest and it showed download speed as a whopping 252....










































Kilobytes per second! :eek:

I think it's time to get the landline back and go to something like O2 who can offer up to 20mb in my area.

Mind you, I did another test on a different site (which lets you choose which server you connect to) and I got it up to 534kbps. The most I've had (according to my ISP software) is 1.5mb but my package is supposed to up to 3.6mb. So I'm still way off that.