Is there a single provider out there that can keep their service up 99% of the time, doesn't cost an absolute fortune and can provide a stable connection for gaming?! I'm yet to find one personally. I live in a rather large town just outside Wigan in the North-West and while I'm rather lucky that I only ever get a bad connection to Battlefield 3 and a few other games, my friends who are only a mile away can't do anything on the internet until 9pm and even then its only truly stable at around 11pm. I'll use two of my friends as an example, they're on Virgin's 60mb package and I'm on their 30mb. I get a solid connection in everything (bar BF3 which is unplayable on any sever with any ping) while their average ping when I ping them has been over 3000 on more than one occasion. These friends and myself have both looked in forums, on comparison sites and anywhere else you can think of and all the reviews are the same. "X provider sucks for gaming! I lag all the time on wired Ethernet" (Yes me and my friends are all on wired). Is there anyone on here that's found a little gem of a provider/package that will offer a stable, low ping gaming connection and decent download rates?
I'd like to know this too, O2 has been pretty darn good but have been sold to Sky so not sure what will happen.
When I was on ADSL, I was with BE Broadband, as they're gaming-oriented with their lines. Now I'm on cable, it's Virgin Media's 120mbit/sec line, which I have not had one single problem with, again.
I will say this for gamers you get what you pay for with ISP's. I was with Zen and Fast on ADSL for years and I never ever once had a ping or latency issue. However they are very pricey and you have to pay for line rental. I am currently with Virgin and they are very hit and miss. Over-subscription is rife and it sounds like your area is no different. Log a complaint on the virgin forum they will usually tell you if there is any work planned. Also try thinkbroadbands quality monitor. It will show you when the latency on your connection crops up. useful when you are trying to prove there is a issue with your line. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping
I have the PlusNet pro unlimited never had a moments problem the speed is a constant 12mg and a ping of 10ms at all times
I use bog standard EE Unlimited broadband... Costs me £8 a month as I have an Orange/EE phone contract for £25. I get a 24MBps and have never once had the slightest bit of connection down time in the last 5 months. The router they supply does the job brilliantly and is easy to use. I honestly cannot sing their praises highly enough.
+1 for VM for stability. my line was getting very very flaky but my modem was dying so I upgraded to 60mb and not had a single problem since. However, their traffic management mean that regardless of what package you're on you can not download a modern game in an evening as you'll trip the cap and the way they reduce your speed basically hobbles the connection completely. You can download as much as you like after 10 but if like me you can't leave your computer on at night and you work during the day and don't like wasting electricity it can take a few days to get a 10+gb game downloaded.
Why do people who have a pleasant experience with providers never visit all these review sites I see?!
As people have said, you get what you pay for. The higher you go, the less the cap engages. At 120mbit/sec there isn't one. I download stuff all day, every day and not once in the year I've been with them have I had a text, phone call, email or letter. Because I don't have time fo dat!
I'd say be there in the uk I was with aol and bt after that befor and both blamed my line for the constant dcs. But with bethere my problems have disappeared completely 100% uptime currently connected for 3months 12days 13hrs at 16mb/2mb paying a rather small £18 a month. Been with them since they created the company and I was looking for another ISP at the time.
Aye, my experiences of O2 broadband have been excellent; my experiences of Sky have been... abysmal. Was not a happy bunny when I saw O2 had sold it's phone/broadband setup to Sky...
'Fraid not bud, they've just moved the goal posts (again) http://help.virginmedia.com/system/...&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable You'll struggle to hit it unless you're dl a game but its still there. I only use it as a modem, I couldn't be bothered to rewire the whole network around this likely rubbish router.
Can't recommend this enough - I just run their 'router' in bridge mode and connect through my D-Link - everything seems peachy. The only downside to VM is that their DNS servers are a bit flakey - sometimes have issues with that, but never for gaming.
Both owned by Sky now. Caveat: I work for Sky. Attempt to be non biased: It sounds like your friends need to get ADSL because clearly Virgins cable hardware in that street is faulty. Sky have truly unlimited downloads (no, really), but of course, the speed you get will depend on where you are in relation to your local exchange. The new Sky Modems are excellent, and in the last 3 years I've had just 1 problem (the day BF3 was released, couldn't access any IP6 content). I get around 8mbps, which isn't great for downloading massive 30GB games, but ping is about 30-40ms - which is perfect for gaming!
Virgin media has been great for me, I do live in one of the worst parts in my town tho so it's probably because not many other people have/can afford it in my area lol +1 on the dns servers I tend to use Google or bt dns and it's improved my connection tremendously!
I can only echo Parges comments in that I have never had an issue with sky. Not a dropped connection and having been through a house move with them the swap over was flawless. Unlimited download, 20mb connection with a ping of 20-40 in most games. Living in a small town in the Midlands. I don't work for sky