Don't really know where a thread like this should go so I'll throw it in here and hope for the best. As the title says. Recommend me an ISP. I'm currently with BT and I'm sick to death of them. Download speed is awful. Sometimes I'll get 250KB/s and other times it drops to 40kb/s or just to nothing. Packet loss is horrendous to the point where, when tested, the packet loss test FAILS, I don't get a result of X% of packets are lost and swallowed by Internet gremlins but the test flat out fails. I can't play battlefield 3 (which was the entire point of building my sig rig) because I joined a game with a 21m/s ping or better and then anywhere from loading screen to 30+ minutes into playing I get dumped out saying my connection timed out. In short I want a better ISP, a hug, or to punch a BT Boss who is making a large salary while I grub along at sub dial up speed "broadband"
If available, Virgin's always been pretty reliable for me, although there's a few factors like line quality where you are, distance from the hub etc
BE, by far the best ADSL ISP out there. No throttling, no caps. Great ping! I've been with them for 4 years, up until about an hour ago when BT Infinity went live in my area. Unfortunately BE don't offer FTTC
As much as I hate them, I think few ISPs offer as good a broadband service as Virgin. I was downloading stuff yesterday evening and earlier this afternoon, and I was getting 2.2 MB/s consistently - pretty much as good as it gets with a 20Mb line.
If you've only got a BT line then try plusnet I have the pro and get a constant 6mg no slow downs at anytime and you get unlimited download between midnight and 8am
Moved from Be to Sky recently as I moved house and needed a new line but didn't want to pay for it as I would of had to with BE, have to say been very impressed with Sky, the router is great, speeds are good, no caps or throttling plus with 6 months free and quidco it's cost me nothing for the year, winner Downside is the gmail style email services, mails sent by me get appended woth sent on behalf of ???@sky.com which is annoying.
Problem with sky and TalkTalk is if you want to move to another ISP its going to cost you around £140 because both sky and TalkTalk own the line, Just something to think about
Not true, you can use Sky with your existing BT line. That said, since your packet loss is so high, it might be good to sign up with them for phone line too, in case that is the problem (since that will transfer you fully to Sky equipment) I'm with Sky and I get around a 10Mbps - but that is in central London. They've always been very reliable and the router is good as has been said above (its usually a modified Netgear model).
The problems are probably with your physical line and not necessarily with BT. With that in mind I would recommend Virgin cable (not the ADSL). Alternatively, you phone BT up and bitch at them about the service until they either fix it or let you out of your contract.
I have been with Sky now for nearly 5 years - Ive never had a problem with speeds despite living a high density area where I am assuming many others will be on the service so I can whole heartidly recommend them. As of a note, I am in the process of moving house with them and all has gone smoothly so far!
Thats Fast.co.coms issue. They person was probably on Sky equipment at the exchange, and so BT were charging him £140 to put in a new line. He is on BT equipment, and can continue using it if he does want to move to Sky.
o2. I left Virgin 3 years ago when my monthly bill increased slowly from £48 as agreed to more than £65 per month and then they started charging £1.50 per minute for tech calls and threatened to charge you if the fault wasn't theirs. Although they connection is fast, the speed throttling for torrent is not good. o2 way better.
I switched from Freeserve (Orange) to Zen about 6 year ago. It's not the cheapest by any means but it's been reliable with consistent speeds and no throttling. The few times there's been a problem, usually caused by BT 'fixing' things, their technical support has been superb. They also have FTTC enabled in some locations including here although I'm pretty happy with my current speed of around 10Mbps.
I would say BT but it may require a bit of patience....I was with them and was just about to leave when they rang and said that infinity was going live where i live (devon) they made it cheaper and its reliable and fast. all depends if thats coming to you or not so maybe worth checking out
I think something to bear in mind, if your connection issues are due to dodgy wiring and/or dodgy exchange etc. Then unless you can get an LLU connection with someone else, I would say that you'll have exactly the same problems, and it'll be even more of a nightmare to fix, as you'll get passed from whoever the ISP is, to BT, and back again. Use Samknows and find out what is supported on your exchange, post it up here and we'll be able to advise better. *edit* I see reggie has pretty much said what I've said, that'll teach me to not read the entire thread, .
