Broadband recommendations

[xoggoth]

Cheers for latest comments. Went with BT in the end, shall probably regret it. As BB says, lot of reductions initially.

PS Pretty easy so far. Just changed login and pwd on my existing router and all worked as normal.

[xoggoth]

Cheers for latest comments. Went with BT in the end, shall probably regret it. As BB says, lot of reductions initially.

[BolshieBastard]

No issues with my BT Infinity 2 (yet!) except the tulipe Home Hub 3.

I've done 3 speed tests via the BT speed test and LAN when no one else is on the (home) network. My speed is 56+mb from exchange to home \ modem and 53+mb from HH3 to LAN cabled lappie.

Yes, its an 18 month contract which I was wary of but the first 3 months is totally free and unlimited download. We've already downloaded nearly 30 gig(!) in 5 days. I used to get nervous under our other plan as we were regularly hitting 100 gig a month.

Everyone in the family can use BT's free wifi hotspots. Downloading pdf's of 5mb and above is a blink of an eye compared to waiting ages on 6mb adsl. I can now watch wirelessly, full screen youtube vid in 1080p without any stutter when 720 used to lag and stutter in small screen on adsl.

As I said, the kit is tulipe (separate modem and router) although to be fair not many manufacturers make a combined vdsl modem router. The service so far is very good.

[dmini]

My vote goes for Eclipse. UK based proper tech support answering the phones - worth everything. My phone decided to delete ALL my IMAP webmail a couple of weeks back, I phoned up, they diagnosed it from logs, and restored it in under 3 hours. Star service

[RockyBalboa]

PS On BT live chat, Vishnu said the BT HUB had 4 ethernet ports and Shiva said that I can continue using my existing router. Khali was not available for comment unfortunately. I always think ladies with 4 arms are more informed on these matters.

Are there any 'white trash only' ISPs?

[northernladuk]

Isn't sky buying O2's offering at the moment?

I have been with BT for many years and recently with the latest upgrade and I have to say I haven't had a problem with it at all. Does everything it is supposed to and price is reasonable. They have even rung me up once every so often and drop my rate, but as someone else pointed out, only to keep me in line with what they are offering new people.

Mate of mine pays for nearly everything possible for Sky TV so is going to go with Broadband with them so it is all lumped in thinking he may get preferential offers in the future by putting all his eggs in his basket. Makes sense in theory, not so sure the reality will pan out though.

[VectraMan]

I'm paying 9.50 pm for O2, have a decent service now 5-6MBPS I sorted out my router issues, but am thinking about Fibre, I can get it from BT or PlusNet (which is BT, I believe) but I really don't want to sign up for an 18 month contract, why are all Fibre contracts this long?

qh

That's what's always put me off fibre. Of course if I'd signed up 18 months ago...

It's BT's restriction, so it's not like any other ISP is going to be different.

[Contreras]

Problem with BT is it all seems wireless. We already have ethernet and I want to continue using that. Apart from most of our computers not having wireless, there is a big metal heating duct where the phone line enter the house and wireless is crap.

The BT Homehub has 3 x Ethernet + 1 x GigE LAN ports. They just market it as wifi because that's all your average consumer is interested in.

[quackhandle]

I'm paying 9.50 pm for O2, have a decent service now 5-6MBPS I sorted out my router issues, but am thinking about Fibre, I can get it from BT or PlusNet (which is BT, I believe) but I really don't want to sign up for an 18 month contract, why are all Fibre contracts this long?

qh

[xoggoth]

Cheers all. Was thinking of Sky as we have a Sky box and is probably some package. Any ideas on that?

No particular need for a static IP address. Problem with BT is it all seems wireless. We already have ethernet and I want to continue using that. Apart from most of our computers not having wireless, there is a big metal heating duct where the phone line enter the house and wireless is crap.

PS On BT live chat, Vishnu said the BT HUB had 4 ethernet ports and Shiva said that I can continue using my existing router. Khali was not available for comment unfortunately. I always think ladies with 4 arms are more informed on these matters.

[Contreras]

For some reason TalkTalk have bumped my monthly charge for broadband up by about five quid and would be nearly ten if not for some temporary "reduction". Talking to them on the phone is a nightmare, couldn't understand what the b_, I mean bloke, was saying half of the time.

Intending to switch, BT probably as my line rental is with them, but any other recommendations? I'm in a village with slow 7.5 Megathingies max.

Cheers

How much are you paying currently?

BT keep sending me offers as a "selected" customer but I bet you can get something similar by asking. The latest was broadband for £5.25/month fixed for 18 months if I committed to the £14/month tariff for telephone line for the same period. Oh, and unlimited access to their BT wifi hotspots which seemed like a nice touch.

I was ready to go for it until I discovered they don't do static IP address with residential broadband. Currently I'm with Eclipse at £15.50/mo for unlimited download.

[Apox21]

For some reason TalkTalk have bumped my monthly charge for broadband up by about five quid and would be nearly ten if not for some temporary "reduction". Talking to them on the phone is a nightmare, couldn't understand what the b_, I mean bloke, was saying half of the time.

Intending to switch, BT probably as my line rental is with them, but any other recommendations? I'm in a village with slow 7.5 Megathingies max.

Cheers

Before anyone recommends Virgin, dont do it. Up until last November everything was fantastic, I was paying for their lowest broadband - 10Mbps. Then they decided to do everyone a favour and put us all on superfast broadband, lowest broadband speed now 30Mbps, Virgin Media now massively oversubscribed in many many areas and unless it is 0600hrs the BBand speed is about 0.5Mbps! From Nov they told me it would be fixed 26 March we shall see!!!! Have only stayed with them because they eventually compensated me very well. 27 March I'm off to BT!

[BolshieBastard]

For some reason TalkTalk have bumped my monthly charge for broadband up by about five quid and would be nearly ten if not for some temporary "reduction". Talking to them on the phone is a nightmare, couldn't understand what the b_, I mean bloke, was saying half of the time.

Intending to switch, BT probably as my line rental is with them, but any other recommendations? I'm in a village with slow 7.5 Megathingies max.

Cheers

I've had my phone and BB with separate suppliers for years. The big problem is they shove any responsibility for any issues onto each other and you're left as pig in the middle.

Anyways, I decided as my local cabinet is now FTTC, Im migrating back to BT, telephone and all. However, it has been a littany of issues so far even if they have now been resolved!

First placed my order for phone and Infinity 2 in late Feb. In early March the phone line was switched over without issue but no info about Infinity 2. When I contacted BT they said the Inf 2 part of the order had got 'lost'!

No probs, they said, just re order via the net again which I did. lo and behold, when I next tracked my order, the Inf 2 was not tracable.

Phoned their 0800 number and after 30 minutes of waiting and being put through to the wrong departments, BT said the Inf 2 order couldnt be completed as I was waiting for my MAC so their system shows the order as pending but the web portal loses it!

So, my current ISP dragged their feet giving me a MAC and when I contacted BT they said it was invalid! back to ISP who said no, its valid, its BT's system that wont recognise it, you may have to line cease with extra charges.

Back to BT and got through to a lovely girl. Gave her my story and she said she'd have to build my order again. She did this, the MAc was accepted plus she gave me Inf 2 free for 3 months. I dont know if this is in recognition of the hassle I've had or if its a promo (the web site says reduced cost for 3 months to £20 so Im 60 quid up so far!)

[xoggoth]

For some reason TalkTalk have bumped my monthly charge for broadband up by about five quid and would be nearly ten if not for some temporary "reduction". Talking to them on the phone is a nightmare, couldn't understand what the b_, I mean bloke, was saying half of the time.

Intending to switch, BT probably as my line rental is with them, but any other recommendations? I'm in a village with slow 7.5 Megathingies max.

Cheers