Broadband recommendations?

[Icey]

Hi,

After all your help with my laptop, which is totally fab, I now need some recommendations any of you may have for Broadband. I'm on Virgin dialup and the moment and it takes fooooorrrrrrever to download updates etc.

I know 'you pay for what you gets' but price is a big issue for me at the present time. All the big names are £14.99, are there any cheaper ones out there or should I close my eyes and pick a name?

Thanks
Icey

[El Salsero Gringo]

Some of the cheapest ones have a relatively low monthly traffic allowance; for instance, NTL's (cable) £9.99 per month for the first year special offer includes only 3GB monthly allowance. BT's £16.99 per month includes only 1GB.

You might want to consider paying a little more for an uncapped service; and/or consider the Blueyonder cable broadband from Telewest; uncapped 512k service for £14.99 monthly.

[azande]

I have Telewest cable and never had a problem with them.

[Will]

Bulldog 8-Meg is the fastest at the moment, though you can only get their 8-Meg service in certain areas, and their customer services is pants.

[Icey]

Tiscali are offering 1Mb Broadband, unlimited per month for £14.99, all the others seem to have limits.

Am I reading this right?

[DavidY]

Icey,

I know nothing about such things- but notice that a couple of times when this has been discussed before (eg. Internet provider recommendations and Beginner's Broadband) people have recommended http://www.adslguide.org as a place to look to compare broadband suppliers.

It all looks a bit technical though.

Edit: forgot to say - I use PlusNet and they seem to be OK. I believe (not sure) they have a uncapped service at 14.99 as well.

[Trousers]

you got a laptop does one assume from this it travels too? Do you need Internet access whilst travelling. I did and didn't want Hotels charging me for phone time so i wanted the free dial in service as well

The only ISP I could find that gave me a Free Dial up service as well as the Broadband was hate to say it but AOL - You dont want to know how much it costs either

But it needs to be considered

[azande]

AOL is worse than MS, I would not touch it with a 20' pole!

[El Salsero Gringo]

Originally Posted by azande

AOL is worse than MS, I would not touch it with a 20' pole!

But you have a Mac - I thought Mac users *loved* AOL because it's so simple to use....

[azande]

If it is simple and works, yes!

[Icey]

Originally Posted by Trousers

you got a laptop does one assume from this it travels too? Do you need Internet access whilst travelling. I did and didn't want Hotels charging me for phone time so i wanted the free dial in service as well

The only ISP I could find that gave me a Free Dial up service as well as the Broadband was hate to say it but AOL - You dont want to know how much it costs either

But it needs to be considered

There is possibility that the laptop could travel, but not too much at the moment.

Cost is the BIGGEST factor at the moment and I'm not too sure about this limited download thing.

The Tiscali one I mentioned below is unlimited - I did have to check this as their fair usage policy said otherwise. When I called them to check they were a little embarressed that it was out of date. Opps.

I'm not looking for heavy downloads such as games etc just swift update downloads and of course website surfing.

Am confused as I don't really know all that much about techie stuff like this Give me a tax return or a balance sheet and I'm sorted

[Dreadful Scathe]

When recently having a look - plusNet seems to be about the best (www.plus.net) personally i use telewest but that all depends on if your able to get cable, if so get telewest. If you need dial-up too, get an account set-up with freeuk.net i've used them for years no problem - you only pay if you use it and to keep it active use it once every 3 months (or just create another account).

Do not, under any circumstances, use AOL for anything, ever

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Icey

I'm not looking for heavy downloads such as games etc just swift update downloads and of course website surfing.

You may also want to listen to internet radio and watch news clips and the like you cant do much of this with a limited service. Any capped service restricts what you can do and is to be avoided. Also, don't pay extra for an ADSL modem or filters you can get an ADSL modem/4 port wireless router from ebuyer for £50, much less than a bog standard USB ADSL modem costs from any ISPs.

[DavidY]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

When recently having a look - plusNet seems to be about the best (www.plus.net) personally i use telewest but that all depends on if your able to get cable, if so get telewest. If you need dial-up too, get an account set-up with freeuk.net i've used them for years no problem - you only pay if you use it and to keep it active use it once every 3 months (or just create another account).

I think my PlusNet account includes a dial-up number as part of the Broadband package (if that's what you mean). Not checked whether the current Plusnet accounts do the same

[ChrisA]

I'm with PlusNet - changed to them a few months back and now have a 2Mb connection since my exchange has just been upgraded. Generally I've been very happy with them, and their customer service is the best I've seen - 24x7 local rate phone support (quite a wait, though, if you call at peak times) as well as a very good web portal where you can do most of the stuff you need to do.

They do "up to 2Mb" for £14.99, which means that you'll get it that fast if your exchange is up to it. Otherwise you'll get 512 Kb - but 15 quid isn't bad even for that. I pay a bit more (£21.99) since I need a static IP.

[ blatant advert ]

They also do a referral system, so an existing member gets 50p off their sub per month for each new member they recommend. So if anyone does intend to sign up, I'd be very grateful if you used me as a referrer - PM me and I'll send you my PlusNet user name which you have to quote when you sign up.

It costs you nothing, and then you have the potential to get money off if you recruit new members yourself.

[ /blatant advert ]

[CJ]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Do not, under any circumstances, use AOL for anything, ever

That's a trifle harsh, DS.

Their free CDs are GREAT coasters for use on the computer desk!!!!!!!!!!

[El Salsero Gringo]

I've been with Telewest for four years, and had only about two days with any significant downtime. This week I had a problem on Monday which they (incorrectly, in my opinion) diagnosed as a faulty cable-modem, so they replaced it the next day for free. I'm quite happy with their service.

[Tessalicious]

Originally Posted by Icey

Tiscali are offering 1Mb Broadband, unlimited per month for £14.99, all the others seem to have limits.

Am I reading this right?

Yes this is right, and I'm with Tiscali and have been pretty impressed with them in general - usually pretty good at helping out with any problems I have, which are usually problems with me not with the line .

1Mb should be fine for general purposes unless you've got several people trying to use a wireless network to do anything really bandwidth-intensive - otherwise I would recommend to go with this offer, especially with the unlimited download.

Agreed, dont' touch AOL. I wouldn't know anything about most of the others, but I wouldn't advise going with BT, if you were considering it, because they've had some problems with their service recently and take ages to get them fixed (no surprise there).

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by Icey

Tiscali are offering 1Mb Broadband, unlimited per month for £14.99, all the others seem to have limits.

Am I reading this right?

The PlusNet £14.99 package is unlimited too.

Although they give priority to web-browsing and email during peak periods... from their web site:

"With Broadband Plus you can use any type of Internet services you want. In order to ensure we deliver a high level of service, during busy periods we will give priority to services such as web browsing and email and a lower priority to high usage services such as downloading and file sharing.

Broadband Plus is based on a PlusNet network contention ratio of up to 50:1.

If you regularly file-share and download, take a look at Broadband Premier. With a PlusNet network providing up to 30:1 contention , Broadband Premier offers a premium service and is suitable for Internet enthusiasts and families."

Tiscali has a fair use prolicy, too - in practice it's unlikely that you'd fall foul of either of these limitations.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Its worth pointing out if you ARE in a telewest area that the £35 a month 2mb connection is being upped to 10mb for free wheeee I can practicaly taste the 1337 w4r3z.