Best broadband?

Hi,

Just wondered what broadband you all used and which is the most reliable. I'm on AOL and it's a right pain in the bum as you all know, so if I was to swap, do you have any recommendations and prices?

Thank You

Jayne :)
 

asonda

Free Member
Jan 28, 2007
3,653
301
Cornwall
Since the dawn of broadband, I've only used Nildram, They consistantly get high speed ratings. There are no fair usage limitations, no bandwidth limitations it's all gravy.

I think for the lowest package it's capped to 30GIG!, so it's unlikely you'll reach that in one month.

Nildram all the way, Fast, Reliable, Customer support is fantastic, Get what you pay for, Reassuringly Expensive lol

http://www.nildram.net/

Multiple awards, they're just fantastic.

Jamie
 
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cjd

Business Member
  • Nov 23, 2005
    16,003
    3,435
    www.voipfone.co.uk
    Tedious I know, but BT are very good and in the end everybody is connected through them (except NTL).
     
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    Matt1959

    Free Member
    Sep 8, 2006
    6,325
    1,225
    been with Telewest (they've merged now with Virgin??) for years and found them great. Fantastic broadband helpline thats open 24/7 where you get a reply (british:D ) within a minute with good technical help. I'm not really a business consumer though.
     
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    KM-Tiger

    Free Member
    Aug 10, 2003
    10,346
    1
    2,893
    Bexley, Kent
    If cable is available in your area then your choice is either cable - NTL, Telewest, now re-branded Virgin, or ADSL via your BT phone line.

    There are an army of ADSL resellers, and a useful comparator here:-

    http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

    As cjd pointed out, ADSL is in the end a BT connection, but what happens beyond BT in the ISP's network is important to QOS, and they all vary in quality of customer service. This will matter if you need to raise a fault.

    Most importantly, if this is business, make sure you do not use your broadband service provider's facilities for email or web hosting. Make sure also that you only sign up for a monthly contract. That way you can change providers at the drop of a hat.

    All that said, I'd second Dawg's suggestion of Zen. Not cheap but you get what you pay for.
     
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    Since the dawn of broadband,....

    Nildram all the way, Fast, Reliable, Customer support is fantastic, Get what you pay for, Reassuringly Expensive lol

    http://www.nildram.net/

    Multiple awards, they're just fantastic.

    Jamie

    I remember registering my first domain name with Nildram for a customer back in errrrr 95ish so they are stayers.

    Currently I use Eclipse for business, good service, fast responses, good price.
     
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    Being with NTL myself for a few years, I would suggets not using them. Their DNS is appalling! Also customer service is disgraceful. There are many NTL horror stories going around and Ive had a few since ive been with them.

    That said, hopefully Virgin will shape them up, but I assume it will still be the same staff employed there so how much change can happen?

    NTL however, does have a good contention ratio and the fiber optic system is still superior to ADSL2. Apparently it is possible to get 54Mbs from the NTL lines without modifications, still they only sell you 10Mbs top at the moment.
     
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    KM-Tiger

    Free Member
    Aug 10, 2003
    10,346
    1
    2,893
    Bexley, Kent
    Kent Manufacturer:

    Could you explain why for a thick Dawg? (Esp. the email)
    To avoid single vendor lock in, which is never a good thing.

    No harm in forwarding business email to an ISP mailbox or relaying out via ISP smarthost, provided you are in a position to change that to a different ISP if you decide to move. So my setup is:-

    Register my own domains - 123reg, CentralNIC

    Host with Bytemark

    ADSL connections from Plusnet(business, until 12 month contract expires!) and Zen(home)

    So I'm free to change hosting or connection supplier at will. I don't use @plus.net or @zen.co.uk email addresses at all. Never even look in either mailbox, probably full of Spam!
     
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    We are limited as to who will actually service us, but I have been using AOL for 10 years and never had even a hint of a problem.
    What are all these problems that everyone keeps referring to?
    I have not even got an antivirus product on the PC i am typing on and I have never had any problems on it. They block any Spyware, popups, etc very well and I cannot complain.
    If anything, they get a little too carried away with the security, but I can keep an eye on this and sort it myself.

    BT are fine, but they just do not give the security they should and their support leaves a little to be desired.

    There are any number of smaller suppliers advertising like mad here at the moment (tiscali, etc) who I love, cos I gets loads of call outs to fix clogged PC's.
     
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    Telewest are pretty good. I use them at hope. One major difference between cable broadband abd ADSL based broadband (on a normal phone line) is that you are much more likely to get near to the advertised speed with cable. I think that some ADSL advertising is very misleading. On all 8Mb services you will never get this speed. The most that I have seen from an 8Mb service is 5Mb.

    You can test your own connection speed at http://www.speedtest.net/. There are lots of other sites but this is quite entertaining to watch.
     
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    We are limited as to who will actually service us, but I have been using AOL for 10 years and never had even a hint of a problem.
    What are all these problems that everyone keeps referring to?
    I have not even got an antivirus product on the PC i am typing on and I have never had any problems on it. They block any Spyware, popups, etc very well and I cannot complain.
    If anything, they get a little too carried away with the security, but I can keep an eye on this and sort it myself.

    BT are fine, but they just do not give the security they should and their support leaves a little to be desired.

    There are any number of smaller suppliers advertising like mad here at the moment (tiscali, etc) who I love, cos I gets loads of call outs to fix clogged PC's.


    Hi,

    Yesterday AOL was a pain in the bum for me, it must have switched on and off 30 time. It was that bad I couldn't log out of here yesterday. In the end I turned off my computer for fear of chucking it out of the window. Live help is rubbish too and every time they improve the home page, I loose half my buttons in my email box. Those are just a few off the top of my head....lol

    AOL is ok for home use, but it's annoying for business as it blocks half my emails from people. I may be needing a separate broadband connection for somewhere else not to change this anyway, I wanted a good business connection.

    Jayne
     
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    F

    falconinternetlimited

    Jayne,

    I did PM you before your subsequent post so I apologise, but will cover the points I made off with you here.

    You may find migration away from AOL painful if they have taken you off the main local looop to their own local loop. They have been known to do this in the past which makes it difficult to migrate away in a decent timescale or without cost.

    Falcon Internet Limited offers a broad range of connections suitable for Home and Business users, with different allowance levels, fixed Ip addresses (up to 8) as standard and with no 12 month contracts in sight.

    Our URL is http://www.falconnet.co.uk should you require further information or guidance.

    Rupert
     
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