ISP Help

[Steve1956]

At the moment I have Sky B/B it's not the best,or the cheapest,anyone got any advice on the best ISP ..I don't live in a Virgin Media area or I would get that as that is the best out there, anyone on here have plusnet? Cheers in advance guys.

[starting_11]

If you can get BT Infinity, i'd recommend that. Obviously they're not cheap but I use mine quite heavily - I'm getting 75 meg down 18 up and I'm about 300m from the cabinet and about 1km from the exchange.

Been on BT since about 2005 and never had any outages or problems that haven't been sorted quickly.

[gandhisflipflop]

At the moment I have Sky B/B it's not the best,or the cheapest,anyone got any advice on the best ISP ..I don't live in a Virgin Media area or I would get that as that is the best out there, anyone on here have plusnet? Cheers in advance guys.

Do not get virgin media. They look good but they have a lot of areas that are seriously over utilised. I got 150mg in the day and after 6 slowed right down to 5mps! I'm currently awaiting plusnet to install their service next week.

[ClaretTony]

Have to say I've had Virgin Media (previously under the name of ntl and before that Cable & Wireless) for almost 16 years and not had any real problem at all with it.

[Walton]

In my experience Virgin Media are incompetent liars with no regard for customer service. The ombudsman agrees with me.

[MiltonKeynesClaret93]

It's an interesting dilemma.

At my parent's house we had BT Infinity recently installed. Super quick and consistent speeds (that's for Infinity), but god help you if you have problems.
What should have been 2 weeks from order to installation took over 3 months.
I have Sky at my place now alongside TV and I've generally never had issues but when I have their customer services have been pretty decent.
Can't comment on Virgin. TalkTalk, don't bother.

[ClaretTony]

In my experience Virgin Media are incompetent liars with no regard for customer service. The ombudsman agrees with me.

Their customer service is appalling - the service is excellent.

[ten bellies]

I switched from TalkTalk a couple of years ago to BT. TalkTalk BB was slow and inconsistent and their customer service was rubbish. BT BB infinity is good although their customer service could be better, particularly when dealing with the scripted Indian call centre.

[DCWat]

Don't Virgin limit theirs during peak hours, whilst SKY is consistent? I'm on SKY Fibre and would only swap to BT but not really worth it because of the TV package. Never really had any issues with SKY.

[gandhisflipflop]

Their customer service is appalling - the service is excellent.

You think so Tony? Just because it works doesn't mean you are getting what you pay for. I don't know what package you are on but if you head over to http://www.speedtest.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; after 7pm and I am certain you will have appalling speeds, you just won't use it heavily enough to notice. I only noticed when I started streaming films and was trying to get to the bottom of the buffers. You expect a slower speed at peak times but 5mps form 20mps is plain ridiculous

Edit- I meant 200mb

[Croydon Claret]

Switched to Plusnet Fibre a few months ago as I had endless problems with EE

It's been great. Advertised as 38mbs and consistently get over 35mbs and never drops off (Getting 36.89 right now at peak time)

Plus it's cheap and they have UK call centres

Not had any issues so can't comment on level of support

[lovebeingaclaret]

I've had plus plusnet fibre for a few years now and would not dream of changing to anything else.

[starting_11]

Lovely Jubbly!

[gandhisflipflop]

Switched to Plusnet Fibre a few months ago as I had endless problems with EE

It's been great. Advertised as 38mbs and consistently get over 35mbs and never drops off (Getting 36.89 right now at peak time)

Plus it's cheap and they have UK call centres

Not had any issues so can't comment on level of support

Wow that's such a relief. I have them coming out next weds to install

[Steve1956]

Thanks for the help guys, let me know how you get on with plusnet Ghandi's fitflop, plusnet is looking favourite...

[gandhisflipflop]

Thanks for the help guys, let me know how you get on with plusnet Ghandi's fitflop, plusnet is looking favourite...

I will do mate. There are many variables that determine how good an isp is. Area is a big one. I'm in the padiham area but still fall under area 20 on virgin and know that that area is in the main heavily over subscribed, yet I've heard off people in Portsmouth and Southampton that don't have any issues at all with VM.

[gandhisflipflop]

Switched to Plusnet Fibre a few months ago as I had endless problems with EE

It's been great. Advertised as 38mbs and consistently get over 35mbs and never drops off (Getting 36.89 right now at peak time)

Plus it's cheap and they have UK call centres

Not had any issues so can't comment on level of support

Just a quick question can you remember how long it took for your broadband to be activated and working from when the engineer came? It says 5 to 7 working days on their website!

[starting_11]

Depends on when they hook it up.

Normally it'll be a day or two max.

[gandhisflipflop]

Got them coming next weds. So hopefully be ready by weekend.

[Croydon Claret]

Just a quick question can you remember how long it took for your broadband to be activated and working from when the engineer came? It says 5 to 7 working days on their website!

Couldn't really say as they hooked me up without needing an engineer. Maybe we have a better class of wires in London

They just sent me the new router and gave me a date 2 weeks in the future when it would all be active. As if by magic, on the day they advised, they sent me a text to say it was all ready. 10 minutes of setting up later and it worked

[JohnMac]

Sky Broadband Unlimited (12 months free).

We are now living in Padiham and get 28mbs and no issues with streaming and they switch it over remotely on the date you agree.

Will not be looking to change later in the year unless something changes dramatically.

[gandhisflipflop]

Sky Broadband Unlimited (12 months free).

We are now living in Padiham and get 28mbs and no issues with streaming and they switch it over remotely on the date you agree.

Will not be looking to change later in the year unless something changes dramatically.

If plusnet fails to deliver I will go with sky

[WestMidsClaret]

I've got bt infinity coming next week as i finally say goodbye to the whole sky circus! Hope it can handle be hammered at night!

[Rileybobs]

Hope it can handle be hammered at night!

What you use the internet for is your own business.

[aggi]

Virgin seem to be having some issues at the moment with "over utilisation" causing huge slowdowns in peak times. Not sure whether it's due to signing too many people up, the free speed upgrades, changing usage habits or what.

Personally I get full 150Mbps regardless of the time but I know other people half a dozen streets away suffering from slowdowns in peak hours so it seems a bit hit and miss.

[WestMidsClaret]

What you use the internet for is your own business.

Have you seen the new routers ooooh la la laaaaaaa!!

[claretdennis]

I'm changing to BT infinity from virgin, it was slowing down to around 5mbps at peak times, after many phone calls they've admitted that it won't get fixed till June and they've released me from my contract

[wilks_bfc]

Been looking at changing from Sky as recently invested in firestick/kodi and only getting 3.5 download which wasn't an issue for general use but noticeable when streaming.

The only provider that's showing fibre available is BT.
Have heard mixed reviews on them with the service/aftercare.

How have other users found them? Considering they want £60 installation fee I want to be sure it's worth it.

[FactualFrank]

In my experience Virgin Media are incompetent liars with no regard for customer service.

But that's the same with every telecommunications company in the UK. The bigger the company, the less they give a toss about their customers.

[djt2006]

Been with Plusnet for six years. I can't vouch for their customer service because I've never had to call them.

[Steve1956]

I will do mate. There are many variables that determine how good an isp is. Area is a big one. I'm in the padiham area but still fall under area 20 on virgin and know that that area is in the main heavily over subscribed, yet I've heard off people in Portsmouth and Southampton that don't have any issues at all with VM.

How did plusnet go GFF?

[Sutton-Claret]

In my village we have no mains gas and no mobile phone signal. However we do have superfast fibre optic. I have BT infinity and it's the goolies. I know I could probably get it cheaper elsewhere but I don't want to upset the apple cart. Never had to shout at them in 4 years.

[gandhisflipflop]

How did plusnet go GFF?

I finally got it activated on Monday and it's been excellent. Fast stable connection even at peak times