What ISP do you use? (UK)

[hugh.jeego]

I'm using BT, and have been for many years, but they are far too expensive. I currently on 2mb but ppl who sign up at the moment get 6mb for the same price. If they dont upgrade me without making me sign a new 12month contract, im gonna change isp, because i have no reason to stay with them. Their customer service is poor and their prices are too high.

What isp do you use (in the UK)? Are they any good? Please rate them out of 5 for the following catagories...

Example

ISP: BT
Price: 2
Speed: 3
Reliability: 4
Cus Service: 2

Thanks

[wilkie2]

isp...NTL
price...4 (£17.49 for 10 meg after telling them im off)
speed 3/4 (sometimes it drops to 6/7meg)
reliability 3
cus service 4 (never had a problem with them and as i mentioned when i said im off they halved my bill)


different people will give totally different answers about NTL but im happy enough with them

[Colt Seevers]

ISP: Pipex Max
Price: 3
Speed: 1 (1 meg ADSL :( )
Reliability: 3
Cus Service: 1 (Piss poor)

I wanna switch to Be ISP (https://www.bethere.co.uk/) and give this ADSL2 a go, but i'm locked into a years contract with Pipex at the mo.. :ermm: Only another 5 (ish)months to go, then I will definatley be shopping around.:mellow:

[Aaron_T]

ISP: Tiscali
Price: 5
Speed 3 (when i actually get the speed i pay for)
Reliability 2
Cus Service 1 (guys from india who cant speak english and dont know anything about anything)

Terrible ISP, warning to all: do not go with tiscali you will regret it. :)

[Ratzy Rox]

I was with f2s which would have had 5's across the board but then they got taken over by pipex...

Price: 5
Speed: 2 - Pipex started bandwidth shaping so i can only download at around 100kb/s now (this used to be nearer 800kb/s)
Reliability: 3 - Ive started to notice the network dropping more often recently.
Cust Service: Look at this :P http://www.freedom2support.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5209

[TYPE R]

isp ntl
price 17.50
speed 4/5 10 meg
cant wait when they pull out 20meg hehe

[lephron]

I use Be (bethere.co.uk). It's advertised as 24meg, but I get 16meg, and I'm pretty happy with that! Couldn't recommend them enough!

If you do sign up with Be PM me and I'll give you a referral code, we'll both get a month free!

[mbucari1]

bellsouth dsl. sux cuz slow upload speed.

[feygan]

Im with the cable crowd on this one.

Isp:NTL/Virgin
Speed:4/5 10meg
Price:2 I'm still paying full whack for this one at the moment, I'm guessing you others guys were at the end of your contract when they halfed it for you?
Cus:2 But then to be honest I never expect much from a cus anymore.
Reliabilty:4 So far I had 2 interuptions (both less than 4 hours) and never any speed drops etc.

[popopot]

NTL/VirginMedia.

So far, so good. Got upgraded to the 10 Mbit/s service after threatening to leave and can't wait for the free upgrade to 20 Mbit/s. However, the upload speed is only going up to 754? Kbits/s, which is a bit pants. Never had any complaints about downloading or uploading too much. Very consistent service with the exceptional reboot of the modem.

Now is a great time to try and get a free upgrade because of their quarrel with Sky. I just told them I was getting Sky broadband and they through Mbits at me!

If I had a BT landline I would try Be.

[ttgd]

ISP: Tiscali


Terrible ISP, warning to all: do not go with tiscali you will regret it. :)

I agree

worst isp ever?

[lynx]

F2S, can't really fault them, no problems with packet shaping.

ISP f2s
Speed 4 (consistently around 800KB/s)
Price 23.99 for 50GB. 1 MONTH CONTRACT.
Reliability 5
Cust Service ? I've only has to contact them once, took about 2 minutes from picking up the phone.

I suspect the contracts that have packet shaping are the older ones that had unlimited bandwidth. Some got upgraded to 8Meg before they changed the contracts. If that's the case I'm glad I changed my contract.

Before being bought by Pipex they were promising 24Meg lines, but that idea seems to have been dropped now. Consequently as soon as Bethere get round to converting my exchange I'll be switching to them.

However, I've been looking at various ISPs on http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html and if you are a light(3GB) or medium(12GB) user then Newnet seem to have good packages.

Always look for short term contracts (1 or 3 months if possible, certainly no more than 6 months) but watch out for early cancellation charges.

[The Hitcher]

ISP: blueyonder/virgin media
speed:5/5: 10mb
price:4/5: £45 - includes phone line and cable tv
cus serv:3/5: some slight issues (like not refunding my money) but they are pretty good.
reliability:5/5: gone down 3 times in 4 years, cant grumble at that.

Overall i would give my isp 4/5 as stated no real issues over the 4 years i have been with them. I use usenet for my downloads and i always get full speed. I was paying £46 per month without cable access then one day BY called me and said they will save me £1 a month if i take the cable service. So i did.

I have worked for an adsl ISP in the past and i got to see how shit adsl CAN be, especially as its all going through BTs network. so i decided to stay away from adsl and stick with cable, one of the best decisions i have ever made.
:)

[will.atkins]

ISP: AOL
speed:3/5: 2mb
price:1/5: £25
cus serv:5/5: AOL cust. service is great.
reliability:5/5: never had a single problem