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The following page displays a list of all the broadband ISP reviews posted by leah (display name) to this system. Reviews can be edited by both the author and admins.
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ISP Reviews by leah

 Zen Internet (Broadband Fixed Line)
Posted: 04th Jun, 2016    By: leah
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Good internet is like good coffee.

Reasons I use zen:
* static IPs and decent latency/ping. I host servers
* IPv6 is available (when you ask them for it)
* decent overall service with high uptime, without much congestion (ideally none) during different times of day
* no censorship. they don't block sites/ports. they allow traffic to flow.
* a very freedom/privacy friendly AUP

Most ISPs are like your typical instant coffee. It's 60-70% purity, and they
don't care about you. They only want their money, and they make it as cheap
and shit as possible to cut costs and compete with others.

A&A is more like pure, squeezed coffee. It's 99.8% pure, and it's black. They
charge 10x as much, but you get what you pay for, and you get the best possible
customer service. They even give you the squeezer and all the tools, and help
you learn how to use them.

Zen is still almost pure. They're still very good, better than most, 2nd only
to a&a. Theirs is 96% pure. It's good enough for almost everyone, unless you're
a snob, and it's much cheaper to buy (while still being a bit more
expensive than everything else).

I drink coffee all day, while writing code and pushing
code to git repositories using my Zen internet connection, while chatting on
IRC. I host the website for one of my projects on a Zen VDSL line.

I was previously using a&a, which I still think is the best ISP. However, Zen
now provides IPv6 (if you ask for it) and always provided static IPs and subnets
like a&a. Their customer service is still decent, and they provide more or less
the same features, while also providing unlimited download usage and being a
bit cheaper.

One thing I have noticed is that Zen does sometimes drop in speed, but not by
much. This is one of the reasons why a&a costs more (they buy more lines and
aggressively weed out all congestion, when possible).

Overall, I'm happy with Zen. It's not the best, but it's reasonably priced
and better than almost everything else, now with IPv6 capability. I'm using
a router on it that I set up myself with libreCMC, instead of the router that
Zen provided.

I also switched the ISP at my parents house over to Zen, and they're happy with it.

The service that I use is "unlimited fibre 1" (40/10 VDSL). If you're in one of the few good areas of the UK, they also provide FTTP but I can't get that.

Time With Provider:
Package Name:
Value
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Speed
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Half Star
Support
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Services
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
 AAISP (Broadband Fixed Line)
Posted: 02nd Oct, 2017    By: leah
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
I've used a&a for many years, and they've never let me down.

I moved into a new place 6 months ago and decided to use a&a for my company. I use the Soho::1 2TiB service.

I started off with 65Mbps with 20ms latency... over time they made improvements and now I get 75Mbps with 10ms latency.

I asked for a /28 IPv4 address subnet after hours and got it within minutes. Same for setting rDNS on some IPs.

As of 1 October 2017, my maximum quota has also been doubled to 4TiB in a month; whatever I don't use is halved and added onto 2TiB next month. It's cumulative, and adds up to a maximum of 4TiB quota. They also did something similar on the Home::1 service. See:
http://www.aa.net.uk/news-2017-tariffs.html

Of course, as always, this quota only applies to downloading. Uploading is *unmetered*. You can upload as much as you want on a&a, so it's perfect for servers. I personally run several web/mail servers and other services on my a&a line.

Nothing beats AAISP.

I even get a text message alert when my line goes down. That rarely happens, though, and it's usually only for a few minutes.

I run my own GNU+Linux based router on my line, so that I can more easily set up a customized network. My LAN consists of public IPs, without a NAT. a&a provided me with the IPs that I needed for this!

My service is also uncensored so I can access whatever sites I want, and this ISP is dedicated to freedom. This includes resistance to spying. For instance, they use FireBrick routers in their datacenter. While these are proprietary (and I wouldn't recommend them to the public), a&a has the source code for them since the director of the company also runs the FireBrick company so unlike most ISPs, a&a also has more autonomy over their own network.
(of course, for anyone using a&a I would recommend using a GNU+Linux based router, or OpenBSD/FreeBSD)

Unlike most ISPs, a&a is not against running servers or custom routers.

But you want to know what REALLY makes a&a amazing?

IRC BASED TECHNICAL SUPPORT!
And PGP signed invoices sent via email every month.

a&a is pricy, don't get me wrong, but the service is TOP NOTCH. It simply cannot be beaten on quality. And honestly, it's not that expensive. It's worth every penny :)

If you're a home user and you don't need more than a single IPv4 address (a&a also provides IPv6 subnets by default), then you could use the cheaper Home::1 1TiB service. Personally though, I recommend the Soho::1 2TiB service, since on that one you can get IPv4 subnets.

Time With Provider:
Package Name:
Value
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Speed
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Support
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
Services
Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star Full Star
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