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If price was the lowest priority for choosing an isp

I am a frustrated ISP user.

I pay about £15 a month for Orage broadband it is supposedly 2mb/s but at peak times it goes slow as I think I am sharing bandwidth with other users.

I would hapily pay £60+ a month for a faster service with no downtime as I am a heavy user.

What I want to clarify is this, If I change my gas supplier from British Gas to Npower, I still get the same gas but I get a different price and a different level of customer service. (they can't actually differentiate on the product)

Is this the same for home broadband? Is there any providers who can differentiate the actual product or am I limited because I have the same phone line and exchange whoever I choose? And also is there any way of paying more so I don't have to share bandwidth with as many users?

Thanks,
Dan
 
It certainly does make a difference who you sign up with. If you normally get 2mb, but experience slow speed during peak times, then that is (almost certainly) Orange's fault.

Broadband is different from Gas and Electric services in that, although the line to the telephone exchange is the same, what happens after your line reaches the exchange, depends entirely on your supplier.

You do indeed share bandwidth with other users, the amount of users however depends on the supplier. Some suppliers cram many more users onto a segment than others, which is why some ISPs suffer from very slow speeds during busy periods and others not so much.

All providers suffer from congestion to some degree, some a lot more than others.
 
All providers suffer from congestion to some degree, some a lot more than others.


Agreed with all of your comments except the last one, I am with IDNet, been there for over a year, never, ever experienced any congestion whatsoever, but they ain't the cheapest around, simply the best for my needs.
 
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Perhaps we should clarify what is meant by
I would hapily pay £60+ a month for a faster service with no downtime as I am a heavy user.
If it's just the peak time slowdowns that are bugging you, and "faster service" simply means "getting the best out of my 2Mb line" then, yes, as others have said, as you are obviously willing to pay a realistic price, switching to a decent ISP should largely solve that. Your actual maximum will be limited by your distance from the exchange but, for example, I also have a 2Mb line, I am very close to the exchange, and I get about 1.8 to 1.95 Mb speeds pretty well all day every day with Namesco.

If, however, you're on a 2Mb service because that's all your line will take, and "faster service" means "more than 2Mb" then you would need to investigating what's available in your area on cable or LLU rather than another ISP who still use the BT-based system.

Also, one person's idea of "heavy user" is different to another's. Again, using myself as an example, the package I'm on is a now discontinued one which allows me 5GB per month for my £14.95, after which it's about £1 per GB extra - can't remember the exact price for the excess as I've never needed it. In practice, I rarely exceed 2GB, never 3GB, so, to me, my friend who gets through around 12GB per month is a "heavy user"...
but I am sure there are a *lot* of people on this forum who would say "12GB - heavy? You must be joking - that's peanuts!"

Most ISPs price things according to the monthly data amount (even with your speed limited to 2Mb, which reduces the total data transfer that would be possible if you really hammered it when compared with an 8Mb line, I'd be wary of anyone who claims to be "unlimited" at anything much less than your own "£60+" figure), different ISPs offer different packages, and you would need to look at what's on offer from the better ISPs in the context of your personal need.

(Edit)
E.g., purely hypothetical, not based on any particular ISP's offerings or real prices, but if, for argument's sake, "heavy" = £50GB per month, then you are likely to do better with someone who offers you a 60GB limit for £40 than with someone who claims to offer you "unlimited" for £35.
 
Last edited:
Thank for the replies.

sentup - to clarify I guess in terms of Gb I am not the biggest user (maybe 10Gb permonth) What I am though is always online and require a really stable connection for playing online games.

I also don't want to be sharing bandwidth. I'll check out the suggestions above and maybe migrate to a new provider.

One more question though - will I be able to get new provider withoout experiencing any downtime and if not how am I likely to be down for?
 
My last change of ISP was when I moved home, so a completely new order, but the only time that I changed ISP on the same line, it was only down for about ten minutes.
That was as a normal "Migration", not a "Cease and reprovide" (which can be a right pain) and I'm no expert on the migration process, but the ever-useful Kitz's site suggests that if the switch takes place during the day rather than at the dead of night, about half an hour is more normal.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/migration.htm

At around 10GB a month, you should be able to get a decent package for well under the ballpark £60+ figure, but I note that you "require a really stable connection for playing online games."

I'm not a gamer myself, but if knowledgeable members who are would like to chip in, I'd listen to them - a fast line speed and a stable connection are two different things, and from what little I've read about the gaming side of things, I gather that actual speed is not the most important factor.
 
I gather that actual speed is not the most important factor.
And, just as an example, catching up with the news, I find something on this very site, which is largely double-dutch to me but probably means something to you, as a gamer!

From a news item a couple of days ago re gaming packages from Aquiss (an Entanet reseller) which may be of interest...
The packages which include the usual "1" month minimum contract and service elements such as email, personal webspace and usenet also have the added advantage of direct peering with most of the main UK and European gaming network, giving the ideal connectivity solution for UK clan players and owners.

Besides excellent network connectivity, Aquiss gives its customers full control over the Interleaving process, where typically, a reduction of ping times up to 50% lower can be seen, and then combines this with an Anti Loss system that ensures that the network, which is monitored, has superb low network latency.

If I were a gamer using around 10GB a month and looking for something decent instead of expecting the moon on a stick for sixpence, I suspect that their "Gaming 30" offering at £24.99 would be on my list of possibles.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?id=EEAAZEEyAELWjMRmHy
 
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Thank for the replies.

sentup - to clarify I guess in terms of Gb I am not the biggest user (maybe 10Gb permonth) What I am though is always online and require a really stable connection for playing online games.

I also don't want to be sharing bandwidth. I'll check out the suggestions above and maybe migrate to a new provider.

One more question though - will I be able to get new provider withoout experiencing any downtime and if not how am I likely to be down for?


No downtime at all when I moved from Plusnet to IDNet.

No contention at IDNet, 100% stable line over the last 14 months since I moved. 0800 freephone support number that is answered quickly by a competent individual in the UK.

One month contract.;)
 
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