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Suggest an ISP for me given the criteria below...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Unregistered007
  • Start date Start date

Unregistered007

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I would ideally like to be able to download around:

- would like secure wireless whose connection and bandwidth speed is consistent,
- 10-30GB per month without being capped or hit by a fair use policy or something,
- 8MBps or above (and actually get a download speed somewhere around the rate I'm supposed to be paying for).

Which ISP should I go with?
 
Personally, I'd recommend Be (www.bethere.co.uk). In my experience they deliver on your first 2 points.

Your third point is a little more difficult as it is largely dependent on the distance from the telephone exchange to your house, but with Be you would have 2 choices -

Value package is up-to-8mbps at £14, or if you want a bit more speed their Unlimited package is up-to-24mbps at £18/month - even if you only get, say 8mb in actual speed, you aren't paying significantly more than for an up-to-8mb connection (and if you're only getting 10mb it means you are a long way from the exchange and an 8mbps connection wouldn't deliver anythingm like 8mbps).

I am on the unlimited package, and I get a pretty much constant 14mb download speed - whether I test at peak time or in the middle of the night. I know others get faster speeds, but they are probably loser to the exchange. I don't know exactly how much I download, but it varies wildly, and some months I will confortably exceed 30GB, other I will get nowhere near it.

I have not been hammered/threatened/throttled/etc by Be in any way - I've been with them since June.

If you can get Be, I would recommend them (depending on how far from the exchange you are).

Another to try would be an Entanet reseller (there are several about, and you should be able to find one easily with Google).

UKFSN (its the only one I can think of off the top of my head) offer an 8mbps 330Gb download (30Gb at peak times, 300 off-peak) for £20 (http://www.ukfsn.org/home/internet/adsl/maxallowance.html), and pretty much all Entanet resellers will offer something similar.

I know Enta have a good reputation, but have heard complaints about slow speeds at peak times, but then I've also heard they have more bandwidth coming soon to solve this.

Personally, I wouldn't touch some ISps, such as Fast4, Tiscali (particularly Tiscali), BT, Virgin ADSL or Pipex as I've seen too many complaints about them.

Andy
 
Your choices are limited if you want above 8mb. UKonline, Sky Max and Be Unlimited offer above 8mb, if they are available at your exchange.

Enter your details here to check.

If speed isnt that important, then (I hate to say it) AOL seems to fit your requirements. They offer "up to 8mb", 40GB usage and a free wireless router. As long as you stay below 40GB a month, then you shouldn't have any "fair use policy" problems. The contract is a little lengthy though.

Whoever you choose, the speed you get will depend on how far you are from the telephone exchange and the quality of your phone line.
 
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I'd take a look at Aquiss (+other Entanet resellers like UKFSN, TitanADSL etc.), Zen Internet, IDNet and Fast.co.uk too because they're among the best in terms of quality.
 
Isp

I would recommend fast.co.uk. Have just migrated from BT Business Broadband, and fast service is absolutely outstanding.
 
1. would like secure wireless whose connection and bandwidth speed is consistent

2. 10-30GB per month without being capped or hit by a fair use policy or something

3. 8MBps or above (and actually get a download speed somewhere around the rate I'm supposed to be paying for).

1. Your wireless connection will be effectively secure (enough) if you use WPA encryption. Your wireless connection speed should be constant though will depend on your distance/obstructions between you and the router.

2. Not much to add to what others have said. I'm with UKFSN (an Enta reseller) though other resellers like ADSL24 are popular. You should get full speeds at peak times, and generally a minimum of 2Mb/s during the peaks and troughs of off-peak (when everybody starts their downloads) - in my experience you really don't tend to notice contention much unless you're trying to download the whole Internet. Anyway it's a bargain at £19.99/month compared to other BT suppliers.

3. As Agrajag has pointed out the speed on your connection will fundamentally be determined by technical limitations of ADSL rather than the ISP on the whole (I hope you haven't been watching the Gadget Show - that really muddied the waters). You aren't paying for 8Mb/s but for up-to 8Mb/s and ADSL is a contended service - the bandwidth is shared with your peers and in a worse case scenario you may see your speeds slow when everybody else is downloading at the same time ...

:hrmph:
 
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