Pipex or BT broadband

[heretic]

I am about to bite the plastic and go broadband as our local exchange has just been enabled. Due to distance I can only get 512kbs. Bt is £29.99/mth and Pipex £23.44/mth. I would appreciate any pro/adverse comments on either or both.

many thanks

[Unwell_Raptor]

Excellent service from Pipex for over 18 months now.

Recommended.

[PPRuNe Pop]

I use Pipex and I have nothing but good to say about them.

I have never lost a minute while using their service for over a year now. If you call them, they are there. Never had to wait or push stars hashkeys and digits. ....and I ALWAYS connect at 576kbps every time!

BT is not a patch on them, believe me.

PPP

[expedite_climb]

Me too, no probs with pipex at all for last 20 months.

[Tartan Giant]

PIPEX wins hands down.

Don't even think of BT........... they robbed us blind for decades and they are still crap.

I'm with PIPEX and as the 3 chaps before me said, PIPEX, and no snags or problems and FAST every time...... 576.

Cheers

TG


PS: You will never go back to dial-up.

[fobotcso]

Err... Hmm.. I'm with BT Openworld; My favourite client is with Pipex and, apart from one admin crisis early in his relationship with them, he is quite happy and I believe him.

So, I'd have to agree with the folks above; Pipex would be my alternative choice. But do look at the small print and see what you are or are not getting in the deal. The BT Openworld Spam filter is worth its weight in Gold. And the copper wires between your pad and the exchange belong to BT. So in a conflict situation which would be the first to go?

So, what's the catch and what are you going to save with the cheaper deal? Well, I don't know but I do know that I hate "Yahoo" with a passion and BT have just got into bed with "Yahoo". So the corollary is: "What the Hell am I still doing with BT?"

I dunno! Put simply, I didn't have to change my e-mail addresses and I'm basically bone idle.

[spekesoftly]

Does changing ISP necessarily mean a change of e-mail address? I don't think so.

Right, so that just leaves ............... ;)

[digidave]

I've been with Pipex since December. No problems at all.:ok:

And as has been said above, you'll never go back to dial-up.
dd

[P.Pilcher]

Well, I've been with plusnet since our exchange was enabled in November and I have no complaints either. Similar prices to Pipex.
In my opinion, BT always seem to charge more for any service that they provide, relying on their name to persuade us punters to use them. I pay them an arm and a leg to hire my telephone line and I had to pay another one to enable ASDL but the competition seems to be able to provide everything else more cheaply - it's always been the same!

P.P.

[Saab Dastard]

P.Pilcher,

I pay them an arm and a leg to hire my telephone line and I had to pay another one to enable ASDL

You must be completely 'armless then, not to speak of legless :)

SD

[P.Pilcher]

You may be nearer the truth than you think!

Remember that huge excercise with PRESTEL when you had to pay per view of a page? Then, because so few of us used it they had to shut down many of the computers providing the info. We would call them "servers" today.

P.P.

[DeepC]

Initial problems with Modem supplied by Pipex (Silver version of the Speedtouch 330) sorted when they swapped it for the older bordeaux version of the same modem with older drivers. Connect 576 all the time. Brilliant.

Can't fault there helpline too much either and when you doorstep them and demand a new modem they seem helpful enough!

DeepC

[Wing Commander Fowler]

I'm still looking for the most appropriate broadband supplier either 3x 5x or full. Being in rented accomodation and not knowing how long before I move house again I'm trying to minimise or avoid the relocation charge they all want.....

:(

[ORAC]

I'm with Metronet (http://www.metronet.co.uk/adsl/paygo) PAYGoDSL. The cost for a 512k link starts at £10 and goes up to a maximum of £23.99 depending on how you download in a month.

You have to buy your own modem, but the advantages are you get multiple static IP addresses, no speed throttling and a free back up 0845 dial-up account which you can use away from home. They also only have a 3 month contract period as opposed to a year, so you change or cancel at reasonably short notice.

[gonadz]

Has to be Pipex every time...

[Tosh McCaber]

I think that you should have the message by now, heretic.

No contest.

[RobAnt]

BT is expensive when compared to other ADSL solutions out there. My favourite of the two would be Pipex, but also look at Demon.

Remember that BT don't provide any free POP3 email account with their standard product anymore. That costs an extra toe.

Even Talk21 is webmail only unless you cough up now. (Talk21 is BTs public (ie any ISP) email service).

[heretic]

Thanks to all for your help, as you say Pipex seems favorite and I have just ordered from them. Will probably be back shortly for help to get it to work!!

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Hi Orac - have checked out the metronet site and it looks interesting enough. Of course the relocation charge is actually quite high but if you are making considerable savings on the monthly costs then you are on a winner. Being nosey (since I really don't know how much "download" is involved with things like gaming on line in addition to actual program downloads and emails) what would YOUR average bill be with them?

[ORAC]

Top end at the moment, but that's because I've been building a couple of machines and downloading all the XP updated, Zone-alarm etc, anti-virus DAT updates, Ad-aware updates etc etc.

I don't play on-line games and I don't download music, software or anything else using any of the P2P systems, but I still seem to somehow use up the full download allowance..... :confused:

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Thanx Orac - do you know is there any way of determining the amount of upload/download you have used over a given period? Perhaps some kinda program or log wherever you can access cos there's no real advantage to me with this service if I AM gonna be at the top end all the time.....

[ORAC]

Free - UtilKit DLUL Meter (http://www.webattack.com/get/dlulmeter.html). $25 - Wizard Bandwith Meter (http://www.wizard-soft.com/meter/logging.htm)

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Orac - that's great thanx. What a useful little utility! :ok:

[spekesoftly]

I'd appreciate some advice from the many satisfied Pipex users that have posted here. Trying to decide between Pipex Solo 500 (no set-up fee, but provide your own modem and filters) and Solo2go 500 - same monthly cost, but for a one-off set-up fee of only £17-57, Pipex supply an ADSL modem and two micro-filters.

Solo2go appears to be by far the better deal, but are there any other factors I should take into account, when choosing between the two?

[DeepC]

I had problems with the Platinum Speedtouch 330 that was free with the 2go package.

I took it back and got an older Bordeaux Speedtouch 330 with older drivers which is fine.

Recently started having connection problems with Pipex. It connects and can send data but it only downlads 293kb and then it doesn't download anymore. Last night it took about 6 connection attempts before I got a connection that worked both ways.

DeepC

[redsnail]

I am in a similar position. I have a Solwise ADSL/router already. Trying to decide between Pipex solo 500 and Nildram. (ie 512 download, 256 upload thingo.)
Any thoughts?
We also want to WiFi the place too. My iBook has WiFi Airport Extreme already fitted. Rest of the machines are Windoze.

[spekesoftly]

DeepC,

Thanks for your comments about the Platinum/Bordeaux Speedtouch 330 ADSL modems supplied by Pipex.
I've subsequently also found your earlier detailed post on this matter (The 'Search' function is working this morning!!).
It would be interesting to know if they are still supplying the Platinum version to XP users.

Sorry to hear about the recent connection issues, be interested to hear how things progress. Is the Pipex Technical helpline charged at the local (0845) rate?

[Capt Chambo]

It would appear that Pipex wins hands down over any of the BT options.

In my area the only other contender is Bulldog. Does any one have any opinions or experience of them? I have had a look at a Bulldog users discussion group's website, but it is always difficult to decide whether any negative posts are just from a vociforous minority!

I am also using Macs, so are Pipex completely Mac compatible?

I will continue to follow this thread with interest, so thank you all PPRuNers.

[Timothy]

I am very surprised that Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.net.uk/) hasn't been mentioned. It seems to get the highest satisfaction rating.

Have a look at ADSLGuide (http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp) and you will see Eclipse is a little better than Pipex on everything.

Timothy

[spekesoftly]

The Eclipse 'Connect 500 lite' package is also about 50p/month less than the Pipex Xtreme 'Solo2go 500' deal. However, Eclipse charge a total of £98-70 for line activation, modem and two filters. Pipex only £17.57.

[Capt Chambo]

I have signed up for the Pipex Xtreme "Solo2go 500" deal. For the reasons that spekesoftly highlights (£98.70 for line activation Vs Pipex's £17.57) I decided not to go with Eclipse.

Thank you PPRuNers for your input.