Check out Blagger.com for some reviews of most of the ISPs including customer service.

Another vote for Zen. Got rid of AOL last year, wouldn't have it back even if it was free. Helpful call centre, with people you can understand. Not the cheapest, but in my opinion one of the best. I supose anything is better than AOL, they are just awful.

For all you AOL users
If you look at drudge or http://techcrunch.com/ they have just put their useage database out and it can be downloaded. Anyone know how to open a tgz file in windows?

I'm another Zen groupie, as are a number of other folks I know. They were the first to understand (about three years ago) that all we wanted was reliable Internet connectivity without all the cuddly-bunny Yahoo stuff from BT and others.

talk talk is the best deal at the moment, ie FREE!
but waiting times to get the BB are a pain.

AOL is just fine assuming you dont install their shyte SW. ive used it for yrs now with only 1 problem.

BT are just too fookin expensive.

Hate to say it but BT have been great. Not the cheapest but I have had no down time, consistent speeds and real ease of contact when I have had a niggle.

Try http://www.ic24.net/. About £16 a month for 2-8Mb, depending on where you live. There is a 5 gig allowance, once you go over that it is 20p per 100mb so not too bad really.

Perhaps somebody can explain how this broadband stuff works.

My understanding is that it goes from my house via BT until some huge junction box which could be miles away. Then it goes into 'the internet' via a big pipe owned by my service provider.

Round these parts we are quite a long way from the BT exchange, and the only time I notice the broadband goes down is when there is a bloody big thunderstorm and rain in the local area. My assumption is that something has gone wrong with the BT copper. If my next door neighbour was on another service provider, the chances are that his broadband connection would go down as well.

So why the big difference in providers? Isn't BT the weak link in the chain and there is nothing I can do about that as we don't have cable.

The further you are away from the BT Exchange the slower the broadband is.
Round here where I have my broadband (Small town in the country) I get 2Mb but one of my friends who lives in a village only gets about 1mb as he is about 3-4 miles from the exchange.
Unfortunatly BT is the weak link and not much anyone can do about it.
IC24 should be able to provide me with 8mb for the same price but cannot as lines can only cope with 5, but I can still only recieve 2mbs even though my service has been upgraded.
Its ok if you live in a City!!

Yep, round these parts it's not worth paying for one of these 8meg services as we cannot get close to that. Also as I understand it, contention is pretty much the same at 50:1 for all providers if you are on a home service, and unless something special is done, this limit exists at the BT exchange, so nothing I can do about that.

I would suspect the places where BT interconnects with my provider's pipe (AOL) is pretty solid, AOL may have dreadful client software but I bet their network is pretty good. I also suspect a lot of these specialist providers who charge a little extra are simply reselling a large provider's service anyway.

So what's the real difference between providers? Customer service? Never needed it, service only goes down when there is a thunderstorm (and occasionally the storm takes router power out too), and they cannot do much about that.

even here not far from the city centre i can still only get a max 2 mb connection no matter who the isp is. (AOL 1mb at present).
the bt copper line is shyte.

my son has ntl cable a few miles from me, hes on a 10mb connection!

Quote:
Originally Posted by TruTh747
I currently use ntl 4mb (cable) and it costs me 24.99/month. I thought this was worth it until sky broadband launched. Sky is offering £10/month for up to 16mb! This is a wicked deal and as soon as my contract is up in September i will change to them.....
NTL are very keen to retain existing customers, especially if you've been with them a while. Why don't you ring them on 0800 054 9403, option 3, and tell them what you wrote above and ask them what they can do for you? Don't fall over with surprise if they offer you 10Mb (soon'ish going up to 16Mb) for £17.49 a month ;-)
BD
As I too use NTL at £24.99/month I tried BD's recommendation today. The telephone number appears to be wrong but I got through eventually. After some discussion on the merits of fibre optics verses copper wires he eventually gave me three months at half price. He said the £17.49 was only an introductory offer for one month. Still, for a phone call I saved £37.50, so it wasn't all bad! Thanks BD

they are all trying like mad to keep customers. when u threaten to leave them they offer you sorts of goodies.
AOL has just offered me the gold service with a free wireless router for the same price as my silver service.
the downside is signing up for another 12 months.

BT has phoned me up twice recently, to try and get me to go back to them. their deal still has a cap on it. told them they are still too expensive and the cap is just bloody annoying.

Anybody thinking of going to TalkTalk free internet....don't bother.
I've been with them for 3 weeks and the connection is mainly off rather than on. I was with Totalise which became Madasafish for £17.99 month.
In 4 years i've been unable to connect on 4 occassions.

With Talk Talk this has happened in 1 week!
Thats what you get for free!

talk talk bb problems were on the bbc tv this week. the presenter had hundred of letters from peeps pissed off at talk talk.
either not online yet, or cannot get connected. very poor customer service it seems.
the carphone whorehouse claimed its cause too many customers had signed up and they couldnt cope with the demand.

One Tel
 

Been with them five years......no problems at all
H49

I've been using Nildram for years now and I'm very happy. They aren't cheap, about twenty five quid for an 8Mb service. However,the service has only gone down twice in the four or five years I've been using it and each time the technical support has been brilliant.

As I work from home, I'm happy to pay a premium for this level. Don't think I'd feel the same if my connection was purely for home use.

Pipex taken over by Tiscali?
 

Not sure what the implications are at the moment (I am a Pipex customer)however would very much appreciate an update on who thinks what about who!

May ta's

FW

I swapped from demon (because they were dragging their feet on broadband) to BT, not had any problems at all and I live in a village, down load from a fast site at 7.45Mb, no monthly limit, and their help line is excellent although I've only used it once.

Just out of interest i will revise my opinion of TalkTalk.
Things have settled down over the last several months since my last post.
Recently my connection went up from 2 to 5Mbps.

Think they just got overwhelmed by the response to their offer.
Would now recommend them:ok: