View Full Version : UK ISPs that aren't a bunch of monkeys
I know we've had a few of these threads lately but I'm getting tired of trying to find a decent ISP in this country.....
All I want is :
- No limits or caps, at all, ever, under any circumstances.
- No packet shaping, declared or otherwise
- Minimal levels of muppetry (eg if they use proxies I want them to work)
- Decent service by phone (email suport can feck off)
- Port 25 unblocked or a fixed IP (preferably free if I have to go that route)
- Major carrier connections (not some local wide-boys with a single pipe)
I can't get cable (I wouldn't go back to NTL anyway) and LLU won't ever reach my village so it has to be ADSL at the moment.
So far this year I've tried :
BT - no need to explain why I dumped them
Nildram - Packet shaping, terrible sales/support, caps applied. Dropped in under a month
Pipex - Had them less than a week and I'm on the brink of cancelling as their network is fucked atm and they are closed until 9am. WTFF, how can any ISP not offer 24/7 support these days and expect to stay in business?
I've used plenty of others in the past for work and home but I'm curious what people's experiences are in the last few months.
I looked at Newnet before picking Pipex but decided against them as they are pretty small. Does anyone here use them?
At this point cost isn't even really an issue. I just want an ISP that doesn't act like a retard on a sugar-drip and who answers the damn phone when they arse something up.
im with NTL atm, but what with this 3GB/month cap that they are placing on the smallest connection, i dont know. I'll keep an eye on this thread.
Man why does everyone bash BT lol
I have had zero problems with them I download at 2MB and get a ping of 40-70 in most games
hate to say it, but only one that fits that bill, is AOL :lol: :lol:
Dribble Joy
23-03-05, 14:04
Set up your own?
hate to say it, but only one that fits that bill, is AOL :lol: :lol:I didn't think I'd have to add "not a bunch of theiving crooks that will sell your personal info to crack dealers and used car salesmen". Even so they are adequately excluded by "Minimal levels of muppetry" and I'm pretty sure they block port 25 on residential accounts (can't blame them given their userbase).
As for BT - "Decent service by phone " does not mean a call centre in Bangalore manned by people whose closest approximation to a technical qualification is that they can tell the difference between a computer and an elephant on a good day.
@DJ - If I had that kind of money I wouldn't need an ISP.
Dribble Joy
23-03-05, 14:20
I meant that I could use it as well, and lots of non-muppetry liking people too.
I currently have Pipex, and though I have never needed their call service, I havn't had any problems at all.
Oh.. well there's that one thing where the modem occationally decides to crash, but that's only been in the last 3 weeks. Had the service for 2 years.
Ninjano2002uk
23-03-05, 14:22
am with tellywest blue yonder, been with them 2yrs there very good £35 for 2MB line, no caps or nothing,, yer its cable :/ fixed Ip's , at mo there a little iffy in my area but thats coz they just gave 100% increase in the last year for free so i fink there server crying out a little.
The caps are generally incosequencial, and probably laregely designed to stop wanna-be ISPs signing up for a home based packaged.
I've heard of only a small handful of people ever who have actually had caps enforced on them, and a larger number saying that they consistently go over the caps with no consequences.
Plus the fact that the average user is not very likely to use the stated amount of bandwidth anyway.
Athon Solo
Jesterthegreat
23-03-05, 14:42
i've been recommended Eclipse
when i get around to sortin it ill go through them
and theres a toggle to double the speed (for extra cost per hour ofc) so if you really need to DL something big you can do it quicker, without having to pay for the really fast connection 24/7
hate to say it, but only one that fits that bill, is AOL :lol: :lol:
Was gonna say...
The only main problem i've had is the modem overheating, but fixed that with unticking a power box...
BTW/ For some reason that AOL cannot Solve, some Xbox live will not connect...
But anyway...
2MB i think is now 30 quid per month...
No caps
Super Dooper TBH
But a year's contract if u change your mind :p
Jesterthegreat
23-03-05, 14:53
AOL cant solve anything...
awful awful thing
AOL is indeed poo and i got rid a loooooong time ago.
Major muppetry with proxies and shit (they wouldn't even give me their smtp details to send email from outlook - apparently it's "their" software or nothing)
NC ping never went under 300 ( i was new to NC then, so i thought a half second delay on every door opening was normal :rolleyes: )
Fixed IP? HA! I had more IPs than Imelda Marcos had shoes.... so much so that when my net went down during NC (often) and reconnected with same character, NC thought i was a different client. It wouldn't let me reconnect for 30 secs as it said i was still online :rolleyes:
Not to mention the system resources that the AOL browser gobbles up and u have to have it running to connect, even if u run it in the background while u use a decent browser.
The only slightly positive thing i have to say about AOL is that their support line is free, even if they do talk to you like you're an old lady who can't find the "any" key :rolleyes:
I meant that I could use it as well, and lots of non-muppetry liking people too.Tempting but I'd still need a bunch of startup capital and be willing to work stupidly hard to make it work which kinda defeats the object :(.
I currently have Pipex, and though I have never needed their call service, I havn't had any problems at all.I used them years ago and they were fine. I wouldn't even mind teething problems now but the lack of 24/7 support is unacceptable. It's simply not possible to test things that involves disconnections from work and if I have to report the 100% predictable results of each idiotic check-list test they want at a rate of 1/day they won't ever fix the problem. I've already written a letter to Oftel about it as frankly it's not an acceptable level of service if they can't respond reasonably to faults.
@athon - The caps are as unacceptable in principal as they are in fact as far as I'm concerned. I've ranted on this before though so I'll not restate my dislike for being robbed and violated.
@Jester - I'll check them out though I doubt the double-up thing would work out here in the sticks. Thanks.
@Nobby - Add that XBox thing under "muppetry" (which is almost certainly proxies as above) on the reasons I wouldn't use AOL if they were free.
Have you tried freedom2surf (www.f2s.net)? A friend of mine swears by them (by them, not at them :P).
You might also want to check out these guys, bulldog broadband (http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/index.asp), who look like they do a very nice all inclusive package (and a 4 mb connection in certain areas).
I'll look at freedom2surf. I've heard the name before but that's all.
I tried Bulldog a few years ago when they first expanded beyond London and they were shite (didn't even manage to provide a working connection) which was surprising as Londoner mates rated them highly. They may have smoothed things out by now but tbh they were so useless before I'm not keen on the risk atm.
Jesterthegreat
23-03-05, 20:29
@Jester - I'll check them out though I doubt the double-up thing would work out here in the sticks. Thanks.
it was only 2MB max when i checked (months ago) but the test said my area was ok (and we get a bus every 30 mins at times... classified as a rural area, no cable in the whole town afaik)
and look! you get a website to put useless things on!
http://www.angeleyez.eclipse.co.uk/
I've had good experience with PlusNet (plus.net).
Good prices, and their support knows stuff. :D
Zen ADSL is who I'm with and comes with a A+ grade from me http://www.zenadsl.com/
They don't block any ports - including port 25, as I have my own internal mail server. I think they may block ports 137 and 139 which need blocking on any network otherwise you get muppet window users who think it's a good idea to enable windows network for the whole internet.
Download caps, there are none.
Packet shapping - well as far as I know, they don't mess with my packets.
Tech support, I've only dealt with them via email just to signup for the service and thats it. The other people who I know who have spoken to them, say they know their stuff.
IP's - You can ask for a block of 8 static IP's or a single static IP.
Backbone - Well I don't know what they have, but I've had no problems with their network.
Also why do you need 24/7 support? You sound like you are trying to run hosting services (Such as mail and web) If this is the case, ADSL is not recommended for this level of availability. There are too many middle steps in an ADSL connection (aka BT's telephone exchange and it's ATM network)
Jesterthegreat
23-03-05, 21:32
Also why do you need 24/7 support? You sound like you are trying to run hosting services (Such as mail and web) If this is the case, ADSL is not recommended for this level of availability. There are too many middle steps in an ADSL connection (aka BT's telephone exchange and it's ATM network)
he said hes not in a cable area... so whatever hes doin i guess he has no choice.
darkservent
24-03-05, 01:48
Telewest Great.
What will piss me really off with ADSL is that if it is not able to maintain 24/7 connection i.e. that it has a disconnection on idle time. Im mad like that so I want what I had with NTL before this shit went down with em. If not then its bye bye UK and hello a countrry with better service.
Jesterthegreat
24-03-05, 01:58
Telewest Great.
What will piss me really off with ADSL is that if it is not able to maintain 24/7 connection i.e. that it has a disconnection on idle time. Im mad like that so I want what I had with NTL before this shit went down with em. If not then its bye bye UK and hello a countrry with better service.
even cheap shitty 2 year old wanadoo ADSL doesnt do that.
if it werent for the speed of my connection i would be happy. i have yyet to hit a DL cap if there is one... and ive downloaded many gigs a month, i leave it idle all night and i can leave it idle all day when im at work too and ive never had a problem with it.
he said hes not in a cable area... so whatever hes doin i guess he has no choice.
I see that, but that wasn't the main point I was making. Even for cable or ADSL they wont promise to have a service that runs 24/7 for mail or web. Thats what hosting providers with connections to backbones are for, who cost a small fortune each month. ADSL or Cable is a consumer end product for us Neocron players!
Jesterthegreat
24-03-05, 02:09
24/7 support doeant mean he needs to be on it 24 hours a day...
maybe he works shifts, thus wants support at whatever time he has access to his home computer.
if hes workin a day shift im sure he wouldnt wanna lose the net for a week (or however long hes on that shift) because the ISP's call centres are only open 3 hours a day :p
Cheers all, much appreciated
Also why do you need 24/7 support? You sound like you are trying to run hosting services (Such as mail and web) If this is the case, ADSL is not recommended for this level of availability. There are too many middle steps in an ADSL connection (aka BT's telephone exchange and it's ATM network)I need it because if it goes down when I'm at work it's an arse-ache getting it fixed remotely. BT line tests tend to take a few hours and as I've just been learning with Pipex (in >10 years in the industry I've NEVER known an ISP this lazy) that plus lousy 9-6 support means that what should be an hour or so of minor problems rapidly becomes a week of grief.
I'm well aware of ADSL's limits but it's plenty capable of hosting a mail server for me and a dozen or so mates. I'm not asking for five nines here I just want someone to be able to look at it when I have a problem and not 12 hours later when I'm at work and unable to go through their idiotic checklist with them. I've never known an ISP that didn't offer 24hour phone support Even the two-man outfit that operate out the back of the local computer shop can manage that - OK it only means one of then takes his mobile to the pub with him but that's inifintely better than Pipex who are meant to be a serious business.
@Jester - We get 2 buses a day here I think and none on a Wednesday or at weekends. That's assuming the drivers don't forget/ignore us completely which used to happen a lot the last time I tried to use the service. That was >10 years ago though so I'm sure it's got much worse since then. We don't even have enough people here to get mainline gas to the village. What's really bonkers is it's not like we are miles from anywhere, we're surrounded by stuff but just too far from any one town to qualify for anything they get.
/edit - just noticed Jester's response wrt part 1 - yeah, exactly.
Not to mention the system resources that the AOL browser gobbles up and u have to have it running to connect, even if u run it in the background while u use a decent browser.:
Dave, you could create a manual connection to the Net with AOL...
I have. Needed for xbox live !
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