Best Internet Provider ???

who_eat_all_the_pies · 07-07-2006, 19:41

What internet provider is the best ???

K.S.H · 07-07-2006, 19:45

Everyone has their own favourite, mines Pipex and been with them for about 4 year now, have a look on http://www.adslguide.org.uk/
You can compare them all here http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp

KIPAX · 07-07-2006, 19:57

We have a local ISP in blackburn.. are they still going? Airtime internet.. I was with them about 10 years ago... Limited space and was before you could easily get your own hosting..

Alvin the chipmunk · 07-07-2006, 21:39

None of that fancy rubbish for me. BT Broadband does me nicely. Combined phone and net bill makes everything more convinient also

Diesel · 07-07-2006, 21:39

Just avoid Bulldog, you have been warned...

I've had a few, Freeserve and AOL both had fantastic customer service. I left Freeserve because they kept taking money out of the bank at comletely random times of the moth, ok if you've always money in the account, not ok when you get overdraft charges. I left AOL 'cos I couldn't stand having to have their browser open to use the net, and it had an auto-disconnect feature if I remember correctly. I fouund BT to have really torrid customer serveice, and I quite frankly, below par connection. They've also recently began to impose a download limit as a few other ISP's have, be on the lookout for that. I'm with Bulldog at the moment, they have awful customer service, and the line can drop a lot on random days, though it is usually ok. The telephone service provided is top notch though. I would leave, but they're trying to sell their customer database, so I'll stick it out for a while, see if it gets better, I'm also supposed to be getting upgraded from 8Mb to 16 Mb soon. My friend was on Pipex, he only left to join Bulldogs 16Mb service, despite my warnings, he's now in the same frustrating boat as me. He highly recommended Pipex to me at one point though

Alvin the chipmunk · 07-07-2006, 21:44

I must stress that BT are only my provider. Firefox is the browser I use.

Download linit? Pah!!! It means nothing. I download freely and over the limit and the only thing that happened was that i once got a letter asking me to upgrade my account if I wanted to download so much. This was when I was on Freeserve/Wanadoo, and I still didn't heed the warning.

claytonender · 07-07-2006, 22:45

I am with Virgin, was previously with AOL for over 4 years. Until about 12 months ago their customer service was good, but it deteriated once it was transfered to India. In Feruary last year I was sent an update for my broadband modem driver after that I had loads of trouble, I had to keep uninstalling and reinstalling AOL for everything to work. Then in December last year I had terrible problems with my modem,I rang customer servicesand it turned out that the drivers they had sent me in February were wrong. I couldn't get a broadband connection and was told to sign into narrowband (at my own expence) and download the drivers again. This didn't work, so I rang Customer Services again and got fobbed off with other excuses, including the fact my modem was too old, I asked for a new one, but was told I would have to pay for it - which quite frankly wasn't on. As I had paid for my modem and now they gave them out free to anyone who signed up for broadband.
I decided to change to another ISP and chose Virgin because they gave you a free modem, and you don't have to sign up for contract. There are download limits, but it is very large, and they will tell you if you are going over it every month.

andrewb · 07-07-2006, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel

Just avoid Bulldog, you have been warned...

I've had a few, Freeserve and AOL both had fantastic customer service. I left Freeserve because they kept taking money out of the bank at comletely random times of the moth, ok if you've always money in the account, not ok when you get overdraft charges. I left AOL 'cos I couldn't stand having to have their browser open to use the net, and it had an auto-disconnect feature if I remember correctly. I fouund BT to have really torrid customer serveice, and I quite frankly, below par connection. They've also recently began to impose a download limit as a few other ISP's have, be on the lookout for that. I'm with Bulldog at the moment, they have awful customer service, and the line can drop a lot on random days, though it is usually ok. The telephone service provided is top notch though. I would leave, but they're trying to sell their customer database, so I'll stick it out for a while, see if it gets better, I'm also supposed to be getting upgraded from 8Mb to 16 Mb soon. My friend was on Pipex, he only left to join Bulldogs 16Mb service, despite my warnings, he's now in the same frustrating boat as me. He highly recommended Pipex to me at one point though

I have had bulldog for about 1.5years now, I have tried MANY ISP's, and Bulldog has been the best. I've only ever had 30mins downtime in that whole time. The line *never* drops, perhaps its your router/modem? I know the one they supply isn't that great. I've been upgraded to 16meg (I actualy get 18Meg) and they have the best network in the UK.

However as you say they're trying to sell customer base, as long as they dont introduce caps i'll stay with them because I know I can't get a better service elsewhere. The new owner would still have us all on the bulldog network so we should see no change.

To the original poster... stay away from AOL. Actualy stay away from everyone

I don't have a positive thing to say about Freeserve/Wannado/Orange, Aol, Central Point, BT (worst customer service in existance)... I can't even remember who i've been with

Madhatter · 08-07-2006, 00:48

lol I was just going to say bulldog and then in the last post . I'm with tiscali at the moment, and it's getting worse, cuts out at 1 every night, and randomly in between. It was good when I first went on to it, but not now. I'd just renewed it when my geeky brother told me about bulldog, he's always got a connection, and never gets limited. he's got three servers running on it and three pc's. As soon as I canI'm swapping.

Diesel · 08-07-2006, 10:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyfr

I have had bulldog for about 1.5years now, I have tried MANY ISP's, and Bulldog has been the best. I've only ever had 30mins downtime in that whole time. The line *never* drops, perhaps its your router/modem? I know the one they supply isn't that great. I've been upgraded to 16meg (I actualy get 18Meg) and they have the best network in the UK.

However as you say they're trying to sell customer base, as long as they dont introduce caps i'll stay with them because I know I can't get a better service elsewhere. The new owner would still have us all on the bulldog network so we should see no change.

To the original poster... stay away from AOL. Actualy stay away from everyone

I don't have a positive thing to say about Freeserve/Wannado/Orange, Aol, Central Point, BT (worst customer service in existance)... I can't even remember who i've been with

Trust me, it's not my Modem, I've had this Modem from my last Service Provider and had no problems. My Mate whos just transferred to Bulldog is having the same problems. It may well be the area we live in, as we only live a 5 minute walk from each other. But whenever I phone up tech support, they fob me off with 'upgrade your drivers', 'check your leads are properly connected' etc like I'm some sort of thicko.

Diesel · 08-07-2006, 10:24

Just so you can see it's not just me;

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_i...Broadband.html

I could post another ten sites like this without breaking a sweat. I'm glad to see they have some happy customers though

andrewb · 08-07-2006, 10:44

To be honest I could find that for absolutly any provider you can name

If they are providing a service there will be a ton of people not happy with it. Their customer service is weak I admit, I know that, but I also know im getting 18Meg Unlimited for £25... so I ring back again and again until I get somebody usefull.

I really think you should try another modem/router, or if possible connect your modem directly in to the master socket. Or try using the modem bulldog sent..

Can I ask what speeds you're getting? Also if you're in accrington, they may well be getting ready to upgrade your line, mine didn't cause me too much grief because my router reconnects me as soon as I get disconnected, but in the week running up to my upgrade I had a choppy line while the BT engineers worked on it..

If you are going through the accrington exchange then I would put it down to either upgrade (which customer service should tell you about if you phone them and make sure they look it up) or there is something at your side that dosn't want to work... as exchange problems should effect the whole exchange..

If these dont solve your problems, go to adslguide.org.uk and visit the bulldog forums there, post your problem and im sure someone will give a good reply, very helpfull place

SPUGGIE J · 08-07-2006, 10:50

I have BTYAHOO broadband and does exactly what I want. It has all the bits need to protect my daughter and am not changing!

Alvin the chipmunk · 09-07-2006, 09:56

F me!!! 18 meg. What, does the page appear before you've even thought of it or summat?

andrewb · 09-07-2006, 11:04

Unfortunatly theres really not much difference between 2meg and 18meg when it comes to browsing websites!

Most sites can't provide at that sort of speed, and theres no big files when browsing..

But, when i download from newsgroups I get 1.7Mb/s

Around 5-10mins for a full cd.