Which To Join Isp

[CYBERSPACE]

I hope i'm in the right Forum for this anyway here goes, to everyone, which is the best internet provider as i'm leaving crappy AOL.My exchange limit speed is 1mb and i would like it to be unlimited THANKS IN ADVANCED

 

[PotGuy]

well depending where you are ntl are very popular so long as you are in a cabled area

 

[ChristopherP]

Plusnet are pretty good - £14.99 a month gets you 2Mb net (though they can probably give you 1mb if thats the max BT can give you) and i dont think there a very strict usage limit on that either...plus you get free modem and cheap activation if you dont have a DSL line already.

If you like them, PM me and i'll give you a referal name

www.plus.net​

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

They have a 'VERY' strict usage limit on that product Postill... I explained this to you a few months back when they told me the limits themselves when i enquiried, it's something like 10GB usage limit and then they'll reduce your service.

 

[ChristopherP]

For the majority of people, 10Gb is more than enough - and that includes my house with 5 computers sharing the same 2Mb connection... and we use the internet alot!

5 computers, constantly on.​

The policy is not a strict usage cap, but a responsible and measured way of identifying and reacting to unsustainable use. Customers who download too much, will be given several chances to adjust their usage behaviour before speed restrictions are applied to their service.

http://portal.plus.net/support/features/sustainable_usage_guide.shtml#247​

Peak-time is 4pm - 12am (midnight). Peak-times and bandwidth values will change over time as usage patterns change.

I have a 100Gb limit Imrie. I'm on the £21.99 a month one - 2Mb​

​

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

Woah, what's with the boldness... was just stating a point of what they told me, they would restrict my bandwidth to some silly value like 25KB/s downstream once i hit 10GB.

As it is, lucky i never went with them, last month i used 53.47GB of bandwidth on my line

And this month looks around 42GB of bandwidth...

 

[ChristopherP]

Yeah but 99% of people dont use more than a couple gig...

Anyway - CYBERSPACE - what do you use the internet for? Do you know roughly how much you download a month?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Oi, you two - get in a chat room and have a ruck if you got to



I'm with Zen, reckoned to be one of the two best in the Uk, no limits on anything, excellent service all round, 1Gb web space, good helpline, reliable, great for gaming online, minimum one month contract (no signing up for one year minimum) but...... they're dearer than most.

£25.00 quid a month for only half a meg download speed and 256 up.

I've been with them 2.75 years now, I'm happy. I figure you only get what you pay for. And so far they haven't let me down at all. Only dead time I had was down to local BT exchange, and that was only 3 hours.

 

[floppybootstomp]

PS:

Download just two Linux distros in one month and that exceeds 2Gb

 

[ChristopherP]

I think that the service you get from any ISP is only going to be as good as what BT provide you with, unless the exchange is LLU.

If you were to go with BT and change to i dont know... FreeUK...your service would probably be about the same because at the end of the day its still being provided by BT Wholesale.

At the moment i pay £19.99 for a 2Mb connection on a 30:1 contention ratio (norm is 50:1), with 100Gb usage, monthly not yearly contract, 24/7 support, webspace, email addresses etc etc etc and the best member centre i have ever seen that really makes it feel like you are in control of your account.

You can get more than one free stati IP too if you can prove you need them.

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

Your capped then Postill...

As true 2MB Unmetred is 330GB per month, thats the maximum the line can serve if you download at full speed 24/7 for a whole month.

 

[gabriella]

As a matter of interest, how do you check what your i/net useage has been (as per Chris P screenshot??)

Gabs xx

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

It depends on your provider.

Some have the bandwidth graphing feature, others don't.

 

[ChristopherP]

Some have the bandwidth graphing feature, others don't.

a point well made Stingray - that is why i chose Plus.net - i feel in control of my account - you can do practically ANYTHING from the member centre, see below.

But seriously Imrie, Chill. - your probably scaring the guy off, talking about pointlessly high caps. I might be wrong, but i bet that cyberspace dosen't download as much as you do. And starting pointless arguments.

The guy asked for a decent ISP, and i was simply giving him my recommendation. My net is reliable, and im in control. If you don't download the internet twice over daily like yourself, then it's probably a sensible choice. I'm not saying its the best, as no-one would have been with EVERY isp, but its one of the best i've ever been with.

I think 100Gb a month (30Gb between 4pm and Midnight) is plenty enough, and contrary to what you said, it's not strict. They dont just cut you off either - its fair usage. if your using 100Gb+ a month your obviously up to something perhaps a little suspicious!

If all you do is check email, use MSN, surf the net and listen to online radio, and play the occasional game online, 2Gb is probably sufficient.

So chill OK, and respect others views as they respect yours.

Dont argue back.

Chris(py) ey Mucks

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

Well said

I'll sit back and eat some popcorn

 

[floppybootstomp]

I think that the service you get from any ISP is only going to be as good as what BT provide you with, unless the exchange is LLU.

Not neccesarily true. A lot is dependent on the ISP's setup, the servers, how much bandwidth they supply and other factors.

But it is true most ISP's are to a certain degree reliant on the BT Network.

 

[gabriella]

OK - how can I check how much bandwidth I am using? Don't know whether my ISP (Pipex) supplies this information but where and how would I look?

Gabs xx

 

[pikakilla]

try this gabs

havent tried it myself though

http://www.bandwidthmonitorpro.com/

 

[ChrisIMRIE]

That is an inaccurate way to monitor bandwidth unfortunately pikakilla, no offence, but i've used it in the passed and it's missed some traffic and has left gaps...

I prefer to rely on what the ISP say now, after all it goes through their cables so i'm sure it's more accurate that way

And as flopps said, pretty much all of the ISP's in the UK run off of BT WholeSale, they get their transit (bandwidth) and cabling from BT and then develop their own network around those factors, some ISPs even setup their own peering, eg. they get all the transit and peering directly themselves with a BT backup pipe to ensure redundancy.

Pretty much same setup as RazorBlue, we use BT transit but have our own network peerings setup so we're not entirely counting on BT being reliable.

Anyway as Postill said earlier, PlusNET do some pretty sweet deals on people not bothered about bandwidth caps, also UKonline are another favorite of mine, had hell with Wanadoo Technical Support, if that's what you call it... Wanadoo support is totally pointless in the fact when a problem arrises they hide it and blame it on the customer.

 

[CYBERSPACE]

Thanks for the advice everyone i know now who to migrate too.