Looking for a new ISP

Good afternoon.

I am on the hunt for a new ISP and after some thoughts / advice / opinions etc.

Background Data:

Current ISP: Namesco (circa 7 years)
Router: Netgear DG834N (firmware V1.02.15)
Line Length: Circa 10k
Router Connection Speed Up: 723kbps
Router Connection Speed Down: 783kbps
Router Line Attenuation Up: 37.1db
Router Line Attenuation Down: 68.5db
Router Noise Margin Up: 4.6db (varies between 4db and 6db)
Router Noise Margin Down: 4.7db (varies between 4db and 6db)
Download Allowance: 26gb
Current Pay: £18.84 per month

Link to Samknows for exchange information: Metheringham Exchange

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Ok, so as you can see by the above router information we are not looking for mega speeds. Sometimes the router will connect up to 1024 kbps download speed but not very often, likewise the noisemargins do occasionally drop to 3db but again not very often. Line is stable, uptime since last reconnection is 185 hours and counting.

My criteria for an ISP is pretty simple:

Good & reliable
UK based technical support should it be needed
Reasonable price (am happy to pay for the UK support)

So far I have looked at, and am considering:

Plusnet as they seem to be getting a better reputation these days.
Zen as they have recently doubled their allowances and the 20gb allowance would be fine.

Incidently as this router is now several years old is it the best for long lines (would need wireless and ideally four network ports on the device)

Many thanks

Paul

Edited by Mayrhofen (Wed 16-May-12 14:29:59)

Well looking at the exchange you describe you have a single choice on LLU TalkTalk, and im afraid from my own personal experience, they are none of the above criteria.

And BT also seem to be on that exchange.

Only issue i would have to suggest either of these providers is, neither have solely UK based support and neither of these have particularly stable services. They also operate quite severe bandwidth limitations and traffic shaping and management during peak hours, and talktalk offer terrible equipment.

But these are just my honest opinions, The ONLY good technical/customer support i have ever recieved was from o2/Be*

On such a long line I'd stay away from TalkTalk, as their modem can be a pain, and their DLM tends to have a higher target.

One of the BT Wholesale based services is best.

If the DG834N is stable, then I'd stick with it.

Zen, Plusnet - check the price you will pay. Market 2 gets discount, but you might have to chase for it. Possibly John Lewis, or maybe Post Office.

I think our provider TitanADSL can use the talk talk wholesale network just for broadband on their Surf 24 package might be a worth looking into!

With a line that long there is unlikely to be any significant speed benefit from ADSL2+ (which IIRC is what TalkTalk's LLU service uses) so the OP may be better sticking with a BT based product (especially if TT's rate profiling is more aggressive at the low end as suggested above) until something that bypasses some of that copper (i.e. FTTC or other fibre) is available.

In reply to a post by dspillett:

With a line that long there is unlikely to be any significant speed benefit from ADSL2+ (which IIRC is what TalkTalk's LLU service uses) so the OP may be better sticking with a BT based product (especially if TT's rate profiling is more aggressive at the low end as suggested above) until something that bypasses some of that copper (i.e. FTTC or other fibre) is available.

Would I be right in thinking then that would explain why we rarely see 1mb these days as we have been moved automatically to ADSL2+. The drop in download speed occured at the same time as the upload speed increased?

Thanks

Paul

Looks like you have a better attenuation than when i was on ADSL2+ (75db attn 1.7meg download.)
Can i suggest you have a look here and put your phone number in http://www.adsl24.co.uk/broadband/home/
See what comes up.
Should LLU be available and not suitable above ISP could change to another service should the need arise. Additionally you would have good support.

I would avoid the biggies at all costs, you want support and gonna need it.

It may, yes. I know when the "up to 8" started to be rolled out people generally recommended that those on very long (or otherwise bad quality) lines stick with the previous fixed rate (0.5M, 1M or 2M depending on line quality) system. I'd not be surprised to hear similar advice for ADSL-Max->ADSL2+.

More a function of different hardware, not all ADSL modems and DSLAMs perform the same, so moving to a different one at the exchange can affect speed, even if same DSL standard is used