best provider for my needs

im looking for unlimited broadband as play xbox live and download quite a bit. not to bothered about contract lengths but needs fairly cheep.

Can you do your downloading overnight, keeping the daytime fairly clear?

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

"Quite a bit" is a pretty useless specification. That could mean 30GB, 100GB, 500GB, or 2TB, depending on individual attitudes. Or anything in between or more or less. Also, the more "unlimited" the ISP's allowance you get, the higher the possibility of congestion messing up latency.

What's your budget?

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

Blame Talk Talk and sky for that, they tell people they get unlimited for peanuts, which they may do, but then they block, slow down torrents and got a naff customer service.

Thank god the smaller providers don't have to block torrent sites. First the big players get all the business then they become targeted for their own sucsess and start blocking torrent sites.

i would say i download 100gb maybe more depending on how much i use xbox live most downloading done evening and day time currentley pay £12.50 for Sky Broadband llu unlimited

Look at the FTTC Comparison Matrix linked in the post
Link to FTTC Matrix post.

If you are downloading 100Gb a month then Sky or BT Infinity Option 2 are probably the better value ones.

Also depends on your use of p2p and of upload. If you use p2p a lot, BT (for who I have just opted) appear to be useless. If you want higher upload speeds, Sky will charge £30 per month, if they offer the service at all (they don't for me). My BT upload speed should be 19Mb, Sky could not offer better than 2Mb here.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

Also depends on your use of p2p and of upload. If you use p2p a lot, BT (for who I have just opted) appear to be useless. If you want higher upload speeds, Sky will charge £30 per month, if they offer the service at all (they don't for me). My BT upload speed should be 19Mb, Sky could not offer better than 2Mb here.

Sky Fibre Unlimited Pro should be available to order as an upgrade through the website later on this month but for the time being it can ordered over the phone which I only discovered the other day after I had ordered the 40/2 service.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

Blame Talk Talk and sky for that, they tell people they get unlimited for peanuts, which they may do, but then they block, slow down torrents and got a naff customer service.

And long may TT/bt continue to block or throttle p2p bandwidth rapists. P2p rapists have bankrupted ISPs...remember the e7even debacle?

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

And long may TT/bt continue to block or throttle p2p bandwidth rapists. P2p rapists have bankrupted ISPs...remember the e7even debacle?

They offer the unlimited usage, if they can't cope then don't offer it or give people some idea what unlimited is.

Not everyone uses p2p 24/7 and yet they still get throttled, it is not just P2P, certainly with Bt anyway, I went through months of Bt traffic management stopping me form using Iplayer and even you tube.

Never again.

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

Except, you pay peanuts to Sky and you get a pretty darn good service.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

Blame Talk Talk and sky for that, they tell people they get unlimited for peanuts, which they may do, but then they block, slow down torrents and got a naff customer service.

So why is Sky the only mainstream provider that doesnt block anything in anyway?
So why is sky customer support for broadband easily amongst the best again, amonst the mainstream?

dont you have to take skys phone package if you want to order i would rather stay with bt.

In reply to a post by project_x_uk:

dont you have to take skys phone package if you want to order i would rather stay with bt.

You mean stay with "bt retail", you will be with BT openreach whether your phone package is with sky or BT Retail.

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Jun-12 21:42:02)

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

In reply to a post by Adsl24:

Catch 22 there... cheap but unlimited usually means you pay peanuts, you get peanuts

Blame Talk Talk and sky for that, they tell people they get unlimited for peanuts, which they may do, but then they block, slow down torrents and got a naff customer service.

TalkTalk LLU Plus Unlimited up to 24 meg package

Price: £25 pm
Line rental included: Yes
International Calls inluded: Yes
TRULY Unlimited downloads: Yes
P2P Throttling: No (on static ip connections only)
Static ip address: yes (on request)
fastpath profile available for gamers/voip: Yes v
Support: forum



ADSL24 - C&W LLU Unlimited up to 24 meg package

Price: £20 pm
Line rental included: No
International Calls inluded: No
TRULY Unlimited downloads: Yes
P2P Throttling: No
Static ip address: yes
fastpath profile available for gamers/voip: No
Support: phone & email


zyborg, like me, you could get a lot more for your money with TalkTalk , yet still have a high quality broadband connection (and even better than C&W if you're a gamer and/or use VOIP a lot)

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Jun-12 23:56:07)

In reply to a post by gazter:

So why is Sky the only mainstream provider that doesnt block anything in anyway?
So why is sky customer support for broadband easily amongst the best again, amonst the mainstream?

sky customer support is not that good, unless it been improved since I was with them for Tv. if I was going for a large provider then sky would be the one i would go for. but I still think they will block or slow down peer to peer.

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

TalkTalk LLU Plus Unlimited up to 24 meg package

Price: £25 pm
Line rental included: Yes
International Calls inluded: Yes
TRULY Unlimited downloads: Yes
P2P Throttling: No (on static ip connections only)
Static ip address: yes (on request)
fastpath profile available for gamers/voip: Yes v
Support: forum



ADSL24 - C&W LLU Unlimited up to 24 meg package

Price: £20 pm
Line rental included: No
International Calls inluded: No
TRULY Unlimited downloads: Yes
P2P Throttling: No
Static ip address: yes
fastpath profile available for gamers/voip: No
Support: phone & email


zyborg, like me, you could get a lot more for your money with TalkTalk , yet still have a high quality broadband connection (and even better than C&W if you're a gamer and/or use VOIP a lot)

Don't quote prices i know what price talk Talk offers their service for and even if Talk Talk paid me to use their service i would still refuse.

As for the fast path on C&W, or the lack of it, a mate of mine uses vivaciti on the C&W network and is a avid games player, normally MMO games, what ever they are, but I do know that they need a good ping, I built his computer to his specs to play games, that is mainly all it is used for and yet he don't have any complaints about the lack of fastpath. Ok having 16 megabits may help, but a high ping would still cause problems.

Forum support is fine if you got broadband, but Talk Talk support via phone is awful, worse than Bt is that is possible.

i am not interested in international calls, I call one person in the U.S and TBH I don't want my line rental included with my broadband, that is why when i left BT, i changed over to a a different phone company.

Talk Talk uses line management, with the problems I had with BT, no way would I go for it. C&W don't have any line management, so what I connect is what I connect at, if I change the SNr on my router/modem, the system don't try and change it back up.

i am not a gamer, never have been and never will be, no point in using voip if I still got a phone line.

anyway i am 99% certain now that I am going for a wireless service that is here, that way I can get rid of my phone line and say good by to Bt naff copper wires that are falling apart.




Talk Talk and Bt are in the same mould,

Sky LLU is truly unlimited & doesn't have traffic shaping.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

As for the fast path on C&W, or the lack of it, a mate of mine uses vivaciti on the C&W network and is a avid games player, normally MMO games, what ever they are, but I do know that they need a good ping, I built his computer to his specs to play games, that is mainly all it is used for and yet he don't have any complaints about the lack of fastpath. Ok having 16 megabits may help, but a high ping would still cause problems.

If for example your friend is getting 30 ms ping on interleave, then i'm sure he would jump at the chance to get ping times of 20 ms on fastpath...ping times are absolutely critical when online gaming...difference between life and death in some games

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Forum support is fine if you got broadband, but Talk Talk support via phone is awful, worse than Bt is that is possible.

I don't think anyone expects Talktalk to provide AAISP quality phone support for £3.49 pm broadband. However their forum support is excellent. No broadband to access forum support? Well nearly every Tom, Dick and Harry these days has an internet enabled smartphone. Failing that, you could use your neighbour's or family members broadband service. Or in the worst case scenario you could pop down to your local library for web access. I'm sure 99.9999% of talktalk users could find alternative means of accessing the support forum if their broadband service was down.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Talk Talk uses line management

Yes Talktalk also use DLM. But guess what....this can be turned off (like on my line) SHOCK, HORROR! Bet you didn't know that. Very easy to make wrong assumptions when you're not even a customer of TalkTalk and all your 'facts' come from heresay. Oh i see, you have a friend who has had bad experience with TalkTalk? Well guess what, once upon a time i had a terrible experience with IDNET so using your logic perhaps i should warn EVERYONE to stay away from the devil's spawn called IDNET? Sheesh....

Edited by deleted (Fri 15-Jun-12 00:13:13)

In reply to a post by baby_frogmella:

[
If for example your friend is getting 30 ms ping on interleave, then i'm sure he would jump at the chance to get ping times of 20 ms on fastpath...ping times are absolutely critical when online gaming...difference between life and death in some games :(
[/quote]

Maybe, but he would not touch Talk Talk either. He is looking at maybe using Sky fibre when we eventually get fibre here and is only because they got sky TV in the house and it will be cheaper,

but he seems happy with his ping, after all he plays enough games. Yes I know that pings are important for gaming. i may not play games myself, but I do know you need low pings.

I don't think anyone expects Talktalk to provide AAISP quality phone support for £3.49 pm broadband. However their forum support is excellent. No broadband to access forum support? Well nearly every Tom, Dick and Harry these days has an internet enabled smartphone. Failing that, you could use your neighbour's or family members broadband service. Or in the worst case scenario you could pop down to your local library for web access. I'm sure 99.9999% of talktalk users could find alternative means of accessing the support forum if their broadband service was down

.

it don't matter how cheap Talk Talk offers their broadband, if they supply a service then they should supply a decent customer service to go with it. £3.49 Per Month broadband? that is only for so long and then they put it back up and it is only that price if you are in a Talk Talk LLU area and you take their phone service at the same time.

Oh I forgot, you got to take their phone service at the same time, just like Bt and sky for that matter, how long will it be before more ISPs do this stupid idea of forcing people to take their phone service?

It don't matter if someone can use another computer or not, thar is hassle that people should not have and what are they meant to do stay by the computer for a while to see if their problem is answered?

As for using a smart phone, they are not that great to use on the net, I use mine for facebook and emails, i tend to stay off websites as the screen is too small.

Offer online help via a forum by all means, but get a decent customer service over the phone if they can't do that then they are not worth bothering with.

you are sounding like you been brainwashed by Talk Talk



[
[/quote]
Yes Talktalk also use DLM. But guess what....this can be turned off (like on my line) SHOCK, HORROR! Bet you didn't know that.

SHOCK, HORROR, i know it can be turned off, but they will only do it if asked, they will not do it on their own back, i don't think they go the brains to think lets try turning of DLM.

Very easy to make wrong assumptions when you're not even a customer of TalkTalk and all your 'facts' come from heresay. Oh i see, you have a friend who has had bad experience with TalkTalk? Well guess what, once upon a time i had a terrible experience with IDNET so using your logic perhaps i should warn EVERYONE to stay away from the devil's spawn called IDNET? Sheesh....

If it was one person then I would say fine, they just had a run of bad luck with Talk Talk, but it is not. I used to fix computers for different people mainly friends, friends of friends and Family and a lot of them have or had Talk Talk and out of all of them, I saw one connection that was decent.

i don't have to tell people to stay away from Talk Talk, most people I know will do that anyway.

Anyway I have ordered my new broadband, it will be installed on the 28th of this month if all goes to plan, goodbye copper wires, goodbye Bt ancient infrastructure, hopefully.