In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/8905/hqke.jpg

I find this really misleading...
Customers on Sky, TalkTalk etc are more the average Joe Bloggs who choose the mass market providers. These people have far less knowledge overall than someone who chooses Entanet reseller.

The speedtest is higher on this ISP, not because sky only provides 3.3 Mbps but because the sky customers have probably incorrect setups e.g unfiltered sky boxes, extension leads, not in the master socket etc.

People on entanet are overall more likely to get this right.

So I feel speedtests like this aren't really representative. I for one know on Sky at all 3 houses I've been at have given me better speeds than any other provider.

Also for a long long time sky gave free 2Mbps internet which brings their results down.

AOL still has some legacy customers on 1Mbps fixed products too.

It's not a like for like comparison what so ever.

As for TalkTalk they're overall not bad connection wise, it's just customer service which sucks.

You are quite wrong. After TT unbundled my exchange, they door knocked the 2,500 properties twice in my village offering 'Cheap' broadband and most jumped in blind. It is the usual piled high TT service. 60 different users have used the uSwitch test alone in my village, double the number of BT tests.
Also I have recently travelled to the other side of Suffolk and down to south Essex to help three different users sort problems. All on TT LLU and less than a mile from the exchange. None were getting more than a 5 Mbps service while others in the same street on BT were getting 16 to 20 Mbps. No extension wiring in all cases and router on short tether to master. Also you have not seen the wiring around here, taking in outbuildings, networked CCTV and even the dreaded homeplugs. As for people on Enta, they order, it is swithced on and it just works like from any other ISP. This one had a far less reliable service with other ISPs. Nuff. said in my book.

Edited by professor973 (Sun 16-Jun-13 20:01:29)

Can't say I've ever seen it this bad

I've used talktalk connections at friends quite often and they're always great on speedtests. Compared to the sync they're always pretty ok

What I have noticed is that on all TT lines speedtests are good but when loading websites it feels slowish

Believe it or not, many of us choose TalkTalk not because its ridiculously cheap (though it helps), but simply because there's no other LLU isp or BT 21CN at the exchange - its the only way to get > 8 meg speeds. Like you i used to hate TT with a passion (was with premium isp's such as Goscomb and Netplan paying ~ 50 notes a month) but back in Sept 2010 TT LLU'd my market 1 exchange in the Scottish Highlands which BT or Sky won't touch with a bargepole. I reluctantly signed up with TT on the basis that i could leave within 30 days if not happy. Well >2 years later i'm stiill with them so they must be doing something right. I get 18 meg speeds 24/7 on an atten of 29 db. i download close to 1TB data a month. I get great pings of ~ 15 ms (fastpath) and been lucky enough have a static ip address. I would happily pay £50 a month to TT for the service i'm getting but the fact i'm paying £15 incl line rental is a bonus. Give TT a try, you might be in for a pleasant surprise

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Jun-13 20:33:37)

websites are only sluggish when you use the talktalk DNS servers i personally use google DNS and websites open in a flash i also had an issue tuesday when my fibre was connected and i first used the new talktalk hg533 router that i couldnt stream any videos from bbc sport or sky go until i changed the DNS to google

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Jun-13 20:29:11)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

What I have noticed is that on all TT lines speedtests are good but when loading websites it feels slowish

That's because TT's DNS servers are not the fastest around. Use something like OpenDNS or OpenNIC DNS servers (i use the latter) and web pages load fine.

EDIT: Ianph beat me to it

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Jun-13 20:30:27)

I fell for the TT patter for Landline about 6 years ago, but was sold such a pig in a poke I was able to get out without penalty after a couple of months. The "free" broadband was not available here. the TT mobile sim that gave free calls to other users was only available from a TT shop god knows how many hundreds of miles away. The BB Connection & disconnection charge, along with caller display and God knows what else, was quite a reality check after a few years with B.T. You know the saying, "Once bitten, twice shy/You get what you pay for/Pay peanuts, get monkeys", so now I ain't fixin' what's not broke!
Edit: Pleasant Surprise - http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/talktalk/t/4245811-...

Edited by professor973 (Sun 16-Jun-13 20:57:45)

Like Baby_Frogmella, I'm happy with TalkTalk. We've got two ADSL lines with TalkTalk. One is a business line, one is residential. ADSL sync speeds have been excellent on both. In several years, nearly five, we've had one problem - a line fault outside the premises - a tree branch rubbed through the drop wire. TalkTalk liaised promptly with Openreach and in a timely fashion the problem was soon solved. Here's hoping that TalkTalk can continue with its good service as it takes on more FTTC customers. Also that its back-haul network is up to the challenge. There are question marks over the network capacity of another leading Communications Provider..

cheers, a

Edited by deleted (Sun 16-Jun-13 21:32:57)

There are question marks over the network capacity of another leading Communications Provider..

Who?

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

There are question marks over the network capacity of another leading Communications Provider..

Who?

According to Google, just about every provider that tries to do the same as BT for less.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=broadband+provider...

In reply to a post by professor973:

... All on TT LLU and less than a mile from the exchange. None were getting more than a 5 Mbps service while others in the same street on BT were getting 16 to 20 Mbps...

unless you quote the sync speeds, the throughput speeds are utterly irrelevant. No ISP is able to give more throughput than the sync speed allows.