ICUK

I noticed on another forum ICUK are rated in the top 10 by users yet there is nothing about them here, even a search turns up nothing. I had a look at their site and they look quite good. Anyone have any feedback, if they are so good why such a low profile here.

I can't see them on here!

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

Who do they operate under?

Have to confess I've never seen them mentioned on here, but I like their site and I'll be interested to see what others have to say.

Blue

Since they are not mentioned at all on here, I would have to assume they are possibly a reseller, or only part own/lease pipes from a wholesaler (such as Netservices). This site ONLY lists ISPs who have their own direct pipe.

My own Isp Fireflyinternet does not appear on here yet is highly rated on other sites, but it does not physically "own" it's own BT central pipe. It buys / leases dedicated pipes from Netservices - note this is different from reselling Netservices own offering, or sharing pipess with various other Isps.

Firefly did actually consider offering to wholesale some of it's capacity to the smaller Isps that Netservices are now ditching, but decided it was an unnecessary business risk.

Woody

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This site ONLY lists ISPs who have their own direct pipe.

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Don't think so that would exclude all of the Enta resellers shown under Enta on this forum. You can't use Enta direct.

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I can't see them on here!

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That is what I said but you can see them here

www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php

That's the Enta forum - Enta have their own pipe.

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That's the Enta forum - Enta have their own pipe.

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Enta have three ( or four) pipes but you can't have an account with them direct so the Enta forum is for the numerous resellers. The point is ISP,s such as UKFSN (without their own pipe) are represented on the forums.

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but you can't have an account with them direct

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Yes you can.

The average punter can't. I spoke with them some time ago, only through a reseller although I believe they may have some legacy customers from before they changed their set up.

I believe that IC24 is a Brightview reseller, as is Waitrose. Resellers are not listed on TB only the provider is, like Entanet which has several resellers, but you cannot sign up with Entanet.

Madasafish gets a mention I think because they are owned by Brightview. Samara is the Brightview ISP rep. on TB and if this was a weekday she (or he?!) would probably have replied to your question.

DSLZone has a different policy to TB and lists both resellers and provider which IMO distorts the ratings. Currently the top four are Enta resellers and the fifth is Enta, but you cannot sign up with them so I don't see how anyone can rate them.

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I believe that IC24 is a Brightview reseller

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Yes, but the OP is asking about ICUK, which is not the same.

Hi Goggo,

I'm a "she" - my parents were hippies which kind of explains my ambigious name.

We run all the Brightview brands - so I wouldn't say that we're so much a reseller as we are a provider who can provide a VISP service for companies who would like to offer Internet services to their customers.

Kind regards,
Samara

Edited by deleted (Sun 11-Mar-07 07:36:08)

Apologies on two counts!
I got the wrong IC!
Wasn't sure of Samara's gender - I am now thanks, but never take anything for granted on the web! (and she even keeps an eye on the Forums at weekends!) By the way, I think that Samara is a nice (Russian?) name - seeing themob's sig. reminds me, wasn't it also a Lada model?

Edited by Goggo (Sun 11-Mar-07 08:48:40)

Try this. Apologies in advance to Samara.

As I said, taken from the Isp listing criteria for this site...

DSL Criteria
Services are currently being installed and are available for order
You have your own assigned IP space
You have your own BT central pipe OR
You have a different direct relationship with a wholesale DSL provider (or you are a wholesale DSL provider)
For these purposes we deem a wholesaler as a telecommunications provider who has their own exchange equipment and provide broadband services using it OR a telecommunications provider who provides services using BT Datastream. If you have multiple relationships with different providers we will only list the products where you have a direct relationship with each wholesaler. Please note this generally excludes resellers or shared central pipe solutions such as those provided by Netservices and Entanet.

Woody

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Please note this generally excludes resellers or shared central pipe solutions such as those provided by Netservices and Entanet.

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The point I was making was that Enternet resellers are represented, in force, under the Enternet name, so why couldn't other resellers do the same under their respective wholesaler's name. Which brings me back to where I started anyone know anything about ICUK, are they resellers, they seem to have been around for some time I remember short-listing them before I went to Zen and that was two years ago.

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so why couldn't other resellers do the same under their respective wholesaler's name

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There's nothing stopping that. See the Enta forum for example.

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so why couldn't other resellers do the same under their respective wholesaler's name

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There's nothing stopping that. See the Enta forum for example.

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Yes, even Netservices resellers - who could use this forum if they dared.

I'm nit picking here I suppose, but I don't like the fact they quote their caps in Gb. Is this a typo or are they offering 12.5 GB/month? If it is really 100Gb/month then it is misleading, if it is a typo (as I suspect) then they should really know better.

I guess some Isps don't want to make too public who their wholsalers are. Also some use a couple of different companies, furthermore should they decide to say use the Netservices forum, what happens if they then swith to say Thus? they would have to move thier postings. Just guessing here.

They appear to either use Pipex networks or be a Pipex reseller, perhaps someone more knowlegble then me can decipher the following for you.

Doing a lookup on www.icuknet.co.uk

Information related to '62.105.78.0 - 62.105.78.255'

inetnum: 62.105.78.0 - 62.105.78.255
netname: UK-PIPEX-HOST-DEDIC-LEEDS-4
descr: Dedicated Server Range (Leeds DONHOST)
country: GB
admin-c: HM655-RIPE
tech-c: HM655-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
notify: *****@pipex.net
mnt-by: AS5519-MNT
mnt-lower: AS5519-MNT
mnt-routes: AS5519-MNT
changed: *****@pipex.net 20051110
source: RIPE

role: Hostmaster Contact
address: Pipex Communications
address: The Hinshelwood Building
address: Edmund Halley Road
address: Oxford Science Park
address: Oxford
address: OX4 4GB
address: United Kingdom
phone: +44 870 909 8181
fax-no: +44 1865 778 160
e-mail: *****@pipex.net
admin-c: MATT1-RIPE
admin-c: HM655-RIPE
admin-c: ID40-RIPE
admin-c: RIZ5-RIPE
admin-c: FAZ5-RIPE
admin-c: SJC2-RIPE
tech-c: MATT1-RIPE
tech-c: SH1765-RIPE
tech-c: RIZ5-RIPE
tech-c: ID40-RIPE
tech-c: BRI69-RIPE
tech-c: HM655-RIPE
tech-c: FAZ5-RIPE
tech-c: SJC2-RIPE
tech-c: YSL1-RIPE
nic-hdl: HM655-RIPE
abuse-mailbox: *****@pipex.net
notify: *****@pipex.net
mnt-by: AS5519-MNT
changed: ***@eng.pipex.net 20050809
changed: *****@pipex.net 20050816
changed: *****@pipex.net 20051018
changed: *****@pipex.net 20051129
changed: *****@pipex.net 20060302
changed: ***@eng.pipex.net 20060504
changed: ***@eng.pipex.net 20061012
changed: ***@eng.pipex.net 20061212
changed: *****@pipex.net 20070216
source: RIPE

% Information related to '62.105.78.0/24AS5413'

route: 62.105.78.0/24
descr: PIPEX Communications
descr: (FNS)
descr: Carlton House
descr: 27A Carlton Drive
descr: London
descr: SW15 2BS
descr: UK
origin: AS5413
member-of: AS5413:RS-PIPEX
remarks:
remarks: ------------------------------------------------------
remarks:
remarks: Please direct Abuse complaints to *****@pipex.net
remarks: Complaints directed elsewhere will not be actioned.
remarks:
remarks: ------------------------------------------------------
remarks:
notify: *****@pipex.net
mnt-by: AS5413-MNT
changed: *****@pipex.net 20051108
changed: ***@eng.pipex.net 20070305
source: RIPE

Probably too late, but here's my take. Been with ICUK about two months and the cs is excellent - very helpful, quick to answer and don't assume you know nothing. Speeds are OK but nothing more - on a 512 connection they seem slightly slower than my previous provider though that could be my aging equipment or everything slowing generally. Since I joined they've introduced a 100Gb cap and a max offering. My only real concern is that, over the last couple of weeks they seem to have introduced throttling on BiTorrent though the web site denies any form of traffic shaping.

Oh, and I think they use murphx.net for their pipes judging by the results of trace routes I've run.

Hope that helps,
redshank

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Oh, and I think they use murphx.net for their pipes judging by the results of trace routes I've run.

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Thanks for the feedback, I rang them last Mon they said they have some of their own pipes and the rest from murphex.

"Throttling" is an understatement for what they (or MurphX) are currently doing to bittorrent traffic.

I entirely agree - 0 up and 0 down for long periods and 8 meg in 1.5 hours earlier today. And that's with a website which says:
No Traffic Shaping
No Port Blocking

redshank

Hi,

I have just seen this posting, and as one of the founders of ICUK thought I should perhaps introduce ourselves, explain a bit about us, and the traffic shaping issues highlighted by one user. If nothing else to stop the guessing

ICUK was founded in 2001 and an 0845 vISP for CIX, we since grew our range of services to include hosting and broadband solutions. We are still independent and profitable. We like as much as possible to design and develop what we can in-house. This has since seen the creation of a very powerful control panel system for individual hosting and broadband clients, not to mention a highly powerful and fully automated reseller platform. Through our sister company Red Telecom (run by the ICUK team) we have designed and developed a full telecom billing and reseller platform.

For hosting we utilise the GX Network (Pipex) and for broadband we have a long standing agreement with Murphx (spanning 4 years and counting). We're a bit beyond a normal vISP but have stayed clear of going direct to BT Wholesale on the basis of the relationship we have with Murphx. This see's us work closely with them on a technical and development level - helping pioneer their XML platform. It is for this reason we don't appear on this website unfortunately, although if the rules could be bent we would very much like the opportunity to. We're certainly not in any way connected to Netservices or Enta.

The traffic shaping mention by 'Anonymous' is a known issue. It doesn't affect all our users only a small handful of about 100 that were moved across to a new central pipe. These make up some of our heavier users and were switched to aid capacity for the bulk of clients. The move wasn't in punishment, and nor do we like the current siuation we have with traffic shaping on that pipe. All being well this will be resolved in the early part of next week and normal service will be resumed. In our defence I should point out it isn't as bad as 'Anonymous' made out. I downloaded the latest episode of Lost in the office earlier today with a steady download speed of 75kb/s on the same pipe. Any clients who are affected are advised to contact us directly in an email or on the phone and we will contact them as soon as we know the restrictions have been lifted.

I hope that puts a few minds at rest. Unfortunately I'm not very good at checking the forums regularly, so if you do have any questions about us or our services please email in the to solutions@ address shown on our website.

Regards,

Paul Barnett
Director
ICUK Computing Services Limited

"Unfortunately I'm not very good at checking the forums regularly"

Ah, another missed opportunity zooms past.