Looking for a new ISP

When I finally get away from Toucan [and it can't come too soon!], I hope to go with a new ISP but because I live unfortunately in the pit of Hades that is Runcorn, I need a decent recommendation for a ISP as I don't want to make the same mistake that I made choosing Toucan as my ISP last year...

I'm looking for a ISP with the following specs:

- Unlimited downloads [Before my account was terminated for refusing to pay the cancellation fee which I refused to do under protest - For further details, see my thread in this section - I probably downloaded up to between 30 to 40GB a month using Bit Torrent and it may go up or down depending on what I download]
- A contract that I can cancel after 3 or 12 months.
- Speeds of up to 8 Mbps
- Decent Customer Service
- No Capping
- Decent speeds for online gaming

I was looking at going with Be Unlimited as they're supposedly in my area but I'm worried about whether I can get their service or not because I don't know if I'm too far from their exchange or not and I know some ISP's can be pretty anal about that and Eclipse seem pretty reasonable as far as price is concerned but I don't know much about them...

If anybody can offer me any suggestions or reviews of Eclipse Initernet, I'd be really grateful.

If you can't get Be, your best bet would probably be one of the Entanet resellers (e.g. ADSL24, UKFSN etc.). They have monthly contracts and generous off-peak allowances.

Check out IDnet. They have a number of packages and most of your requirements seem to be covered by them.

www.idnet.co.uk

IDNet Studio, The Spirella Building, Letchworth, Herts SG6 4ET. UK
T: 08000 267 237 | E: [email protected]

It would be wise to actually check what ADSL services you can get first before parting with any cash.

Use the link I have put below and it will tell you exactly what ADSL services you can get by just putting in your post code or phone number (i.e. it may say "Sky LLU" or "Be LLU" - that means you can use Sky or Be and they are an LLU service).

Link to ADSL services checker.

Using ISPs such as Sky or Be will give you more bang for your bucks - plus someone like Sky will give you a "deal" of their TV channels - free phone calls - and your broadband connection from

Edited by deleted (Thu 02-Aug-07 21:19:01)

If you can keep your usage down to 20-30GB a month, maybe try IDnet or Newnet.

If you can get LLU (Sky or BE preferably - as the rest are a bit pants), you may want to look in that direction.

If you answer 'no' to both of the above, look to an Entanet reseller, but remember they have a routine in place (during the 1-2 hours of maximum evening demand, designed to keep pings low, and reduce packet loss - great for gaming and VOIP, but less relevant for many other uses), so the speeds can drop a little at around 10pm (usually to around 3-4Mbps, but it's been good tonight - 4 out of 5 centrals are above 6.2Mbps available to each user).

I don't know about Toucan, but seeing as you don't reckon on them, let's call them a "frying pan".

I invite you to think of the corresponding name for Eclipse - judging by the posts about them I read on this site.

The posters before me seem to have covered all the places to look.

I definitely don't want to go with IDNet or Newnet as I use BitTorrent [when I was previously online] to download a lot of fansubs of anime and live-action shows from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China and a 20-30GB limit would be too small considering the amount of stuff I'd probably download which could be as high as 40 to 60GB or more [I usually back it up to DVD then delete the files afterwards to make space for more stuff]

Sky or Be definitely sound promising altho I don't know what Be's definition of unlimited downloads is and Sky's I believe is over 300GB a month which would definitely satisfy my needs and seeing as I already have a package with them in the form of their SixMix TV package, I may or may not save money.

If anyone can offer any reviews of either Be or Sky, I'd like to hear them as they're the two that I'd probably choose between the most...

I think Be's limit is fairly huge...

How huge would you say it was?

well, I do believe Be claim that no user has ever reached their limit.