Suggestion for Reading area

Hi all

I was with Zen for several years until a few months ago (given my personal circumstances I ended the contract, no problem with Zen at all). I will be moving to Reading and I wonder what people would suggest for broadband ISP?

I was with Zen's legacy: I think it's 2MB and unlimited traffic, for £15/month if I remember.

We are going to access company servers via VPN, plus remote access out from/into home. The old Zen 2MB was far from adequate but now with getting a new ISP I thought get myself to the 21st century, get something with a bigger pipeline and unlimited traffic/no cap. I can't find Zen's unlimited. Looking in the forums, Be Unlimited seems probable choice. Plusnet another possibility.

I will need fixed IP for web site, and will run internal network; a bank of IP addresses will be nice but don't know whether people still offer this.

Budget wise... well, under £20 a month will be nice. I have seen 12-month and 18-month contracts which is scary. I don't want "packages" like TV or phone tie-in. Just the broadband service please. The phone line (BT) is disconnected at the property at the moment.

So... anyone any suggestion? I'd like to decide this week.

Thanks!

David

What exchange are you going to be on?

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

Reading Earley

Strange, the other exchanges in reading are going to wbc at the end of the month, but not your one. That would've given you upto 24meg adsl2+ on a 1 month contract with Entanet or similar. As it is, the only fast service would be Be or O2 or possibly go for cable. All of them are long contract though.

Tell me the street name. Some of the area served by this exchange can get very low speeds, so if you are a bandwidth junkie, Virgin CM might be your best bet.

RG6 1DB
pm you
thanks

broadbandchoice tells me for the phone number there I can get downstream:

24mbs - Eclipse, Be,
20mbs - o2, Virgin XL
16mbs - sky max, Virgin L
8MBs - Orange, Sky mid, tiscali, plus value, BT total etc

I am interested in Be.

samknows..com can't give exact detail given the phone number; but if I search using post code and without phone number, it then says "According to BT Wholesale, houses at your postcode should be able to support a 6Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max."

Should I trust broadbandchoice' assertion of 24mbps?

Thanks for further information.

David

In reply to a post by dtww:

Should I trust broadbandchoice' assertion of 24mbps?

No. If you're interested in Be, put your number in the Be website: www.bethere.co.uk

I think I would trust samknows as an excellent independent resource. Broadband Choices I think is a paid-for advertising site.

Where did you get the figure from samknows? Was it the mapping engine?

In any case the line will perform as well as it can unless you pick one of the few ISPs that actually limit you on it, and that usually only applies on slow lines where they might refuse you or insist on a fixed profile of 2Mbps or lower.

I think your choice of Be is a good one as it has a three-month contract on the top two packages. On Unlimited you can have a static IP, on Pro you can have four. (Though how many of those are useful I leave to the experts).

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php
enter post code
then BT ADSL

also see my reply to batboy

I am attracted to the pro package but won't immediately have all the servers up and running, requiring 4 static IPs. how does be deal with upgrading package? nothing too clear about this in their FAQ or have I missed it

Edited by deleted (Wed 18-Mar-09 16:15:13)