Which ISP...

Hi,

I'm currently with AOL on a very old package paying £25 a month - and finally after loads of convincing to my dad we are looking to switch ISPs - the only worry he has is that he will loose his AOL email address but ive told him we dont if we migrate away..

My exchange is Frensham and the only option we have is BT Wholesale services...

My dad doesnt want to be paying anymore than what we are currently paying to AOL. I would estimate we use between 10-20 gig a month...

Ive done some research on here and so far the reasonable ISPs Ive noticed is:

AAISP - good, and lots of evening and weekend allowance - but only 2gig during the weekday 9-6 - with my dad sometimes working at home and with me just finished uni and my brother finishing school for summer soon i would think we would go over the 2 gig allowance.

NewNet - 20 gig

IDNet - 30 gig a month

Anyone else have any other suggestions? Or which one to choose between newnet and IDNet? Surfing through their forums Ive seen a few posts about pings - im not a serious gamer but i do play online gaming - at the moment with AOL everyday at 5.20 I can no longer play online gaming until approx 11pm this is happening every day even the weekends, just getting really annoying... I dont need perfect pings but just want to be able to have atleast reasonable pings..

Thanks in advance - and sorry for spelling/grammer mistakes dyslexic here....

I reckon you have done some good research there .

The only one you have missed is Zen - direct competition to IDNet above 20GB per month, Newnet wins below 20GB per month. (But Newnet count upload into it. IDNet and Zen only count download).

From your description of usage I think your estimate may be a bit low. But if you took Newnet on a monthly contract, (I expect you noticed the banner prices are annual contract divided by 12 and I don't recommend that), then you could always swap again. A small amount of excess usage doesn't cost too much either, and you can "pre-buy" it up till the end of the month even if you have exceeded your allowance.

I suggest none of you ever take up a new ISP-dependent email service. Googlemail is free and many people happy with it. I prefer paying Purple Cloud for my own domain (for ever) and email to go with it, as I don't fancy all my emails going through Google.

Costs me the equivalent of £1.14per month. (a) It looks better than an ISP address, and (b) it makes migration far easier - as per your Dad's AOL email . Another popular one is 1&1.

In reply to a post by Craig4646:

AAISP - good, and lots of evening and weekend allowance - but only 2gig during the weekday 9-6 - with my dad sometimes working at home and with me just finished uni and my brother finishing school for summer soon i would think we would go over the 2 gig allowance.

You can increase the allowance in 2 gig steps. You also get your own domain with AAisp and a free modem (even on monthly contract) which I doubt you'd get with the others.

Thanks RobertoS and 12eason for your replies...

I have had a look at Zen, but there are a few people commenting problems on the forums on here.... Also I feel that at the same price as IDNet you get more data allowance with IDNet - also they seem to have better reviews on here

You could be right about me estimating our usage as Ive never had to consider how much we download before - but I wouldnt describe us as heavy downloaders - but that is a reason why we are only looking at monthly contract ISPs as well...

I did see that on Newnet's website and it was confusing me a bit about the annual pricing and finding out what the actual monthly payment prices are i think they are just over £21.. But in all honesty from what you said I think we may need more than 20gig which newnet offer...

AAISP - i think even though we could add more peak time bandwidth it could soon add up to the cost of IDNet and Zen. While I think they are a really good ISP i just dont think their product meets our needs exactly.

I think Im leaning towards IDNet - i also saw in the IDNet forum today that they send out emails if you are likely to go over the limit for a month which I think for us would be handy not knowing how much we actually use in a month... Does anyone know what the pings are like with IDNet? Not that they need to be perfect but atleast playable?

I myself have a googlemail account - but we've had our AOL account since 2000 so has served us really well so far - but its good that we dont have to have aol broadband to keep the email accounts active anymore so shouldnt be an issue for my dad (hopefully!)

On the Newnet site, if you click View Package it shows the detail and the monthly price, like this shows £21.48.

I think you would be best with IDNet.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 09-Jul-09 22:48:23)

Hi,

I too am looking to leave AOL after many years. No real reason, just never had the opportunity to try out anyone else. I have been looking at Sky or Talk Talk but have been put off Sky a bit as can see their Mid package now only has 10GB download limits. I was all set to sign up with talk talk but was a bit concerned that their site says I should get a projected speed of around 1.76 MB. All the tests i do show that i get over 4MB download speeds currentley with AOL. Why the difference? Surely the exchange will give the same download speeds or does it depend on the ISP. I would hate to leave AOL for a slower service. Also, any comments generally on the better service betwen Sky and Talk Talk. (I have not really looked into the lesser known ISPs.

What exchange are you on?

As to the speed, it's only an estimate. It could be though, that you are currently on AOL LLU, but would not be on talktalks LLU if you transferred.

Edited by deleted (Fri 10-Jul-09 15:59:18)

I'm on the Caerphilly exchange.

What is an LLU. I know that when AOL persuaded me last time they said they would give me the best that my line would give. Any way of ensuring that I would not have a slower service with Talk talk.

Many thanks

I'd strongly recommend O₂. Get it via quidco too. Best of the bunch by far.

LLU stands for local loop unbundled. It's where a broadband company rent space in your local exchange and install their own equipment. It means they can supply cheaper and faster broadband than if they were bound to BTs equipment.

As 12eason says, O2 is probably the best move for you.

Ignore any speed estimates, as long as whichever ISP you choose accepts your order. Some refuse orders based on the estimates .

Your line will perform as fast as possible. As per yarwell's signature - it goes as fast as it can and doesn't look at the estimate first. You don't need to worry about it.

If you go for O2 then sign up through Quidco as recommended. Remember to clear cookies on your machine first, (through Internet Options), so there is no trace of you visiting the O2 site before going to it through Quidco.

Thanks for your help guys. I'll have to give it some more thought as originally it was a toss up between sky and talk talk. O2 would cost me £12:23 a month as i do not have their mobile wheras talk talk would be £6:49 for th epackage I was looking at. What does o2 have that makes it a better contender? Talk Talk are offereing free connection for a limited period

Thanks again

(Even when I do decide, I'll have to get AOL to give me a MAC code which is proving quite difficult !!

In reply to a post by grother:

What does o2 have that makes it a better contender?

Speed/reliability/customer service. I admit though, if you're looking at that kind of price range and aren't too fussed about quality, then talktalk is tempting.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/t/3664375-o...

It's worth thinking of ways to get O2 PAYG mobile phone, for example if you have an old unused one. This is what I did:-

Then I remembered I have a spare mobile. So I got a free O2 SIM, registered it to my post code, and have to top it up by £10 every 3 months. (Whereupon they "reward" me with another £1). I get 500 free minutes from my post code in the first month after a top-up, which leaves me £11 to spend over the next two. Seeing as our quarterly calls bill with BT is about £10 anyway I should easily break even - especially as we have free evening and weekend calls on BT at no cost over the basic £10.50 rental.

The daft thing is that you get a £4.89 per month reduction on the broadband for paying £3.33 per month on the phone, and get £1 credit on the phone as well plus 500 free minutes.

My real mobile is with Orange.

However, TalkTalk seems to be fairly good these days, but bear in mind getting back to any other ISP can be a bit messy from them as they take the phone line off BT. You have to get that moved back first and can be without broadband for several days.

You can't go wrong with IDNET. 1 month contract and realy helpful people at the end of a phone line or email and all free plus all in UK at Letchworth. To be honest all isp's come across unforseen problems at times and it is the speed that these problems are resolved which show a good isp from an excellent isp. Idnet is an excellent+ isp.

Thanks for your help everyone. I actually signed up with Talk Talk yesterday after being all set to go with O2 (I even ordered a sim card to get the better deal). Having gone in to a Car phone warehouse store they are offering a better deal than online ie no connection fee and 6 months free at £6.49. I'm also really pleased that AOL gave me the MAC code quite easily when I phoned.

There is no connection fee anyway for a migration and as TalkTalk own AOL UK, you're not really trying out anyone new.
If that's a 12 month contract, it means that TT are offering broadband and telephone services for a little over £3 per month which simply isn't sustainable.

You probably had no problem getting a MAC code from AOL if you told them you were moving to Talk Talk!

(with apologies for being so cynical on a Sunday)

In reply to a post by grother:

Thanks for your help everyone. I actually signed up with Talk Talk yesterday after being all set to go with O2 (I even ordered a sim card to get the better deal). Having gone in to a Car phone warehouse store they are offering a better deal than online ie no connection fee and 6 months free at £6.49. I'm also really pleased that AOL gave me the MAC code quite easily when I phoned.

The guy you just replied to was talking to the OP. Look at the post headers or use threaded mode .