Can anyone suggest an ISP ?

Can anyone suggest a reliable , reasonably priced ISP ? I am new to broadband , not looking to download , just browse and general use for the children for schoolwork , etc. Not looking to change telephone line service which is with BT ( have to pay them the line rental regardless ! )

Many thanks

Welcome .

Can you check your exchange with samknows and either post the link to the result or tell us the exchange code?

That will tell us what is available at your exchange.

have a look at tiscali broadband.

i been with them for 3 yrs now and never had any probs and i do download alot

That (tiscali) is about the last choice anyone would usually recommend on this forum!

Their products are generally oversold leading to massive congestion and slow speeds at peak times. They have a history of customer service and related weaknesses. Do you enjoy talking to scripted call centres?

Basically any ISP is ok if your expectations are not very high and nothing goes wrong with the order/setup/line/service. Rather like buying any product or service you only find out how good the supplier is when there is a fault or mistake. Anyone can sell cheap kettles its what they do on a warranty claim that matters. The same applies with broadband.

As Robertos has asked if you go to samknows and find out your exchange we can give specific advise. Otherwise take a look at my recent thread discussing ISPs for my local exchange EALGH. You might be able to look at some packages even cheaper than mine as you may be able to get away with a package with less bandwidth. Say 2 Gb a month.

The only (I think) companies that demand control of your phone line for broadband are TalkTalk and the cheapest (every?) Sky deal. We talk about those as Full LLU. It can also be tricky/expensive to return from these deals.

A few others can "half take it over" if you like their line rental or phone prices.

There are now quite a lot of people providing a normal LLU service. This is where they take control only of the Broadband half of the line. That's often a good idea although there is often a moderate cost (circa £40) to join such a service and if you ever leave it to reconnect elsewhere. Some LLU packages can be very good value (eg. O2, Be) and the others are attractive at the moment as BT-Wholesale are perceived by some of us to be making changes soon to most/all lines and the infrastructure that may affect the quality of every other (non LLU) ISP for the forseable future.

So get us that samknows/exchange information and reconsider/restate your likely usage.

With Sky there are 3 combinations:

Broadband
Broadband + Calls
Broadband + Calls + Line Rental

They are moving the 3rd package to be a Full LLU package, so you leave BT. The others would leave the line rental with BT. This applies for any sky broadband package. Sky have 3 broadband packages (free, £5 & £10) however if you went for the first option (without calls) each level would be £5 more (£5, £10, £15)

Its worth mentioning that Sky Broadband is only available to Sky TV customers and the above info only applies to exchanges listed as "unbundled/LLU" from the samknows link provided earlier. Never buy sky broadband if your exchange is not unbundled.

edited for grammar

Edited by Kr1s69 (Sun 30-Aug-09 20:43:39)

Hi

Do you have a price range in mind?

Mike

Tell us the exchange, as I asked before, or else all you get is someone's hobby-horse as we don't know what is available to you.

As has already been pointed out, you have had one suggestion which from the vast weight of evidence would be a disaster for you, although the poster in question no doubt is one of the lucky ones. (Or doesn't know whether his connection would be 1000% better with someone else - because it does all he expects/asks of it).

Check to see what the status of the ISP is with Companies House, whether they are active or marked as 'proposal to strike off' due to unfiled accounts. If the latter then your stay there may be short-lived.

You can find this information by entering the company registration number into the companies house website.

Zen. I have used many ISP's and no-one even comes close. An awesome service with incredible support. I have had experience with Tiscali (awful), BT (equally so), Bulldog (ok ish), and UkOnline (actually pretty good). Zen take the prize though.

Just my 2p worth.

I have been very happy with O2 (product, price & customer service).

They have a freephone technical helpdesk (0800 230 0202) and are LLU'd for my area.

You can check that they are one of the broadband providers that service your postcode.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

You can check that they are one of the broadband providers that service your postcode.

Of course, that's not an exclusive list... you are better off referring to something slightly more independent such as ISPreview, or DSL zone.

Normally lists are made up from companies that pay ££ as affiliate referrals - so when you check any of the other 'broadband comparison' sites - they will generally all contain the same providers.

Matt

Edited by deleted (Tue 01-Sep-09 12:43:03)

And mostly the big bad ones.

Personally, I would rather walk on red hot coals with bare feet than subscribe to Tiscali/Pipex, TalkTalk/ AOL.

For IPStream Newnet, IDnet, Zen are all good choices IMO.

Edited by risk_reversal (Fri 04-Sep-09 07:18:01)