jumping ship from freedom2surf

Hiya,

I am after a little bit of advise please.

i have been a customer of F2S for aslong as i can remember, service always been really good and tech help on the odd time i have used them brill aslwell.

However all the changed on Feb1st when opal/talk-talk/carphone warehouse etc etc.moved us across to their servers. Since then its been like being in the old days of aol adsl, and the caps returned as part of their fair use policey. One of the reasons i moved to F2s, because they set you a limit.

I had a letter from Opal stating that my terms and conditions whould NOT change, however since they have shut the F2s memebers area down and their own memebers area doesnt work. I have a funny idea that that have changed the download limit and pushed us onto the fair use policy.

I spent all sunday phoning them and got different answers everytime to why my speed since feb 1st has been so poor 0.3 upload speed 0.1 download. we live out in the sticks so dont get fantasitc speed. However at the moment its even a struggle to get Google to load let alone you tube.


Indeed when contacting Opal and freinds the only person that can access my freedom 2 surf details was the sales department. The nice lady gave me a number to tiscali the isp owners of freedom2surf. Phoned it and guess what its talk talk and so is the numeber on the f2s site!!!!!

So have dicided once again my love of opal has returned, and they say a leppord doesnt change its spots that also applies to opal. looking around the fourms and internet it appears that people are leaving whats left of F2s like rats on a drowning ship.

F2s had built such a strong fan base we stuck threw them thick or thin however i think time has come to leave.

We do use the internet alot but when me moved out into the country the BB line is slow, because were are so far from the exhange. However i kept on the pro package because of what we got

100gb download limit
fix Ip address
free hosting

we use youtube alot, play games online & bbc iplayer ( which we cant use anymore)

I would like to move onto something very similar and woundered if anyone had any isp's we could go to. I have done alot of research and found 3, and also woundered if anyone had experince with them good or bad. I would like to have gone with 'Be' but they are not in the area.

Virgin unlimited package
zee
Vivaciti

Thanks guys for any help

Jon

P.S/ and any X F2s people who maybe about in here, many thanks for the sterling service over the years. RIP Freedom 2 Surf

If you have any questions specific to any of the packages with ourselves you have been looking at just let us know.

Don't touch Virgin! Check out Zen & IDNet.

Same story here. Download speeds have been pathetic last few weeks and upload has halved. Ping not great either. Have been giving them a chance since we have been with them so long but I have really had enough now.

I think tomorrow I'll get my mac code and jump ship to Idnet. They are more expensive but from what I have read a lot more reliable and there's no traffic shaping or port blocking which is what I think is now going on at F2S/Opal. Anyway it's a 1 month contract so got to be worth a try. Choices are limited as like you we are out in the sticks so no LLU or fibre for us and our exchange isn't even on any upgrade list

I don't think it is fup as I am getting the same speeds and we tend to download 10gb I was wondering if it was traffic shaping as it seemed to consitent but then I did get a download speed of 0.6 one evening. I am switching to sky as they have unbundled our exchange.

I'm in exactly the same boat - been with f2s for a long time, knowing I could get it cheaper, but staying because of the fab customer service.

As soon as I found out Opal/TalkTalk were taking over I knew what was likely to happen, and lo and behold it has been - speed has plummeted (OK, my router is old, but not THAT slow!), it takes longer to connect, random freezes, and the other night I couldn't even get a connection for half the evening.

The most annoying part is I don't think I can get anything better! Even though I'm only a couple of miles away from a major town centre, the exchange I'm on doesn't offer any of the good quality player like Be, only BT, Virgin ADSL, Orange, Plusnet, O2 and a couple of small providers I've never heard of. We don't even have cable, or I'd be sorely tempted right now. So it looks like I'm well and truly up a certain creek without a paddle, as whatever I do will be 1) more expensive and 2) worse service

Does anyone have any ideas how to make the best of this nightmare?

the exchange I'm on doesn't offer any of the good quality player like Be, only BT, Virgin ADSL, Orange, Plusnet, O2 and a couple of small providers I've never heard of

Sounds like we should be able to find something there. Which exchange is it?

Spencers Wood in Berks - RG7 1DS finds it. I'll be glad of any assistance which can be offered, been looking for a place to ask this question for a few weeks now!

If this is your exchange then I would agree with Zadeks, it looks like it's a choice of an up to 8Meg connection from either IDNet or Zen (both provide monthly contracts)

I see there is also FTTC in some areas, do you know if it is in yours yet?

Edited by Apprentice (Wed 02-Mar-11 18:34:00)

The most important questions are how much download and upload allowance you need/want, and how much are you willing to pay for the broadband?

Just a silly question as well, have you tried your number in the BT Infinity checker? Not that I'm suggesting it, but some areas have FTTC available with several suppliers.

Yes, that's my exchange, Apprentice

I have looked at the BT Infinity Checker, but that's not even got rollout planned for our area apparantly.

I'd been paying around £14 a month for the f2s (no fixed contract length, think it was a 10GB limit). I don't download music or torrents, and I'm not really an online gamer (prefer text based - how retro is that! ), but I have just acquired a shiny new Blu-Ray player which has internet capability, so iPlayer on the TV will be possible just as soon as I can get it set up properly. I don't use iPlayer that often at the moment, as I don't often follow series of programmes religiously, but that may change with having it on the TV, of course!

Upload is minimal, the odd pic to photobucket etc. I don't have my own website either.

Cost - well, as long as it doesn't increase too much, I'll consider it. Similar or less would be fab, but probably a pipe dream on my exchange...

Thanks for the help, people - I'm about to leave work, but will check back later!

~Jes

I would say the quality ISP to go for would be IDNet, but expensive. Note that it doesn't sound as if the off-peak allowance would be much use to you, and peak hours are applied at weekends as well. (If you navigate around that site make sure you don't end up on an ADSL2+ page).

Although you dismissed Plusnet at the start, as I would do for most people, you might even get away with their Value package. The price of additional download is £5 per 5GB though, with no carry-over.

Extra would certainly cope. On both after the first 3 months I expect you would be paying the top price, not the headline one.

It is only a monthly contract, so not a disaster if it doesn't work out. But if you went there, go for the annual contract to avoid setup (and possibly router) charges, in case you stay. To leave within the 12 months all you have to do is pay those charges.

Thanks Roberto

Yes, you're right - IDNet isn't really suited to my needs. Seems a really odd product in many ways, very strange peak allowance system. Zen also appears to be available, but is also pretty pricey...

I'm... wary of Plusnet, same as with a lot of big brands. There's been a fair bit of negative flying around about them of late, and there seems to be an awful lot of small print and some 'hidden' charges mentioned - could just be the famous 'victim of our own success' mentality again and over-expecting users, of course. But I suspect I don't really have any choice, as you are right in that I'm on a Market 2 exchange, so I'll be paying top whack whatever, and have very few offerings to choose from. So it'll probably have to be them (unless I stick it with TalkTal - ah, NO chance!) as Be aren't in the area.

I do have my own wireless router (although it's old, pre 8-mbps i think!), so I don't necessarily need a free one - though I suspect it'd be an upgrade! From what I can tell the one Plusnet offer is the Thomson 585, which is a brand I've never had experience of - google is giving me either glowing or poor ratings, anyone here and thoughts?

If I'm quick, looks like there's a special offer of four months free on via BroadbandChoices that ends - erk - today! Wonder if I can make it...

Thanks again

~Jes

Plusnet has it's ups and downs, and as I sort of said before I usually recommend against it.

In your case I think it is worth a try as the best of a restricted selection within your budget.

I see they now have three prices depending on location. I missed that being introduced, so I wonder if the middle one is for Market 2?

Yup, tragically limited selection.

Question - do I need my MAC code before I sign up to a new provider, or can I get it afterwards?

I had a close look at that third price, I thnik the middle one is to meet their 'never beaten on price' claim - they offer that on exchanges where they would otherwise be undercut. But that isn't the case on mine, sadly - except for the Orange Simply Broadband offering, anyway, which would be £10 a month for me (got an Orange PAYG mobile) as opposed to £15 and is advertised as 'unlimited' - not exactly a well rated service though! Think it's worth asking Plusnet, though?

I wish I could justify the cost of going to Zen, but try as I might I can't.

Meh, no wonder average customers give up on all this in confusion, I'm a professional IT geek and I'm baffled by a lot of this!

Thanks again,

~Jes

The MAC Process.

Ta. So I need the MAC before I can contact a new provider? Dang, the four free months with Plusnet offer ends today... Oh well, one more lump in the broadband highway won't kill me!

You could try it and see. O2/Be allow an order inside offer periods, with the MAC awaited, so maybe Plusnet do.

And they will - yay! Bye bye Stalk Stalk Just need to beat the MAC out of them, and I'm outta there

Thanks for all the help, it's been such a relief ot have wiser heads to discuss things with

~Jes

Your welcome, and the thanks are always appreciated .

In reply to a post by Jesthar:

And they will - yay! Bye bye Stalk Stalk Just need to beat the MAC out of them, and I'm outta there

Thanks for all the help, it's been such a relief ot have wiser heads to discuss things with

~Jes

Jes - on a seperate note do you get 0845 numbers as part of ur calling plan?

If not PM me, I may have a suggestion to avoid the cost.

If you are going to plusnet make sure you have check their traffic management that is what put me of them but fair play to them for publishing it.