Another user wanting to leave Freedom 2 Surf

I as another poster as looking to leave freedom 2 surf. We signed up with them in 2004 and we very happy with them. When Pipex bought them out it was still fine even when Opal and then Talk Talk did the same it was still fine, until the last few weeks.

We are now getting download speeds on the evening between 0.1 and 0.4, but during the day it is about 4.4. We were getting over 5 previously but I am happy with 4.4.

Our exchange is only unbundled for Sky and Talk Talk (though we are on BT hardware). Although Sky is very tempting due to price and no download limit. I am concerned by some reports I have seen of similar problems and a friend who has them (different exchange), is getting fantastic download speeds 13 -11Mbps, BUT his pings are very high. I was considering plusnet but saw the link on here to their traffic shaping which I suspect is what I am suffering from now.

We want decent download speeds in the evening, and will be also using it for playing PS3 games online.

The catch is we want about 10Gb download ability (though not a hard one, as we very occassionally go over f2s didn't even contact us on the few occassion we did), and don't want to pay more than the £14.99 we are currently paying.

Does any body have any suggesetions please? I am really after a ISP who is like F2S USED to be. Thanks

Nicky

I know I am not supposed to be reply to my own posts but I would like to apologise for the typo's. I am now registered. Thanks for any suggestions.

I am considering IDNet as they are the same as I am paying at the moment, no traffic shaping etc. They have good ratings on here. Is anybody with them?

Thanks

Which exchange?

I would recommend sky tbh

They are on the list. I tried phoning them to try and discuss pings speeds etc. to discover that I can only phone them on an 0844 number, I have Sky talk and need to pay extra for that. They used to have an 0870 number and were selling sky talk on the fact that calls to technical support etc were included in your package. Not any more it seems! Unless I can phone them on a landline, 0870 or free phone number they aren't getting any more of our business and we will be moving our phone service away from them as the first opportunity (about 8 months left).

In reply to a post by NickyJ:

I am considering IDNet as they are the same as I am paying at the moment, no traffic shaping etc. They have good ratings on here. Is anybody with them?

Quite a few, but you might like to have a look at their own (unofficial) forum here:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php

Your choice, but as you already have Sky TV you may as well benefit from cheap unlimited broadband. They can reduce the interleaving and upcap the sync speed on request.

Which exchange are you on, and what is your current attenuation?

How do I find out? I have a Belkin F5D9630.... which is another reason I don't want to go with them , I can't carry on using our existing router without a lot of messing about trying to get a valid password that will work.

These things you are telling me about them they would be able to tell me themselves if they didn't change their contact numbers.

Have a look here:

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/dslrouter/f/2869468...

Ah the actual answer is - scroll down a little bit more. D'oh.

33 Downstream 21 Upstream.

What does this tell me though?

It tells you that you can get speeds of around 14megs downstream.

Which is similar to what my friend is getting but the pings are attrocious as my friend doesn't do online gaming it is not a problem but for us that would be.

It was in the hundreds, can't remember which I have the image at work.

I was going to give them a chance to find out if they can or will do anything to improve it, or if there was a different service we could use but that was when I couldn't find a number I could ring them on which was inclusive of my sky talk package.

Oh dear, just realised they are more expensive than I thought. I thought it said a 10Gb download, but I was looking at the wrong row in the table. 10Gb download was off-peak. Peak is only 2Gb.

I was prepared to spend £1 extra a month for getting back to the service we used to have but not over £4 extra month. Basically another £50 a year.

Seriously does no provider do a service with no throttling or traffic shaping and descent pings for about £15 a month, with a 10Gb download?

Do you really think no-one uses Sky unlimited for gaming?

I do wonder. See my post in the Sky section of the forum. So far no replies. So I am guessing "No" By the I am some what joking there, I realise that it hasn't been that long.

The biggest concern I have is getting out of them if I am not happy. 12months of being stuck if it doesn't work as expected is concerning....

Edited by deleted (Fri 18-Feb-11 14:09:06)

Hi,
You won't get a BT IP stream package any where as good as that from F2S, well not for the money you are prepared to pay per month

This lot are an Entanet reseller so might be best to ask about them in the reseller forum.

http://www.goscomb.net/connectivity/broadband/consumer

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list/ISP_Detail_Fixed...

They do monthly contracts, so there is a set up fee to cover costs.

Thanks for that stear. They do look very interesting at just £12 per month.

Thankyou.

In reply to a post by NickyJ:

Thanks for that stear. They do look very interesting at just £12 per month.

Thankyou.

How much is Sky Broadband unlimited?

[quote

Seriously does no provider do a service with no throttling or traffic shaping and descent pings for about £15 a month, with a 10Gb download?
[/quote]

well there's zen so you wont do any better i feel ?
__________________

Edited by NICK_ADSL_UK (Fri 18-Feb-11 23:58:28)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

How much is Sky Broadband unlimited?

That's the fourth time you've tried to push Sky at the OP, are you on commission?

I think he she can make his her own mind up now.

Edited by billford (Sat 19-Feb-11 01:19:43)

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

How much is Sky Broadband unlimited?

That's the fourth time you've tried to push Sky at the OP, are you on commission?

I think he can make his own mind up now.

She

Oh of course, Idnet is in the frame

Edited by deleted (Sat 19-Feb-11 00:03:07)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

How much is Sky Broadband unlimited?

That's the fourth time you've tried to push Sky at the OP, are you on commission?

I think he can make his own mind up now.

She

Oh of course, Idnet is in the frame

Cheaper than Zen? Better ratings?

Used by Billford? and you?

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Oh of course, Idnet is in the frame

Nice try, but no cigar.

So who uses Sky?

LOL
FTTC isn't really relevant, and I've been recommding them for ages as you know.

Nice that in my O2 post not long ago there was no significant speed drop. Latency looking good on BQM as well, and

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.94] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.246.94: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.246.94: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.246.94: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 212.58.246.94: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 212.58.246.94:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 13ms

In reply to a post by NickyJ:

I know I am not supposed to be reply to my own posts

There's no reason why you shouldn't, it's often the best way to provide extra information that you may have forgotten in the first post.

It will show as a new (unread) post, whereas an edit won't be flagged up if someone has already read the original.

You've also only got 12 hours after posting to edit, you can reply any time.

Edited by billford (Sat 19-Feb-11 00:20:00)

I might think about it on my un-used line. I'd opt for the free-Sky package only on it. The second line was dross whilst on bonding.

BTborked the line up for me. [un-censored].

£7.50 a month, it is extremely tempting, especially seeing there seems to be as many if not more happy customers as unhappy.

If we weren't tied into 12months when we get it, I would go with it and try it, at that price.

I will speak to them this morning and hopefully get answers to my concerns, if the give you say 30days to cancel as o2 were offering me then I will give them a go.

Thanks all for your help and suggestions. We have signed up with Sky. There is 14days after connection in which I can cancel. That only gives me a few days after the line settles down but at least I have that. As they have only just unbundled our exchange and that almost everybody in our area appears to be on Talk Talk I am hoping it will be good. If not at least we will be paying half what we were.