help me choose ISP please

I live in Brighton. I have been with Virgin Media for 4+ years now and have always been quite disappointed with their speed when it comes to online gaming. The connection always suffers from high latency and jitter. This was the case since 2009.

However in 2011 the speed and quality of the line have taken a turn for the worse. The line is pretty much unusable now and has been for the last 6 months.

Virgin keep moving the 'fix' date further into 2012. I suspect they will eventually fix it by the end of the year but that my gaming experience will not improve and neither will their traffic management policy, customer service etc. I urge anyone to avoid Virgin Media like the plaque.

I wanted to ask the forum to help me choose between Eclipse, Plusnet for fibre optic or BE and Orange for ADSL.

I do download stuff but not that much but I do play online games and do require low pings and jitter during peak hours i.e. all day every day.

Anybody experienced these providers in Brighton specifically the BN1 area?

Thank you in advance

Is that VM cable or VM ADSL?

That would be Virgin Media super Cable broadband .

I have friends in the US who also have cable (not with Virgin) and they do not have this problems? Richard Branson lives in the US so he probably has good broadband

Please any recommendations for gamers in the Brighton area?
Plusnet or Eclipse. cost is no issue.

Anyone with good gaming stories to tell about their ISP? in Brighton

Thanks

BT infinity is the best bang for buck out there.

You need to check if you are on Withdean or Hove exchanges which are live for Infinity or Kemptown which isn't until March.

I've just cancelled my contract with VM due to poor broadband performance over the last few months, I live in BN2.

I've checked BT infinity and it isn't available to me so I'm looking at alternatives, heard good things about BE but they are costlier than alternatives, others I'm considering are O2 and Sky, would be interested to know if anyone has any experience of these good or bad, or any other ISPs in the area. thanks

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

I've just cancelled my contract with VM due to poor broadband performance over the last few months, I live in BN2.

I've checked BT infinity and it isn't available to me so I'm looking at alternatives, heard good things about BE but they are costlier than alternatives, others I'm considering are O2 and Sky, would be interested to know if anyone has any experience of these good or bad, or any other ISPs in the area. thanks

Just to avoid confusion, you aren't the OP and forgotten to log in are you? Your postcode is different, but could be a typo.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Feb-12 13:18:49)

Hi - Anon here, no sorry bit of a hijack but similar enough I thought (hope) to add to the conversation. cheers, John

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Hi - Anon here, no sorry bit of a hijack but similar enough I thought (hope) to add to the conversation. cheers, John

Can you put your phone number into this checker please, and post the URL of the result. (By the way, the site is a lot easier to use if you register. No captcha's for a start, and far fewer adverts. Plus you can alter the look/usability a bit. You don't get spammed).

Hi RobertoS

Advice taken, I'm now officially johncf rather than anon, - url for the link you gave gives me the Kemptown exchange

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

Also included the link when clicking through on the name link which gives a bunch of information so I guess it's a matter of which one is enabled and out of those ones which is the best?

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SDKMPTW

Really grateful for your help

John

In reply to a post by johncf:

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/SDKMPTW

I assume you were on VM cable as well?

Lots of options there, but the cheapest have an assortment of niggles. Is price important, within reason?

Have you got Sky TV? Who is your landline with, if you have one, and is it in a long-term contract? Would you use a landline anyway for phone calls, or just want it so that you could have broadband?

yeah we were on VM cable but as per much of Brighton poor service for most of the last few months, and similar problems for Xmas/Spring 2010/11.

Home phone has been with VM and is going at the same time as the broadband, there is an old BT cable in the house which was here before we moved in but no idea what state it is in. We've barely use the landline because mobile allowance covers what we need, in fact the only thing we have used it for is to call VM support. Not with Sky (use freeview) so no contracts anywhere and as such pretty flexible.

In terms of price if I can get good for £10 more a month than I can get iffy then I'd go for good especially as I'm working from home more and more at the moment.

In terms of price if I can get good for £10 more a month

Seeing as I've no idea of more than what ...?
Line rental is going to cost around £9-£14, and possibly installation costs of £0 to £130. You'll probably be very close to the bottom end of that, but I can't guarantee it at this stage.

Then there is the broadband itself.

I Am surprised that VM can be as bad as you say. I know they have 'problem areas' where take up out passes capacity and therefore speeds become poor.

Have you got a BQM for your VM connection? - http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping

I'd be interested to see what this graph looks like if you have one already or can set one up.

If cost is no issue have you considered a leased line? /joke

Whatever you do don't go with Plusnet or Orange they are both BT (essentially) ... Be*/O2 or Sky are the best (cheap) providers.

Remember that moving away from a HFC network you will be limited by the quality (length) of your phone line. If you are some distance from the exchange you may be very disappointed with the speed. Alos if FTTC/Infinity is available or going to be soo you may be better off waiting as Sky are launching a fibre product soon.

In terms of price if I can get good for £10 more a month

Seeing as I've no idea of more than what ...?
Line rental is going to cost around £9-£14, and possibly installation costs of £0 to £130. You'll probably be very close to the bottom end of that, but I can't guarantee it at this stage.

Then there is the broadband itself.

My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk
My domains,website and mail hosting - Tsohost. Internet connection - Plusnet Value Fibre.

"Where talent is a dwarf, self-esteem is a giant." - Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn.

heh - sorry guess I wasn't clear.

Most of the packages I've looked at including the line rental seem to be between around £20 per month give or take a few quid to around £30 per month give or take a few quid for similar deals, that is unlimited downloads, (or fairly large allowances, I'm not a massive downloader but kids like iplayer) and a reasonable speed 12-24mb (uploads aren't an issue for me) which doesn't choke during busy periods. I'd have to take connection into account but on the monthly cost if the £30 ISP (BE) was that much better, by which I mean consistent and reliable than the £20 ones (o2/Sky) I'd rather go with the £30 ones.

I guess as an after thought free support calls to helpful customer service is also pretty important to me given some of my previous experiences.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Feb-12 23:07:08)

In reply to a post by 5km:

I Am surprised that VM can be as bad as you say. I know they have 'problem areas' where take up out passes capacity and therefore speeds become poor.

It's a shame but it is not something VM deny, I haven't had to pay my bill for the last four months because of the service and an acknowledged over utilization fault in my area and when I came to say I wanted to cancel my contract (mid-term) they didn't quibble. A quick google search for Brighton and Virgin Media shows the problems many people are having. Will give the link you gave me a go tomorrow, got to go and feed baby now, but this was tonight's pingtest result, it is by no means the worst I've had and the rotterdam server came back with the quickest initial ping

http://www.pingtest.net/result/56879377.png

Thanks for the tips on the (cheap) recommendations, just what I was looking for

Your phone number probably doesn't work in this checker, but try the address. (Not just the post code). That will give some speed estimates. Please copy/paste those.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 14-Feb-12 23:49:51)

In reply to a post by 5km:

Whatever you do don't go with Plusnet or Orange they are both BT (essentially)

If the exchange is 21CN WBC, as Brighton is, then these ISPs, together with BT Retail, are pretty good and at least 2 of them offer unlimited usage.

Conversely, things at your preferred providers, Be/O2, are not all that rosy these days if you care to peruse their forums.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Your phone number probably doesn't work in this checker, but try the address. (Not just the post code). That will give some speed estimates. Please copy/paste those.

Done - below, thanks

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your address indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line speed up to 2Mbps.

Our check also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL Max broadband line speed of 7Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 6Mbps and 8Mbps.

Our check also indicates that your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 15Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 8.5Mbps and 19Mbps. Our test also indicates that your line could support an estimated ADSL 2+ Annex-M broadband upstream line speed of 1.5Mbps and downstream line speed of 15Mbps; typically the downstream speed would range between 8.5Mbps and 19Mbps.

The actual stable line speed supportable will be determined during the first 10 days of use. This speed may change over time, to ensure line stability is maintained.

If you decide to place an order, a further test will be performed to confirm if your line is suitable for the service you wish to purchase.

Thank you for your interest.

Please note that postcode and address check results are indicative only. Most accurate results can be obtained from a telephone number check.

Conversely, things at your preferred providers, Be/O2, are not all that rosy these days if you care to peruse their forums.

Yes there's an issue with peering which affects a handful of sites and some users. Not everyone! I'm one that is affected and have posted about this. However I would still recommend as I've had very few problems. O2's new products with traffic management are not as good as Be*'s or Skys truly unlimited offerings but are still better than a lot of main stream ISP's out there.

http://www.pingtest.net/result/56879377.png

OMG that is really bad! The BQM only goes up to ~140ms so that'll probably not show anything useful.

your line currently supports an estimated ADSL2+ broadband line speed of 15Mbps; typically the line speed would range between 8.5Mbps and 19Mbps

That's great. It's a wide range, but thankfully doesn't say it will be slow!

It means we can recommend on merit of the ISPs rather tan worry about whether any would be any good.

I'm back off to bed with tea and migraine , but there are plenty of others who will have suggestions. Back later.

5KM

With Virign Media I would get 1000ms jitter in the afternoons and over the weekend in 2012. The speed would be 0.15 to 0.5mbits etc

I am actually so tired talking about it. I cancelled and I feel great. an absolute joke VM was in Brighton. So after being polite and patient etc I woke up. I can always join them in 6 months time if they sort things out (Excuse me while I LAUGH OUT LOUD) but for the time being I switched to the post office which is cheap (offers free installation of BT line) and chose a provider based on the views in their community forums. The speed will be low but compared to Virgin Media it will be higher in practice!

Then after my very short contract i will decide whether to stay with them or go to Eclipse, Zen or Plusnet (all BT resale outfits but with their own terms etc)

But VM : NEVER again

worst british company for sure except the clever chaps in their cancellation department

That's what my graphs look like. So enough refunds and wasting time on the phone to support.

I got a free BT landline installed and the world is my oyster.

I am trying out BE to see what it is like (I am not a heavy downloader). All I want is consistent pings for gaming and streaming (you can play online games with 0.5 MBits as long as your line quality is A)

And in Brighton 2 out of the 3 exchanges in the area are FTTC enabled. I think when enough people leave VM then their service will be much better. So since I have cancelled my VM deal (THANK YOU BABY JESUS) I feel I am helping the Brighton community

I hope Branson dies in space whilst trying to ring VM support and runs out of time

As XRaySpeX says, Be is having a bit of bother at the moment. It should get fixed, but it seems to be geographic. Historically excellent.

While Bes having issues there wholesalers seem to be ok

I recommend Xilo or Vivaciti

First, thanks for all the replies really helpful and defnitely feel like I'm getting to an informed choice

In reply to a post by epyon:

While Bes having issues there wholesalers seem to be ok

I recommend Xilo or Vivaciti

These don't show as options in my local exchange according to the Sam Knows link, not sure but I'd guess this means they are not available to me. From what I can tell this leaves me with:

AOL - heard next to nothing about this and packages seem more restricted for the same cost as some other more generous packages offered by others.

talktalk - heard too many bad things about product and customer services to consider

BT - have been warned off it and the reseller packages in this forum

BE/O2 - seem to be having some issues at the moment, probaly not the time to go with them right now

Which by process of elimination leaves Sky - any significant worries out there? If not will probably book up tonight.

Resellers don't show on SamKnows, only the supplying ISPs. You have to contact them directly.

Nevertheless, if the wholesaling ISP is having issues on their network, then that would affect the resellers equally, as far as I can see.

They have plans that use BE/o2 network

http://www.vivaciti.net/signup.php
try you're number in there.

or https://my.xilo.net/adslcheck.php

xilo should come up with something like this

http://i43.tinypic.com/qn9vkj.png

Edited by epyon (Wed 15-Feb-12 14:08:35)

Nope, different network.

Ah, OK! I didn't release you had your own network or Be wholesales to you a diff network from its retail one.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Ah, OK! I didn't release you had your own network or Be wholesales to you a diff network from its retail one.

They use different peering too,

Sorry to Hijack but am in exactly the same position a s OP. In BN1 area and had enough of the laughable service from Virgin.

Was thinking of BE myself but reading this thread I wondered what the bad things people had heard about them?

Cheers

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Ah, OK! I didn't release you had your own network or Be wholesales to you a diff network from its retail one.

They use the Be DSLAM but it routes from that to their own network, not the Be one.

@ RandomJointer: Dunno where's your post gone, but others seem to say that resellers have their own network.

RandomJointer's post has been censored and deleted.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

RandomJointer's post has been censored and deleted.

?
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/which_isp/t/4092440...

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/entanet/4085402-att...

You are getting censored too.

Link gives blanks, but I think I found the thread.

I wonder what we both said? A long time in my life, 10 days.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 16-Feb-12 22:09:10)

Really? Sank w/out all trace? That's not how it's done!

Why? It was innocuous!

Not that 1, Roberto, but the one that I received by 16 February 2012 20:21 email that started "I am not permitted to comment on ... (spoiler alert!)" at http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/which_isp/t/4093939... .

Edited by XRaySpeX (Thu 16-Feb-12 22:44:35)