Need a change, looking for help!

Hi there

I have been with Virgin Media ever since I can remember. They have generally been good however I have had an area fault/been over utilized since May of last year and they have just yet again set a new fix date for the problem. I have simply had enough and need a new broadband provider.

We are not too bothered about a TV package and would only have a landline so that we can use broadband and not to actually use.

I download quite a bit and play games online regularly, so the only things I am looking for is decent download speeds, unlimited use (so I don't get capped if I download a certain amount), low ping and no throttling.

I live in Derby, England if this helps, any advice given is appreciated!

Which exact telephone exchange in Derby, as that governs exactly which deals are available

I have just done a search on SamKnows, I don't know if this is accurate but it says Mickleover

What does this checker say about your address? And does it confirm Mickleover?

On anything but VM cable or wireless broadband, the distance from the exchange makes a big difference - that checker gives us some idea of what speeds you will get.

Edited by RobertoS (Wed 30-Jan-13 21:23:22)

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm302/smith11dcfc...

And yes it does confirm Mickleover as my exchange

If you have Sky TV then Sky looks a good deal. If not, then Plusnet.

Probably on Sky, and certainly on Plusnet, you have FTTC available at around the speed suggested there. All the ADSL variants are probably slightly slower than what you would get, but don't fit what you asked for in terms of speed.

You are a long way from the exchange, and also a long way from the cabinet.

There is a deal on at the moment with Plusnet - half price FTTC for 6 months. They also have a traffic management system which is not about throttling, it is about making things run well for people like you. See this explanation.

Thanks for that, that deal looks really good and traffic management thing looks good for gaming! Is sky/plusnet the best place to look for lowest ping? Because I've read that is the main thing for online gaming

I'm not a gamer, but have seen quite a few posts saying the lowest possible ping can be counterproductive.

Apparently a lot of game servers add delays/latency into very low ping users as otherwise they would always win, and all the rest would leave. This added delay can be overdone making things worse rather than better for the person with very low great ping.

As I understand it a reasonably quick ping but with very low jitter is what is best. That way you know how your end behaves. It's no good if at one point you have 10ms ping and the next 20ms then back to 12ms.

Right that makes sense, and from that info I gave you can you see that plusnet would be the best for that? Sorry to keep asking questions but I want to make sure before I switch!