Which ISP for home worker?

Hi,

I am due to move to a new house, which has FTTC available and am wondering which ISP would be best for me. I work from home most of the time (for now) and need reliable internet connection.

I am currently on ADSL2+ product from Vivaciti and the service is generally good. Occasionally, I get slowdowns in, what I assume, routing, which can last a day but other than that, it's OK. Customer service is also OK but only OK.

So, I am now considering my options. I don't want to go with any big ISPs as I want to only deal with UK based support who actually have a clue. BT don't, Virgin don't, PlusNet is OK but I find their support slow-responding to issues. I also want to have a phone line supplied by the same company providing me with internet, so that I don't have to deal with BT directly in case of issues.

I've pretty much narrowed it down to three: Vivaciti, IDNet and Zen, based on pricing and offers. The question is: which one?

I like the fact that IDNet offer a nice Billion modem but they are the most expensive of the three. It's also important that there's no traffic shaping of any kind (or at least none that I would notice). I do a bit of p2p, so would like this not to be affected. I also know that Vivaciti don't block certain sites, such as TPB etc., but do the others?

Usage cap needs to be relatively generous. I'd say I don't download more than around 200Gb per month but I don't want to be restricted

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
CJ

Pulse8? Support is excellant and UK based

Can get unlimited usage which uses the Talk Talk Business network. Thats what im on

Edited by bobble_bob (Wed 15-Jul-15 13:47:58)

I am on Zen Fibre2 Unlimited and have had no problems for 18 months since connection.

I see no lag / contention etc.

Support were quick to respond and worked through line tests when I had a strange issue that proved to be a sick router.

Are you looking at Business Grade connection? If not, then you should be. If the connection is vital to being able to work from home then extended downtimes would not be acceptable.

You have excluded BT for a totally invalid reason - their support for business services is UK based and 24 hour 365 day. Do the others offer it?

With a very major fault here, BT had a temporary fix in place on the next working day. The residential customers had a much longer wait.

If a solid broadband connection is vital, then look at AAISP

In reply to a post by MHC:

Are you looking at Business Grade connection? ...

You have excluded BT for a totally invalid reason - their support for business services is UK based and 24 hour 365 day....

Sorry, but there's no way I am going with BT. I have had some very bad experiences with them in the past (this includes in a business sphere) and I am not about to venture down the same road again.

Edited by deleted (Wed 15-Jul-15 15:40:20)

In reply to a post by hypertony:

If a solid broadband connection is vital, then look at AAISP

They seem a little pricey and their website is extremely confusing with their unit pricing...

I will send them an email.

Edited by deleted (Wed 15-Jul-15 15:43:29)

You'll be hard pushed to find better than AAISP. There is much truth in the adage "you get what you pay for".

The real test for any ISP is how they deal with problems on your line. Over the years I've been with Demon, PlusNet (from when they were founded), BT and FalconNet. Every single one of them have failed with the service when there has been a problem, and not one of them could deal with the vagaries of BT Openreach.

The AAISP network is always fast, their customer service is excellent, they *understand* the technology very well (and you certainly can't say that of many ISP's support lines) and the sort problems FAST (and know how to interface with Openreach).

Yes, you pay more than the commodity ISPs, but if an ISP only competes on price, then the rest of the service suffers (true in any business).

I have no connection with AAISP, other than being a very satisfied customer for 3 years now, and one that would never go back to any of the others I've previously dealt with - especially Plusnet,

As a final note, I would suggest you don't ask people to recommend an ISP based on a fault free relationship, but ask people if they have ever had a problem with an ISP, and how well/quickly it was sorted. Yes, an Internet service can be good 99% of the time, but if a problem does arise, and takes weeks or months to resolve, then you'll suddenly understand why *this* is what really matters in choosing an ISP.

I think you're being a bit harsh on BT. I have been with them for 6 years since moving (previously was with NTL/Virgin) and the only 2 times I had any technical problems they resolved them quickly. One was a slow connection, they sent round not one but 3 OpenReach engineers the next day and rewired my connection. The second was when my wifi was unreliable and I needed a new HH - although my PC is a direct ethernet connection so it was not that critical. True their tech support seems to be in India but they were as competent as any UK call centre - and BTs other customer support seems to be based in Scotland.

I work from home (software development) most of the time so a good connection is critical as is unlimited data usage. I don't care about the cost as my company pays for BB and landline, I'd rather not use an ISP that may disappear tomrrow.