Heavy user and gamer - need low pings/ unltd usage

hi all,

well i've really had it with pipex and tommorow will be asking for my mac and also sending them a letter on their abysmal service they have supplied me and my hard earned cash for over the past months. I'll be cancelling out of a contract which is due to expire in august.

anyway, i need an isp that is good for gaming ( pipex seem to think 70-80ms pings are playable ).. needs to be uncapped and also UK based customer support (im a pc engineer but when things go wrong its nice to speak to a uk company and not someone in the philipenes who doesnt seem to care and obviously knows nothing about computers, let alone networks *COUGH* PIPEXISCALI *COUGH*

That's about it basically, a nice reliable ISP and not one that costs an arm and a leg. Hope u can help

Really "uncapped", or will a few hundred GB do you?
If you're after true unlimited (no caps at all), you'll need to be paying upwards of �70 a month, but should also realise the true cost to the ISP (if every user actually downloaded 2.2TB a month) is around �1400 a month.

If you can cope with, say 60GB peak, plus 330GB off-peak, Entanet are good for gaming; as when things get busy, they slow connections down to keep pings low (typical speeds during high demand periods are between 2-4Mbps).
My pings to www.jolt.co.uk are rock solid around 32ms (would be around 16-18ms, but I have a long line with interleaving enabled to aid error correction).
Entanet's home max 60 product costs around �30 a month.
They also do a 30/300 product for �20 a month.

If you must have unlimited (if you want to download in excess of a few hundred GB), you'll best look towards LLU (Sky, UKonline, BE, o2 etc), but need to remember these all have fair usage policies and may get upset if you use more than 200-250GB a month.

IDNET may be a good choice for you. They do not, however, offer an uncapped service (except for their business services). They do have low pings and a very respectable UK based Support and CS in Letchworth, UK. You will often speak to the owners, all the staff are very knowledgeable, polite , courteous and helpful. Also all support is free and phones answered within a couple of rings and emails answered very quickly.

www.idnet.co.uk

IDNet Studio, The Spirella Building, Letchworth, Herts SG6 4ET. UK
T: 08000 267 237 | E: [email protected]

Ok I play a lot of online gaming and that's probably running into gigs and gigs each month with the bandwidth i'm using in that respect.

I forgot to mention as well I'm going to be migrating from pipex who i had a broadband/phone package with so i guess i'm better off going back to BT phone or are there any decent ISPS with phone packages out there?

I'm not a gamer but I get the impression that actually playing the games (rather than downloading them) does not use much bandwidth.

Perhaps you could get a guestimate from the gaming forum if you let them know which games you play.

I'd use the SamKnows Mapper to see what they say is available in your area:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/mapping/mapping.php

Then if you can get Be/o2 you should investigate them. As a clearly avid gamer you may prefer Be's (more expensive?) service as not only ADSL2+/unlimited but once connected then will put you on FastPath for maximum performance/lowest latency if you ask!

I get the impression that actually playing the games (rather than downloading them) does not use much bandwidth.

Almost none at all (certainly easily covered by a 30GB a month package).

I'm quite interested in BE at the moment as they seem to provide a very fast service with good regard from their existing customers.. but am still undecided, there's entanet, idnet ad ufksn etc. i'm also considering ...

just a question though, i'm not familiar with how migration works. Today I requested my MAC code from pipex and will be getting it within 5 working days, then have 30 till i can use it to migrate or its obsolete. I cannot afford to be without the internet for a week or something, do i stay on pipex until the migration is made or will they cut me off say the beginning of next week for example ( way sooner than i would get my new isp )??

Today I requested my MAC code from pipex and will be getting it within 5 working days, then have 30 till i can use it to migrate or its obsolete. I cannot afford to be without the internet for a week or something, do i stay on pipex until the migration is made or will they cut me off say the beginning of next week for example ( way sooner than i would get my new isp )??

A little confused there.
What you actually do is apply for a MAC (which you've already done).
It then remains valid for 30 days.
You can use it at any point during those 30 days (preferably at least a week before it expires).
You don't cancel your current service (otherwise the MAC may become invalid, and you'll have to pay a new connection fee).
You issue the MAC to your new provider.
They'll give you a migration date.
At some point during that day, your connection will go down for a few minutes, and come back up with the new provider.
You then enter the new login details (issued by your new provider) into your router.
Your old provider probably won't cut you off until some time after the migration.
Once you're up and running with the new provider, cancel the account payment facility (but not the broadband) with your old provider, and confirm to them your migration is complete (I've never had to do this, but you're with Pipex, if you know what I mean).

EDIT: If you're moving to an LLU provider (BE, O2, Sky, etc.) your connection may go down for more than a few minutes, as Openreach will need to connect you to the LLU provider's own equipment.
If you're moving between IPstream providers (e.g. if you're switching from Pipex to Entanet), the down-time will probably be less than 20 minutes.

Edited by adebov (Mon 24-Mar-08 21:07:11)

eek i've sent an email to pipex customer services saying that i want to cancel the service and that i've requested my mac code over the phone earlier.

The email is a formal complaint about the service i have received from pipex and that i want to migrate with my mac code but do not want to pay penalty charges and the reasons why i should not have to.

What should i do?

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Mar-08 21:58:09)