Need a new ISP suggestions welcome

Hi all,
I going to be looking for a new ISP in the new year and i am looking for
some advice on which one to go for.
I have been doing a bit of research and so far in the runnig are
Zen, Namesco, UKonline and Idnet.

I do a lot of online gaming (COD4 and UT 2004 mainly) and also listen
to internet radio and browsing, email and also work from home,

What i am looking for is reliablility, good speed and good cust service
(isnt everyone i guess lol)

I am currently with nildram, who i have been with since 2002.
Up until lately they have been faultless, but recently i have had numerous
DNS issues and also issues with email and when eventually getting through to
tech support just being fobbed off and being told there is not a problem
when clearly there is.

So hence the move, which is a shame as they used to be spot on in all aspects.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

J

Check who has unbundled (LLU'd) your exchange as Be/O2 and Sky (if you have/want Sky TV) on LLU are also good choices. See http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

If you have Sky/Easynet LLU at your exchange UKonline are with out doubt the best at the moment when it comes to online gaming .
There UK ping's are normally a couple of ms slower than other ISP, 10ms rather than 8ms , but where UKonline really do the business is there transit links and peering agreements to other country's , i can play happily on European servers with a 30/40ms ping .
All ping's are stable , there is no congestion , it just works at the speed you sync at all day and night .
Which if your a online gamer is exactly what you want so you can carry on gaming with out worries about ping spikes and a lagging connecting .

Easynet/UKonline have there own back-hauls to there POP and don't rent bandwidth of other suppliers say like some other LLU suppliers do .
They also have a good international network coverage and don't need to be sharing/renting transit links as they own there own network here and abroad (mostly , not got total world coverage).
So with luck you got Easynet LLU at your exchange .

Be* also have a good reputation for online gaming but don't have the same strengths as UKonline do with there transit links and peering agreements .
But are cheaper and support Annex-M if your lines good enough to support it and if they have Be* LLU at your exchange

Zen are a very good IPstream ISP but very expensive with small usage as are IDnet , both are good for online gaming .
Ukonline do supply a IPstream product , but i personally would say Zen and IDnet where a better choice if IPstream is all you have at your exchange .

Namesco im not sure about .

As for DNS issues , i cant promise faultless service with any provider as all seem to have problems at one point or another , but its how they deal with them problems which is more important to you the customer , and all the ISP you have listed will deal with problems better than nildram ..

Just don't go with Demon internet, Pipex, Eclipse Internet or Tiscali unless you want poor speeds with pitiful, insulting customer service.

I'd echo the DON'T go for Pipex/Tiscali - I've finally got to the point of asking for a MAC so I can get away at last. Final straw was them trying to transfer my phone to them without my permission.

Thankfully BT have systems in place to notify of such underhand behaviour.

When I get my MAC I'm off to O2/Be

I moved to IDnet from Pipex over a year ago and have never regretted it. Speeds and connection are great and their Customer Service is probably the best in the business - an 0800 number for a start and their techie CS guys really know their stuff and will take on BT wholesale for you when it's an exchange problem etc.

No traffic management or throttling. I'm on the max package with a 30 Gb download limit per month and uploads aren't counted so that's unlimited - very useful when using iplayer etc.

Cheers

Arathorn

I'd go for TalkTalk and get the phone package thrown in. Very good service i find, great speeds and reliability. I get latency averaging 16ms pinging bbc.co.uk.

As for the support, their phoneline isnt always the best. But they have a VERY useful forum. Dedicated staff members browse the forum for any problems people may be experiencing. Also, this gives you a very customisable broadband profile; you may want a lower target SNR margin to increase speeds, you may want to be switch to Faspath for lower latencies etc. A very useful tools, and unique to TalkTalk. Give www.talktalkmembers.com a vist and read the topics on the forum there

Thanks guys for the input
Im going to be calling Nildram tommorow to get a migration
code, the final straw was last night my ADSL being down for over 12 hours!

I got in about 1am so as i could wish some friends who live abroad happy new year etc
to find that my link was down.
So i called Nildram tech support to find that "your call cannot be connected" and then to be cut off twice.
This company is a total joke nowadays, utter [censored].

So ill be giving Zen a try as they dont tie you into a contract for a year and seem to be pretty highly rated.

Zen have a good name,good luck with your MAC.

A good choice

Welcome aboard.