Mark - ISP change advice

Hi

Current ISP - UKOnline
Exchange - Dunblane

I currently get 6Meg download speeds in the morning and late at night so during off peak periods all is well.

I work from home sometimes via VPN to my company and by mid afternoon it is slowing down, especially during the school holidays, and by 4:30pm it is almost unusable. It is not an issue with my company as connecting via a friends ISP in a different area with LLU its fine any time of the day.

I am told by UKOnline that it is because of people using games consoles, BBC iPlayer etc etc and they can do nothing about it.

It is clearly a 'contention' issue however my exchange has no LLU providers and we have no Virgin in the area.

I want to change to a provider/package that does not slow down as much and would appreciate anyones thoughts on my best route forward such as perhaps a 'business' connection and would that make any difference.

Thanks
Mark.

You don't mention how much GB usage you require and how much you want to pay per month, however that aside one of the premium ISPs is IDNet so it would be worthwhile looking at their website to see if they have a package that meets your needs.

> > > Home BB

> > > Buisiness BB

Ukonline share resold BT capacity with Sky Connect service , which also performs very badly .

You will almost definitely be able to find a better provider than UKonline , but who you choose will be down to your usage and when you use your line .

IDnet , Newnet , Fast even BT its self will perform better than UKonline excuse of a resold BT product but to help you choose a new provider we need to know your usage and if big downloads can be done at off peak times .

Hi

I am not a heavy user approx 15GB to 20GB/month. I could schedule any larger downloads during off peak.

I was looking at 'PlusNet Pro' as their allowance is 20GB/month and if their marketing blurb is to be believed:

'With Pro you pay a little bit more for the best broadband experience. It's perfect if you demand fast downloads, no matter what time of day or what you're doing online' and with 'All traffic prioritised at all times'. They even allow 'Free usage between midnight-8am (perfect for scheduling large downloads)' so if I had something large to download I could do it overnight.

It all sounds perfect and for £22.99/month I could stretch to that providing it is as good as it sounds.

HOWEVER - IDNET Home Lite or Newnet Home M sound even better at £18/month.

To sumarise I would like

1. A package that does not slow up as much during peak times as UKonline
2. Costs up to £25/month
3. Has an allowance of around 20GB/month

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to help - I really do appreciate your time.

Mark.

I don't know if you noticed it on their website but IDNet do not count uploads towards your monthly GB usage.

If you can live with the 20gig and schedule large down loads i personaly think Plusnet are a pretty good choice.

My reasoning being , is they are very good at managing there bandwidth available and have a very refined traffic management system .
Some user sneer at traffic management , but where there are bandwidth restrictions and your getting prioritised bandwidth it will be a much better experience to the one you are having at the moment with UKonline IMHO .

Just to add a little info to the good advice you have had from all the repliers so far.

Newnet count upload against your allowance, as well as download, and their overnight unmetered period is currently very dodgy for reasons that would take a while to explain. It's a frequent bone of contention in that forum here.

Using VPN your upload could matter.

I think your choice is between IDNet and Plusnet. Of the two I would plump for IDNet, as basically they seem to provide sufficient capacity not to need to traffic manage. Plusnet is more mass market and to some extent have to satisfy their BT owners with a corporate ROI (Return On Investment).

I think Zen would also be a good choice, 50GB for £25 with uploads not counted. No peak/off peak split either unlike IDNet.

Regards,
Steve

Office 45 from Entanet reseller Vivaciti at £30.26 a month (inc VAT)

Usage only counts weekdays between 8am and 8pm

In reply to a post by sjr:

I think Zen would also be a good choice, 50GB for £25 with uploads not counted. No peak/off peak split either unlike IDNet.

Regards,
Steve

I would also recommend Zen, network is very responsive and support are always 'on the ball'