Switching ISPS - Please help :o

Hi, I'm hoping you guys can help me here as I'm a bit uninformed of all this broadband lingo.

I've spent countless hours over the past week researching ISP's in my area and I really can't figure out which way to go. Seems everyone thinks every ISP is bad when I read reviews :/

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/NDHAS

It says im almost 2km away from the exchange but my ISP says over 3km so who knows.

My ISP btw is Utility Warehouse and from reading up it seems that means TalkTalk provide my broadband.

I get a terrible 3 to 4mb connection and my upload is around 1mb. I rang my ISP about this and they said I had line errors but offered no way to help other than "change your filters".

If I am to switch ISP's I need a phone bundle with it that includes atleast free weekend calls and I also need a decent usage limit, preferably unlimited as I download a fair amount monthly. Pretty much all I use my internet for is gaming/downloading/streaming.

According to SamKnows the best connection I can get on ADSL2+ is 6Mb which is unfortunately terrible but better than 3mb.

Any real help is apprecited, so far it doesnt matter if i research on O2/Sky/BT/Plusnet. Everyone seems to hate them all :/

If you need any more info that I've left out, just ask

SamKnows is just an estimate based on BT's unreliable database. Post your router stats and we will be able to tell you your expected actuals.

Depending on your usage, O2, Be and Sky are all acceptable.

I switched to Sky a few months ago. I am very happy with them. You can see from my signature, the speeds I was getting from my old ISP once they rebranded as Talk Talk Business, which was why I wouldn't go to them on the LLU hardware, especially as they were less than helpful when it came to complaining about the speed.

During the training period when I first joined Sky, I had a lot of noise from my old microfilters. I sorted that by replacing with the new ones sent. I phoned up sky to ask them to restart the training, and they increased my speed upto what is showing on my ticker. This speed is reliable all through the day.

Line attentuation - 33.5db (Downstream)
21.0db (Upstream)

Noise Margin - 9.5 db Downstream
11.5 db Upstream

Currently 2219kbps down stream and 1020kbps upstream

These stats are lower than I have seen on other occasions tho. My download is usually between 3 and 4mb. And my line attenuation last time I checked was 42

See what I mean by how unstable my conneciton seems to be.

P.S. I've read O2 have become terrible recently, and Sky i just seeem to read bad after terrible review :/.

Be are the best I've seen so far but they would require me to put a BT line back in which just increases my costs tenfold

Posting the full stats copy & paste basically from router to this forum, would give us a better idea of why your speed is so poor,
From your post it would appear that you are fully unbundled( you pay talktalk for both adsl & line rental/calls)

If this is correct then in order to switch to any other isp you first will need an active bt line which is no doubt what be* have told you, to do this the existing service will need canceling,best to give the required period of notice formally in witting via registered post,
Then you have to get your line back onto the bt systems, you can do this by

1, ringing bt retail, requesting a return to donor order, they i think charge for this, but i believe if you take out a calling plan they re connect for free,

or you can possibly do it via the post office or others who offer telephony services ,
but again they will charge as bt openreach charge them, this will also incur some downtime,

Also Full llu is not within the scope of the MAC code system

the only way to avoid any downtime would be to have a new line installed and cease the existing one,

Edited by tommy45 (Thu 26-May-11 16:23:29)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

P.S. I've read O2 have become terrible recently, and Sky i just seeem to read bad after terrible review :/.

There are also quite a few of us on the Sky forum here who are quite happy. Which is more than could be said for Freedom 2 Surf when I left them

So excuse me for being a newb. Im trying to learn this stuff by simply reading endless google searches.

I thought LLU basically meant an ISP that doesnt use a BT line.

So to switch I just got to avoid ISP's that require BT phone line?

On samknows it says O2/Be is LLU.

Im obviously completely misunderstood here, I was hoping I could switch to a number of ISP's without this upto £150 fee of changing your line back.

If Sky are indeed decent, i.e. dont throttle massively (I download alot via rapidshare and do alot of gaming) then they wouldnt be bad as I already have Sky TV full package

Sorry just notice I wasnt logged in. Both those anonymous posts are mine fyi.

http://i52.tinypic.com/1zyk1e8.jpg

Modem Router info. which is linked to another router FYI

Again, any info/help on this issue is greatly appreciated.

Edited by deleted (Thu 26-May-11 19:28:46)

Re. LLU have a read here, the rest of the site is very informative and quite easy to follow.

Thanks for that link. Pretty informative.

So I'm pretty screwed either way it seems, unless Sky are full LLU? I didnt quite gather that part.

I really cant afford to shell out money for a new BT line right now. Wouldnt make a switch worth it from TalkTalk imo, considering it seems I can only get max 5-6Mbs according to samknows information (although an estimate It cant be far wrong).