Switching ADSL MAX ISP

Our household has been with the same ISP for a really long time and I feel i've had enough of the poor service and after multiple takeovers has left us with poor customer service. We started with Lineone, which got taken over by Tiscali, which got taken over by TalkTalk.

We live in a very rural area and our exchange only has access to "ADSL" and "ADSL MAX" (Checked on Samknows).

I've looked around on this and a few other forums, but information can be outdated and I want to be sure I'm buying the best service for the money.

My requirements:
- Un-throttled
- No blocks
- Low latency for gaming

Looking forward to your replys,
LTAAD

What do you mean by no blocks?
Also what sort of usage limit can you live with?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

What do you mean by no blocks?
Also what sort of usage limit can you live with?

I'm not quite sure myself, looked around on some potential ISP's websites and some of them advertise the packages as being unblocked (I assume it means they don't block certain sites, ports, etc... for example filesharing).

As for usage limits I'm not quite sure too, if the ISP offers unlimited off-peak hours I'd take advantage of this. But to give an estimate, I would say I wouldn't use anymore than 30-45GB, I used http://bpplanfinder.com/usage_calculator.php but my use can vary from day/week/month so I can't really confirm what my average usage would be. (Sorry, I'm not much help)

In reply to a post by ltaad714:

I used http://bpplanfinder.com/usage_calculator.php

Completely untrustworthy!

e,g. "Based on avg. email size of 20 kbps" - a bit speed for an email!

Please can you give us the link to the samknows page for your exchange, even though you've already checked it?

Actually, when I input my data, the usage comes back around what I used prior to 'Web 2' type sites. Nowadays it's double or treble that. Mostly objects, add-ons, widgets, thingummies and doohickies.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by ltaad714:

I used http://bpplanfinder.com/usage_calculator.php

Completely untrustworthy!

e,g. "Based on avg. email size of 20 kbps" - a bit speed for an email!

I really couldn't care, none of the calculators would be even 70% accurate. Which is why I left a 15GB difference. I'd prefer that over leaving somebody to guess a random number between 0 and ???? . Also, if you look at some of the other descriptions you would see that they're calculated based on bandwidth per hour, which I guess is why they list songs as being a speed too. I'd explain further but I don't really know how to get my point across without wasting my time.

Edited by deleted (Tue 06-Mar-12 01:07:47)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Please can you give us the link to the samknows page for your exchange, even though you've already checked it?

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

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Actually, when I input my data, the usage comes back around what I used prior to 'Web 2' type sites. Nowadays it's double or treble that. Mostly objects, add-ons, widgets, thingummies and doohickies.

What would you advise then?

I've checked another source for that exchange and can't find anything you don't see on samknows.

All my suggestions say "up to 24Mbps"downstream, or similar, and up to "1.3/1.4Mbps" upstream. As you know, in your case those packages will only give up to 8Mbps down and 448kbps upstream.

My suggestions, in alphabetical order!

1) ADSL24 Standard Home 30.
2) Plusnet Extra with Pro add-on to avoid the traffic management also shown on that page, and gain prioritisation.
3) vivaciti Allowance Family 30.

ADSL24 and vivaciti look very similar. The big difference is that ADSL24 is via Daisy and vivaciti via Entanet.

Plusnet is a 12-month contract on the face of it, but in fact is 10-day notice but you have to pay deferred charges such as the router if you take one. (Click the "No annual contracts" question mark). The £11.99 is only for the first 3 months on your exchange, after that it is £17.99. Pro is £5 per month.