Is Zen still any good?

Sorry for the double post but I'm putting this here as well as Which ISP in case some people only visit the Zen forum


People have been saying in recent months that Zen's technical support, sale team and performance have been going downhill, with lack of staff and network congestion

And there's also some kind of issue with the Fritzbox they insist you use, which blocks some types of ping

So could people say here, whether Zen is still worth changing ISP to from EE, or whether it's better to look somewhere else like Plusnet, John Lewis or BT? (or maybe even KCOM?)

If I change from EE to Zen, am I definitely going to see a big improvement in reliability, download speed and ping times, as well as much better support?

And is Zen any good for gaming ping times to US servers? Or does the Fritzbox make gaming a bad experience, like random disconnects from game servers because their pings to you have been blocked?


Does Zen traffic manage or traffic shape anything? Including to game servers?


Is there an ISP that's good for gaming that offers a monthly contract?

Edited by deleted (Mon 12-Jul-21 12:36:37)

I've been with Zen for a number of years and I can't fault them. I've been mainly on FTTC but just switched over to FTTP last month on the 900Mbps package and Im getting over 900Mbps from some Speedtest.net servers. So no traffic shaping that Im aware of. You don't need to use there fritzbox router unless you have issues with them then they advice using it so they can give you full support, but will you really need that? I've not had any issues I've needed to call zen about in years of use. Only other need for the fritzbox is using there digital voice service on FTTP but you may be able to use other routers and use an adapter.

Pings should be good for gaming too just make sure you have a good fast router I'm using Asus and there really good, Ethernet is better than Wifi too. Im getting 14ms on ethernet to Speedtest servers.

I've got family who are on or have been on EE and all they did was complain and there casual users of Netflix and browsing. Zen should be a lot better for a consistent fast service.

Speedtest results

In reply to a post by maximono:

Only other need for the fritzbox is using there digital voice service on FTTP but you may be able to use other routers and use an adapter.

On FTTC I found the Fritz box a doddle to set up to use VoIP from SIPgate with a ordinary handset plugged in to the router. It can also act as a DECT base station.

Not seen any performance drop in many months. The last issue was more than a year ago when many ISPs found themselves facing unprecedented infrastructure demands. It got solved and stability resumed.

My 80/20 FTTC service is stable and usually has ping times of around 7ms. I use the Fritz! 3490 (no longer issued) as the modem with Draytek hardware running the infrastructure behind it.

My parents use a 40/10 Zen FTTC service and their service is equally stable with a 7590 running on it.

I have two BQM sessions running on TBB and both show stable, reliable connections.

I have used technical and sales support this year and both have been excellent. Email can be slow so I just pick up the phone.

Zen don’t profile traffic as far as I’m aware.

Zen are Very Good. I look after four connections, all rock solid. Support friendly and helpful, don't treat you like an idiot. (Not that you should need them very often.) The FritzBox is a good router. As above I have VoIP and DECT from mine as well as the usual LAN and site to site VPN. (Actually on the latter my old FB is a bit slow - if you do a lot of VPNing.)

In reply to a post by zelly:

People have been saying in recent months that Zen's technical support, sale team and performance have been going downhill, with lack of staff and network congestion

And there's also some kind of issue with the Fritzbox they insist you use, which blocks some types of ping

I could say who is "people" and objectively, is it widespread or a small number of vocal posters, or someone with an axe to grind, or maybe self-selective (a majority of satisfied customers are less likely to be lurking on Which ISP?).
Is it always a fault or is it as much the relentless household growth in connected Wi-Fi devices with added streaming / cloud requirements.

My own experience is that the connectivity is reliable for home working. I can't remember the last time I've needed support though.
My main job switched to majority remote working last year as did many public sector organisations and my second job in design and support of of managed networks was almost 100% remote working already.

I do periodically look at PlusNet and Sky pricing but I think the reality is, most providers want to offer you a target price of £20-25 per month for new customers, some with automatic price increases baked in unless you renegotiate or (threaten to) switch every single year.

If they also charge about £5 on top for a static IP and if that is monthly rather than one-off, it soon becomes less of a saving vs the time spent constantly looking for another provider.

I originally moved to IDNet to secure an affordable dual-stack connection - this was before any mass-market providers were ready. It was when your choices were limited to basically AAISP or IDNet.
I'd learnt the ropes for IPv6 on a tunnelled he.net connection including their informal certification thing but needed to progress to direct connectivity experience to check compatibility for long term networking hardware purchases.

I moved onto Zen after they went to their fixed pricing model and I couldn't justify the IDNet price, although the latter's call charges were still relatively reasonable.

As regards the Fritz box the question of PING is more of a rate limiting decision than a hardware limitation or arbitrary blocking. It should have no bearing on gaming.

When people talk about their "ping" to gaming servers it is generally a catch-all for ordinary delay and jitter characteristics from their home network to a range of geographical locations, and in game it is more of a player state (position/inputs/collision/weapon status) plus a keepalive / heartbeat when idle, and TCP/UDP rather an actual ICMP ping in question.
I'd guess that has as much to do with an ISP's peering and transit as a Fritz box vs another router.

Repeating what was said, most decent ISPs will ask you to reconnect an originally supplied router only to rule out any DIY factors and homogenise the support script, not actually forbid you using anything other router.

My use cases may not be representative but nor is my opinion based on fanboy-ism.

Edited by prlzx (Mon 12-Jul-21 22:19:13)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

If they also charge about £5 on top for a static IP and if that is monthly rather than one-off, it soon becomes less of a saving vs the time spent constantly looking for another provider.

PlusNet's is a one off charge

In reply to a post by Kenneth:

In reply to a post by prlzx:

If they also charge about £5 on top for a static IP and if that is monthly rather than one-off, it soon becomes less of a saving vs the time spent constantly looking for another provider.

PlusNet's is a one off charge

Good to hear and not the worst, but still leaves people without IPv6, baffling limitation given the relationship with wider BT, and the
CPI+3.9% (it's ok because Ofcom said that's the maximum increase we can apply? justification being parroted by some players)

In reply to a post by zelly:

Sorry for the double post but I'm putting this here as well as Which ISP in case some people only visit the Zen forum


People have been saying in recent months that Zen's technical support, sale team and performance have been going downhill, with lack of staff and network congestion

And there's also some kind of issue with the Fritzbox they insist you use, which blocks some types of ping

So could people say here, whether Zen is still worth changing ISP to from EE, or whether it's better to look somewhere else like Plusnet, John Lewis or BT? (or maybe even KCOM?)

If I change from EE to Zen, am I definitely going to see a big improvement in reliability, download speed and ping times, as well as much better support?

And is Zen any good for gaming ping times to US servers? Or does the Fritzbox make gaming a bad experience, like random disconnects from game servers because their pings to you have been blocked?


Does Zen traffic manage or traffic shape anything? Including to game servers?


Is there an ISP that's good for gaming that offers a monthly contract?

I've been with zen for 20 years without fault

Very happy with my ZEN FTTP connection.

Absolutely 0 issues since install, nice low ping, speedtests always near enough maxed out, dual stack v4/v6.... whats not to like!

The above plus the fact I know my price will remain as is without having to chase a new deal every 12/18/24 months is the icing on the cake.