I'm with AOL at the moment, they've been OK I'm but going to switch next month. As I race in a league I really want a stable connection which won't drop (AOL has actually been very good like that). Speed isn't that important, 2MB would be OK. I use around 10Gb/month so need that allowance or preferably a bit more. I was thinking of Virgin/Tiscali/Supanet as they're all dirt cheap but have read bad things about all 3. Then again I've read bad things about AOL and they were OK. Any suggestions?

Sky are pretty good for me (very little lag, no dropped connections), but then again, it took me three months to get the cretins to install it in the first place

I have a 2mb virgin line-its alrite but with a full grid there is occasional stutter. but that mite just be my laptop at the same time (AMD 64 3000,128 9700, 521 ram) but i get between 30 and 50 FPS. i am thingk of upgrading it to a 4mb line. i think that would be your best bet if you choose virgin.

I found the contention ratio to be horrific when I was with Virgin...

There are other ISPs apart from the ones that spend on big TV advertising!
(Everyone talks as though there are only 3 ISPs in the UK, tut)

Take a look at something like ISP review and read what existing users think of their service.

I'm with a small outfit; not the cheapest, but you talk to someone who doesn't just read off a script if something needs attention.

sorry if this is n00by but wth is contention ratio lol

You're not guaranteed the full download limit all the time, you're actually sharing a bigger connection between many users from your local telephone exchange. Domestic broadband is commonly 50:1 contention ratio, more expensive business broadband might be 20:1 contention ratio.

Depends on how many are using the same link in your area as to the download available. More likely better download speed with lower contention.
Apparent as slower service at peak times, though you might get lucky This is just one of the bottlenecks that may slow your service

I would recommend any of the Entanet resellers, I am with UKFSN and have had no problems whatsoever after moving from Pipex. BT are meant to be reliable as well, my work ADSL is with them and is also without fault, but I can't game there obviously.

I would strongly advise you not to go with Tiscali, Pipex, Nildram, Freedom2Surf or Plusnet. They all employ traffic shaping measures to try and limit 'heavy' use, but all they do really is ruin the service for those not leeching the whole internet.

Quote from mongoosetierney :

sorry if this is n00by but wth is contention ratio lol

Talking simply, it's the number of people you share your bandwidth with. Suppose you and 50 other households in your street has a 4meg adsl connection. If everyone tried to max out their connection at the same time, nobody would get 2 megs - the ISP (and in the UK's case, BT's local loop infrastructure and nearest exchange) don't have the capacity to deliver 200 megs per second. So the contention ratio defines how many you have to share with when the network gets congested.

A 1:1 contention ratio is effectively your own private leased line, which costs a small fortune. This is what bandwidth hogs like to think they're entitled to when their ISP starts clamping down on them running their connection flat out 24/7.

I have been with SKY & Tiscali and they are awful in my experience. I am now using adsl24 who have been great. Constant 5meg speeds (compared to 2.5 with the others, which dropped to much less at peak times), no contract, 30gb peak/300gb off peak limits for about £19.95 per month... No call centre, straight through to free number answered by Uk technical staff.. Can't recommend highly enough..

I get pings of about 38ms to most uk servers.

Ive got 4mb Virgin Media, some people have had bad experiences, but mine has been absolutely perfect for 6+ months, no lag problems at all, even in peak times. Definately give it a go, depends on your area though; do a bit of research first to find out any possible problems before your tied into a 12month contract

You sure about Plusnet?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/24/plusnet_takes_blame/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... /16/plusnet_webmail_shut/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... /plusnet_spam_attack_may/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... snet_email_spam_downtime/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/05/plusnet_boss_down/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/13/bank_bt_plusnet/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/09/lettters_0902/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... 8/plusnet_email_problems/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/07/plusnet_passwords/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/16/plusnet_deletes_cgi/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... net_loses_deleted_emails/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... _emails_customer_details/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2 ... /11/plusnet_email_fiasco/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/12/plusnet_llu/

I got bored after a while...

EDIT: Sorry Bean0, I misread your post - thought you were recommending PlusNet! Ooops!

Thanks for all your comments! The reason I was looking at those 4 is simply because they are considerably cheaper than some ISPs (they work out around £80 a year), but I guess you get what you pay for and from what I've read the technical support is generally much better woth the smaller companies.

Sounds like Virgin would be the best of those 4, but I will look into some of the smaller ones suggested and decide if it's worth the extra.

Ive just moved house and gone from 16mb adsl2+ from bulldog to 20mbit virgin cable, speedtest is showing a nice 18mbit down 700k up

I've heard from UKCT people, that Be Broadband is a great ISP, (https://www.bethere.co.uk/). Reading reviews seems to tell me also that they kick ass, but right now the site is really really slow.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I've heard from UKCT people, that Be Broadband is a great ISP, (https://www.bethere.co.uk/). Reading reviews seems to tell me also that they kick ass, but right now the site is really really slow.

WOW 1.3 meg upload *drool*


EDIT - Pro 2.5 meg upload niiice

Another +1 for Enta, no problems, good customer service, plus it's nice to have sensible usage restrictions that are actually fair:

Quote from Bob Smith :

Another +1 for Enta, no problems, good customer service, plus it's nice to have sensible usage restrictions that are actually fair:

I think I might need to change my pants after seeing this. That's an amazing bandwidth allowance.

To be honist i wouldnt recommend sky Boardband at all. Im always timing out. It has been getting better but, still i wouldnt recommend it. You also have to buy the Sky package (Television). It costs us £26 with 5-6 Packs (Not Sure) and Internet at £5, which is 8Mb and 40Gb Allowence. The specs are ok, but its the service which counts. Custormer service is up thr wall to, its about as useful as speaking to a brick wall. We would like to have Unlimited Calling service aswell, but custormer service is very C&&p. There is alot of comments in my last posts about Sky in google search on a review centre.

I Hope this helps,

Matt

Enta Max Allowance for me - has been superb for a couple of years now.

JT

I've been looking at the Enta Net site with a view to moving onto the Max Allowance package but I'm finding it a bit cryptic, so could someone please answer me a couple of straight questions about it.

How much does it cost per month? (I found a figure of £29.38 on ADSL Guide but I don't know if it's current).
Is it available to residential customers or only business customers?
What is the line speed? (Again, ADSL Guide says 7150/750 but I'm not sure).
Anything else potential customers should know?

Thanks in advance.

Quote from amp88 :

I've been looking at the Enta Net site with a view to moving onto the Max Allowance package but I'm finding it a bit cryptic, so could someone please answer me a couple of straight questions about it.

How much does it cost per month? (I found a figure of £29.38 on ADSL Guide but I don't know if it's current).
Is it available to residential customers or only business customers?
What is the line speed? (Again, ADSL Guide says 7150/750 but I'm not sure).
Anything else potential customers should know?

Thanks in advance.

You need to go through a reseller...UKFSN, ADSL24, Vivaciti.

I'm on the £19.99/month package with UKFSN, it's a residential service.
You get 30gb/month peak and 300gb/month off peak. Off peak is 2200-0800 and all weekends. It's an 'up to 8mb' line, I get about 600kb/sec speed down, and about 40kb/sec up.

http://www.ukfsn.org/home/internet/adsl/maxallowance.html

Quote from Bean0 :

...

Cool, thanks for the info. Cheaper than my current deal with a much higher line speed (I live about 250 yards from the exchange, so should be on the upper end of the scale) and a much more defined bandwidth allowance.

Ehm... AOL - ain't that bad. haven't had any problems with it at all. And 2 MB is enough for LFS

I easily manage to race properly with 56kb modem =]]]

AMP88

Glasgow - is a nice place :-) I love the guitar shops there.

No, AOL isn't that bad compared to the other big name ISPs I think. Torrents run OK, LFS runs well too and the service is fairly reliable but it conked out during my league race at the weekend

Also, I'm not in an LLU area, so it would be £20/month from next month I think. For £20 a month I could be with ADSL24 or UKFSN who have fantastic reputations and don't throttle or port block.

I still havn't decided what to do but I've got it down to just 5 ISPs now! Will post again when I've decided!