This year will mean that it's been 5 years since my dad signed up for an AOL Broadband account and my leeching off it ever since but times have changed and I can remember in the first 2 years the download speed rarely topped 100kb/s on a well seeded torrent. After a phone call giving the, "might leave this ISP see ya" excuse somehow they uncapped it and it boosted to 400kb/s on some good days ever since. This brings me to my question. With ISP prices getting cheaper, who is the best ISP? BT or Sky? I really don't want to have to go with a not well known ISP if possible.
Like BT most "unknown" providers will still require you to have a BT line (there was a way around it I was reading about but I doubt you can sell your parents on it), most of the unknown are usually the best providers around and will also offer 3 month contracts or even shorter ones (30 day notice sort of thing). I like http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/top10.php and will stand by it. I will also strongly advise against just going with the cheapest as that is what most likely got you into this situation with AOL.
I wasn't even aware there were alternative ISPs in the UK. I've been with Virgin Media for years, back when it was called NTL, and even when it was Cable and Wireless, just because they provide our telephone line. (And before, TV too.) Yeah, Virgin Media is shit. Right now our internet connection is being really...intermittent. They advertise 10mbps but I rarely reach that, closer to 2-5mbps and right now, dial-up speed. Just look at those upload speeds, what a joke.
Really? We've been with Virgin Media for years too (and Blueyonder before they got taken over) and they've been great. About alternative ISP's; Virgin Media is the only Cable Broadband provider. The other ISP's use ADSL, which is a technology that comes down the phone line (hence needing to pay for the phone line as well as the ISP).
We've always had problems with NTL, I guess I'm just exagerrating a might. Actually, I think our modem is overheating, rebooting it gives faster download speeds again, but only for a few minutes.
Go to www.samknows.com and tap in your post code/exchange name. Look at the list of ISPs which provide LLU capability to your exchange, out of sky/easynet, be/o2, or anyone who ISN'T: Carphone warehouse/talktalk AOL (same as above, tiscali bought out pipex) Orange BT Nildram Tiscali Pipex (same as above, tiscali bought out pipex). You should get a better service, although like all ADSL your speed will vary on distance from exchange etc. But by all means do not touch any of these ISPs as they throttle/traffic shape/give bad service, in the case of BT not only this but their homehubs are AWFUL pieces of hardware. Also I can't speak for most of the ISP's/parent groups there because you don't hear of them much. But sky and other easynet branches i.e ukonline, O2/Be (same companies) are the main ones to be looking at, if these providers aren't LLU then you might be stuck or at the very least roll the dice what quality of service you get on their IPStream packages. Incase you dont know the difference between LLU and IPStream basically LLU means you are using your ISPs own gear, they have more control over it and can provider better speeds and service. IPStream means you are on BT's gear, using more of BT's infrastructure, if you have a fault it can take much longer to resolve and your ISP is likely to shrug it off as "BTs fault". What has changed in 5 years since your dad signed with AOL is this: 1)AOL isn't AOL anymore, its talktalk/CPW and the service is shocking 2)LLU roll out has reached significantly more exchanges If no ISP or at least no "good" ISP is available then you might not see a difference at all, but its all down to rolling the dice, although it might be worth swapping to a different ISP to get a better/fairer contract. My advice still stands about "bad" ISPs. Then we have Virgin media... Is virgin media fast? Yes Is it good service? No. For one they throttle the crap out the net, you pass more than a set amount of traffic through there before a set time and bam your net drastically loses speed, you get capped. They post SOME figures on their site but what ISN'T posted is their private figures for "congestion" throttling, if you live in a well populated area those caps they list on that site could be far less. Their support will say its congestion nothing can be done the end. There are also issues when proper problems arise, virgin media often have exchange outtages and during said time they could go on for ages, i see plenty of people whos lines constantly drop because of issues on VM's side, okay they come back a bit later but still, an unstable line is useless. Saying that there are people who have no issues with congestion/throttling/line issues and all is well. Personally i'd stay away from VM, if you wanted a better value for money tv/broadband/phone package go with sky, sky plus is a gift from god himself. If you want more advice I'd suggest visiting thinkbroadband (its a forum for UK broadband) they have numerous advice/help forums for every ISP going in the UK.
