Tone Loc

iTrader: (1)

In the last 6 months i've been with Orange, who left me without connection for days on end and had ridiculous customer service/tech help (anybody actually believe these people when they say hello my name is shaun ). So even at £5/month for 8mb and unlimited service i had to leave... so i thought i'd go back to BT (had there 2mb package a few years ago and never had a problem). For £26/month i thought their 8mb unlimited service would be better..... not a chance. After only two weeks i kept getting dropped connections at peak times (every few minutes). Took them over a month to sort it with engineer visits to the house, new home hubs etc. The connection is rock solid now but i get 0.5mb at peak times (5.5mb off peak). So that is useless to me. And their customer service/tech help in India is a waste of time... you may as well talk to a chimp. BT tell me the problem is just congestion at the exchange, but speed tests show it only affects port 80. So traffic shaping it is, congestion my ****.

So i now have a MAC code but no idea where to go. I want an unlimited service, and ideally UK only customer service/tech help (seems to be very rare!). Been looking at Be*, Bulldog or maybe even Sky (can't get Zen). Any other suggestions?

Tony.

Rob D

Tony, I'm looking at leaving BT as well because evening speeds are a joke.
Have a look at the link below from BBC Watchdog listing customer feedback from broadband suppliers, might give you an idea on who to select.

BBC - Consumer - TV and radio - Broadband providers

Rob.

mike1210

if you are on ADSL you can always get ZEN, only the ZEN LLU you wouldn't be able to get, the main one you would

Broadband At Home

alternatively Newnet are also very good

Broadband

also the BT home Hub is utter sh*te, have you tried other routers in your house. Cables tidy and plugged into the master socket?

The slow speed may be congestion at the exchange, going on to an LLU may fix this.....but it may not

mike1210

The Broadband Resource

what can you get in your exchange, unlimited services are few and far between and if there are no LLU's in your exchange, you will pay £crazy for unlimited services

UK Free Software Network

might be a good bet for high useage

boxst

Hello

I also recommend Zen, although not unlimited (50gb/month). I am currently with Be* and apart from some initial hassle with signing up/modem everything else has been fine with good speed and reliable connection.

Steve

Tone Loc

iTrader: (1)

LOL... do you work for an isp on the tech help line . Why would messy cables and the socket only affect peak times?? But yes i have tried all these when the connection kept dropping and two different types of modems (no difference in sync or line stats... the home hub has actually been very good). I now have a ADSL master socket too so no more filters needed.

Would congestion at the exchange affect all ports, say 8095 AND port 80??? Only port 80 is slow.

Be* is looking favourite at the moment...

Tony.

mike1210

Lol no just covering all angles , congestion would affect everything, traffic shaping on the other hand would only affect certain things. If you can get Be then give them a try

StickyMicky

my connection was always dropping out

went back to an old voyager router and that stopped


although as bove, peak times have much slower speeds, i heard it was something to do with the "vision" customers

Dr Hu

What ever you do DON'T go with Virgin Broadband - absolutely shocking speeds at peak times - dial up would be faster - no joke!

Heard good things about Nildram and Zen - i will be buying myself out of my Virgin BB contract soon as it is unusable!

kbsub

Been with Zen 2 months now and no problems at all , fast stable connection all the time , not the cheapest but you get what you pay for ....

Odds on

Another vote against Virgin BB. I've given up trying to look at SSO threads that contain pic's.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

What do you mean traffic shaping would only affect certain things?

Is it different on ADSL to cable? do they only shape on certain ports ? IE (80) and such?

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Is that Virgin ADSL or Cable ?

mike1210

I'll rephrase, Traffic shaping "may" only affect certain things, but it depends on how it's been setup. Some ISP's have QOS priorities (groups) i.e. like what plusnet used to have.

Platinum 1. Highest, VOIP, time critical data
Gold 2. Internet and general browsing and games (UDP) traffic etc
Silver 3. Own news feeds, torrent, P2P etc
Bronze 4. 3rd party newsfeeds and stuff they REALLY hate

ISP's with high budget and great networking staff will shape at layer 7 so changing ports and the like will make no difference, some will even dig into encrypted torrents and the like also

Lesser able or budgeted ISP's may only shape on port and transport protocol (TCP/UDP layer 4) but it all depends on what priorirtes they have. Talk talk even shape VPN traffic

so for example on plusnet you can use VOIP fine and browse the web, but torrent would be slower

wrxseeker

iTrader: (1)

Try having a look here:

DSL ZoneUK - ISP ratings

I went with newnet for a month by month contract so that I could change if i needed to.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Oh ok, thanks for explaining, I understood how ISP's blocked or restricted ports for things like P2P but haven't heard of them only shaping certain activities, seems a bit pointless really as in most cases you can redirect your programs to use other ports

mike1210

No on layer 7 shaping the port makes no difference as they are inspecting application traffic, HTTP etc. If you change the port it gets inspected and shaped accordingly, layer 7 shaping costs a lot more though. With decent shaping, you are screwed

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Just easier to do what Virgin does and shape the whole connection then isnt it

mike1210

I think people much prefer a cap than traffic shaping, unlimited can't really be done anymore as the backbones simply can't cope. With Zen I get no shaping but a strict cap, if you go over the cap you have to pay extra.

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

After all my hassle I had with orange and tiscali - im now with bethere and I must say its spot on - my line can only handle 5 mb but uploads at 1.1mb im well impressed - always connected - no port throttling and I can now play online games again

v8voodoo

Broadband Internet, Cheap line rental, free calls, and competitive international rates from Madasafish - The Friendly ISP

Like a wonderous new world after AOL for me.

Odds on

ADSL. No cable round here. Not that stopped Telewest constantly trying to get me to sign up

EddScott

We use eclipse at work. Can't say its been great as their email for a good few months was a complete and utter joke. Now its OK but still gives a few issues at peak times.

The net access has always been fine and I had no issue with torrents etc. Leave my machine on all weekend and no obvious affects to the line.

I've got Orange now and unlike others on here, I'm pretty happy with it. The livebox installation disc didn't work and one phone call later to an indian lady sorted it out.

My only issue now is with the torrents. I can DL torrents but I cant share which is affecting my ratio on certain share sites and I can't seed. I think it has something to do with the IP address.

I did share once and I suspect I have to set up the IP address every time if I want to share/seed. I think its because the IP address for something (router maybe) changes.

mike1210

port forwarding set up on the router? UPnP enabled?

rik1471

I recommend Zen if you're not bothered about having a cap. (20GB for £25 connection - pants!) There service/tech support is excellent.

If, like me, you can't do with 20GB limit then I recommend who I am with now - Be.

GazTheHat

What are the better ISPs for unlimited/heavy usage?
- Say for newsgroup access?

Most have this fair usage policy they can enforce.

mike1210

one of the Enta resellers would prob be your best bet if no LLU's are around by you

UK Free Software Network

check

Tone Loc

iTrader: (1)

Well, i've just signed up to Be*. The 24mb, 3 month contract and policy of no line contention swung it for me

We'll see how it goes.

Tony.

boxst

As I said way back at the top of this thread, Be* are good once you are setup. Make sure you run a speedtest, and talk on the forums to tweak your speed.

I get a consistent 1.6mb/s now.

Steve

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Must just be where I live as I never notice speed issues and I get around 1.9mb consistently on a speed test (rarely differs, lowest I have seen is 1.1mb at the odd time).

And I am old fashioned BT Broadband, not uprgraded to Total yet that offers 5.5mb at my address (line test).