[Archived] Best Deals On Isp Broadband

[Ozz]

Don't come down here too often... but I need to get a new ISP for home. It is mainly for work , and for looking on here...no massive downloads or owt. Are BT any good? Or Sky? All advice/experiences welcomed! Was with AOL, but they were charging me £25 for about 4 meg (the "Silver" package) . Seemed a bit steep to me.

[LeChuck]

O2 is £7.50 if you're an O2 customer, or £12.50 if you're not.

I'm with Be Broadband and they're the best ISP I've been with (had Tiscali, BT and Orange in the past). Their Value product is £8 a month for 2008 then £14 thereafter. Don't be mislead by 'Value', it's unlimited usage with an 8 meg line. The next package up offers a 24 meg line, that's the only difference.

[Sandiway Blue]

Don't come down here too often... but I need to get a new ISP for home. It is mainly for work , and for looking on here...no massive downloads or owt. Are BT any good? Or Sky? All advice/experiences welcomed! Was with AOL, but they were charging me £25 for about 4 meg (the "Silver" package) . Seemed a bit steep to me.

I was with AOL too then Virgin took over my ISP because my phone line is virgin only.A result of which i still get the same stuff i had with AOL,but for £5 a month.

EDIT:This is only 2meg though as i only use internet for browsing and occasional download.

[Ronin]

O2 is £7.50 if you're an O2 customer, or £12.50 if you're not.

I'm with Be Broadband and they're the best ISP I've been with (had Tiscali, BT and Orange in the past). Their Value product is £8 a month for 2008 then £14 thereafter. Don't be mislead by 'Value', it's unlimited usage with an 8 meg line. The next package up offers a 24 meg line, that's the only difference.

I used to be with Tiscali, but had been looking at changing for a while, especially as I was paying £25 for what was a 1mg service. Did some scouting via the web (www.thinkbroadband.com etc) and O2 kept coming up trumps in what I was looking for - speed, reliablility and price. Now pay £12.50 for the 8mg service, as that's all I can get in my area. Not got a bad word to say about it so far!

[Flopsy]

I got Orange for £5 a month due to my contract mobile. 8mb a new wireless router and no complaints at the moment

[thebigguy]

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/

try this site and it compares ISPs

[Paul]

Ozzie if for work and you have bt phone then strongly suggest bt total broadband. Had this at home and work for years and very happy. Dont sign up long term as they will do a new deal every 12 months or so.

Main reason for this is it avoids any potential conflict between phone company and isp,

be warned though that we gave our web hosting to bt and they screwed up so badly it could not be fixed. Moved back to previous provider after 48 hours. The broadband is good, the web hosting was awful.

[Glenn]

Be wary of BT if you use your connection for anything other than t'interweb browsing (i.e. gaming, p2p etc). Other networks throttle the non-web traffic of the peak users (i.e. those doing it to excess) at peak times, BT have recently started doing it at peak times to their entire userbase ! Then again, it all you want to do is browse wesbites and send the odd email, you'll never notice the difference.

Personally, I'm a very happy Demon customer, but you can find cheaper. If you can put up with second rate customer service then Sky is a very very very good deal at the moment.

[brfcmad1979]

If you already have SKY it is only £5 for 16 meg i think andf you can get 2 meg for free which is plenty fast enough for web surfing, and you get a wireless box thrown in as well can't grumble!!!

[Ozz]

OK-had a bit of a search around, and gone for the O2 deal-£7.50 a month for upto 8 MEG looks great for me. They want me to provide a MAC code, which I rang AOL for and they reckon it takes a week for them to email to me. I cannot move on till I get this code apparently, is this normal, to have to wait so long for this code?

And as for BT. whom I requested to do a house move for me a month ago, well they will NOT get anything out of me if possible ever again. I am not one for having a pop at someone, esp when they cannot readily defend themselves, (if a representative of BT posts on here then please I beg you to respond) but BT have to be without a sliver of doubt the worst company I have ever had to deal with, by a million miles. A simple house move has taken nearly a month, I am no nearer to having my line switched to my new address, have paid 3 months line rental up front and even signed up to pay by direct debit to show willing on my part but as yet-no telephone line. Even after explaining my partner is 7 months pregnant at home and how I need to be able to talk freely to her while I am at work they still cannot sort me out. A BT employee even rang me on my mobile on Saturday while I was at Ewood, for some info, but hung up on me because he said he couldn't here me properly-I told him to ring back at 4pm , when I would be in a quiet room (could have used the MF prayer room if I was in the BBE!) but I have heard nothing back from him or them since. Biggest pile of incompetent wasters ever.

[LeChuck]

They want me to provide a MAC code, which I rang AOL for and they reckon it takes a week for them to email to me. I cannot move on till I get this code apparently, is this normal, to have to wait so long for this code?

The MAC code thing is completely normal, but waiting a week for it isn't. Typical AOL shoddiness I guess.

Actually...I'm sure I read somewhere that ISPs have to provide it within 5 days under Oftel rules. I could be completely wrong there though.

[Ozz]

OK-got the MAC code...sent it to O2 all looking good-O2 seem very efficient so far, and have been pretty helpful.

However, just so it is clear to anyone who cares, BT ARE THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH IN MY 41 YEARS ALIVE. A TOTALLY UNORGANIZED, UNHELPFUL AND UNCARING COMPANY.

But O2 seem OK! £7.50 a month for 8 meg, which they have checked and they apologised for it being only 7.5 meg! Should be online at home in 6 days...fingers crossed after 6 weeks.

[AndyB]

What you need to do with BT is what my wife did.

After phoning them twice and having the line cut each time she sent them a letter.

Registered post to the chairman's home address to arrive first thing on a Saturday morning

Result. We now have the e-mail address to the secretary of the chairman.

Ozziejones you have pm

[Ozz]

OK-O2 broadband now on. I have been pretty impressed with O2 so far, efficient, courteous, good at communication and as good as there word all along. The only problem is this. I want to use the main PC, a big desk top machine as the main internet user. But it wont connect via the O2 hub/router. It says there is no network card installed, even though the ethernet cable is connected into the PC via an ethernet socket. In the PC device manager thing, it says it is a 1394 net adapter that it plugs into, is this not a network card? The broadband connection is fine, as is the cable and hub etc as I am typing tis on my laptop which is connected via the same hardware as was used in trying to get the big computer connected to the internet. Anybody offer me any help? Do I need to go and buy a separate network card and install that into the PC?

PS Cheers Andy RE email address! On it's way soon.

[Alan75]

sky broadband

whose got it - is it ok.

price looks good compared to my bt package.

[colin]

A bit late.

I was with AOL and had access problems which they were unable to correct. They kept passing me to BT to say there was a fault on the line and that it wasn't their responsibility.

I eventually changed to BT internet simply on the basis that they couldn't palm off the problem to anyone else.

I've got so say that they gave me pretty good service, even though an engineer phoned me at work to say he was outside my houie and needed access. It was a lucky day, because I was able to skive off work and get home within 30 minutes.

As for AOL. I'm on my fourth letter to their complaints department. I've started on the Spike Milligan attitude that they are so stupid that you might as well take the mickey out of them while repeating the complaint. They agreed to re-imburse me £50 back in June. It's still not arrived.

[Clitherover]

And as for BT. whom I requested to do a house move for me a month ago, well they will NOT get anything out of me if possible ever again. I am not one for having a pop at someone, esp when they cannot readily defend themselves, (if a representative of BT posts on here then please I beg you to respond) but BT have to be without a sliver of doubt the worst company I have ever had to deal with, by a million miles. A simple house move has taken nearly a month, I am no nearer to having my line switched to my new address, have paid 3 months line rental up front and even signed up to pay by direct debit to show willing on my part but as yet-no telephone line. Even after explaining my partner is 7 months pregnant at home and how I need to be able to talk freely to her while I am at work they still cannot sort me out. A BT employee even rang me on my mobile on Saturday while I was at Ewood, for some info, but hung up on me because he said he couldn't here me properly-I told him to ring back at 4pm , when I would be in a quiet room (could have used the MF prayer room if I was in the BBE!) but I have heard nothing back from him or them since. Biggest pile of incompetent wasters ever.

I agree, do NOT deal with BT under any circumstances, took me months to get my phone line on at my old house simply because i couldn't get through to them, was in a 1 hour queue on the phone with them at 10am once (like they don't have enough operators to cover this time) only to get cut off. Get your line rental, phone, and broadband with any other company apart from BT.

I'm with PlusNet which is a really good service (cheapest package they do is £16.99 including line rental and evening and weekend calls).

[LeChuck]

sky broadband

whose got it - is it ok.

price looks good compared to my bt package.

Sorry Alan, just saw this.

I was with Sky for 12 months and it was fine, no worse than anything else I've used. Apparently the only problem seems to be getting it set up, but I found customer services extremely efficient and mine was ready to go in no time. If it's significantly cheaper than BT then go for it, BT certainly aren't one of the best anyway so you don't really have anything to lose.

[Paul]

And as for BT. whom I requested to do a house move for me a month ago, well they will NOT get anything out of me if possible ever again. I am not one for having a pop at someone, esp when they cannot readily defend themselves, (if a representative of BT posts on here then please I beg you to respond) but BT have to be without a sliver of doubt the worst company I have ever had to deal with, by a million miles. A simple house move has taken nearly a month, I am no nearer to having my line switched to my new address, have paid 3 months line rental up front and even signed up to pay by direct debit to show willing on my part but as yet-no telephone line. Even after explaining my partner is 7 months pregnant at home and how I need to be able to talk freely to her while I am at work they still cannot sort me out. A BT employee even rang me on my mobile on Saturday while I was at Ewood, for some info, but hung up on me because he said he couldn't here me properly-I told him to ring back at 4pm , when I would be in a quiet room (could have used the MF prayer room if I was in the BBE!) but I have heard nothing back from him or them since. Biggest pile of incompetent wasters ever.

Having recommended BT on past experience I'm now going to agree strongly with those who rubbish them. We moved premises last May, piggy-backed on a colleague's wireless broadband while we got organised. Had BT install broadband in July and it has been an unmitigated disaster. Our business is very rural and we don't have any choice but if I could kick these people out I would. In three months I've been able to contact one, that's ONE, person actually prepared to listen and not fob me off with the easy answer. Eventually we tracked the problem down to a wireless conflict, changed channels and bingo it works. It was me that actually spotted the reason for the conflict and BT who told me how to change channels! However everyone else I spoke to in BT gave me every reason under the sun why it was MY problem and not something they should support.

Saying that at home BT just works all the time!!!

[thebigguy]

Main reason i would turn to bt is because off this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7641754.stm

they origanally didnt ask people if they wanted to opt in

[Ozz]

I am moving in 12 days time, back to me own home at last. Told BT they said no problem, phone line and number will be transferred on the 19th.

Rung O2, they say they cannot transfer my broadband service until I have moved back in, then giving me a 7 to 14 day wait before I am re-connected after I am back home. Does this sound right? Cos it sounds rubbish to me.

[LeChuck]

I think o2 rent their lines from Be Broadband, in which case it should be 4 days Ozzie. I'm with Be and I moved on Saturday, my BT line was set up today and I got an email from Be today say that it will take 4 working days to get the broadband working (so the 14th for me). I managed to get my monthly bill down from £18 to £12 though, which is great for an (estimated) 18 megabit unlimited connection.

Having said that, maybe it takes longer for Be to do it as o2 are, in effect, acting as a 'middle man'. The thing about having a wait isn't rubbish though.

Edit: A bit of research tells me o2 actually bought Be, which is why they use the same network. That makes the 7-14 days thing a bit more confusing...maybe you should give o2 a ring and ask them why they can't do it in 4 days as they own Be and that's the policy they operate.

I believe the waiting time is because BT OpenReach engineers still need to manually do something when making the switch, maybe they deliberately stall it for services other than their own...or more innocently just put their own things as a priority.

[Ozz]

Le Chuck-I rang O2 a few times, and spoke to several different people, they are adamant that that's the score-6~10 days after the BT line has become active. That's the crucial bit, as I am keeping my number, they cannot open a new order on a line that is "inactive", so despite the notice I gave them today, it was not worth doing as they cannot start till the line is transferred. Ball ache to say the least.

[LeChuck]

Not to rub it in or anything...but...I just got a text from Be saying I'm connected now, but as I'm not at home I can't test that out yet. If that's true then it's only taken a day as my BT line was only activated yesterday.

If you do speak to them again ask why Be can do it in 4 days (or less maybe) but it takes them longer when they in fact own Be...if only to satisfiy my curiorisity.

[Ozz]

It was connected today, 14 days after the line became active!