Which ISP?

[TrenchardsLoveSock]

I'm about to move house and cut loose from Tiscali. They were very competitive and the best option I found when I signed up, but don't seem that cheap anymore and I can find better elsewhere (plus, their service is a bit hit and miss and I drop out every 1/2 hour or so).

So I look to you goaters for advice.

Currently looking at Talk Talk 'cos I have family abroad and like the idea of the free international calls. Anybody out there using them? What is the service like and is the £30 optional wireless router worth it, or is it a cheap unreliable pice of tat like my Tiscali wired modem?

Please feel free to pimp any other ISPs you use and get good service/value from.

Cheers all.
TLS

 

[Mohammed The Bear]

And if you don't mind me jumping aboard the discussion could you lovely souls also recommend a decent provider for on line xbox360 gamingness

 

[Beaver]

I've been with Talk Talk for a while now and they're OK. Few teething problems initially but I would certainly recommend them as one of the best of a frankly bad bunch. I pay @£30 all in (inc line rental) a month and that also gives me free calls anytime.

Do you have Sky? If you do you might also want to look at their all-in package. Might save you a few quid.

In the end it just depends on what you want from a package - free calls etc...

 

[TrenchardsLoveSock]

And if you don't mind me jumping aboard the discussion could you lovely souls also recommend a decent provider for on line xbox360 gamingness

Good question, well presented, and something I should have asked too!

Do you have Sky? If you do you might also want to look at their all-in package. Might save you a few quid.

I binned Sky last year as I really didn't use it enough to justify the cost. Also, the weather affected it too much (top of a hill in West Cornwall, wind + rain = DVD). Also, I'm moving to SSFA (excess rent) and I don't think the landlord wants a load of holes in his house!

 

[Weebl]

Probably going against general consencus here but...

I am with BT.

They are as reliable as it gets, I cannot remember having a line drop in the time I have been in this house (over 2 years)

The Homehub is finally stable (I just telnetted in to mine to unlock options initially but BT have updated the firmware to now give you everything on a GUI)
Xbox Live! is also a GUI option now to allow port forwarding (which keeps the NAT open, those Xboxers among you will know how important that is)

The speed that I pay for, I get. Not throttled at peak times.

Yes, it is expensive compared to other deals available, and yes, if you have issues the call centres are a joke, but if you can sort out your own issues then it works.

 

[Shortie]

I'm currently also with Tiscali and suffer the same drop out issues. Their helpdesk was pretty much useless and sure enough the connection issues cleared up for a while after they'd "tested" the line, even though they blamed my equipment for the intermittant connection! I was thinking about getting the BT total broadband setup with the extra digital tv recorder package. A quick question for anyone that has a home hub, can you connect your PC directly to the hub via USB or do you have to have a wireless connection? The main reason I ask is that I play a lot of on-line gameing and find a wireless connection unusable.

(sorry for jacking the thread!)

 

[Scaley brat]

I'm with Sky. Other than the 1mb speed (To far from the exchange or some such crap) I have no issues witht them and I have found them very reliable. I have a 40GB download limit amonth and I can't think of another ISP that could match that.

 

[Ex-Bay]

I'm about to move house and cut loose from Tiscali. They were very competitive and the best option I found when I signed up, but don't seem that cheap anymore and I can find better elsewhere (plus, their service is a bit hit and miss and I drop out every 1/2 hour or so).

So I look to you goaters for advice.

Currently looking at Talk Talk 'cos I have family abroad and like the idea of the free international calls. Anybody out there using them? What is the service like and is the £30 optional wireless router worth it, or is it a cheap unreliable pice of tat like my Tiscali wired modem?

Please feel free to pimp any other ISPs you use and get good service/value from.

Cheers all.
TLS

Unless you plan on running several computers in the house, there's really no point in having a wirless (802.11) system (it has a few potential problems of its own, security being one).

Buy yourself a decent ADSL modem (25-25 quid). It will save you hours of frustration talking to some idiot on the other side of the globe and who does not have English as a first language. Keep the free one as a spare.

I get my service from Wanadoo (now called Orange) and with the occasional glitch, it works quite well. Whether I'm on a good deal these days is a debatable point.

For foreign phone calls, consider Skype.

All I can say is that, for 97% of the time, it works.


.
DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[Weebl]

A quick question for anyone that has a home hub, can you connect your PC directly to the hub via USB or do you have to have a wireless connection? The main reason I ask is that I play a lot of on-line gameing and find a wireless connection unusable.

(sorry for jacking the thread!)

Wireless or Ethernet.

Wireless has plenty of bandwidth for internet gaming.

I have my Xbox on online while my missus browses the web on the laptop, both connected wirelessly with no slowdown.

 

[Weebl]

I'm with Sky. Other than the 1mb speed (To far from the exchange or some such crap) I have no issues witht them and I have found them very reliable. I have a 40GB download limit amonth and I can't think of another ISP that could match that.

I have downloaded 40 gig in a week before now, with some months seeing a download of nigh on 100 gig.

Never heard a peep from BT.

 

[penfold93]

I am with Madasafish, never really had problems reasonable rates dont do online gaming or nowt so speed has never been an issue and neither has download limits. They seem OK and much better than those feckwits from BT

 

[busby1971]

Tiscali

Tiscali

Most of these firms are as bad or as good as each other, they are mostly okay until something goes wrong, then you'll be ringing Delhi or similar to get you problems sorted out.

I pay about 18 squid for 8 Meg (unlimited with fair usage) and all my phone calls included.

I would go for the sky package myself but they haven't un-bundled my exchange yet.

 

[Wonky Tonka]

I've been with Tiscali for the last 3 yrs.
Never had a problem with the service, and the package suits me fine.

As I'm about to move, I've looked into the alternatives and found that Tiscali still offer the best deal for me.

£25 a month will get me 8MB unlimited broadband, free anytime UK landline calls and free calls to the top 10 overseas countries. Line rental and digital TV thrown in for good measure too.

Not bad at all if you ask meDT_Xtremez_28:

 

[doc670]

ISP's etc

ISP's etc

Shortie, I have a BT Home Hub and you can connect with USB or Ethernet, both cables supplied. Personally I use the ethernet connection as it frees up the USB port for something else. I've been with BT since they first started their broadband service about seven years ago, and never had a problem. I live about half a mile from the exchange so get the full 8Mb speed, and unlimited downloads ( option 3 ).

As far as SKY and Tiscali etc. go, they use their own or leased equipment in BT exchanges. The exceptions are the cable companies as they normally run from their CATV headends on fibre to their own street cabinets which supply your house, and are not troubled by the copper twisted pair problems that the BT hosted ADSL connections have. That's why Virgin can now offer a 20+Mb service.

 

[rest have risen above me]

I'm with orange and it's free.

I get about a 2 meg speed from an advertised 4 and a 2 Gig limit.
I'm running 3 PC's and an X box 360(wired) through their wireless router with no problems.

All I have to do is keep my mobile contract with them.

 

[BiGjD]

Upon looking at the thread title I was about to say don't go with tiscali ahahahha I guess im not the only one finding them a pain in the arse then!