Which Broadband Provider?

[PrettyFishies]

Greetings fellow non-divers

I have never ventured into this bit before so treat me gently, I hear the natives are very restless in here!!

My question is to the key-tappers. I don't use the net much at home (prefer VPN for work) but I'm considering broadband now for faster work connection from home. What broadband providers do you use and why?

Regards

AnneMarie

[beanie]

I use tiscali but wouln't recomemend them they have a terrible customer service reputation (not that I've had anyproblems)

have a look here
http://adslguide.org.uk/

and here
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/

for a user view as well as fairly comprehensive list of ISPs

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by AnneMarie

Greetings fellow non-divers

I have never ventured into this bit before so treat me gently, I hear the natives are very restless in here!!

My question is to the key-tappers. I don't use the net much at home (prefer VPN for work) but I'm considering broadband now for faster work connection from home. What broadband providers do you use and why?

Regards

AnneMarie

Myself (IT Geek), a couple of my friends, and a few of my colleagues use PlusNet (http://www.plus.net) . I'm unlikely to download more than 2Gb a month, and you can get 1Mb (1Gb Limit) for £14.99 a month, or 2Mb (2Gb Limit) for £19.99 a month.

1Gb a month works out at 33Mb per day. 2Gb is 66Mb per day. It's unlikely I get near to 66Mb so it works out really good.

Their service is excellent. Compare to a few others I've used (Easynet, Pipex, BT) they're more stable too! Plus their pricing is brilliant.

However, if you're looking for unlimited download capacity (and none of them really do it - even if they say they do) PlusNet aren't the ISP for you. BT's probably a better bet. I would steer clear of AOL and NTL however.

As for Router / Modem, best bet is to buy a NetGear DG834G if you wanted Wireless, or a DG834 if you want non-wireless. Both are mint units, and have an ADSL Modem, True SPI-Firewall, Network Address Translation, Router, 5 Port Hub, VPN Pass Through and Wireless Access Point (if you buy the G version) in one. They're about £85-£90 for the Wireless, and £55-£70 for the non-wireless.

Mark.
(SPI = Stateful Packet Inspection, how most of the world's firewalls work).

[eddy]

i use pipex who are not bad - customer services is a little hit and miss but the connection is usually good and if ur a gamer there are no extra charges unlike ntl .

Depending on what ur location is you could find an ISP who will offer you a faster and/or cheaper service then other locations in the UK, london has many services which are faster and cheaper then say Rochdale (my home town).

p.s. the best ISP in the uk beyond a doubt is zen though you will pay for the service

You could also try this www site as it has all kinds of sad facts and pricing stuff ADSL Guide

[Adrian Kelland]

I use freedom2surf.

They provide a static IP which is usefull as I run web/mail at home. IIUIC the way email works requires a fixed IP. I could get away with a dynamic IP service for web, but not mail. They also have no rules about hosting on the connection, some providers do, to the extent of stopping http request/reponse to/from your end.

While a dynamic IP is held as long as your ADSL modem is connected, it is not hard for such connections to drop. Which could result in a new IP.

If you have a couple of PCs at home, it may be worth getting ADSL modem/switch. It is connected to the net, not the PCs. PCs can be switched off no problem. I use a Draytek Vigor unit (mine is no longer made). They also have hardware firewall and VPN facilities. So part of your network could be permanently connected to work, although I suspect your IT people prefer you to connect manually from your work PC.

edit: Just looked up, £19.15+vat/month. No limits as far as I can tell as I have downloaded upto 1gb day for serveral days no problem. My choice was made on the above requirements and reviews on ADSL Guide.

Adrian

[Tim Ingmire]

When in the UK I used good ole BT and had no problems at all. No restrictions on usage and happy enough as a wireless network as an always on connection.

If you want serious speed I understand one of the providers is 16X normal broadband speeds which makes it something like 8Mb/sec. Super damn fast - probably enough to stream full frame video???? Not sure who it was or how much it was costing tho.

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Tim Ingmire

When in the UK I used good ole BT and had no problems at all. No restrictions on usage and happy enough as a wireless network as an always on connection.

If you want serious speed I understand one of the providers is 16X normal broadband speeds which makes it something like 8Mb/sec. Super damn fast - probably enough to stream full frame video???? Not sure who it was or how much it was costing tho.

Easynet / UKOnline http://www.ukonline.net/

8Mb for £29.99 per month.

However, you need to be in a place that has LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) so that generally means the centres of Birmingham, London, Manchester and anywhere else Easynet have POP's.

Edit:
As for Video - I think it's 24Mbits/s symbol rate on Sky although the channel rates are generally 4Mbits/s up to 11 or 12 peak burst and dependent on how many other channels are on that stream.
DVD is average 8 or 9 bursting up to 18 or 19 dependent on how many extras there are. Superbit discs tend to dispense with the extras and up the video bitrate.

If you're in certain parts of London you can get HomeChoice http://www.homechoice.co.uk (which is owned by VideoNetworks - the people who used to do Hull's Video on Demand service) which is streamed over broadband. I think they're a LLU too and they're a Broadband ISP.

[Andy Phillips]

Currently use nettcomunications, but BT were more than fine, apart that is, from having to deal with BT, which, due to a small loss of cool one day, is the reason I now use nettcommunications.

Andrew

[Mdemon]

Wanadoo. £17, 2Gb. 0.5Mbps (1 meg if close to exchange), Dynamic IP. Not for anything other than browsing/downloading really.

Crappy modem (albeit free) relies on PC for connection info. As Adrian says, an ADSL/Firewall/VPN passthrough combo is a nice idea. (I use a Netgear DG834).
Get a fixed IP if you can. Then you can VPN in to home if you are staying in the hotel and get at your files, e-mail etc. Why do this? Hotels often have pathetic bandwidth (28kbps etc), so you get more joy VPN-ing into your home PC using RDP (Terminal Services - ask your Techy bods) and browsing from there. All you are sending to your laptop is pictures of your home PC so life becomes as fast as your home PC's broadband connection! Just don't try printing...

HTH

[Andy Phillips]

Originally Posted by Mdemon

Wanadoo. £17, 2Gb. 0.5Mbps (1 meg if close to exchange), Dynamic IP. Not for anything other than browsing/downloading really.

Crappy modem (albeit free) relies on PC for connection info. As Adrian says, an ADSL/Firewall/VPN passthrough combo is a nice idea. (I use a Netgear DG834).
Get a fixed IP if you can. Then you can VPN in to home if you are staying in the hotel and get at your files, e-mail etc. Why do this? Hotels often have pathetic bandwidth (28kbps etc), so you get more joy VPN-ing into your home PC using RDP (Terminal Services - ask your Techy bods) and browsing from there. All you are sending to your laptop is pictures of your home PC so life becomes as fast as your home PC's broadband connection! Just don't try printing...

HTH

Huh?

Andrew