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Broadband services?


Rachie

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Need some opinions. I've decided to finally get off my arse and change my broadband provider - a change from BT Homehub bleeding me dry, currently plumbing my wallet to the tune of 23/month and I've had enough.

Obviously the cheapness of Virgin and Tiscali are making them front runners, but I really want to hear from folk who have used them and find out what their experience has been like?

I don't want to change to a reasonable price for a crap service...

Any thoughts? If I can pay less than 15/month for 8MB with unlimited download limit I'll be dancing...

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You won't get unlimited download anywhere, all the ISP's are doing traffic shaping and if you buy an "unlimited" plan they definately will be fucking around with your speeds at peak hours and threaten to cut you off if you hammer it too hard.

It's probably more economical, depending on how much you're downloading per month, to get a limited plan for cheaper and just make sure you don't go over the usage limit.

Don't worry anyway, this is what it's going to be like in the near future :

netneutrality.png

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I'm already paying 23/month - the whole reason I'm changing service is because of the cost, so I'm certainly not paying 25/month! BT haven't caused me any major problems and I'm happy with the standard of service, just not the money it's draining from my account.

Has anyone actually used Tiscali? Or has it just been word of mouth that's deemed it shite?

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Tiscali have been experiencing server problems as of late..(Possibly Resolved Now)

BUT

People do bad mouth it alot.. I have had first hand experience with it.. Ive set up some of my friends on tiscali out of 4 of them only one of them have major issues but we still cant figure out if its their phone line or the actual connection.

With Unlimited downloads its not actually what you get! yes in theory you get unlimited downloads but if you are a HEAVY usage user your ISP will start closing ports to slow you down a bit.. so ive heard (I dont download enough to know)

Usually with "Cheap" ISPs you get what you pay for..

And with Tiscali just now your getting your free wireless router... which they havent done in the past..

People on here will be disagreeing but if you want a cheap but decent service tiscali should do you fine!

Just avoid AOL is what I say :up:

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I'm on Tiscali too, only problems I have are occasionally the t'interweb won't connect but I think that's mostly down to my shoddy wiring system rather than the server. Either way, restarting the computer sorts it out.

Thing with internet providers other than BT is that you often have to pay line rental to BT in addition to the ISP, so even if the internet is cheap, you have to add on another 10 a month for line rental, it can be a bit deceptive.

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I'm already paying 23/month - the whole reason I'm changing service is because of the cost, so I'm certainly not paying 25/month! BT haven't caused me any major problems and I'm happy with the standard of service, just not the money it's draining from my account.

Has anyone actually used Tiscali? Or has it just been word of mouth that's deemed it shite?

I've just recently changed from Tiscali to BT, due to levels of incompetence from Tiscali's customer support team, that previously I would not have thought possible. BT while not the cheapest, have been decent in terms of B/B support so far.

Tiscali is fine until you need help....then you're fucked.

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Welcome to Freedom2surf

Freedom 2 Surf.. Expensive but excellent speeds!

F2S = Tiscali now.

I was on F2S for years but in the last few months since it moved to Tiscali the service has been appalling. I paid for a good level of service with one of the top home packages and got atrocious download speeds and endless problems playing games.

Switched to Sky last month and the difference is staggering. Back to lightning fast downloads at the speed I pay for and no connection problems while gaming. Wonderful.

My advice just now is avoid any of the Tiscali ISPs like the plague. It's cheap but the service is utter gash.

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To be fair, on the rare occasion I do have a problem with BT it usually takes me a day to even get through to their customer support.

Cheers for the help, still mixed reviews I guess though! What about Virgin media? Anyone used that?

As for line rental, if you use BT for a phone-line anyway as I do and will continue to do if I switch that shouldn't be an issue surely?

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you have to change to option one I think. No difference in the cost as far as I know, but just mentioned it as something to remember. You can get broadband for mere pennies these days but if you don't factor in the line rental you can end up paying the same amount and not realise.

Are you and the flatmate paying 23 each or in total?

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I think we're still on Pipex (I'd have to ask Neil) and have yet to have issues. To my knowledge it's not the cheapest but I don't pay for it so am a tadge clueless on that front.

Yep, we're still with Pipex although like Nildram and Freedom2Surf they have been bought up by Tiscali, so are effectively one of the same. Have to say I've not had any problems with them and certainly had no need to contact their customer services dept. (thankfully it would seem).

A word of warning about Sky's broadband deal (which includes Sky TV and telephone line) - they force you to use a Sky branded Netgear router running their own specific version of firmware. So you can't use your own router with Sky's service or upgrade the router they provide. You just have to stick with it. Which may or may not be a problem for some people.

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Yep, we're still with Pipex although like Nildram and Freedom2Surf they have been bought up by Tiscali, so are effectively one of the same. Have to say I've not had any problems with them and certainly had no need to contact their customer services dept. (thankfully it would seem).

A word of warning about Sky's broadband deal (which includes Sky TV and telephone line) - they force you to use a Sky branded Netgear router running their own specific version of firmware. So you can't use your own router with Sky's service or upgrade the router they provide. You just have to stick with it. Which may or may not be a problem for some people.

Yeh my mates got sky had to reboot the router 1000 times a day, ide read on the firmware thing.. (As i thought netgear aint usually that bad!) we changed the router out for a rangemax works a treat..

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Yep, we're still with Pipex although like Nildram and Freedom2Surf they have been bought up by Tiscali, so are effectively one of the same. Have to say I've not had any problems with them and certainly had no need to contact their customer services dept. (thankfully it would seem).

A word of warning about Sky's broadband deal (which includes Sky TV and telephone line) - they force you to use a Sky branded Netgear router running their own specific version of firmware. So you can't use your own router with Sky's service or upgrade the router they provide. You just have to stick with it. Which may or may not be a problem for some people.

you sure about that? i told the guy on the phone i wouldn't need the router and he said not to worry about it and they'd send it anyway but i could use my own one.

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you sure about that? i told the guy on the phone i wouldn't need the router and he said not to worry about it and they'd send it anyway but i could use my own one.

I'm fairly sure you could use your own one if you wanted. You just need to get the username and password details for the account. They don't give you that in the paperwork you get sent though as they assume you'll use the router they supply with that info already entered.

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I'm fairly sure you could use your own one if you wanted. You just need to get the username and password details for the account. They don't give you that in the paperwork you get sent though as they assume you'll use the router they supply with that info already entered.

so just call their support once it's installed and they'll give me that right?

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Yeh my mates got sky had to reboot the router 1000 times a day, ide read on the firmware thing.. (As i thought netgear aint usually that bad!) we changed the router out for a rangemax works a treat..

I usually have to reboot mine about once a week on sky. It's a bit irritating so I might see about getting a new router.

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so just call their support once it's installed and they'll give me that right?

Yeah I'd have thought so. Be warned though I had to phone their broadband tech support last night (for something to do with the sky.com website, fuck knows why I got directed to there from the general cust services number) and it sounded like a north american reading off a helpdesk script on the other end of the line. Interrupt them quickly and very clearly state what you want otherwise they may harp on for ages about your computer settings. The one I had last night was heading that way before I stopped them.

Can't see them not giving you your broadband username and password details if you ask for them. Any other setup info you can get from your sky router, give me a phone if you have trouble finding the login details and I'll tell you the username and password for the admin screen.

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