Changing ISP

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Chris
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Hi
I would appreciate advice on moving ISP
first off my broadband speeds are appalling with o2 and have asked for my MAC code

we dont have cable in my Town and my options are limited with a top speed at our exchange is quoted at 14mb
in real life I dont get anywhere near that with downloads between 3 and 4mb and uploads are 0.1>0.3mb

2 nights ago I uploaded about 15 large jpgs to my website ad it took 6 hours:bonk: so o2 is history

I was on sky before o2 and the download uploads were 6mb down 0.3mb up

The new EE broadband has phoned me offering a really great deal with unlimted downloads and say they dont throttle like most of the others do

but am having trouble finding any good user reviews so any EE customers thoughts please

I would go on the fiber package in a heartbeat but sadly my Town is not even on the radar at the moment

so suggestions please
plusnet throttle and is not unlimited
BT do throttle and call centers are in India

I download a lot and currently have a half price for the year TV package with sky that I dont want to break
cheers
Chris
 
If you are already with Sky for TV, have a look at their phone and braodband package. I had been with Tiscali and got sick and tired of downtime periods that could last up to 24 hours without apparent reason, so i took the plunge with Sky about 4 months ago and i now have a secure and quite fast reliable connection and not entirely sure why but i dint even need to get a MAC code

Stan
 
to be honest, there aren't many ISP's that don't throttle. I'm on BT Infinity 2 and even though speeds slow down a little at peak times, speeds only slow down to around half which is a lot better than others do. The call centres are a massive PITA, but now i'm on the community forums, it's pretty straightforward getting the mods to sort your issues out (all UK based and extremely helpful)

used to be with Be, not the cheapest but the service was outstanding. Staff all seem to based in Bulgaria, BUT all speak fluent English, know what they are talking about and bend over backwards to help.

just my tuppence worth
 
Les I have been speedchecking my line every night for about two weeks and my speeds are throttled to the hilt
the dsl checker in your link says the same as all the others that I have used in the past few weeks but what that says and what I get are two different things
my two next door neighbours are also with O2 and not getting more than 4mb downloads and one of them has also had enough and is leaving them as well

I was going to give plusnet a go but they dont do unlimited and charge £5 for every 5gb that you go over the limit which is not what am looking for as I download lots of HD movies from Sky on demand etc
hence mt interest in EE broadband with the promise of no thrttling and unlimited add a very competitive price and it looks attractive from the outside but like I said finding users to comment is the hard part
 
I have been with plusnet for just over a year now & i am very happy with them.:thumbs:
 
Trouble with asking about what ISP to use is that performance can vary a lot from place to place. Service can be very reliable in one place but the same ISP in another place can have a poor service.
 
I'm kinda wondering what difference it makes who the supplier is if they all have to use BT's bit of wet string and coal fired exchange equipment.
It also seems they could all say they don't throttle bandwidth, which could in fact be true since the limiting factor (BT) is not under their control anyway.
 
They dont all use BT's exchange equipment if you use www.samknows.com this will tell you who has local loop kit in your exchange. Moved to Orange/EE in November and the speed increase over talktalk was amazing. Its not only throttling that effects whats happening to your performance but other users through the exchange kit if you live in a heave download or gamers area throttling actually works in your favour/
 
Well, living in the same city as the OP, and reading he got 6mb with Sky, if he was happy with Sky, to go back with them because I dream of 6mb, no wait......I dream that an isp could offer 6mb, even if they were lying:lol:

Anyway, that aside, part of the issue appears to be upstream bandwidth, not many isp's are prepared to up their speed for domestic consumers outside the proportional representation upstream usually gets.
 
joxby said:
Well, living in the same city as the OP, and reading he got 6mb with Sky, if he was happy with Sky, to go back with them because I dream of 6mb, no wait......I dream that an isp could offer 6mb, even if they were lying:lol:

Anyway, that aside, part of the issue appears to be upstream bandwidth, not many isp's are prepared to up their speed for domestic consumers outside the proportional representation upstream usually gets.
Click to expand...

Chris lives in the same town as me, which is a few miles North of Leeds.

Coincidentally, I am with the same ISP as Chris (although the speedtest results show o2 as BE), but because (probably) I live near the exchange, I get speeds I am happy with, ADSL2 speeds of 14 down & 1 up with no throttling.

 
If it were me I would most definitely try getting the most out of what I have before deciding to move ISP

If you have any line or exchange issues and don't resolve them first, you could move and find it no different

You should check speeds through you BT master socket, using the test socket....you take the front off to get to it. You should also do everything wired at first. If its not good as expected ring O2 get them to reset the connection back to default in case they have any caps on it, and if still not sorted just keep badgering em to test until they get to the bottom of it.

If things are ok through test socket, then could be a few different things; bad extension sockets are common causes. I had to remove the bell wire on mine as it was picking up interference from a cordless phone. It gave me another 1.5mbps download speed as a result. Last weekend I had to t totally replace inlaws extension to sort out their similar problem...connection went from 1.5 to 5mbps :)

Also wireless you may not find that great so compare to wired...think about a better router or if it makes sense homeplugs are as good as directly wired in (assuming your electrics are clean!)

Changing ISP would be the last option IMHO, unless there is some unbeatable deal elsewhere or you are unhappy with the service

Having said that Sky do unlimited broadband and fibre if in your area, and if you are already a customer with them it might make sense to switch incl. your phone line...they should be able to give you a good deal

HTH
 
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I use ZEN for the reason that they are always the best wherever I have seen them used... Bear in mind that most if not all broadband is in fact sold originally by BT to third parties... (Including ZEN) they have one real advantage though.... If you don't get broadband for 24 hours they start to pay you compensation.because of this they are highly proactive about faults. They will chase BT when required until the problem is resolved. They aren't the cheapest but check out the stats for speeds in your area. They will almost certainly be top or damn near it. And no... I don't work for them.. :-)
 
Zen here as well, brilliant isp but you pay for what you get and though they are generous with allowance at 50gb (might even be 100 now ) they are not unlimited.

OP may not be throttled, it might be contention, at peak times a highly contended connection can be very slow. Speed tests are only good for showing possible speeds, what you get depends on contention and even more on the server at the other end. My own connection is theoretically capable of 16mb but I seldom get above 6 and it's often less than that. I have noticed a drop in speeds over the years as more neighbours wifi connections appear on my routers list.
 
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Cheers guys
Les lives at the opposite end of Town to me and in all the years of having internet have never had speeds approaching yours - and that is with 3 different ISP's

Steep has hit the nail with his comments with more and more people surfing the speeds slow right down... but I want unlimited as I download lots of HD movies from SKY Tv using there on demand service
and I upload lots of very large file size images to various places so a good upload ISP is what I want
the end of next year is when Fibre/infinity will be upgraded in my Town so I guess I will have to wait a bit longer for a reasonable internet speed
 
neil_g said:
best advice has been from siblingchris so far. internal cabling could also have a massive effect on things
Click to expand...

The contention issue is a good point too...however I wonder how real it is nowadays....maybe back in the day when bb was still new and with very little kit in the exchanges yeah....my connection is through sky and I don't see it fluctuate very much at all through the day....often I work from home connected to the office all day long and game in the evening. Having badgered sky early on and got them to tweak my connection for better gaming, replaced my BT master socket and disconnected the bell wire on my extension I get all but 6mbps down and 768kbps up.....whenever I do a test (including checking on sky site) they say best I can expect in my area is 3mbps :)

Sticking with sky for me works out cheaper, i'm on the unlimited package and have TV and phone from them too. Should be getting fibre some time next year though. Last time I renewed they lowered their monthly bb fee by 2.50 a month to get me to stay, so long as I stayed 18 months....I wasn't planning on switching so great:)
 
To continue siblingchris's thoughts, have you got an ADSL filtered faceplate where your modem cable is?

the post jogged my memory, as a few years ago I remember fitting an upgraded faceplate instead of the normal BT master socket (a 15 minute job) and saw a significant increase in speed.

I think it was something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pressac-NTE...IIPK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355654547&sr=8-2

And most of the reviews suggested an increase in speed.
 
Les McLean said:
To continue siblingchris's thoughts, have you got an ADSL filtered faceplate where your modem cable is?

the post jogged my memory, as a few years ago I remember fitting an upgraded faceplate instead of the normal BT master socket (a 15 minute job) and saw a significant increase in speed.

I think it was something like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pressac-NTE5-compatible-filtered-faceplate/dp/B000IBIIPK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355654547&sr=8-2

And most of the reviews suggested an increase in speed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much what I bought, cost me about a tenner including the little tool to push all the wires in, job took ten minutes to replace the original, was well worth it

This is the one I got, plus the IDC tool as I had extension to connect
http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/xte2005cloneadslfaceplate.html
http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/IDCtool.html
 
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joxby said:
I'm kinda wondering what difference it makes who the supplier is if they all have to use BT's bit of wet string and coal fired exchange equipment.
It also seems they could all say they don't throttle bandwidth, which could in fact be true since the limiting factor (BT) is not under their control anyway.
Click to expand...

This fundamentally misunderstands the provision of ADSL, both where BT provide wholesale connectivity to ISPs over 20CN or 21CN, or where LLU is in place, although it is a common view on internet forums.
 
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