Solitary chicken - need advice

[little chickadee]

Hi All.

I'm on the lookout for a good internet service provider and thought you folks would be the people to tell me who is good and who to avoid. Maybe with (landline) phone inclusive too but not with a tv package as we don't watch tv!

 

I don't want to be limited in what I can do on the web. I download music and audio books/ watch iplayer but dont download films. dont' know much about ISPs as we've previously been business customers with BT but are going to be private customers now.

 

Can anyone help?

Edited April 21, 2009 by Guest

[Tessa the Duchess]

O2 O2 O2

 

They are brilliant, never had any problems, techie help is free if problems do occur. If you have an O2 mobile then it only costs £6 a month. I have had loads of different ISP's and this is definitely the best of all.

 

Tessa

[The Dogmother]

I use Orange and have never had any problems. I know three people with talktalk though and they've all had 'issues'

[ClaireG]

We have a BT homehub. It was so easy to install and we've had no problems at all. My Aunty was with Virgin and had no end of problems with them.

[..lay a little egg for me]

I did a lot of research before going with Nildram. You may never have heard of them, but at the time I was checking it out, the websites that compare ISP services (e.g., Broadband reports) rated them the best. They are not the cheapest but the service is excellent. I pay £19.99 for 8Mb broadband and 8 hours of phone calls inclusive.

[Cinnamon]

We have a BT homehub. It was so easy to install and we've had no problems at all.

 

Me too, by default reallly as they were the only ones who could get us connected

 

That said, I have had no problems at all really.

[Omletina Kyckling]

O2 O2 O2

 

They are brilliant, never had any problems, techie help is free if problems do occur. If you have an O2 mobile then it only costs £6 a month. I have had loads of different ISP's and this is definitely the best of all.

 

Tessa

 

I'm with Tessa on this one, O2 are absolutely fabulous. You need to look at what backup you get once you're set up and as she says techie help is free (and uk based too so easy to understand) - I had one problem and they didn't mess around, sent me a new router out next day and all was well.

 

Mum and dad recently went with a package from the Post Office and they were a nightmare, took them nearly a month to get connected and you could never get through to their support, and if you did, they just took a message and said somebody would ring you back (they never did)

 

I used to be with Tiscali and they were an absolute nightmare and my broadband hardly ever worked with them and customer support was none existent.

 

O2 all the way!!

[abwsco]

o2 here as well. Also, check out Quidco as they could have a decent cash back amount as well

[Redwing]

We have a BT homehub. It was so easy to install and we've had no problems at all. My Aunty was with Virgin and had no end of problems with them.

 

We had Virgin at our old house, never again! the broadband was good and fast but the service was appalling

 

We now have a BT home hub and are very pleased with them and their service but its not cheap

[Egluntyne]

BT Home Hub here too.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

We have Virgin and have to say we're really happy with it . Any problems (which are very rare) have been dealt with efficiently and they even sent me a new up to date modem (for free) recently .

[Old Speckled Hen]

Looks like a lot of people are happy with their varied suppliers and have posted warnings about others that some are happy with ... Does that make sense?

You could use a price comparison site that would filter out what you don't need.

I would warn to beware when looking at bundled products offering "free" broadband.

I got SKY, no cable here, who promised free 8 Mbit broadband which ended up actually being 1/2 Mbit costing me £19 a month as we are so far from the exchange.

 

Can somebody explain to me how mobile broadband works?

Do you have to have a landline ? Or does it depend on a good strength mobile signal?

[The Dogmother]

You'd need a good mobile signal for the provider that you use. Phil has it for his lappy and likes it. There have been reviews recently as to whether payasyougo or contract are better value, but I think it depends on your usage.

[Old Speckled Hen]

You'd need a good mobile signal for the provider that you use. Phil has it for his lappy and likes it. There have been reviews recently as to whether payasyougo or contract are better value, but I think it depends on your usage.

 

Thanks Claret.

That's me scuppered then.

[cathybc]

I never managed to get SKY broadband working; and their 'help' was a nightmare to get through to and then useless when you did get someone.

 

I am now on O2, only had one problem and had no difficulties getting through to someone to sort it.

[Sheilaz]

O2 O2 O2

They are brilliant, never had any problems, techie help is free if problems do occur. If you have an O2 mobile then it only costs £6 a month. I have had loads of different ISP's and this is definitely the best of all.Tessa

 

I'm with Tessa on this one, O2 are absolutely fabulous. You need to look at what backup you get once you're set up and as she says techie help is free (and uk based too so easy to understand) - I had one problem and they didn't mess around, sent me a new router out next day and all was well.

 

O2 all the way!!

 

Same here! We were with BT since the 1st PC, then I realised how much I was paying and had also found them very difficult to contact.

 

Changed to O2 when I took out a mobile phone contract, & it's cheap with first rate customer service. Easy to contact instead of being on hold for an hour & then being told I need transferring and waiting again with BT, which happened every time before.

 

Would definitely endorse O2.