reccomended Broadband UK ISP

[RedFox]

i was thinking maybe wanadoo? i know AOLs out of the question.

but whichever i will have the least trouble with. price isnt really an issue

thanks in advance

[Kadavreski]

hey, can you connect with ntl bb?

just a thought cause i'm going onlin esoon

[Rich_T]

So your after a broadband (ADSL) UK ISP?
and like most people in the UK, your not in a cabled area.
that leaves you with ADSL.
before you go any further, is your local exchange equiped with ADSL, and are you in a suitable area?
if you dont know, enter your phonenumber into the box on the right hand side of This website (http://62.172.198.79/broadband1/)

if thats a Yes, then you can start looking for an ADSL (broadband ) ISP.

Most ISPs will send you a conection pack, consisting of two microfilters ( you need one of these on each phone socket) and a USB modem.
on its own the USB modem isnt much good for online gaming on a games console, you need to have an ethernet output to connect a gamesconsole up to broadband.
your two main options here are:
Internet conection sharing and
an ADSL router ( with uilt in modem)
some ISPs will provide you with a conection pack that contains a router, for an aditional cost, others will just do a woires only deal, where you have to get all the equipment at your end ( microfilters/modems/routers etc) this often has a chaeper instalation cost.

Next up, Contract period.
some ISPs offer 12 month contracts, some offer 1 month rolling contracts ( you can phone up to cancel anytime in each month if you have to)
basicly a 12 month contract will result in a lower set up fee or even a feee set up, where as the 1 month contract will cost more to set up.
the set up charge is levied by BT wholesale, who charge your ISP for setting up your line in the exchange, your ISP then passes some of this on to you.

BT wholesale
BT wholesale are the people behind the scenes with ADSL in almost all UK exchanges, they charge the ISPs for setting up, and providing a broadband service on your line, you then pay the ISP, basicly you pay the ISP, the ISP pays BT wholesale.

IP stream/data stream and migration:
there are two basic types of service provided by BT wholesale, those based on IP stream and those based on Datastream, basicly most ISPs use IP stream, and if you ever want to move to a different ISP, i recomend that you use an ISP that uses the BT IP stream product.


Caps capping and limits:
Recently BT wholesale have introduced new ways to monitor usage and bill ISPs acordingly if they chose to be billed on a usage level, un capped services still exist.
this has resulted in cheaper monthly subscriptions for people, but they can only use a certain amount of bandwidth each month.
Wanadoo are one of the ISPs imposing limits on how much you can do, as are most other ISPs.
basicly once you reach the limit, you either get charged extra, or you can no longer access the internet during that billing period.
as for the extra charge bit, most ISPs will charge you no more than 25 pounds.

Plusnet, and metronet are examples of this,
you pay around 15pounds for a monthly subscription and you can use 1-2 MB per month, then for each aditional MB you use you get charged extra, if you downlaod losts of stuff you will get charged no more than 25pounds or so.

ISP recomendations
Plusnet, Eclipse, metronet, Nildram and Pipex all sem to do quite well on user reveiws.

ISPs to avoid
AOL, Tiscalli, Wanadoo dont do that well in user reviews.


Need help finding an ISP to suit your needs and budget
take a good look through http://www.adslguide.org.uk
they have almost all of the UK based ISPs listed together with user reviews, prices, message boards for each ISP and general boards ( isp unhapiness, isp recomendations etc)

As for the ISP i use, i used to be with freserve/wanadoo, but i have moved to pusnet as there cheaper, and offer a better service.

[RedFox]

ok thanks but i still have 2 questions...

1. is it worth getting the plusnet unlimited bandwith for only ?7.99 offer? works out to be ?21.99 a month, i dont know if i will use it enough to get the most out of it but its cheaper then going over the limit and potentially paying more

2. is going for a 1mb line instead of a 512k worth it? i often work from home and when i do i send alot of data to various places. methinks 512k would be enough but will 1mb be any better for PSO?

EDIT: didnt make sense


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RedFox on 2004-07-04 07:36 ]</font>

[Rich_T]

i dont think there would be much difference between 512 and 1mbit for PSO, as the game is also rigged for play with a 56k modem, so the uploading/downlaoding isnt that bandwidth heavy.
As far as unlimited and limited services go, if you sign up for an uncapped service, i think you can change to a capped service as long as its with plusnet, and as long as its the same speed, ie 512k unlimited to 512k capped.
you could also ask for more information over on the plusnet forum on http://www.adslguide.org.uk, theres oftne some replys form plusnet representatives on there.

[thepossumking]

1meg you'll be glad you did

[Rich_T]

1megs a bit tight,ok verry tight, and only suitbale for those on a tight budget who just do a bit of e-mail checking and the odd bit of browsing.
if your going with plusnet, you would be better off going for an uncapped serivce or one with a higher usage allowance.
other mtered ISPs are metronet, who do a pay as you go broadband conection, you pay around £10 per month, and then get charged a small amount for each extra Gigabyte after 1mb you use, and you will get charged no more than £25

As for the plusnet 1gb capped service, that again is flexible, with an aditional charge for each extra GB used, again it wont cost you no more than £25.
if you go to the forums at http://www.adslguide.org.uk theres often company representatives on the ISP forums who would be keen to help you find a package to suit your needs.