Broadband final coming to my area soon - Who to go with?

[Mark Ward]

My area is finally getting broadband soon and I'm wondering which ISP to go for ?

Currently with Freeserve Dialup but happy to switch ISP for a better deal.

What's the best one for me?

I'm at home all afternoon and do a lot of my internet use then. Ideally I don't want to pay too much but I recall someone saying about an ISP that offers faster connection/ better contention ratio at certain times of day for similar money as the straight 512k accounts from others?

Is there a no-brainer winner to choose?

Thanks for any guidance,

Cheers,

Mark.

[Pootle]

www.adslguide.org.uk

[dr_mabuse]

www.ispreview.co.uk also features users' comments which are useful.

The deal that stands out at the mo for me is 50:1 1mb from Firefly with unlimited e-mail and virus scan for £29.99 - that's what some 512 services are still charging. Firefly consistently get 9 /10 in customer comments at ispreview.co.uk.

dr_m

[dek1965]

eclipse

best 1 by far, never had any probs and you are not tied to a 12 month contract

[dr_mabuse]

dek1965
We have Eclipse 1mb 20:1 at our office and I have to agree they are practically unbeatable. If they dropped their 1mb price a bit I'd upgrade right now at home too!

dr_m

[tomson]

Gotta recommend Eclipse - they often come out tops in the adsl speed ratings ( http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=1490 ) I've been using them for about a year with no problems at all - I chose them cos I work from home and needed summut with as little downtime as possible and a static IP address - so far so good. I pay about £20 +vat.

http://www.bulldogdsl.com are also offering some good deals at the moment if you want a faster connection, their Primetime 1 and 2mb packages look quite good value. Firefly (as mentioned) looks pretty good too - be intereting to see how it shapes up long term as the user base increases.

[Jonny1973]

I switched to Bulldog from Freeserve in September and have been very happy with their service so far. No problems whatsoever. Cheaper too. Freeserve was 27.99 a month, Bulldog is 23.50.

Unfortunately,Bulldog's Primetime 1000 service is not available in my area otherwise i could have had that for 23.50 giving me 512Kbps peaktime and 1mbps off-peak.

[Goose74]

Well Im with plus net And I think they are great. They give you 250 mb of ftp space as well. I pay £22 per month for 512 on a monthly contract

[JohnS]

I'm on plusnet as well, the £18.99 a month service which blocks kazaa and binary newgroups buit other than that is the full 512mb service.

[drummerjohn]

Bulldog 2mb Primetime £29.99 - Downloaded 257Mb in 19 minutes.

[Mark Ward]

Thaks for the replies. Bulldog Primetime 2mb seems very tempting to me.

Apparantly I have to wait until the exchange has been dsl enabled before I can apply for these services.

I was aware of adslguide.org.uk but was overwhelmed at the number of offerings. I was thinking I may use Demon as they have a 50:1 ratio offering but the Bulldog packages seem far better to me.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Greg]

Mark, apologies if you have already checked, but as you are only just getting broadband, I presume you are in a rural/country area? If so, its worth making sure you can receive 1mb or 2mb. Due to the distance I am from the exchange my fastest is 512k.

Greg

[cosmic023]

Mark:

I've got an Demon Express Total 512k Package, and i'm very impressed with the service. The Package includes a Thompson based USB ADSL Modem for an extra £60.

You can use the Demon Express Solo package, and get your own modem.

I pay £24.99 and it's a very fast and reliable service.

Demon

Cheers

Cosmic023

[dr_mabuse]

Mark
Just a note re: the Bulldog packages. Make sure you use their checker to see if you are in an area enabled for anything higher than 512 (as mentioned, distance to the exchange prohibits the higher rate services in most cases).
I have heard that people have ordered the 2mb PrimeTime as they are already on 512 (without checking) and have bitched like hell when their new service tops out at 512! Bulldog, for their part, have apparently stuck it out and said "tough sh*t m8, you should have checked."

[Goose74]

hey JohnS

does the 18.99 service just block Kazaa or is in any kind of p2p such as foldershare or overnet?

Cheers