Broadband provider advice.

[alsaautomotive]

Looking for some general advice, help & recommendations please.
Having been with a certain British Telecommunications( ) provider since time immemorial, we've finally got so fed up of our sub 1mb broadband speed that we're looking to change.
Having complained to our current provider & been on the receiving end of their legendarily excellent ( )and many & varied customer service & technical departments, we now know that the capability speed within our line is up to 7.7mb & we're less than 1km from the exchange, so it SHOULD be possible to have an internet speed that is somewhat quicker than we currently have (where one doesn't have time to make a cuppa, eat a meal & put the kids to bed while awaiting homepage to upload).
NOT necesarily the cheapest - just looking for the best all-round package, also looking to move phone line as well as so fed up with current provider.
Cheers in advance all (& btw thanks to everyone for the best wishes post op - out of hospital but VERY sore & highly immobile!)
Thanks all, Al.

Edited by alsaautomotive on Friday 18th March 15:27

[Dick Dastardly]

I now use Zen Internet and doubt I'll have need for another. The broadband is quick but the customer service is the best I've had. BT have screwed up a few things and Zen sorted it all out straight away.

[richard_tricky]

+1 for Zen here too.

I live about the same as the OP from the exchange.

However. from previous experiences the telephone wiring in the house can dramatically have an effect on speeds

In the end i bought a few bits from here :-

http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/adsl_bits.htm

Have a read on the website because theres a few tips on how to check for problems.

[sinizter]

Plus Net have been great for me - while on a BT line. They have been able to reset the BRAS profile, etc when I asked them to. I did recently change to TalkTalk and funnily enough, my speed went up. Not sure why.

I suspect your problem will be to do with the wiring/distance from exchange to your home and this is not going to change with the ISP.

[milf hunter]

i have BT infinty fitted 39mb down load hard wired 16mb on wifi 1.8 uploadin
well happy used to be 1.5down load .4 upload
fibre optic the way to go if it available in you area and i live over 1 mile from exchange

Edited by milf hunter on Sunday 20th March 07:01

[Callyuk]

iv been with sky for a few years now and have never had any problems at all with them. Ok there not the quickest out there but iv always found them good and customer services are excelent. the one time i have had to call them was when my wireless router went down there was no fuss made and no fafing about swapping your phone lines about to different sockets they just said no problem a new one will be in the post tomorrow for you, cant fault that.

[theboss]

richard_tricky said:

+1 for Zen here too.

I live about the same as the OP from the exchange.

However. from previous experiences the telephone wiring in the house can dramatically have an effect on speeds

In the end i bought a few bits from here :-

http://www.clarity.it/telecoms/adsl_bits.htm

Have a read on the website because theres a few tips on how to check for problems.

+1 on both points - I've used Zen for home ADSL for a few years now and would recommend them. The few times I've ever rang their support line I've had the phone picked up immediately by a techie, instead of 'logging a call' the bloke just says "oh yeah, I'll do that for you right now". Thats worth a lot in my book.

I also had a new line activated recently after my exchange was upgraded to ADSL2+ and took the time to 'tidy up' some internal wiring which was left in a right state by whoever built the house. I disconnected a load of extensions which we don't use and, and also bought decent microfilters and wires. I shaved about 3dB off the line attenuation and more importantly, went from an unstable 4-5Mbps which regularly re-synched up to 10.5Mbps and much more stability.

[MonkeyBusiness]

I've just come off the phone from a customer and they were telling me their tales of woe from BT. Apparently the line was throttled. They have just gone from 1-2mb to 6mb.

Not sure why but that might be worth mentioning when you spend your 2 hours on the phone to them.

[sinizter]

MonkeyBusiness said:

I've just come off the phone from a customer and they were telling me their tales of woe from BT. Apparently the line was throttled. They have just gone from 1-2mb to 6mb.

Not sure why but that might be worth mentioning when you spend your 2 hours on the phone to them.

Do you mean that the BRAS profile had to be reset ? I haven't heard of any other throttling of the actual connection speed.

[LordGrover]

Click -