BleepingComputer.com: A Decent ISP

Hi everyone
Can some recommend a decent UK Broadband provider I am with Virgin at the moment and they are really giving me a hard time I need to get away from them but not sure which one to migrate to.
Thanks

Edit: Moved topic from XP to the more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

No one seems to have posted to help you, At the house I'm at we've had 3 different ISP's, AOL, TalkTalk (Which is owned by Carphone Warehouse, AOL is also owned by Carphone Warehouse I think) and as of yesterday BSkyB. And up to now I'm very pleased with this connection as are my Parents and Brother (Who plays on Xbox Live alot) we're on a basic ADSL Connection we would be on the ADSL2+ that Sky provides but the line is too noisy for it to stay stable and the line length is just a bit too long (3.38km on our estimation, Line length needs to be 3.2km or less for ADSL2+ to be stable and offer speeds upto 16mbps).

But anyway our previous ISP TalkTalk I wouldn't recommend at all the Internet Connection was intermittent at best, we would be kicked off every 15 minutes roughly or whenever the phone rung, At the moment with Sky it has been on for a day and the connection has only dropped once and that was when Sky were messing about with the connection. The speed we get is better than I thought it was going to be, I thought we would get no more than 2.5mbps at most (That's the, max we were getting with TalkTalk, more times than not it was 2mbps), with Sky we are getting 3.8mbps and no lower than 3.4mbps at the moment although this is only on first day impressions but the speed is as high as possible based on what I can see of our Line Attenuation (Noise On The Line) and Noise Margin.

So overall I would recommend it based on first impressions although you have to have a Sky TV Subscription to get the Broadband Connection (We're on the Max Package by the way), I have heard good things of Pipex and O2 though so you could consider them not sure what they are like obviously but reviews are good for both. With Sky you are provided a free router as well (Think that is becoming Normal now with ISP's).

Maybe others will comment and vouch for O2 or Pipex because I don't know anyone with either provider, most people I know are on Sky Broadband, Some I know use the same exchange have a line length of about 1.5km and are getting near full speeds all the time in there case 7mbps to 8mbps.

Also you might be interested in this site it is a UK site and gives you information about your nearest Internet Exchange i.e. the one your House is connected to for Phone Calls and Internet Access. All you have to do is type your Postcode in the search field - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php

You could also use this what uses the database on the Samknows Link above and gives you a rough estimation of your Line Length so you get a good idea of your highest possible broadband speed although technically don't believe what speed it lists on there try using the data I list below for a rough estimation of your speed on an ADSL2+ connection. You just type in your Phone Number and Postcode for this although I'm not sure if it will work since your Virgin Phone Number won't be recognised in the BT Directory - http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php

This is a good read about understanding your Internet Connection as well, not sure if you've seen your Line Attenuation in your Router Information but it would be good to know that as well to base your top speed on this.

Data Quoted From This Site Thread - http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/router-stat...-explained.html

Attenuation........Approximate Line Length.......Potential Connection Speed
32db...............................2.3km..............................16000kbps
35db...............................2.5km..............................14500kbps
40db...............................2.9km..............................11800kbps
45db...............................3.2km..............................8500kbps
50db...............................3.6km..............................6500kbps
55db...............................4.0km..............................4500kbps
60db...............................4.3km..............................3200kbps
65db...............................4.7km..............................2000kbps

Ok hope that helps you.

This post has been edited by woodyblade: 13 February 2009 - 12:57 PM

I live in California (a medium-density population) and am also looking for a new ISP. I have found that links to consumer rating sites for ISPs are sometimes heavily infected but will keep slogging on.

Good luck on your search, Stev52. A good ISP is hard to find, and poor service can make your life on-line very difficult. Not to mention very expensive.