Re: best internet provider

We're with Plusnet and the great thing about them is whenever there is a problem you get to speak to somebody from God's Own Country instead of India or wherever, so you can actually understand what they are saying and vice versa! Unlike BT where they also make it as difficult as possible to actually find a number to speak to someone! I know Plusnet is tied up with BT which makes it even worse!
When Mr Glanny was working from home we had a BT business account, and 3 lines (one was a fax) and no end of problems with BT. There was often a lot of shouting to be heard from MrG's office when he eventually got to speak to someone
I would definitely rate Plusnet

Anyway, our internet speed is around 5mbps on a good day (but not funny ) I've just run a check, but if it is realllly slow ie about 2 which it often is, when we ring up they tweak it and it runs slightly faster. Our problem is we are out in the sticks and our exchange is in a narrow corridor stretching across country to the outskirts of Belfast and we are at the country end of it so furthest away from the exchange. Our road is less than a mile long but there are actually three different exchanges on it! We are in the middle. One end of the road gets 49mbps and the other gets 36. Sod's law! No way will we get fibre or superfast in the near future

Re: best internet provider

When we lived in Hertford we had VirginMedia for TV, phone and b/band. Good service except we lost the phone line twice because of problems at the junction box down the road. When we moved to Worcester (a VM-free zone) we went with Sky - never again thanks. I've lost count of the number of times I've called them about slow b/band speeds (often faster to use dial up!) but, of late, it seems it's as fast as it's ever going to be using copper wires (no fibre available for us YET!). I've just checked - 5.8MB/s download, 0.9 upload. I'm hoping it will be least 2x this where we are moving to in Cannock.

Re: best internet provider

I have been with Zen since they started
Excellent service and phone line to

Will never change.

Re: best internet provider

Thank you. It's nice to know that people in Northern Ireland are also aware of God's County!

Yes, I know that PlusNet is based in Yorkshire. Not that that would particularly help me, I'm afraid.

I have just, coincidentally, received a very welcome message from the very helpful people at
Broadband.co.uk
to whom I sent a request for advice some days ago.

It had not occurred to me that my security cameras do not rely so much on the download speed of around 10Mb offered by non-fibre internet providers, but actually on the roughly 1Mb upload speed they provide which, I'm informed, is inadequate compared to the 2Mb speed the cameras need to send recordings to the internet.

So if I want to continue to use my security cameras, I'm stuck with VM.

The other option, which again Broadband.co.uk advised me of, is the 4G Home Router package offered by Three and other mobile phone service providers, which offer higher speeds.

I am with Three already for my mobile phone, but I have heard that they are rather unreliable regarding their Home Router service.

Re: best internet provider

JBR, have you thought about using Cat 7 cabling instead of wireless? Would that be any quicker to your router?

Re: best internet provider

Oh, the VM router is more than adequate regarding download and upload speed, even using ethernet.

The problem is that VM are not only causing occasional outages, but also that their customer service is crap.

For now, I can live with VM as, like I said earlier, the outages are less frequent and for much shorter duration... for now.

Also, next year, they're going to put the charge up from £25 a month to £38 a month, so I'll have to think about it again then.

Re: best internet provider

I have Talktalk also, set up by my late OH, several years ago & I carried on with it. I agree with you about the problems if things go wrong.
Have Talktalk for everything, phone, internet & TV. so far it's been good, but I am on my third, or maybe forth, router.
We also have Virginmedia in the area, they took ages digging up & putting in the underground cables for it, in every street, must have cost them a fortune, but some people who switched aren't happy. I get lots of communication from them but ignore it.
Would I recommend Talktalk, like Longdogs I am undecided, it is ok for me.

Re: best internet provider

I have been with Talktalk for a long time, ever since they took over Homeserve and I have had very little trouble. Any problems were easily sorted by using the chat facility on there home page. Never needed to phone India. My last month bill for any time phone calls, phone line and broadband was £34.78. I have a small sim card for a mobile phone which is only used in emergencies for £3 month.

Re: best internet provider

I didn't know the UK used Australian call centres, how lucky you are.