Recommend me an ISP

[Stuart]

Right, having had slow downloads for the last few days, and watching my so called 5 Meg (10 Meg through STB) connection slow to the speed of a 56 K modem last night, and bearing in mind the fact that NTL charge STB users the same for a 5 Meg service as they do Cable Modem Users for a 10 Meg service, and have the cheek to charge a fee if an STB user should want to upgrade, I am looking for a new ISP.

Now, I already have a BT line (when I got NTL, the line was not in my name, so I couldn't change it, then I just couldn't be bothered), so line rental is not an issue.

According to Sam Knows, Bulldog, Talk Talk, Home Choice and Orange have unbundled my exchange, but I would prefer not to use any of those. I have seen too many complaints about Bulldog and Orange Broadband, Talk Talk is capped. I am not sure if Homechoice will work with my Tivo. If it will, that might be an option. If I do go with homechoice, I may get rid of NTL entirely.

My exchange *is* ADSL Max enabled, and living a few hundred metres from it, all the tests say I *should* get 6.5 meg.

Having done some looking into it, it looks like my three best choices are, in no particular order:

• Nildram. I know they are capped, but the cap only applies in peak hours.
• Pipex
• Homechoice.

Have any of you any thoughts on this? Any other recommendations?

Edit: Just checked. Apparently. Tivo CAN control the Homechoice box.

[Graham M]

Can you get Plusnet?

[Chris W]

given your location, i would be surprised if UKonline was not available at your exchange... is this an option you have considered?

I was going to get homechoice installed, but due to problems with BT/ landlady i didn't, however the contact that i had with homechoice gave me a very good impression of them, and people i know who use them have only good things to say.

I have just signed Ann up to Nildram, purely because they are the only "decent" ISP i can find who offer less than 12 month contracts. I did use nildram before when i lived in Charlton, but this is going back 4 years, so things have no doubt changed a lot since then, however i had no problems with them

[Matthew]

I second PlusNet.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Chris W

given your location, i would be surprised if UKonline was not available at your exchange... is this an option you have considered?

Just checked on their site, and it lists my exchange as 2 meg... It could be that the checker is out of date though.

Just checked Plusnet, and although the site says their plans are unlimited, the availability checker only gave a choice of 8 Meg capped products. Low caps as well.

[Matthew]

I pay £21.99 for PlusNet, get upto 8mb (most of the time its 7mb +) and have a uncapped service, cant go wrong. I think its called the premium package.