Categorise these in order of importance

John.C · 11-10-2006, 04:53

What do you feel the most important aspects of your internet service are. I think any ISP should provide a reasonable level of each of the things below, but as with everything in life some ISP's will provide less than reasonable and others will provide more than reasonable.

So what concerns you most about your internet?

Speed - Nice fast line.
Bandwidth Usage - Able to upload/download a reasonable amount.
Stability - Not constantly having problems viewing websites, or disconnecting from chat programs etc
Additional free services e.g. email/webhosting/usenet access
Support - whether it is general customer support/sales suppot/tech support. If it is email or phone or even letter. available times for support 24 hours/12 hours etc. Do they charge for phone calls? Do they have those annoying automated answering machines where you push 50 buttons before you speak with a real person?
Other - Anything else.

I haven't put them up there in the order I feel are most important, I just put them up there as an example. If you want you could be specific about what speeds you want, what bandwidth etc

Maybe write what your current ISP is and what you're paying for your current service.

I'm with NTL broadband paying ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£34.99 per month for the 10mb service.

Halcyon · 11-10-2006, 10:55

I'm on NTL 2mb.

My main criteria I would ideally look for in an ISP would be a good reliable speed that is stable, Useful and helpful tech support where you can actually talk to someone that is in England, a good cheap price.

TheNorm · 11-10-2006, 11:34

Stability is the most important issue for me - I often work from home.

Speed and bandwidth usage are not problems at the moment - the "free" upgrades (e.g. 512k to 1meg to 2meg) have kept up with the applications I'm using.

The additional free services are good, and I take advantage of them, but if they weren't there I'm sure I could find alternatives.

Support is a difficult one to place - if all is well, I don't need it, but if something goes wrong, it becomes top priority!

John.C · 11-10-2006, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNorm

The additional free services are good, and I take advantage of them, but if they weren't there I'm sure I could find alternatives.

If they were never there to begin with I wouldn't have known what I was missing because I wouldn't have paid for a usenet service to try it, even though I had always heard how good it was. But now that I have experienced it and use it quite regularly, I would not like to be without it. I'd probably have to seek internet elsewhere with a company that does provide free usenet access, because I don't think I'd want to pay more money on top of my internet service for a usenet service.

With having the broadband internet/phoneline/2 cable digital boxes it is expensive to say the least hehe.

Gareth · 11-10-2006, 21:42

Surely price should be a factor in choosing your ISP? Maybe not the most important, but a factor nonetheless?

John.C · 11-10-2006, 22:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gareth

Surely price should be a factor in choosing your ISP? Maybe not the most important, but a factor nonetheless?

Definitely, I don't know how I forgot to put that. I am sure I forgot a lot more aswell.

Chrysalis · 12-10-2006, 23:58

Speed - .seondary
Bandwidth Usage - 3rd most important
Stability - 1 probably most important
Additional free services - least important
Support - 4th
Other - 5th static ip

**Maggy** · 13-10-2006, 01:09

I would have thought the most important one is to get exactly that you were promised at the price you agreed by the ISP of your choice..

Chrysalis · 13-10-2006, 01:42

Our broadband sector works on the ability to mislead the customer, so no chance of that incognitas.

The Jackal · 13-10-2006, 04:13

1 Thing and 1 thing only

DECENT UPSTREAM PLEASE !!!

Check my first ever post on these forums :
'After 5 years with Blueyonder I just DOWNGRADED

'