Which Broadband ISP?

[Steve Burke]

I'm putting this on the Non-Fishing Forum rather than the Technical one as it may also be of interest to the majority of us who aren't techies.

 

Our village can get Broadband from Monday and we'd like some advice on choosing an ISP.

 

The reasons we want Broadband are:

 

1) We currently have 2 phone lines and thus 2 line rentals. I gather we'd be able to cancel our 2nd line and thus save money.

 

2) We're currently paying for 2 dial-ups, one for Peggy and one for me as we're often on the net simultaneously. Again Broadband should save us money here.

 

3) We use the internet a lot as we both run small businesses from home as well as doing a lot of surfing. Between us it averages about 6 hours per day in a busy month, although this should of course go down a little when we switch to Broadband. However, we don't use the internet for games or downloading music or other large files. Most of it is text. Speed isn't therefore a major issue, but having a 24/7 connection will save a fair bit of time. Bandwidth I'm unsure of but I assume isn't a problem - any ideas based on the above?

 

4) We currently use external web hosting for my main business, and Elton kindly hosts Wingham Fisheries. Peggy doesn't yet have a web site as she's just started her business, but when she does it's likely to also be hosted externally and contain pictures of products. Thus bandwidth may increase.

 

5) We're looking at our local computer shop installing a wireless network. We're leaning to wireless as one computer is upstairs, the other downstairs, and we could be moving house before long.

 

6) Our excellent local shop has recommended Bulldog, which I gather has just won the 2004 Best Consumer Broadband Award. If we get the local shop (they're a Bulldog reseller) to install everything in one go they'd be responsible for any problems and it would make life easier. Please realise that both Peggy and especially myself are no good whatsoever with this sort of thing and we like the idea of as little hassle as possible.

 

7) On the other hand if we stay with our current ISP, Tiscali, we can keep our e-mail addresses.

 

8) Tiscali also offer a very cheap package for 150kbps whereas most other providers, including Bulldog, start at the standard speed of 512kbps. Is there much difference in practice, bearing in mind that speed isn't the key issue?

 

9) Are there any other factors to consider?

 

Many thanks in advance.

[pinky]

http://ispreview.co.uk/

 

they do comparisons on the isp's and costs etc.

[Newt]

Steve - unless you plan to move the web sites to your house (which you can usually do if you have broadband) the 150Kbps will be about 4-5 times faster than the dial-up you have now.

 

Bearing in mind that with the wireless network at home you can easily put both PCs on a single broadband connection, will that be enough?

 

If you aren't sure, how long a contract period are you looking at with Tiscali so that if you change your mind and want to switch, would the delay hurt your feeling or business? Or would a bandwidth upgrade with Tiscali be cost prohibitive?

 

I'd also suggest checking to see if a potential ISP has a prohibition against your running a web hosting machine from your home. Not sure about the UK but a few in the US do.

 

At the present state of wireless, you would be well advised to have the install and setup done by an outside company rather than doing it yourself.

 

Having said all of that, let me add that you will absolutely love broadband when compared to dial-up.

 

[ 05. June 2004, 09:21 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[ayjay]

My son has just today persuaded me that we should sign up with this one, it looks OK to me, but I couldn't actually recommend it yet.

[Jim Roper]

I share a metronet broadband connection.

Sometimes the download speed is up around 240.

Mostly it is around 50-60 but on very rare occassions it drops to 40.

Have a look at http://www.adslguide.org

[Jim Roper]

Just had a speed test!

 

Direction Actual Speed True Speed (estimated)

 

Downstream 1828 Kbps (228.5 KB/sec) 1974 Kbps (inc. overheads)

Upstream 235 Kbps (29.4 KB/sec) 253 Kbps (inc. overheads)

[nigelnibbles]

Originally posted by Steve Burke:

7) On the other hand if we stay with our current ISP, Tiscali, we can keep our e-mail addresses.

 

 

 

with tiscali, you poor thing steve, you have my deepest sympathy

[poledark]

Tiscali does OK for me Steve, very fast, very reliable...in fact VERY reliable.

 

I get up in the morning, go online and do what I want which ranges from simple email check or send, maybe download a bit of music that has come into my head during the night, play about with my websites, sign on to MSN and have a video chat with son in japan..and all for 80p a day.

 

There may be better(?) there are none faster except by a couple of bps, and as a "reviewer" you should know the value of a long term recomendation

 

 

But then I have not looked around much (not having needed to)

 

 

Same as Jim, I have just done the test...

 

Downstream 467....504

Upstream 241...260

 

Den

[Mat Hillman]

Couple of points to consider Steve,

 

1) Just because the local exchange is being enabled this doesn't always mean you will be able to have broadband, each phone line is surveyed when you apply to check it's suitability. line noise and length are measured, if you are more than 5.5KM from the exchange forget it, under that, the closer you are the better your chances.

So don't cancel the 2nd phone line untill the broadband has been made live, if theres a problem with one line you at least have a second chance with the other

 

 

2) Choice of ISP, no matter what ISP you go with you get the same basic broadband line, apart from a few localised examples, the line you get is supplied wholesale by BT to your ISP. So chose your ISP on the bundled extras to suit you, email, web hosting etc. Reccomendations on reliability of these services worth checking out too

 

3) Email addresses - if you are using email for business you really should consider registering a proper domain name, it's relatively cheap, (I pay less than £15 a year for mine) but gives you email addresses and web URLs that can move with you should you change ISPs, vital I'd have thought not to lose touch with occasional customers!

 

Mat

[Peter Waller]

I can't get Broadband but do have BT Home Highway. It's digital & allows two lines that can be used at once and a connection speed of 64 whatevers. Seems pretty good to me, but I am a ludite at this computer lark!