I want to ditch my current ISP, any suggestions?

[Mikecg]

I'm with tiscali but they have pissed me off one too many times, the last episode was getting the 8MB upgrade and when I ran a fluke test on the line and via a proxy I was still only getting the 2MB. I have ditched that and made them return it to my original package. I know I will have problems going to a new ISP because of the MAC code and the problems dealing with corporate churn. Has anybody else moved away from an ISP? what kinds of greif can I expect?.

[jimmy two times]

I'd be interested to know too as I want to switch from Orange to Sky due to the Special offer Sky has at the moment.

[bigbadwolf]

My brother was with Tiscali and he had a lot of problems with them as well Mike and judging by his experience with their customer support there's plenty in the same boat.

[matthew123]

Give notice to current ISP and ask for MAC code. Sign up with a new ISP and once you have new router, cables contact the new ISP and give them the MAC code then within a few hours you'll be switched over from old to new ISP. That is what I did switching from Orange to Be.

Only snag I found when I ditched Orange was that they kept taking money out of my account for next 10 months. They eventually sent me a cheque to refund me but they spelt my name wrong... am still waiting for new cheque from Orange.

[Mikecg]

Good call on the kill the DD front Matthew123.

[mockney piers]

tbh it's probably nothing to do with your ISP. The bell wire that hooks us all up round here is very old and the dulwich and brixton exchanges are yet to be modernised, so depending on your distance from whichever exchange you're on, it may be that no ISP can improve your speed.

I can get no more than 2 MBs (bits not bytes) even though I was upgraded to 8 about 3 years ago, in fact I kept getting complete loss, until I got the exchange engineer to actually lower me to about 1.5.

Satellite perhaps?

[matthew123]

I used to use Orange and it never got above 1.5 Mbps, usually it was in the hundreds. Since I moved to Be, I get upto 6 Mbps - just ran a test it came in at 5.2 Mbps. Be make a physical change at the Exchange apparently to double your maximum speed. Be costs me ?17.50 a month and although I think it's expensive to when I paid ?5 p/m for Orange it is pretty good. I connect my PC to the router via WiFi.

[Andystar]

I'm on o2 broadband, they are friendly quick & reliable..Also if you are an o2 customer, you get ?5 off your bill every month..check the link here

i had probs with the mac code because no one could tell me who the isp provider was, bt were v unhelpful & rude,even tho it was their phone line, they made me feel crushed & devalued. Eventually, o2 told me that it was sky- it took ages to speak to someone at sky& about 2 weeks to get the code. (one week was finding out which isp we had previously)

[Keef]

Be Unlimited is good. I pay ?17.50 a month, but believe there is a 13 quid package. Been with them 3 months now, and very happy.

[jollybaby]

A bit of advice for anyone moving away from Orange. Apparently the crappy livebox doesn't belong to you- even if it's 2 1/2 years old and knackered. I cancelled my account a couple of months ago when I moved house and got a cable package. As part of my declutter I binned the livebox. Only yesterday received a threatening letter containing a big plastic bag telling me that if I didn't send my livebox back then they'd have to charge me ?100 (quite a lot when the package was only ?5 a month).

I take it this can only be a money making scam as they clearly can't be expecting to reuse the box- particularly given that they want you to send it back in a bin bag.

[PinkyB]

Oh, God, the Orange Livebox is SO crappy, isn't it? Ours cuts the connection every time the phone rings and randomly about two or three times every evening. Last night, about ten-fifteen times. The signal's also never higher than two bands out of five. Really poor, but it's not my house, so I can't do anything about it.

I'm moving soon, thank god, so I don't have to use Orange anymore. This thread has come at a very good time, in fact. I'm thinking of going with Virgin Media, just so I can get the phone/ TV/ broadband in one and don't have to deal with the horror show that is BT. Does Richard Branson still own this arm of Virgin, does anyone know? I really, really hate giving that self-promoting tosspot my cash.

[jollybaby]

Pinky B .We went for the the virgin 3 in 1 package- think it's around ?25 a month. No complaints so far. Not sure if the bearded one is still in charge or not!

[JetSetWilly]

i,m with tiscali, bit slow from time to time, but at ?25pm, for b,band, line rental, and all calls, including international free, i can cope.

[antijen]

Im with talk talk, have been nearly 3years,?10pm broadband 54.00mbps, all calls and international calls, they are brilliant, when I moved to ed had to get a bt line then cancel for talk talk to takeover.

[sophiesofa]

talk talk are crap. for some unknown reason my flatmate let one in and then signed up through a door to door salesman. Was more expensive thatn he had been led to believe and we had to pay bt a fortune for ending the contract early. Every month or so we have to re-install all the broadband stuff on my flatmates laptop pc then my mac and then re-do her laptop because the passwords keep changing for some unknown reason. Would never use them again!

[antijen]

Ive never had a problem, had door to door girl and she was very helpful, in fact I invited her in. She sorted out what I needed for wireless. Bills are a quarter what I was with BT, 3years ago.

[sweetgirl]

im with talktalk, been with them nearly 6 yrs, they are great!! initially i had problems with my phone line & internet but over the last 4 yrs its been perfect until..... yesterday! for no apparent reason my internet stop working, when i got round to calling them it was all fixed within 20mins.... they talked me over the phone about what i had to do!

i pay 21.50 per month, which includes line rental, 24/7 local & national calls, free calls to certain countries abroad inc usa, oh yeah & wireless broad band at 100mbps......

im happy!:)-D

[sweetgirl]

im with talktalk, been with them nearly 6 yrs, they are great!! initially i had problems with my phone line & internet but over the last 4 yrs its been perfect until..... yesterday! for no apparent reason my internet stop working, when i got round to calling them it was all fixed within 20mins.... they talked me over the phone about what i had to do!

i pay 21.50 per month, which includes line rental, 24/7 local & national calls, free calls to certain countries abroad inc usa, oh yeah & wireless broad band at 100mbps......

im happy!:)-D

[Bizzy]

All ISP's MUST give you your MAC code on request and on the spot. The transfer usually takes 6 - 10 days with a loss of connection for a few hours on the day of transfer.

BT - Avoid. Started off as the best ISP, but they have slowly implemented all sorts T&C's and don't offer value for money. Check your bill they have you on the right package you initially signed up for!!

O2 - Uses ADSL2. They managed to double the bandwidth BT could manage down the same line. They reckon I can get up to 13MBps but im yet to witness this.

Talk Talk / Tiscali - Everyone I know who use these ISP's have issues. They're probably good for low bandwidth tasks like checking e-mail and playing Pacman multiplayer online.

[Bizzy]

All ISP's MUST give you your MAC code on request and on the spot. The transfer usually takes 6 - 10 days with a loss of connection for a few hours on the day of transfer.

BT - Avoid. Started off as the best ISP, but they have slowly implemented all sorts T&C's and don't offer value for money. Check your bill they have you on the right package you initially signed up for!!

O2 - Uses ADSL2. They managed to double the bandwidth BT could manage down the same line. They reckon I can get up to 13MBps but im yet to witness this.

Talk Talk / Tiscali - Everyone I know who use these ISP's have issues. They're probably good for low bandwidth tasks like checking e-mail and playing Pacman multiplayer online.

[PeckhamRose]

Virgin are the best as the fibre optics go to your door so contstant quality and very high.

I'm with BT though, no problems and great free technical service when there is a problem!

I may be paying more than some of you, but I understand that techie support is ?1.50 a minute for some of them.

And so far BT Vision is working well, too!

[PeckhamRose]

Virgin are the best as the fibre optics go to your door so contstant quality and very high.

I'm with BT though, no problems and great free technical service when there is a problem!

I may be paying more than some of you, but I understand that techie support is ?1.50 a minute for some of them.

And so far BT Vision is working well, too!

[dulwichmum]

Mikecg darling. Why don't you consider this an omen darling, and leave the internet alone for a while. You would join some kind of club for like-minded people. Perhaps a drinking club, or take up exercise or get yourself a Wii or a Nintendo and some games. Anything. Please... I will give you my son's computer games. Please lovely man, try something else for a while. We need a break.

[dulwichmum]

Mikecg darling. Why don't you consider this an omen darling, and leave the internet alone for a while. You would join some kind of club for like-minded people. Perhaps a drinking club, or take up exercise or get yourself a Wii or a Nintendo and some games. Anything. Please... I will give you my son's computer games. Please lovely man, try something else for a while. We need a break.

[PeckhamRose]

You got that right.