Best Value ISP for Gaming + General Browsing

[Brand86]

Currently on BT and cannot wait to leave them - worst customer services I have EVER dealt with and the package is far too expensive, wish I had never joined but never mind.

Have been looking at Sky - seem decent enough speeds from what I can tell and good prices. Not bothered about TV but nice to have the option. Would people recommend Sky broadband, or what other decent providers are out there?

Currently have line rental through BT too but not bothered about having a phone line.

Any advice very much appreciated!

 

[C.J]

My brother in law has Sky, said their speed is on par with BT, for him.

I'm with BT Unlimited (£17.99?), I pay £11.50pm for it. I get between 6.5-7.5mb, which is good for here.

 

[Krispwee]

Are you on an exchange with Sky available as the phone line provider? If unsure check here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search

If you are then switch the phone and broadband over as you will get the unlimited package for £7.50 + £12 odd quid for your line rental. I couldn't fault the service tbh, I only recently switched due to Infinity being available now. Just make sure you call up and ask for your "max delay set to 8". They will understand what you are saying and it will decrease your ping. Mine went from 50 - 60 down to 20 - 30.

 

[Brand86]

Not sure Krispwee where to look on that page? My postcode is AL15JN?

Sky is looking like a good shout then - how do they compare against Virgin though?

 

[Krispwee]

Yeah it's available.

In terms of speed then VM will win hands down if you pick the right package. Until Sky move into fibre optics they are going to be left for dead in terms of speed. Stick your postcode in on VMs website and see if that's available. If it is then I'd seriously look at that as the best option. What kind of speeds are you getting with BT?

In terms of ping for games I'd expect around 20ms with VM and around 30ms on ADSL (BT, Sky etc) to a decent server so it's pretty negligible. So...

Option 1

Sky (without TV): £10 per month broadband + £12.25 per month line rental (6 month BB free at the mo)

This would give you the same kind of speeds and pings that you currently receive. Completely unlimited, no P2P restrictions AFAIK.

Option 2

Virgin Media (without TV): £21 per month for BB (10mb soon to be 20mb) no line rental. (currently 3 months at £16.

This will be 10mb (increase to 20mb for free soon) and should reduce your ping for games by a small amount. They do have "traffic shaping" on P2P (torrents etc) but this is no different to BT's traffic shaping policy.

Personally I'd pick VM due to speeds available and also if your usage goes up and you need faster Internet then its simply a case of changing up to the next package. Which ever route you take I'd recommend using Quidco when ordering, most places are offering decent cashback rewards for signing up.

 

[sbridgey]

I have VM 100mb and it is amazing but i think if you can get it 50mb is more than enough

 

[Dean0o0o.]

Im on VM 30mb line (fibre optic). Perfect for gaming, we have 2 xboxs in the house. Can run both at the same time no lag. Fibre optic makes all the difference. No slow times during the peek periods.

Sky use BT lines for broadband anyway.

 

[Cookie]

Be.

http://www.bethere.co.uk/

Easily the best customer service I've had from an ISP. They called me back about a problem on a Sunday morning once.

Ignore the people talking about Virgin, they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Fair enough you get fast internets, whilst it works. Try getting hold of them when something goes wrong!

 

[SC03OTT]

In your experience. Mine has been fine.

 

[Cookie]

In your experience. Mine has been fine.

The internet is awash with people complaining about VM.

I was with them when they were still nthell.. they haven't changed

 

[SC03OTT]

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews101289.html

That site has quite a lot of complaints about Be. They must be s**t.

 

[Prong]

Virgin

Never had a problem. Best by far in my experience

 

[Steven103]

Fibre optic makes all the difference.

This.

Copper phone lines vary massively depending on where you live and the accuracy of some of the estimates leave much to be desired. For most people it seems "upto 20 Mb" actually means more like 6.5 to 8. Fibre however doesn't suffer from quite the same "distance from telephone exchange" issue and, IIRC, the general figure is something like the majority of customers get 97% of their estimated speed. No copper-based ISP can get even close to that.

For example with good infrastructure I pay for 30 Mb/s and receive 31 Mb/s. Having been with BT lines forever, getting within 75% of the estimated speed was astounding.

 

[Christopher]

Sky have always been great with me in the past. We're moving from them to BT Infinity in the next few weeks though.

We've recently moved property and I'm only getting 2mb here... and that's central Manchester too!

 

[Dean0o0o.]

Ignore the people still talking about NTL theyve re-laid the wires since then :evil:.

Virgin. Phoned up, they come and installed when they said. The TV works, the internet works. Havent had to speak to them since.

Got a good deal on a free tivo box + an extra free HD box with free installation.

 

[Matt Cup]

On 30mb virgin. Drops speeds from 8 till 10pm most days. f**king annoying imo.

 

[canky]

Be.

http://www.bethere.co.uk/

Easily the best customer service I've had from an ISP. They called me back about a problem on a Sunday morning once.

Ignore the people talking about Virgin, they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Fair enough you get fast internets, whilst it works. Try getting hold of them when something goes wrong!

Im with BE defo underated. Cant stand these companies like virgin and bt overpriced rubbish.
For me its like going to currys(virgin media,bt) or richer sounds (Be)

Be are great they txt you ring you. Remind me of our IS guys at work very knowledge. Fast connection. Who needs over 10mb anyway.

Wouldnt go with all in 1 companies like sky either like buying a tumbledryer and all in 1 washing machine. If 1 bit goes bad ur screwed.

 

[tyranical]

As a question is there some sort of map online to show where there is fibre optic BB? Virgin only let you search by postcode I just wondered what kind of spread the country has in terms of that, I suspect it doesn't get much higher than Coventry because nobody cares about the North.

 

[182Pete]

BE may have great customer service but the underlying infrastructure is based on aging two pair copper telephone lines which create all kinds of transmission problems in broadband networks.

Presently Virgin Media is the best in the UK and for gaming you need a connection that has a decent upload speed aswell as download (BE won't give you great upload speeds unless you're sat next to the exchange).

Virgin is not fibre optic. The backhaul network is fibre, but the connection to the premises (your home) is still presented on coaxial copper.

 

[EmirK0]

On Virgin Media 30Mb(to be doubled soon!), can't really fault them so far, great speeds and rarely cuts off. The Virgin media super hub isn't the best, but it does the job I suppose.

They're good if you're in an area that can't get good speeds through ADSL (I could'nt get more than 1Mbs before).

 

[Adam G]

If you can only get Sky Connect then forget it. It makes 56k dialup seem fast at peak times! I'm changing to Virgin next week.

 

[Alex H]

Plusnet. From Yarksha.

 

[Gouldy]

Plusnet are rubbish. I was with them until recently and I was on ADSL 2 network supposedly getting upto 21 Mbs download. After the line trainin period I was getting 3Mbs if that download.

I wouldn't recommend plus net to anyone, they have a forum if you want to have a look at all their issues.

I've change to a company called origin broadband. They do a fibre optic 10Mbs up / 40Mbs down service for £25 a month which is unlimited usage and downloads

 

[Millsy]

Apart from the opinion above, has anyone else got any positive review of Sky Connect?

We're moving to a non LLU exchange so we only have a few options.

 

[SamP]

https://www.bethere.co.uk/web/beportal/beunlimited

The end.

 

[Addicted]

We've just moved to BT Infinity and I can say it's awesome (we can't get cable or VM here so this was the best option)!

ADSL is never going to be brilliant, but i hear good things from BE!

 

[Gouldy]

Fibre or don't bother, ADSL is old technology

 

[Cookie]

Fibre or don't bother, ADSL is old technology

So is the coax that feeds to your house, from that fibre in the cabinet

 

[daydotz]

been with be for years i wouldn't go anywhere else customer service is top notch

 

[Gouldy]

So is the coax that feeds to your house, from that fibre in the cabinet

I know, that's why you get FTTH

 

[Brand86]

Ok these are my options:

1. Virgin - but no FO in my area so down a phone line = slower and more expensive

2. Sky - got quoted a really good deal, and free BB for 6 months

3. Stay with BT - but they can't fix my NAT settings and their customer services are awful

Currently looking like 2 is the best option for me, annoying can't get Virgin FO though

 

[Gouldy]

Tbh you will get the exact same speeds down the phone line no matter what provider you go with so if I were you I would go for the cheapest / best deal

 

[Brand86]

Yeh that's what I am thinking - and hopefully Sky sort out my NAT settings as that's the main reason I am leaving BT, they are clueless!

 

[Gouldy]

Before you change, have set up your router properly ?

 

[Brand86]

Well I have followed ALL of the BT instructions (several times in fact!) and had 3 of their "engineers" tried to mess around remotely with my settings but to no avail. After a year of no success think it will be easier just to switch.

 

[Gouldy]

I was going to suggest port forwarding ma detecting your router up for Psn / Xbox live.

I had a strict NAT for ages until I set the relevant ports on my router forward. I have an open NAT now and playing online works fine.

 

[Brand86]

Yes I tried that mate, 3 times! They even tried to apply some specific port forwarding codes and still no joy Friends on BT have just reset their router when it has happened to them but always stays on strict for me.

 

[Gouldy]

Oh well, worth a try.

 

[Goodj]

If you cant get Virgin, I find that BT is the best you can do.

yes it costs, but I found you get what you pay for. This was from going through 4 providers in 5 years on the same line, all with "upto 8mb"

 

[Gouldy]

If you cant get Virgin, I find that BT is the best you can do.

yes it costs, but I found you get what you pay for. This was from going through 4 providers in 5 years on the same line, all with "upto 8mb"

Read the thread before posting, the lad is with BT now And he is having problems