Praise where it's due........

[martin]

Awhile back I recounted my farcical interaction with Talktalk (where I learnt the delights of an Afrikaans speaking "help" centre in the wilds of Africa), as a result of their lunacies I transferred to Plusnet - the service has been faultless up until a few days ago - I noticed that my usual measured 6 Mbps had dropped to 2, so I 'phoned their help centre  - within a couple of minutes I was talking to a really helpful bloke in their Yorkshire call centre - he was knowledgeable, sympathetic, and led me through some simple testing, and asked me to call back the following day if it hadn't improved. Next day I got a different technician who had all the details of my problem at his fingertips (wow!) who led me through some more tests, and at the end told me to switch the router off for an hour, then restart, and all should be well within 24 hours.... it was, and I'm now back to a rock-solid 6Mbps. I gather is was a "BT thing" and not actually their fault, but must register my delight in finding a company that actually does live up to it's advertising - pleasant people to deal with, who actually knew what they were talking about, and a remarkable "joined up" system - every step of the testing and attempts to fix the fault were logged in the online "help centre" - regular updates by email, and to my mobile 'phone by text...... Brilliant, and highly recommended! (they are also pretty reasonable on charges)

[Countrypaul]

I like the "it was BT thing",Plusnet are part of BT although operate almost independantly I believe.

Good to see someone making a positive comment about an ISP though, well done Martin.

Paul

[rondurrans]

Another one here you may not believe it but AOL have been brill for years! 

Just run speed test which I do weekly and got:

We recorded your speed as

Download   7542 KBits/s   (942.75 KBytes/s)
Upload   655 KBits/s   (81.875 KBytes/s)

[fred]

I too used to be with Talk Talk, not through my choosing, they bought out the company I was with before. The first thing they did was increase the monthly fee by £5 unless I swapped my phone line to them. I didn't. I was planning on changing providers when I got round to it.

The next thing I received a call on my mobile phone while, I was at a 5 year old's birthday party telling me my bank had refused payment on the last debit and unless I gave them another card number they would restrict my account. I immediately assumed it was a scam as I never give out that number to anyone except close friends. I left the party rushed home and ran Talk Talk, it was them who called, I checked my bank account to make sure nobody had emptied it, they hadn't. The next morning I rang the bank and asked them why they had refused payment, they hadn't. I ran talk Talk and told them my bank assured me there was no problem and they could take the money from the card I had always used. Then the phone calls started, several times a day both to my home number and to my mobile, then the letters from a debt collection agency threatening to take me to court, the debt collection agency had been given my home and my personal mobile number.

How did they get my mobile number? The provider they bought out had a service where you could send text messages from your computer at a greatly reduced rate as if it came from your mobile, but you have to put the number in.

I'm with Plusnet now too, I do get a slow connection from time to time but then I'm in a remote area, it usually sorts itself out if I wait.

[Quakered]

Virgin Media, download speed currently 28 mbits and upload 1.02. I know it is a bit slow but Richard has promised to double it by April. More seriously, the support is not great but the service is very reliable.

[JohnS]

I can also second Virgin Media.  Fast and reliable.  You actually don't appreciate the benefit of speed until you use a friend's computer that is 'only' 10mbits.

Then you see the difference.

John

[rondurrans]

28 mbits   - that north south divide again   - now where is that number for Virgin..............

[martin]

Can't get much further south than here - 10 miles due south I'd be swimming in the channel! - No cable or fibre available here - nominal 8Mbps is the best available.........

[mikey9]

Another vote for Plusnet (metronet).

We went with em 6 years ago when moving up here as they had a 1 month in advance - and cancellation price. They also did "Capped" tarrifs and with only using online streaming for TV - I didn't want to open up the chance of a big bill - so their tarrifs worked well for us.

Metronet (based in Leeds and i suspect now the Plusnet Call centre) could not have been mor ehelpful over a couple of house moves - so when Plusnet took them over I feared the worst - however - we have had no problems - still speak to good broad Yorkshire knowledgeable techies who really seem to know their onions - and resolve or pass to someone who can very effectively.

2500Kbps is as fast as we see up here 14 miles from Inverness - but <1KM from the exchange - and we feel very lucky. A little further into the sticks (i.e. just up the road) and you are looking at the wonders of Satellite Broadband - which by all accounts is carp....

[Baz]

North South divide? you can get Virgin 100Mbps in Edinburgh and Brighton just the same.
What do you think of the Virgin speed advert then? That's the second time they have used a middle aged man I've never heard of before. I suppose I should watch more junk TV instead of reading forums.
Meanwhile I get 3.5 megs out of BT and I'm the last house beyond the village so pretty amazed I get anything. That's enough to stream SD video if I could be bothered so can't see what I'd do with a whizz bang connection.

[Bodidly]

Can't get much further south than here - 10 miles due south I'd be swimming in the channel! - No cable or fibre available here - nominal 8Mbps is the best available.........

We are probably even further south and 3.5Mbps is the best we can get but the squirrels do like to eat the cable

[SimonHobson]

I like the "it was BT thing" ...

It might sound like passing the buck, but there are faults that can occur in BT equipment - and for many users it's still a BT provided connection now matter who the bill comes from. We've seen it many times with customers at work - speeds will drop for no apparent reason, but can be fixed by intervention from the ISP.

The technical bit is that the exchange equipment dynamically learns the maximum rate your line will reliably connect at - and restricts the connection to a little below that. Most of the time it works fine, but occasionally this profile gets upset. A "BRAS profile" rest usually fixes it and it will dynamically learn the max speed again. Typically you're told "allow 24 hours" or something like that, but often it springs back to life a lot quicker than that.

Apart from the occasional "hiccup", an intermittent line problem can also cause it. The connection drops are assumed to be a result of trying to run the line too fast, and so the profile speed is reduced.

[RobNute]

I thought that Plusnet were great as well, I needed the internet at the mill while I was there for 6 months in 2010 and Plusnet were by far the most straightforward and easy to deal with company that I have ever experienced in relation to anything phoneline based! They kept me informed of the progress, send messages explaining when, what and why things were going to happen and have an excellent support team of nice people. Thumbs up from me.

[dimengineer]

I still remember the struggle I had to get my cable connection with what was telewest (now Virgin). I saw the cable going in - Trench along the footpath etc. Then the flyer through the door - "get cable etc" So I rang up. "Where do you live". "xxxx". "No we have no cable in that area" - "But I've just had your flyer thro my door telling me that cable is now available and to ring this number, and I've seen the trenches and installation work. I know it goes past my house"."I'm sorry sir...."

THis went on for about a year, with a flyer about every 3 month, triggering an almost identical set of discussions...

Eventually I rang a different number - went round the houses to get it installed. You coulnd't make it up 

[Tigger]

I switched my Mum over to PlusNet quite a while ago now, as an 84 year old silver surfer, she struggled to understand the 'help desk' staff in India and since she's only 5 miles from the border with Yorkshire, PlusNet was ideal.

There has only been one problem with her service which meant 'broadband' was not available for a while and they actually provided a 'freephone' (0800) dial up number so whilst the service was slow, she could still get on t'internet.

Now that's what I call good service......