General: Changing Broadband Providers

Hi Folks,

I did do a search for 'broadband', but apparently there's no other topics about it on here!

Just looking at changing broadband suppliers (anything from 1Mb upwards, and including free weekend & evening calls).

We've looked around a bit and supanet are the best value. But does anyone know much about them? I know customer service is generally appalling with ISPs anyway, but is there anything we should be wary about specifically with supanet?

http://www.supanet.com/broadband/newtobroadband/ makes me suspicious!

Two other options are Tiscali or Toucan...

I had Supanet dialup a long time ago, but that website does make me suspicious, particularly "Unlimited bandwidth" which doesn't mean very much. Their acceptable use policy isn't clearly defined and I haven't been able to find out how long you get to keep the lower price for switching from another provider.

Tiscali apparently are evil and constrain peer to peer traffic (even for legitimate use) so I wouldn't recommend them. No idea about Toucan though.

I've heard nothing but good things about Be and O2 broadband (which are the same) however, and if you are on O2 for your mobile you get a nice discount on broadband - but they work exclusively on unbundled exchanges so it's OK if you can get it... (I can't )

We've been with Eclipse at home for ages and they've been pretty solid and dependable although apparently on average they are among the lowest performers speed-wise (still, it's definitely over 3Mbit at home).

Hope that helps and you get it sorted, and that your current ISP doesn't give you any headaches. They are required by law to give you a MAC code if you ask for one (migration authentication code) and the new ISP ought to be able to sort it out from there.

Thanks for that folks.

Unfortunately, we can't get virgin here. In fact, there's very few providers we can get! I also believe that we won't be able to get proper broadband speed due to the length of the phone line. Typed in our telephone number here - http://www.adslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/adslchecker.welcome. It comes up with:

Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial test on your line indicates that it is VERY UNLIKELY you will be able to receive 512Kbps or 256Kbps broadband service due to the very long length of your telephone line. However, your order will be accepted if you still wish to order. An engineer may need to visit who will, where possible, supply the broadband service.

Our initial test on your line indicates that your line may not support a reliable ADSL Max broadband service, with current technology. However, an order for 250Kbps broadband speed will still be accepted, but an engineer may need to visit who will, where possible, supply the service.

Just did a speed check on http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/, and it said on our current connection we're getting 128kbps download, 209kbps upload...which I thought was a bit weird!

Any suggestions? (short of taking out a contract with Sky, which would prove costly given that we just want terrestrial tv)! Or are we just stuck? Is it worth trying a 1meg connection, or is that just wasting money?

My brothers got Vodafone mobile broadband. Works a treat.