Re: [Hampshire] ISPs (again): Recommendation and warning

Rob Malpass wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Two quick things - both related:
>
> 1) I want a largely bog standard home ADSL 2Mb connection but I'm fed
> up of very polite but entirely clueless tech folks (see below) wasting
> my time with pointless instructions so, rightly or wrongly, I'm
> looking for an ISP with UK call centre tech support. I'm thinking of
> Zen - but didn't I hear (maybe on this list) recently that Zen are
> being taken over by someone so we can expect a drop in service
> standards? If so, what ISP would folks recommend for my pretty
> standard needs? I'm not into gaming or TV downloading - though an
> unlimited but fair use policy would be good. Apparently Zen give you
> emails telling you how close you are to your limit.
>
> 2) I'm leaving Orange as an ISP - in fact I never joined them, I
> joined Freeserve which became Wanadoo and now Orange. Just thought
> I'd mention why in case any of you ever consider them - and I'm well
> aware that they're probably only as bad as any other. However
>
> /* rant on */
> when you tell their tech folks that your connection's dropped out on
> two PCs (one Linux, one XP) both connected to the same router and they
> _insist_ on getting you to delete your XP temporary internet files
> before they'll do a line check (despite the router log saying LCP is
> down and no WAN IP address has been allocated), it gets a bit tiring
> not to say expensive.
> /* rant off */
>
> Ironically, Orange have one of the worst reputations around but I've
> had almost no trouble with them in two different locations. However
> there's nothing wrong with the bt line and (quelle surprise) they did
> an "upgrade" a few weeks back and the connection's been dodgy since
> then. Believe it or not, on one problem a few weeks back where most
> sites were working but the odd one not, I asked them to ping the site
> and they said they didn't have authority to do a ping!
>
> Cheers
> Rob
>
I would recommend Newnet - they are in Fareham so you speak to local
people not someone in Bombay and they respond quickly. I was with
Plusnet (now owned by BT) and their problem resolution involved a long
tree of "press 1 for .., press 2 for .., etc" with a request at the end
to disable my firewall so they could perform some tests sometime.

I only have a 3GB bandwidth limit but buy more when I need (rarely) -
good value. I've been with Newnet for a year now and the service has
been excellent. No traffic shaping. They're rolling out a 24MB service
in this area but I'm not in one of the exchanges to be upgraded (not
that I would want this speed) - maybe you are?

Russell