broadband in central london -- what providers are best?

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recently moved to central london, W1 postcode. looking for broadband internet access. we have a BT phone line, although i hear BT are shit.

what are the best and cheapest providers? i don't know ANY.

what are initial costs likely to be?

thanks in advance!

― Danny Quintana (danny quintana), Sunday, 15 February 2004 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm with zen, people seem to like them, absolutely no trouble so far and it's a month-at-a-time contract. 28 quid a month though.

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 15 February 2004 13:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Bulldog, much cheaper because they have unbundled a lot of local exhchanges. Zen would be my second choice, who I have now, excellent customer service.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 15 February 2004 21:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm with Zen also. They are a quid or two more per month than most other providers, but then you do get like 99.9% uptime from them. I've had the service for a year now and I can only remember once when I couldn't get online.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 16 February 2004 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Can you get Bulldog on a month-by-month contract? I've decided I need Broadband/Soulseek very badly indeed.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i'm hoping to join the broadband club when i move. will zen and/or bulldog require me to get help from a geeky friend to set it up, or are they pretty simple?

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

No, I will not do this. I will not. I would never see my boyfriend again. Nor would he see anything of me but the back of my head over the top of the laptop. No no no no no!

― The River Kate (kate), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

will zen and/or bulldog require me to get help from a geeky friend to set it up, or are they pretty simple?

Register for an account and you wait about five-ten working days for them to set up the line. Meanwhile, they send you an ADSL modem (or you can buy your own, whatever) and they send it to you. You plug it in the back of your computer and into your phone socket. Install the dial-up software and enter in your username/password which they email you when you set up the account. When the ADSL is activated on your phone line, it works.

It's simple.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

don't whatever oyu do get a usb dsl modem, they are nothing but trouble.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 20 February 2004 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

This is almost enough to get me to move further into the city: Bulldog offering a 4mbps connection for only £30 per month. London users only, sadly. You've got to be covered by one of these exchanges.

They'd roll this shit out across the country pronto.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Thursday, 5 August 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

holy fuck! i'm so doing that. i think. do bulldog have a good reputation??

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 5 August 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

has anyone migrated before? is it as inconvenient as people imply?

― toby (tsg20), Thursday, 5 August 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I reckon many BT Yahoo users will be switching to other companies in Jan 2005 - they are bringing in Monthly user limits - which is rubbish if you listen to online radio a lot.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 5 August 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Bulldog - migration advice
http://www.bulldogdsl.com/support/faq/migration.asp

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 5 August 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think most BT Yahoo users even know other broadband providers exist. Except maybe AOL.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 5 August 2004 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not entirely sure what one is supposed to do with a 4mbps connection.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 5 August 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

me neither. but it kind of seems silly not to get it, i guess.

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 6 August 2004 05:22 (twenty-one years ago)

three months pass...

UK Online will do you an 8mbps connection - double the speed of the Bulldog one I mentioned above - for £40 a month.

They cover a lot more of London, too - and some of the rest of the country.

The one catch is that the usage restrictions do state a rather lame 4gb a day download cap. No idea if they'd actually enforce that, though.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i tried to order Bulldog's 4mb but it hasn't been rolled out to Stratford yet. they don't really bother to point out where you can and can't get the service on their website. i've settled for their 2mb line in the meantime but it's not been sorted yet (hopefully by end of week).

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

friends of mine have been using bulldog and HATE IT - tons of problems and their connection drops all the time. just a warning in case anyone is considering them

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no! I've just signed up to Nildram - despite you lot telling me to go for Zen. What have I done!?!?!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks Rob, too late now tho, gah

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

well, other people seem to like bulldog, so you should be fine - i just wanted to cut short any claims of them being 'the best' or anything...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been with Plusnet in Scotland (512) and they have been great, and offer a 2mbps connection for £20/month, webhosting and no limit.

― 3underscore (___), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:50 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i heard the same as rob, plus bad stuff about contention. it seems likely that my work will pay for my broadband, so i'm definitely going to stick with zen, and not worry about them being slightly more expensive than some others - they've been fantastic.

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to have BT (retard landlord insists on this), was apparently connected a week ago but STILL CANNOT GET ON TO THE INTERNET - how the fuck are normal people meant to know what 'not DHCP configured' means? One massive phone call to their 'helpdesk' later and things are still not sorted out, apparently I have to contact Microsoft whose phone lines are only open when I am at work. FUCKERS.

does anyone know what a 'winsoc' might be? apparently this is preventing internet connectage at home.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i'd probably stay with blueyonder if i could as they've been good, but am in ntl land now and heard a lot more negatives about their service

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

homechoice = cable tv included in the price. i like it. except my computer is now dead, so it's kind of worthless.

― colette (a2lette), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:11 (twenty-one years ago)

NTL were good to me last year but then I was a student and not in London

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

seven months pass...

Just had a call from Bulldog who are upgrading me to an 8 MEG line in 4 weeks - which would normally cost £29.50 a month (bizarrely this in itself is over £10 cheaper than what I have been foolishly paying for a 2 meg line) BUT the first month is free and until the end of this month you get £12 off each month for the first five months (not including the first free month, i think). So £17.50 for 8 meg line (400kb/s min upload) with no cap, HOLLER. too bad i'll be moving out in August and have to open a new account in the new place. might kick up a huge fuss if they refuse to offer me a matching deal then.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 23 June 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

OK, so I've just moved to Bow and needed to set up a phone line in the new house so I went with the 8mb Bulldog thing and it's going to take them until the middlo of January to set it up. And it might not even be that soon since logging into the Bulldog site with my reference number tells me of 'issues' at the exchange.

My mate who lives five minutes down the road has had the same package since August and it only took them about two weeks to set it up then.

That with the fact their call centre is fucking shit makes me want to cancel the whole thing and go back to BT/Zen.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

yeah Bulldog have really lost it in the last few months so I'd steer well clear for the foreseeable.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Monday, 5 December 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Bumpa lumpa!

Yeah, finally finishing nightmare six months with Wanadoo - don't want to give them any more money now. My main criteria are the following:

1) Monthly contract
2) 2MB or higher speeds at reasonable price (£25 pounds, but preferably less)
3) Service. Like, actually decent service.
4) Easy of transition - the getting phone service with the package scares me. Should I be?

Good fortune to all those who can proffer some decent advice! Many thanks.

― Arriflexor, Wednesday, 1 February 2006 01:01 (twenty years ago)

freedom2surf have been pretty great so far... check out the forums at adslguide.

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 08:28 (twenty years ago)

Bethere has been pretty good since it started working but for 3 months, no internet due to their incompetence.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 1 February 2006 08:48 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

freedom2surf is now throttling slsk, making it totally unusable :-( i guess when they do the same to bittorrent it'll be time for a new isp...

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 09:24 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

are bethere still good? i think it's time for me to move...

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 06:37 (nineteen years ago)

Soulseek has been working fine for me recently, and Gareth doesn't seem to be having any problems either. I really don't understand this bandwidth throttling thing at all.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 07:15 (nineteen years ago)

things have been ok for me, but i just don't trust them not to go badly again...

― toby (tsg20), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

Hi guys,

Does anyone use Sky broadband? Nildram have done me fine for the last 4 years but they cost a fair whack, and since I have Sky TV anyway it makes some kind of sense.

They have 3 packages: Free, 2Mb download speeds, 2Gb monthly usage (far too little I fear, though our exchange can only do 2Mb anyway); £5, 8Mb, 40Gb/month (sounds okay) and £10, 16Mb, unlimited downloads. The latter is still £15/mo cheaper than Nildram, so does anyone have anecdotal evidence why Sky broadband is either a good or bad thing?

Thanks in advance!

― Mark C, Sunday, 10 June 2007 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

The only anecdotal evidence I have is my mate at work, who tried to get his parents set up with Sky Broadband and there was long delays and Sky said "Oh, you need to talk to BT - there's a problem with the exchange, and BT said "What, there's no problem, they've just made that up" and I'm not sure how it eventually got resolved but it didn't sound very inspiring customer service.

― Alba, Sunday, 10 June 2007 11:58 (eighteen years ago)

nine months pass...

anyone know if its worth getting BB from a mobile phone provider? as in they run it through your phone via a modem they provide. meant to be pretty cheap.

― mr x, Thursday, 20 March 2008 21:56 (eighteen years ago)

O2 are supposedly really good.

― jed_, Thursday, 20 March 2008 22:08 (eighteen years ago)

im with 3 mobile. might give it a go. if you get a 18 month contract, you can get something like up to 5gb per month for 7.00.

― mr x, Thursday, 20 March 2008 22:11 (eighteen years ago)

BT said "What, there's no problem, they've just made that up"

To be fair, that's what BT ALWAYS say, so may not be a reflection either way on Sky. I was wondering about that myself (Sky broadband) cos we already have Sky TV.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 20 March 2008 22:16 (eighteen years ago)

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