# General > Technical Support >  Recommend me a good ISP

## Alrock

AOL are totally pissing me about here, need another ISP so need recommendations....

Criteria:

Unlimited usage (I do a lot of torrenting, often easily doing 100GB a month).
Give me the speed I should be getting (Should be getting 6mbps from AOL but only getting 512kbps despite about £30 in phone calls to them & countless promises that it would be fixed).
Not Tiscali (fell out with them over slow speeds years ago) or Orange (they disconnected me with 2 days notice in the past for using too much of my UNLIMITED package).
Not overexpensive, say £25pm max.

Any recommendations? Especially from anybody in Castletown.

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## Emeraldz

how about plusnet?

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## Alrock

Thanks for the recommendation, will bare it in mind...

Thinking of going with BT at the mo, can anybody give me a good reason not to?

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## Leanne

All the lines are maintained up here by BT and they give priority to their own customers. If you go with one of the others and have problems you could find yourself waiting a long time... This is not the official viewpoint - just IME  :Frown:

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## RecQuery

> All the lines are maintained up here by BT and they give priority to their own customers. If you go with one of the others and have problems you could find yourself waiting a long time... This is not the official viewpoint - just IME


Wrong, wrong, wrong... wrong, wrong, wrong. Your wrong, your wrong, your wrong.

Much as I dislike BT that's anticompetitive behaviour and not allowed, I don't think even BT would be that stupid; I know they're not having worked for two divisions of BT previously. The lines are maintained by BT Wholesale and Openreach, not by BT Retail the guys that sell broadband.

If there was even the slightest hint of this it would cause a storm.

Plusnet is unlimited but they traffic shape torrents and NZBs. I use Andrews and Arnold (AAISP), they're not for everyone though.

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## Alrock

> Plusnet is unlimited but they traffic shape torrents and NZBs. I use Andrews and Arnold (AAISP), they're not for everyone though.


Thanks for the input... AAISP certainly do look like an interesting choice, well worth considering.

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## RecQuery

> Thanks for the input... AAISP certainly do look like an interesting choice, well worth considering.


ISP Review and This page at ThinkBoardband, might be worth a look also.

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## poppett

Plusnet are a BT subsidiary but offer UK 24/7 call centre assistance which has to score high.   Much cheaper than direct package with BT, which I find peculiar.

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## richardj

I used to be with Plusnet then moved to Caithness and went with BT - I believe PlusNet are given better reviews and the billing is certainly easier to understand than BT. So I would suggest PlusNet

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## bothyman

I'm thinking of changing, I was thinking of Plusnet, but someone told me they slow your speed down at certain times ?? I was also thinking BT but all that small print loses me !!

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## RecQuery

Plusnet used to be their own company but BT bought them out and so had to honour their existing contracts, here's a guide to their traffic management.

The local exchanges are supposed to be upgraded soon (January 2012 - May 2012) and then there's that money the area got from the government for 'next generation' broadband, but I think it'll be wasted by consultants.

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## bothyman

> Plusnet used to be their own company but BT bought them out and so had to honour their existing contracts, here's a guide to their traffic management.
> 
> The local exchanges are supposed to be upgraded soon (January 2012 - May 2012) and then there's that money the area got from the government for 'next generation' broadband, but I think it'll be wasted by consultants.


Thanks, I looked at that but it's all rather confusing to me, the simple question is are they any good ?? especially up here.

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## RecQuery

> Thanks, I looked at that but it's all rather confusing to me, the simple question is are they any good ?? especially up here.


It really depends what you want to use it for.

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## Dialyser

I have been with BT for about 2 months now and so far so good. Used to be with Tiscali, which then became TalkTalk. Even on a good day with TalkTalk my speed would only reach 2mb, but was often much less.

Since being with BT never had speed under 4.5mb and normally is closer to 6mb. They are more expensive but I had become so frustrated that cost was no longer my main consideration. Also have free use of their Wifi hotspots which is great for my internet on my mobile phone.

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## Alrock

Now thinking about Plusnet on their "*Business Broadband Option 3 broadband*"
A bit more expensive but at least unlimited.
As for traffic management, called to ask, nobody there to ask, all gone home, will call me back tomorrow....
A good plus for plusnet so far is the freephone number & a comprehensible native English speaking voice.

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## Alrock

Quick update...

Cancelled my Direct Debit to AOL (they can whistle for their cancellation fee)
Got my MAC code.
Signed up with AAISP.
Should be moving over on the 24th.
Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

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## Nick Noble

> Quick update...
> 
> Cancelled my Direct Debit to AOL (they can whistle for their cancellation fee)
> Got my MAC code.
> Signed up with AAISP.
> Should be moving over on the 24th.
> Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.


Nice one Alrock - I'm also switching to AAISP following on from the recommendations on this thread. Should be making the switch tomorrow, so will hopefully let you know how I find the service compared to Plusnet later in the day.

Are you going to be using IPv4 or IPv6?

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## Alrock

> Nice one Alrock - I'm also switching to AAISP following on from the recommendations on this thread. Should be making the switch tomorrow, so will hopefully let you know how I find the service compared to Plusnet later in the day.
> 
> Are you going to be using IPv4 or IPv6?


Please do keep me informed....
As for IPv4 or IPv6... Not a clue, just glad to have some light at the end of the tunnel that is hopefully not the light of an oncoming train... will worry about technicalities later.

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## Nick Noble

Well rather later than planned I'm now with A&A and very happy with the service.

BT managed to complete their part of the migration at 2020 on friday which is after A&A close, and my connection would not work  :Frown: 

I was then away from home until this morning, so first I checked my router config, the tried another router, still no connection, so then I called the helpdesk.

Within 10 minutes I was connected, my router - a Thompson TG585 - would appear to have a problem with being sent IPv6 information, so the link was dropping. The tech support guys turned off the IPv6 for my connection until such time as I get an IPv6 router, which should arrive this week, and then I can turn it back on myself in the control panel on the a&a portal.

So all in all a VERY positive experience, the speed of response from all websites has improved beyond my wildest dreams, it is so good to be connecting directly to websites, and not having to wait for plusnet to cache pages.

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## JamesMcVean

I am also very annoyed with the service from AOL (Talktalk now) 
Sent them several unanswered emails and am thinking that BT might be a better option 
Been with AOL for 11yrs - but when they phoned me yesterday offering half price for 3 months If i sign up for 18months - I told the EXACTLY what I think of them, and that if they dont sort out my DL speed then I would be getting my MAC code and changing - Also threatened them with the Ombudsman as I am paying £17 per month for a service that they are not supplying - The poor lass that called me couldnt get off the phone fast enough - and then I recieve a "What do you think of our customer Services" email - I gave them short shrift. 
Some useful info on this thread thanks guys

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## Alrock

Well... with AAISP now, apparently since Thursday as promised though I was still connected to AOL until today somehow (just stayed connected at the slow speed until I manually turned it off)
Restarted my PC, connected a Cable & Wireless router, entered my login info & straight away my torrents started rocketing along though couldn't access any webpages except through the ip number, must be something to do with the DNS lookup.
Changed the Cable & Wireless router for an old Netgear one I had, entered my login details & everything working now.

All I've gotta do now is to figure out how to set up this domain & email stuff that they supply, guess that will be a phone call to them tomorrow.

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## avalon

I used AOL once, never again If I was lucky I would get 1 mb now with plus.net I got 6 m this morning average 4m through the day and for 3.24 per month I am relay happy
Also if you recommend any body you get a £1 /month off your bill.
pm me and I will recommend any one

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## unicorn

Very happy with plusnet and if anyone wants to change to them and get cheaper broadband from referral pm me

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