So I'm nearly in my new house and I need to get sky with ATR and RUK sorted along with Broadband/cable and a phone line,
Looking at sky I get a landline with rental and 20mb broadband free as a package, I'm not sure sky will be good enough broadband? I think I could still use there free line rental though and just choose a different ISP.
I didn't have the option for cable in my last house so never looked into it, I've been with O2 for ages and they have been great, (very little downtime)so I was going to just go with them again or Be (I think they are owned by O2 and use the same lines).
I'm just wondering which ISP you guys are using?
and do you get your pics through sky or virgin?
Which ISP?
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andyfuller
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- Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm
If you are trading for a living, which I think you are, the key to your living is your internet so it is not an area you should be looking to scrimp and save on.
I would recommend Zen - they cost more than most but their service is excellent. They are voted time and again as the best in the industry. I had issues in the past and it is a pleasure to have been able to check online before I rang to see how long the delay was on the help line so I wasn't left hanging on hold, you then get through to a UK based help desk and I dealt with the same person everytime I rang - if they weren't available they rang me back. When things needed checking they rang me also. The problem was seemed fixed but they carried on checking other possibilities just to make sure it was fixed.
Having a day of down time can cost you more than a years subscription so don't look for the cheapest.
For pictures I use Sky as I can't get Virgin - shame you just missed the £165 cash back offer Virgin had as it worked out to £2.08 a month for pictures.
I would recommend Zen - they cost more than most but their service is excellent. They are voted time and again as the best in the industry. I had issues in the past and it is a pleasure to have been able to check online before I rang to see how long the delay was on the help line so I wasn't left hanging on hold, you then get through to a UK based help desk and I dealt with the same person everytime I rang - if they weren't available they rang me back. When things needed checking they rang me also. The problem was seemed fixed but they carried on checking other possibilities just to make sure it was fixed.
Having a day of down time can cost you more than a years subscription so don't look for the cheapest.
For pictures I use Sky as I can't get Virgin - shame you just missed the £165 cash back offer Virgin had as it worked out to £2.08 a month for pictures.
Yep and its always been ok. The only others I've used have been abroad so I can't compare it to any others you'd be interested in but BT is fine for me. At an old address (years ago) I did have a few slow down issues with them at peak times, but it may be that they've sorted that problem
Cheers guys, Andy I do trade for a living so I do want the best (most reliable) I can get hold of, I have heard of Zen and I've seen a few good reviews on them as well, I'll look into them cheers,
£2.08 a month for pics! that would of been good. As it stands I think sky with sports pack and RUK and multiroom (for my office) is going to cost me about £70 a month!
£2.08 a month for pics! that would of been good. As it stands I think sky with sports pack and RUK and multiroom (for my office) is going to cost me about £70 a month!
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andyfuller
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- Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm
Yup sounds about right but beats spending it on petrol each week just to get to work!rhysmr2 wrote:As it stands I think sky with sports pack and RUK and multiroom (for my office) is going to cost me about £70 a month!
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andyfuller
- Posts: 4619
- Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm
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andyfuller
- Posts: 4619
- Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:23 pm
I would say my usage is towards the upper end of the scale so this should give you a good idea. There is some other internet usage included in the figures but the vast majority is from trading.
Can you guess which days I took off
Can you guess which days I took off
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Hi rhysmr2,
If your looking at getting sky then you can buy half price sky codes off ebay (just do a search for half price sky), even if you have to pay £30 for a code it's still a bargain with the amount saved.
The only thing with them is that they run out in a few weeks (although you can have an instal date later if it's like the last lot), and that you must be a new customer to sky or 1 that has not had Sky for at least 12 months, failing that you can put it in your partners name etc.
The savings for that would more than cover the extra amount for decent broadband provider, personally for me at the moment it would be between Zen and Xilo both offer great service and amazing customer service like Andy says they do cost more but in the long run they are well worth it. Have you looked at the ISP options on the exchange you are moving to?, ideally you want either FTTC or LLU for the best speeds/service.
If your looking at getting sky then you can buy half price sky codes off ebay (just do a search for half price sky), even if you have to pay £30 for a code it's still a bargain with the amount saved.
The only thing with them is that they run out in a few weeks (although you can have an instal date later if it's like the last lot), and that you must be a new customer to sky or 1 that has not had Sky for at least 12 months, failing that you can put it in your partners name etc.
The savings for that would more than cover the extra amount for decent broadband provider, personally for me at the moment it would be between Zen and Xilo both offer great service and amazing customer service like Andy says they do cost more but in the long run they are well worth it. Have you looked at the ISP options on the exchange you are moving to?, ideally you want either FTTC or LLU for the best speeds/service.
Hey Mike, Them deals looks fantastic! thanks a lot, good point about the LLU and FTTC, Last time I checked only O2/Be where LLU enabled at my exchange that's why I went with O2. I'm staying with the same exchange, I just checked now and it's still no FTTC and only a select few LLU like O2/Be, Sky/Easynet and Talktalk, it shows zen as unavaialbe in the LLU list. I checked the sites out and Zen says maximum dl speeds of 6mb! where as O2/be says 14mb and I do get about 10mb from them now. Xilo said 5mb max as well so looks like I might have to stay with O2/be untill my exchange gets up to date with some other providers!Mike_IG wrote:Hi rhysmr2,
If your looking at getting sky then you can buy half price sky codes off ebay (just do a search for half price sky), even if you have to pay £30 for a code it's still a bargain with the amount saved.
The only thing with them is that they run out in a few weeks (although you can have an instal date later if it's like the last lot), and that you must be a new customer to sky or 1 that has not had Sky for at least 12 months, failing that you can put it in your partners name etc.
The savings for that would more than cover the extra amount for decent broadband provider, personally for me at the moment it would be between Zen and Xilo both offer great service and amazing customer service like Andy says they do cost more but in the long run they are well worth it. Have you looked at the ISP options on the exchange you are moving to?, ideally you want either FTTC or LLU for the best speeds/service.
Thanks again.
Hey Rhys - good luck with the house move! I live in a very rural area - no such things a Fibre optic or 3g up here so a reliable isp is gold dust to me.
My neigbour is a retired IT guy and he put me on to IDNET - and I have to say they are very good. There is no line throttling, uk freephone support (which is very good)great speeds all the time with almost no downtime - they also do 1 month contract so if you are not happy you can move on without paying a penalty. THey do use BT equipment but when I did have a problem last year they got BT onto it very quickly. I think their premium packages give you priority at the exchange which is good during busy periods of the day.
My neigbour is a retired IT guy and he put me on to IDNET - and I have to say they are very good. There is no line throttling, uk freephone support (which is very good)great speeds all the time with almost no downtime - they also do 1 month contract so if you are not happy you can move on without paying a penalty. THey do use BT equipment but when I did have a problem last year they got BT onto it very quickly. I think their premium packages give you priority at the exchange which is good during busy periods of the day.
Anyone who lives in a really rural area or in a country with poor internet might find it worthwhile to check out internet via satellite dish. The speeds I've seen look plenty useful for trading although you do get allowance caps with some which may be a problem if you download loads of material as well as trading