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Best ADSL supplier in UK

Lincoln

Lincoln

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 22, 2003
194
0
UK
OK, It's finally happened! BT have removed the 6km restriction on ADSL connections in the UK and I can finally ditch the ntl line and goto ADSL. During my lunch break at work today I had a quick look around and found that there are many suppliers.

Some have restrictions on usage, some are not compatible with Mac OSX or (weirdly) Mac OSX 10.3.x? Some are even more expensive than ntl (currently £24.99 for 700K - like I can tell the difference between that and 512k).

My current setup is Ethernet Cable Modem connected to an Apple Airport Extreme. 3 computers (inc this powerbook) on wireless, desktop PC connected via ethernet to Airport Extreme.

So I ask the UK based Mac users here. Who do you use and are you happy with the service of the ISP? I'm particularly interested if they have good Mac Support if needed.

Finally, any issues if you use a combined Wireless ADSL Modem/router?

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm currently using Freedom2Surf with my iBook, linux box, Airport Extreme and EN5681 dsl router.
No issues with them, good speeds and pings. No hardware restrictions - they can supply or you can use your own.

I've not had to call customer support so I can't vouch for that, but they seem to be pretty responsive in the ADSLGuide forum and there's even a seperate support site at freedom2support.net . £22.50 a month for the 512 uncapped with a static IP, but there's lots of different flavours to choose from.

They have Mac instructions for setting stuff up, so I'd expect there'd be some level of knowledge at CS.

hth :)
 
I've been using BT Broadband 512k since the service started over 2 years ago now.
They are not the cheapest, (wanadoo = £17 per month for 1mb - but wanadoo are evil)
bt is convenient as its charged to your regular phone bill, i've never had any problems with them either.

I use a Dynamode dsl router "r-adsl-c1" which is not the best but works fine, connected to that is an airport extreme base station (the PoE, UL2043 model) wirelessly connected to that are: iMac 800 airport 11b, Powewmac g3 B&W with 54mb pci wireless card, windows pc with 54mb belkin pci card, 2 linksys WET54g wireless bridges, each of these has a cisco 7960g ip phone connected and are on 24/7.

the dsl modem has been on for about 2 months now with same ip address - some providers reset the connection every few days.

also BT broadband has very little latency / delays as with some services, this is useful for voice/ video apps like ichat etc.

Mac support is not relevent for most providers - it just means the free modem you get only works on windows, until recently the "voyager" modem that bt provide was not mac compatible but now there is a driver for it. An RJ45 based modem router is often a sign-up option.

also combined wireless modem routers are no different just avoid the Lynksys WAG54G as its wireless is awful.

Bye
 
U.K. adsl

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/ has a Mac forum.I personally use Pipex and have never had a problem,though some people don't rate their customer service(never had need of them).Netgear DG834 wireless router seems to work well and took about 5mins to setup with powerbook.In 2.5 years have a few outages but all short.Pipex support moniters adslguides pipex forum and will leave messages about maintenance or will help people who have apparent tricky problems.They also have just bought Nildram another good isp.Not the cheapest but big pipes and good technically.Are apparently getting customer service together.
 
N10248 said:
I've been using BT Broadband 512k since the service started over 2 years ago now.
They are not the cheapest, (wanadoo = £17 per month for 1mb - but wanadoo are evil)
bt is convenient as its charged to your regular phone bill, i've never had any problems with them either.

I use a Dynamode dsl router "r-adsl-c1" which is not the best but works fine, connected to that is an airport extreme base station (the PoE, UL2043 model) wirelessly connected to that are: iMac 800 airport 11b, Powewmac g3 B&W with 54mb pci wireless card, windows pc with 54mb belkin pci card, 2 linksys WET54g wireless bridges, each of these has a cisco 7960g ip phone connected and are on 24/7.

the dsl modem has been on for about 2 months now with same ip address - some providers reset the connection every few days.

also BT broadband has very little latency / delays as with some services, this is useful for voice/ video apps like ichat etc.

Mac support is not relevent for most providers - it just means the free modem you get only works on windows, until recently the "voyager" modem that bt provide was not mac compatible but now there is a driver for it. An RJ45 based modem router is often a sign-up option.

also combined wireless modem routers are no different just avoid the Lynksys WAG54G as its wireless is awful.

Bye
Click to expand...


I used to be with BT and it got slower and slower.. customer service takes hours to get through too, and its in INDIA... NOOOOOOO.

Avoid... honestly.. its not worth it.
 
This one is easy. Zen Internet. Slightly high on price, but excellent and reliable service. Their tech support are mac savvy. I'd recommend giving them a ring to talk things through.
 
clearly said:
This one is easy. Zen Internet. Slightly high on price, but excellent and reliable service. Their tech support are mac savvy. I'd recommend giving them a ring to talk things through.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I was introduced to ZEN by a friend and have been a very happy customer for nearly two years now. They are always high up in customer service charts as well. I use the 512 service and have had zero problems with it. Note also that the upload speed is 256, which is faster than most. I have a Draytek 2600 router/modem combo as well by the way, which is another great, product.

ZEN

Vanilla
 
I've never had a problem with Pipex, although the modem they provided (for free I think so I can't really complain!) is USB only which I think will cause problems when I get myself airport express.

Never had to speak to customer services, although I did once get a friendly email from them when my credit card failed to pay them one month. They just asked me to check my card details within a week or they would suspend my account. All dealt with very easily by logging on their webiste and adding my new card details.
 
I'll add my vote for Pipex. Good speeds, very reliable and not too expensive (about £23.50/month for 512k). My only gripe is that the support lines close at 8pm, but at least it's a local rate number. The support website has a lot of good material on it too. I was told that Pipex are popular with universities and the like as their hosting infrastructure is stable and they use top quality hardware. Could be complete rubbish though: I'm an easy sell. :)
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm no going through the process of checking each of the ISP's out.

Seems that it's a choice between:

Pipex
Zen Internet
Freedom2Surf

I'm afraid that I live in Lincoln (hence my macrumors name) so the Bulldog ISP won't be much use:( , thanks anyway though munkle. ;)


Hopefully I'll soon make a descision. :p
 
If i'm not too late...

I have used demon and bt (home and at work). Demon have in my experience offered great mac support. (i have only had to call them once - when i couldn't reach my web host and they told me exactly what my host was doing wrong - which impressed me.) BT was a nightmare with the alcatel usb modem. Then I got a router and I haven't had a problem since.

IMHO don't worry too much about the isp - any on your shortlist should be cool - but get a router.
 
Pipex too

Hi,
Yep, my vote is for Pipex too, got 512kb at home and 1mb at work, both very efficient. I used to have BT at work and I initially switched from 512kb with BT to 512kb with Pipex and I definitely noticed snappier performance, plus the cost was cheaper, BT cost me £29.99 for 512kb whereas Pipex is now £34.99 for 1mb.
So Pipex gets my vote, also Tech support have always been good, although the only occasions I've called is when I've mislaid my username and password!

Cheers,

Rick
 
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