Topic: MACs must be provided for free

[Sandra]

That looks quite good Terry, how long has your son been on it and does he get anywhere need the 8mb download ?
The site doesnt mention the upload so I assume its around 440kb, do you know what it is ?
Does he download a lot or is he only a moderate user ?

[TR]

he gets very very good speeds on it, I think its on par with mine from what I can gather. Yes he down loads all the time what with I don't know 

[Simon]

Fast 4 is also on my list, Terry, which is currently comprised of:

Breathe
Aquiss
Namesco
Eclipse
Fast 4
Zen Internet

I won't be making any decisions for the time being, as my contract with Pipex runs until August, so I'll see how things look then.

[Clive]

I have heard only good things about Zen Internet. 

[Sandra]

Had a look on ISPReview on the fast 4 forum.
It looks quite good at the moment.
Depending what happens with Pipex in the coming weeks I may give them a try.

[Simon]

Yes, it is boiling down to Zen or Fast4 for me.  I know they are slightly more expensive, but I could live with, say, a 20Gb capped service, at the same cost as I am paying now.  My quandary is, I have no guarantee, on going through the hassle of changing providers, that I am going to get a faster service, if the speed is governed by the compatibility of the BT line.  Line speed tests seem to vary, from claiming I can only get up to 2Mbps, to telling me my line is capable of speeds of at least 5Mbps.

[sam]

how about be? not sure what they are like though

[Simon]

Can't get Be here, Sam.

[Sandra]

I am tempted by Be There Sam as I should get around 16 to 19mb downloads and 1.5mb uploads but its £24 plus another £2 per month for webspace and pop3 emails.
If the emalis were included I would probably have moved to Be There already but I was hoping to get faster than I currently get with Pipex for less than I am paying now.
The increased upload speed is a bigger incentive to me than the download to be honest as my 1mb download seems quite fast most of the time.
Can I justify paying another £8 per month though just for an increased upload speed when I am happy with the download speed that I would get from Fast 4 ?
I dont know anyone on either service apart from via Terry about Fast 4, so they are both unknown quantities to me, although neither gets anything really bad said about them on ISPreview.

[Simon]

Sandra, if you are happy with Pipex on the whole, I am positive that if you ring their Retentions department, which I believe is 0845 1302808, and say you are thinking of leaving as you are looking for a better / faster package, they will either offer you your existing package at a discount (they offered it to me for £14.99pm), or an upgrade to the Max service, for the same as you are paying now.  The Max service should give you the required upload boost you require, and you should also get faster downloads, depending on your BT line capability.  Of course, you would be signing up to a new 12 month contract, which is payable in full if you decide to leave early, and you should also pay attention to the FUP, which seems to change by the minute.  Also, any decent company would have offered you the upgrade automatically by now, but we know how Pipex treat existing customers, until they think they might lose one.

[sam]

well I'm now very interested in this... now about my options to... I'm going to be moving over to the area around the University again in the summer and have some decisions to make. I might just go with telewest  (sorry Virgin media) as I have used them for aover 10 years now at home and when I used to live at Uni... but still I am intrigued.

[TR]

Biscit were just on Watchdog  .... BT voted best ISP by the viewers 

[Simon]

Well, that's probably because it's the most widely used among the mainstream Joe Public.

[TR]

New boys on the block are V21 aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 

[Simon]

"Welcome to V21.co.uk  ...we're glad to be back!"

I think it's going to take them a long time to claw back any respect from previous customers.  All they can hope for is new victims users who don't know the history.