Recommendations for a new ISP

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 16:30

So my house has been having problems with virgin's WiFi recently and their service has been awful recently so I wanted to have a look around for a new ISP that is on par or better than virigin, the same price point (£20-£40) and around the same speed (75mbps)
Thanks

bremen1874 · 13 Jul 2018 at 16:41

Your only chance is if you're in an area with access to VDSL (e.g. BT Infinity).

If you are covered than there are dozens of ISPs that'll supply you with a VDSL connection.

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 17:03

I think i am covered by it, but i have looked at a few and Virgin provides faster speeds with a lower price, can you recommend something close to £22 and 75Mbps? I have looked at zen and they are out of my range.

bremen1874 · 13 Jul 2018 at 17:15

Zen have never claimed to be cheap.

If you want 75Mbps (assuming you live close enough to the cabinet to get that speed - most don't) it's going to cost nearer to £30/month.

Have a look at Plusnet, Sky, Vodafone.

Check Topcashback/Quidco for cashback offers.

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 17:22

I think i've found out that the exchange/cabinet is too far which means its going to be Virgin unless there is other types that use the same technology as virgin but i believe i have to stick with them for now.

Sparx · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:03

What results do you get on the BT line checker? (blank your address obviously)

https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/ (use the address checker method)

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:11

I used the postcode checker, http://prntscr.com/k64zlc

bremen1874 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:21

According to that you haven't got 'fibre' as an option.

Stick with what you have.

If you want to improve the wireless you do have options.

Sparx · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:25

Don't use the postcode checker it's very inaccurate. Those results will not be right.

Click the address checker - put in your house number and postcode.

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:40

Here it is, we don't really want to go through the whole hassle of someone coming and running a new line http://prntscr.com/k65b8d

bremen1874 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:42

Don't you have a BT line, even if it's currently disconnected?

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:44

I don't think so

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:49

I went downstairs and asked my mum, she said that we have a line for dial-up and a Virgin phone line, so we don't have one at all

stellasuppa · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:50

Tom342 said:
Here it is, we don't really want to go through the whole hassle of someone coming and running a new line http://prntscr.com/k65b8d

are you with virgin still because if so i would set up a bqm graph to check how stable your connection is run it for a few days to see if your getting packet loss and high pings. Then if all is fine see what the problems with your wifi are. If the line is congested and the bqm is terrible think about switching provider.

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:57

I am with virgin, but for the last week or 2 the internet is okay to say the least, but the annoying part is when we call them they just give us 'Its a area problem' Which it really isn't and then we were supposed to have a engineer come and he didn't and everytime the internet goes down we have to restart it, which is a pain. So i don't know what to do, how do i setup the graph?

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 18:59

Also, when i mean 'okay' i mean i was getting half of what im supposed to and it was fixed for about a day or two and then went back to being half of it.

stellasuppa · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:15

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/ go to this website and in the tools tab there is broadband quality monitoring setup in there also you might have to allow ping to wan port in your router settings.

Tom342 · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:30

Okay thank you

Sparx · 13 Jul 2018 at 19:58

Looking at your BT line check results seems you do have FTTC availability.

You could switch to say Plusnet's FTTC package (up to 76Mb) and get close to max speeds.

Ditch VM they are notoriously bad if you're in a congested area.

EDIT: Your line for 'dial up' is probably an old BT line, do you have a box that says BT or Openreach on it?

spicypixel · 13 Jul 2018 at 23:24

As a side note, throwing the VM box into modem mode and using your own wifi router might help if it's not all down to the WAN link being crap.