ISPs

[thembuzz]

be has been a bag of fucking wank lately and just seems to be getting worse, so i'm in the market for a new ISP. where are the cool kids getting their internet from these days?

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

I'm on O2 and that's been getting worse definitely, they're the same company I think?

[V Knid esq]

What's your problem with Be? I've had drop outs lately and not bothered to try and get it sorted... previously when I've had this, the customer service has been v v good.

[thembuzz]

that would explain a lot. i couldn't fault be until maybe a couple of years ago, when i think they started expanding, and they've been getting steadily shittier ever since

regular, major interruptions that last for days, support is no longer very helpful, the website's getting harder to navigate, the whole operation is getting more fragmented and remote. it feels like some kind of bare-minimum, no-frills service these days. ryanweb

bored of it now. but i don't think i've ever heard anyone other than be users say, "my ISP's great!" are there no good ones out there?

[thembuzz]

Originally Posted by V Knid esq

What's your problem with Be? I've had drop outs lately and not bothered to try and get it sorted... previously when I've had this, the customer service has been v v good.

as above, plus a load of other niggles that i won't bore you with. it just seems like they can't be arsed anymore. talktalk vibes

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

It's just so fucking dull isn't it. I don't want to actually have to know about who is a good ISP and why.

[V Knid esq]

Exactly. Why can't they just come round with a van full of porn, techno and people who want an argument instead of all this fibre optic bullshit?

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

bollocks is that what the internet is all about

[V Knid esq]

Ta, now for the porn and techno.

[thembuzz]

the internet is a lot like the rail service, premium prices for shit we often don't get, and no fucker wants to help you when you're stranded on youporn or something. we're shit at infrastructure in this country

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

you wait all day for an interracial gangbang... and then three come along at once.

[invisibledan]

Originally Posted by Hectic Cum Balthazar

It's just so fucking dull isn't it. I don't want to actually have to know about who is a good ISP and why.

Yeah, maybe they start messing up just to get noticed. Fucking attention whores.

[thembuzz]

Originally Posted by Hectic Cum Balthazar

you wait all day for an interracial gangbang... and then three come along at once.

[thembuzz]

i think there's a kind of conspiracy of incompetence with ISPs, as with most other providers of infrastructure. if they're all shit, then there's no real incentive for anyone to offer anything much more than a product that's slightly better than the rest in one regard or other

at the moment, most of them seem to be competing mainly on pricing and bundling. and as much as i'd like to pay only 12p for broadband, a smartphone, every TV channel in the whole world and a moet nebuchadnezzar, i don't expect them to be much good

[V Knid esq]

doesn't matter - Moet tastes like mouse piss anyway

If they're anything like the mobile providers - and mostly they're the same companies now obv - they're data mining the fuck out of you, and saving the good customer service for the people who are flagged up as "influencers"

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

how do you pretend to be an influencer then?

I sometimes get my wife drunk, does that count?

[julian]

we're moving soon (i hope) and the exchange where we are going is not unbundled - which meens no be etc. or even talk talk.

im considering plusnet as thats about the only one where i wont have to worry about bandwidth, but, being a bt subsiduary, i know theyre going to be shit

its grim when it comes to the point where youre going to buy somthing, and you pretty much know its going to be shit before you start

incidently, i was with zen for 8 years or so, but theyve capped all their services now

[Spandex]

It's just that constant thing where someone starts a new ISP and it's good because they're smallish and give a fuck. Then they grow too quickly and get a bit shite. Then someone bigger buys them and makes them even shitter, then someone even bigger buys them and tries to merge your account into their system, and then everything stops working and you find yourself speaking to someone in a call centre who's looking at an account that's split across 3 different incompatible systems, and your billing information is on a another system that's been down for 2 weeks. I expect everything will be ok again after the apocalypse.

These guys are really good. They actually know what they're doing and seem committed to not being wank, long term. I've used them for work stuff and they're way better than anyone else... the techies actually know what they're on about.
http://aaisp.net.uk/about.html

They also explain the diff between Be and BT
http://aaisp.net.uk/kb-broadband-bebt.html

At home, I just use O2 and enjoy moaning about it occasionally. It's quite nice when the fucking internet stops working.

[Loz]

I remember the good old days when Nildram were great, and their call centres were staffed by actual techies.

Spent an hour on the phone to one once, going through everything on my router, which I'd bought, and wasn't officially supported by them. And they sorted the problem out in the end. Top stuff.

I don't think Nildram even exist anymore, do they? Part of the Pipex Empire or some shit.

[thembuzz]

cheers, matt! might give them a try. or i might just coast blithely along with be for another few years, or until they finally make an attempt on my life, whichever comes first

[Spandex]

Originally Posted by Loz

I don't think Nildram even exist anymore, do they? Part of the Pipex Empire or some shit.

They ended up being part of Opal last I heard... they properly fucked me up.. disconnected me by mistake and tried to charge me for the privilege.. then they still carried on charging me after I left in disgust. I was still having to phone up and complain to them 8 months after I'd stopped being a customer. Next-level shitness, even by ISP standards.

[don___quixote]

I Like Be* and know from industry friends they apparently have no throttling capabilities.


or

https://www.seethelight.co.uk/

very limited network though,,,

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

Originally Posted by don___quixote

https://www.seethelight.co.uk/

very limited network though,,,

I like that I clicked on their 'Speed Test' link 3 minutes ago and it still hasn't loaded.

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

Originally Posted by Hectic Cum Balthazar

I like that I clicked on their 'Speed Test' link 3 minutes ago and it still hasn't loaded.

just came back from an afternoon on the beach - still not loaded.

[don___quixote]

think its locked down to people on their network.. to be fair could do with a warning saying that though.

[V Knid esq]

Well... I just got a second connection, as have moved my office out of home, and ended up using Be because nobody I spoke to had a convincing argument for anyone else - and having dealt with their helplines a few times during set up and initial glitches, they've been as helpful as they ever were. Buzz, are you still having issues with them?

[thembuzz]

i've stuck with them. partly through lack of a credible alternative, mostly through laziness. i haven't had many drop-outs lately - nothing that's lasted more than a few minutes, anyway. at one point, i was getting dribbles of internet for whole weekends and shit