ISP choice

I just completed an interesting exercise on behalf of my local village hall
committee who want a new broadband connection for the hall.
I started from basics, using ThinkBroadband and other customer surveys, and
refused to be influenced by committee members' (or my own) suggestions of
"good ISPs".
My brief was to find an ISP which provides the following:
MaxADSL ("up to" 8Mb) service
Reliable service
Good, friendly, easy to access, customer contact point (in the UK) - by
phone and portal.
Good value for money (monthly fee) - not necessarily the absolute cheapest
but this would be a bonus
Unthrottled service
Access to newsgroups
Webmail
Anti-virus and spam protection
As many Gigs-per-month as possible included in the basic price with PAYG for
extra Gigs (no slow-downs when limit reached or approached)
No "peak times"
Freebies if possible - connection, modem/router, large free webspace, domain
name.
Initial discounts on sign-up.

I whittled it down to three contenders, all of whom provide most if not all
of the above, with a 5 Gig + PAYG, unthrottled service for under £20.
IDnet fell at the next hurdle, offering no freebies.
I ended up with two "best buy" ISPs (which I later found out were owned by
the same firm!):
Globalnet and Madasfish
Globalnet will probably get the order.

And before anyone accuses me of working for Globalnet, I don't.
And I'm currently on Plusnet!
Maybe for not much longer...

Someone will no doubt prove me wrong - any Globalnet horror-stories out
there before I place the order?

George

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:44:01 +0100, "George Weston"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Someone will no doubt prove me wrong - any Globalnet horror-stories out
>there before I place the order?

Not really George but before the advent of BB they did have a 56
geographical number in Scotland which was very handy with some telco's
providing free calls at night and weekends they suddenly decided to
close the number and go all 0845's I thinkDemon did the same around
the same time .
I always found Globalnet's connection very good no problems on that
score .

George Weston wrote:

> IDnet fell at the next hurdle, offering no freebies.

The freebies rarely come without strings. Forget them.

Just check Idnet's ratings on thinkbroadband compared to any other ISP.

Graham

George Weston wrote:

> Someone will no doubt prove me wrong - any Globalnet horror-stories out
> there before I place the order?

As for freebies ! Let me refer you to Idnet and we both benefit to the tune of
£10.

Graham

George Weston wrote:
> I just completed an interesting exercise on behalf of my local village hall
> committee who want a new broadband connection for the hall.

Just a thought, but if your village hall finances are like most, have
you considered a lower-cost option?

Village halls tend not to use the phone much, so the £200-odd annual
cost of a ("business") PSTN line is very bad value. At our hall, we've
done a deal with a neighbour to have them host our ADSL broadband (which
comes into the building on wifi), and our payphone (which takes about £3
a year) is connected via a (secondhand) Premicell GSM adapter. It needs
a UPS to make sure there is a usable 999 service when the power fails,
but the total capital cost was still less than a year's phone line
rental, and our ongoing costs are much lower.

John Geddes
Derbyshire

John Geddes wrote:

> George Weston wrote:
>> I just completed an interesting exercise on behalf of my local village
>> hall
>> committee who want a new broadband connection for the hall.
>
> Just a thought, but if your village hall finances are like most, have
> you considered a lower-cost option?
>
> Village halls tend not to use the phone much, so the £200-odd annual
> cost of a ("business") PSTN line is very bad value. At our hall, we've
> done a deal with a neighbour to have them host our ADSL broadband (which
> comes into the building on wifi), and our payphone (which takes about £3
> a year) is connected via a (secondhand) Premicell GSM adapter.

You may find that the neighbour is breaking the terms of his DSL
agreement. It's a good suggestion, but you should check the T&Cs first.

Geoff

"John Geddes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:41o3g4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> George Weston wrote:
>> I just completed an interesting exercise on behalf of my local village
>> hall
>> committee who want a new broadband connection for the hall.
>
> Just a thought, but if your village hall finances are like most, have you
> considered a lower-cost option?
>
> Village halls tend not to use the phone much, so the £200-odd annual cost
> of a ("business") PSTN line is very bad value. At our hall, we've done a
> deal with a neighbour to have them host our ADSL broadband (which comes
> into the building on wifi), and our payphone (which takes about £3 a year)
> is connected via a (secondhand) Premicell GSM adapter. It needs a UPS to
> make sure there is a usable 999 service when the power fails, but the
> total capital cost was still less than a year's phone line rental, and our
> ongoing costs are much lower.
>
> John Geddes
> Derbyshire

Good suggestion, John but the hall has already had a BT line installed.
(I've just been asked to get Broadband in for the forthcoming I.T. classes).

George

As a madasafish user I can confirm they tick all your boxes except
one. The support call centre is in South Africa not the UK.
The ISP maintains a active presence in the forum at
thinkbroadband.com, have a look there to get a feel for the company.

In your situation I would be a little concerned about the PAYG aspect.
At £2 per GB for extra usage you can soon run up a large bill, AFAIK
this is capped at £99.99 / month max.

Nigel®
--
ê¿ê

"Nigel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> As a madasafish user I can confirm they tick all your boxes except
> one. The support call centre is in South Africa not the UK.
> The ISP maintains a active presence in the forum at
> thinkbroadband.com, have a look there to get a feel for the company.
>
> In your situation I would be a little concerned about the PAYG aspect.
> At £2 per GB for extra usage you can soon run up a large bill, AFAIK
> this is capped at £99.99 / month max.
>
> Nigel®
> --
> ê¿ê

Thanks for that.
With regard to the South African support centre, I think I could live with
that.
De Selt Effrikan ecssent is perhaps more understandable than that of the
sub-continent?

George

"George Weston" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Nigel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> As a madasafish user I can confirm they tick all your boxes except
>> one. The support call centre is in South Africa not the UK.
>> The ISP maintains a active presence in the forum at
>> thinkbroadband.com, have a look there to get a feel for the company.
>>
>> In your situation I would be a little concerned about the PAYG aspect.
>> At £2 per GB for extra usage you can soon run up a large bill, AFAIK
>> this is capped at £99.99 / month max.
>>
>> Nigel®
>> --
>> ê¿ê
>
> Thanks for that.
> With regard to the South African support centre, I think I could live with
> that.
> De Selt Effrikan ecssent is perhaps more understandable than that of the
> sub-continent?
>

Others will disagree, but what about Tiscali? I download 20-30GB month and
have had no problems whatsoever.
They are particular about you "abusing" it between 6 and 11pm.

Support has been excellent so far. I've had 3 queries, all 3 answered within
an hour of my call or email, by a human too :-)

Mike P