Looking for new broadband supplier

I've had four happy years with Pipex apart from the last two weeks when I
found my Usenet downloads from a premium server suddenly slowing down to
abysmal levels. All of the downloads were scheduled overnight from 23.30 to
07.00 using Free Download Manager and during the day my connection was only
used for email and some surfing. I first complained to my news service
thinking they were to blame but after lots of checks they suggested I
contact my ISP which I did. After much humming and harring and beating about
the bush, Pipex eventually admitted that my connection was being throttled
and the fact that my downloads were done overnight made no difference to
them as it was the total quantity used which they considered when working
out who was a "heavy user". They pointed me to their Fair Usage policy,
posted online, which had been updated on the 14th February, and which also
stated that anyone Pipex reckoned was not using their connection "fairly"
would be contacted and changes would have to be made. No figures are quoted,
so far as I can see, although I have read elsewhere that >50GB a month will
put you on their naughty users list.

I have decided to make some changes as they suggest and today I asked them
for my MAC code which they assure me will be with me via email in "up to 72
hours". (I had a narrow escape as last week I emailed their customer
services asking for details of upgrading from my present Solo 2000 account
to an "up to 8Mbps Max service", new 12 months contract etc. Thankfully they
did not reply to my email.)

My next step is to pick a different supplier but after spending the whole
weekend poring over prices/terms/fair usage conditions etc., I cannot see
any of the main well known suppliers being much use as they virtually all
have hidden FU terms. The ones who state their conditions clearly about
peak/off peak limits such as Eclipse are presently receiving poor feedback
from their current subscribers, possibly because so many have jumped ship to
them after reading good reviews and reports.

It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who all
seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package I'm
looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month on a 1
month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)

I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of the
small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info gratefully
received.

Thank you.

"anonym" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:OEjCh.344129$(E-Mail Removed) m...
> I've had four happy years with Pipex apart from the last two weeks when I
> found my Usenet downloads from a premium server suddenly slowing down to
> abysmal levels. All of the downloads were scheduled overnight from 23.30
> to 07.00 using Free Download Manager and during the day my connection was
> only used for email and some surfing. I first complained to my news
> service thinking they were to blame but after lots of checks they
> suggested I contact my ISP which I did. After much humming and harring and
> beating about the bush, Pipex eventually admitted that my connection was
> being throttled and the fact that my downloads were done overnight made no
> difference to them as it was the total quantity used which they considered
> when working out who was a "heavy user". They pointed me to their Fair
> Usage policy, posted online, which had been updated on the 14th February,
> and which also stated that anyone Pipex reckoned was not using their
> connection "fairly" would be contacted and changes would have to be made.
> No figures are quoted, so far as I can see, although I have read elsewhere
> that >50GB a month will put you on their naughty users list.
>
> I have decided to make some changes as they suggest and today I asked them
> for my MAC code which they assure me will be with me via email in "up to
> 72 hours". (I had a narrow escape as last week I emailed their customer
> services asking for details of upgrading from my present Solo 2000 account
> to an "up to 8Mbps Max service", new 12 months contract etc. Thankfully
> they did not reply to my email.)
>
> My next step is to pick a different supplier but after spending the whole
> weekend poring over prices/terms/fair usage conditions etc., I cannot see
> any of the main well known suppliers being much use as they virtually all
> have hidden FU terms. The ones who state their conditions clearly about
> peak/off peak limits such as Eclipse are presently receiving poor feedback
> from their current subscribers, possibly because so many have jumped ship
> to them after reading good reviews and reports.
>
> It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who all
> seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package I'm
> looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month on a 1
> month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)
>
> I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of the
> small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info gratefully
> received.
>
> Thank you.
>
I have just done exactly the same (see post below "Well I have done it").
Pipex started to throttle torrents, even encrypted ones to a point where I
was getting a maximum download of 20kb/s.

I have opted for Sky broadband. £10 per month, 16mb potential download.
The MAX product is unlimited but there is an un-official figure of 250gb
per month download before they start to email you about their fair usage
policy (more than plenty for me)

I asked about who to migrate to from Pipex a week or two ago, and the
general consensus was that Zen was the way to go.

I'm too idle to have got round to changing anything yet, though.

anonym wrote:
> I've had four happy years with Pipex apart from the last two weeks when I
> found my Usenet downloads from a premium server suddenly slowing down to
> abysmal levels. All of the downloads were scheduled overnight from 23.30 to
> 07.00 using Free Download Manager and during the day my connection was only
> used for email and some surfing. I first complained to my news service
> thinking they were to blame but after lots of checks they suggested I
> contact my ISP which I did. After much humming and harring and beating about
> the bush, Pipex eventually admitted that my connection was being throttled
> and the fact that my downloads were done overnight made no difference to
> them as it was the total quantity used which they considered when working
> out who was a "heavy user". They pointed me to their Fair Usage policy,
> posted online, which had been updated on the 14th February, and which also
> stated that anyone Pipex reckoned was not using their connection "fairly"
> would be contacted and changes would have to be made. No figures are quoted,
> so far as I can see, although I have read elsewhere that >50GB a month will
> put you on their naughty users list.
>
> I have decided to make some changes as they suggest and today I asked them
> for my MAC code which they assure me will be with me via email in "up to 72
> hours". (I had a narrow escape as last week I emailed their customer
> services asking for details of upgrading from my present Solo 2000 account
> to an "up to 8Mbps Max service", new 12 months contract etc. Thankfully they
> did not reply to my email.)
>
> My next step is to pick a different supplier but after spending the whole
> weekend poring over prices/terms/fair usage conditions etc., I cannot see
> any of the main well known suppliers being much use as they virtually all
> have hidden FU terms. The ones who state their conditions clearly about
> peak/off peak limits such as Eclipse are presently receiving poor feedback
> from their current subscribers, possibly because so many have jumped ship to
> them after reading good reviews and reports.
>
> It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who all
> seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package I'm
> looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month on a 1
> month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)
>
> I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of the
> small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info gratefully
> received.
>
> Thank you.
>
>

Have you considered Zen?

John.

"Me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%PjCh.28369$(E-Mail Removed)...
> anonym wrote:
>> I've had four happy years with Pipex apart from the last two weeks when I
>> found my Usenet downloads from a premium server suddenly slowing down to
>> abysmal levels.

<snip>

>> It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who
>> all seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package
>> I'm looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month
>> on a 1 month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)
>>
>> I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of
>> the small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info
>> gratefully received.
>>
>> Thank you.
>
> Have you considered Zen?

Thanks for answering. Yes, I have seriously considered Zen but I'm afraid
they would prove a bit expensive for me. My total usage is approx 100GB per
month (never been higher than 130GB) with most of that being used on
overnight (off-peak) downloads. That's why the suppliers with generous
off-peak limits look so attractive to me at the moment.

"diy-newby" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "anonym" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:OEjCh.344129$(E-Mail Removed) m...

<snip>

>> It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who
>> all seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package
>> I'm looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month
>> on a 1 month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)
>>
>> I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of
>> the small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info
>> gratefully received.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
> I have just done exactly the same (see post below "Well I have done it").
> Pipex started to throttle torrents, even encrypted ones to a point where I
> was getting a maximum download of 20kb/s.

I've just downloaded the headers for one of the busy groups I use,
alt.binaries.british.drama, and the speed is truly appalling. I only set my
newsreader (NewsRover) to update the headers of that group alone and did
nothing else online whilst it tried to update:

There were 37,753 headers = 11 MB, and it took 24mins 35secs to complete! I
have another dozen or so groups to look through so the sooner I can jump
overboard from Pipex the better. The annoying part is the silly beggars are
not actually throttling what I download; I use Easynews for my news server
and tend to download overnight from their web interface using a download
manager once I have found anything of interest using my newsreader on nntp.
However, atm it is becoming impossible to check the headers of busy groups
on a daily basis.

> I have opted for Sky broadband. £10 per month, 16mb potential download.
> The MAX product is unlimited but there is an un-official figure of 250gb
> per month download before they start to email you about their fair usage
> policy (more than plenty for me)

I don't have Sky and am not really interested in any of their TV packages so
am trying to pick a "normal" supplier. :-)

"anonym" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4rkCh.345094$(E-Mail Removed) m...
>
> "Me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%PjCh.28369$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> anonym wrote:
>>> I've had four happy years with Pipex apart from the last two weeks when
>>> I found my Usenet downloads from a premium server suddenly slowing down
>>> to abysmal levels.
>
> <snip>
>
>>> It seems my best choice will be with any one of the Enta resellers who
>>> all seem to offer about the same terms and conditions, and the package
>>> I'm looking at would be 30GB peak + 300GB off-peak for £19.99 per month
>>> on a 1 month contract. (Off peak hours 22.00 to 08.00)
>>>
>>> I would ask if anyone knows of any drawbacks to signing up with one of
>>> the small independents instead of one of the big boys? All info
>>> gratefully received.
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>
>> Have you considered Zen?
>
> Thanks for answering. Yes, I have seriously considered Zen but I'm afraid
> they would prove a bit expensive for me. My total usage is approx 100GB
> per month (never been higher than 130GB) with most of that being used on
> overnight (off-peak) downloads. That's why the suppliers with generous
> off-peak limits look so attractive to me at the moment.

Sorry, just curious. What do you download that's this size?

"Grumps" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "anonym" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4rkCh.345094$(E-Mail Removed) m...

<snip>

>> My total usage is approx 100GB per month (never been higher than 130GB)
>> with most of that being used on overnight (off-peak) downloads. That's
>> why the suppliers with generous off-peak limits look so attractive to me
>> at the moment.
>
> Sorry, just curious. What do you download that's this size?

No problem. I download quite a few movies, usually trying to find DivX
copies which are smaller than DVDs but sometimes only a full DVD is
available which can be about 4GB per movie. Then there are pieces of
classical music etc., and also quite a few e-books. It soon adds up but as I
say 100GB is about my usual total. After that I don't get time to watch 'em!
<g> (I'm retired so have lots of spare time.)

In article <TLkCh.345465$(E-Mail Removed)> , anonym
of (E-Mail Removed), felt we'd be interested in the following...


> No problem. I download quite a few movies, usually trying to find DivX
> copies which are smaller than DVDs but sometimes only a full DVD is
> available which can be about 4GB per movie. Then there are pieces of
> classical music etc., and also quite a few e-books. It soon adds up but as I
> say 100GB is about my usual total. After that I don't get time to watch 'em!
> <g> (I'm retired so have lots of spare time.)

What do you consider are your peak and off-peak times?

If you are retired, I imagine limiting you between 8am and 6pm would be
no good?


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"Andy F Batter" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I asked about who to migrate to from Pipex a week or two ago, and the
>general consensus was that Zen was the way to go.

Zen does look about the best but their limits are too low for me. :-(

> I'm too idle to have got round to changing anything yet, though.


If you do get around to it take a note of this number; it was a free phone
number given to people who Pipex were recommending should move to Bulldog
(same company) and I got an instant response when I used it today: 0800
1075902
No problems or questions asked, they just said my MAC code will be emailed
to me within 72 hours.

(Up until 2 weeks ago I was highly recommending Pipex to anyone asking about
broadband. How quickly things can change.)