Metronet or Freedom 2 Surf?

Hi all,

I hope that someone here might be able to offer some advice. I am trying
to choose between Metronet PayGo2000 @ £18.75 (£69.95 activation) and
Freedom 2 Surf Connect Home @ £19.99 (£49.99 activation). I'm on the
Battersea exchange so would only get 2mbit service service either way (not
the 8mbit service at the moment) since F2S is not yet offering LLU
services at the Battersea exchange. I am sure that Freedom 2 Surf will
enable the higher speeds before Metronet since they make use of LLU,
whilst Metronet only use BT's wholesale products. However either way both
will probably offer faster services before the end of the year.

It's hard to judge but I get the impression that Metronet have the better
reputation, though both are respected providers. Metronet have cheaper
monthly fees but a more expensive activation. Metronet also provide a
static IP (which appeals to me for a number of reasons but is not a
'must').

What would people here recommend? Does anyone have particularly good or
bad experiences with one or the other. I am also open to suggestions of
other providers though I must add that after my Bulldog experience (my
last ISP) good customer service is more important to me than saving a
couple of pounds per month (I'm not looking for the cheapest provider
around unless they also have a sterling reputation for customer service).
Also I don't need any extras such as web space, email, etc. (I'm only
looking for the ADSL connection).

I'm still in the process of leaving Bulldog, who had the worst customer
service of any company I have ever dealt with (by a significant margin!).
I just want to go somewhere without too many problems and where customer
service are both reachable and useful should I ever need them. 2mbit with
a 10GB cap is probably suitable for my needs. Any faster speed would be a
bonus but I could live without it for now.

I have already checked out a comparison of F2S and Metronet on the ADSL
Guide:
http://www.adslguide.org/isps/compar...action=Compare

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

--
The email address this message was posted from is valid but will expire.
If you want to contact me several days after my posting you can find a
contact email address on http://ruari.com/

Hi

"Ruari Callow" <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) x.com...
Hi all,

I hope that someone here might be able to offer some advice. I am trying
to choose between Metronet PayGo2000 @ £18.75 (£69.95 activation) and
Freedom 2 Surf Connect Home @ £19.99 (£49.99 activation). I'm on the
Battersea exchange so would only get 2mbit service service either way (not
the 8mbit service at the moment) since F2S is not yet offering LLU
services at the Battersea exchange. I am sure that Freedom 2 Surf will
enable the higher speeds before Metronet since they make use of LLU,
whilst Metronet only use BT's wholesale products. However either way both
will probably offer faster services before the end of the year.

It's hard to judge but I get the impression that Metronet have the better
reputation, though both are respected providers. Metronet have cheaper
monthly fees but a more expensive activation. Metronet also provide a
static IP (which appeals to me for a number of reasons but is not a
'must').


<snip>

f2s also give a static ip

Been with them six months or so, no problems.

If you want customer support try vispa.

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Thanatos wrote:

> f2s also give a static ip

Cool, thought you had to pay extra for that. ;-)

> Been with them six months or so, no problems.
>
> If you want customer support try vispa.

Is Vispa better for customer support? ADSL Guide rates Metronet higher but
I'm more open to personal opinions. That said they seem quite pricy! Just
to make it clear customer support is not everything to me. If all works I
won't even need it but it is nice to know that good support is available
and that people answer the phone even if the only time you ever ring is to
move on to some other deal two years later. ;-) With Bulldog you can't
even guarentee that. I have only gotten through on the regular customer
service phone number twice. They almost never answer email. I have to
restort to faxes, direct department phone numbers I found on online forums
and even the postal service (along with recorded delivery). Even they
don't always give a timely reponse.

--
The email address this message was posted from is valid but will expire.
If you want to contact me several days after my posting you can find a
contact email address on http://ruari.com/

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:12:57 -0400, Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I hope that someone here might be able to offer some advice. I am trying
>to choose between Metronet PayGo2000 @ £18.75 (£69.95 activation) and
>Freedom 2 Surf Connect Home @ £19.99 (£49.99 activation).
>
etc etc

Don't make the mistake of thinking that cheapest is best. It rarely
is.

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Tony wrote:

> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:12:57 -0400, Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I hope that someone here might be able to offer some advice. I am trying
>> to choose between Metronet PayGo2000 @ £18.75 (£69.95 activation) and
>> Freedom 2 Surf Connect Home @ £19.99 (£49.99 activation).
>>
> etc etc
>
> Don't make the mistake of thinking that cheapest is best. It rarely
> is.

I'm not planning to as per the rest of my posting. I've made that mistake
previously with Bulldog. I picked these two based on 'reasonable' pricing
(neither seem to be the cheapest around for what you get) and very good
ratings on the ADSL Guide comparsion page. I'm just checking here to see
that people agree that they are good providers and I have not missed
something better. Also if I should perfer one over the other.

If you know of a better provider feel free to suggest one or have opnions
on either of these two I would welcome your thoughts! ;-)

--
The email address this message was posted from is valid but will expire.
If you want to contact me several days after my posting you can find a
contact email address on http://ruari.com/

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:09:17 -0400, Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:
>
>If you know of a better provider feel free to suggest one or have opnions
>on either of these two I would welcome your thoughts! ;-)


I admit that I have no experience with either.
I am with Claranet, who are expensive compared to many, however, they
have been reliable for me for the past ten years, and I'd happily
recommend them.

--
Tony

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Tony wrote:

> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:09:17 -0400, Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>>
>> If you know of a better provider feel free to suggest one or have opnions
>> on either of these two I would welcome your thoughts! ;-)
>
>
> I admit that I have no experience with either.
> I am with Claranet, who are expensive compared to many, however, they
> have been reliable for me for the past ten years, and I'd happily
> recommend them.

Thanks. I have used Claranet in the past. Once for dial up and latter just
for newsgroup access and they were always fine. Never had a problem. Must
admit though that I didn't think to consider them. I might have a look at
what they have to offer on the ADSL front. Thanks for the advice! :-)

--
The email address this message was posted from is valid but will expire.
If you want to contact me several days after my posting you can find a
contact email address on http://ruari.com/

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Ruari Callow wrote:

> On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Tony wrote:
>
>> I admit that I have no experience with either.
>> I am with Claranet, who are expensive compared to many, however, they
>> have been reliable for me for the past ten years, and I'd happily
>> recommend them.
>
> Thanks. I have used Claranet in the past. Once for dial up and latter just
> for newsgroup access and they were always fine. Never had a problem. Must
> admit though that I didn't think to consider them. I might have a look at
> what they have to offer on the ADSL front. Thanks for the advice! :-)

Ok, I guess I was wrong I am swayed by money after all. Claranet are 'a
lot' more expensive for my needs/usage. It seems like Claranet are
specialising in business access with unmetered 20:1 Contention ratio
packages only as per:

http://www.uk.clara.net/claraaccess/...elf_access.php
(unless I am looking on the wrong page)

I want a 2 mbit line with about 10GB usage and I'm ok on the 50:1
Contention ratio (or at least I think I will be!). Claranet are something
like £60 extra per month compared to Metronet or F2S. I know it is not a
like for like comparison as I am comparing a capped 50:1 product to an
uncapped 20:1 product (Apples v. Oranges) but I don't think I can actually
afford a Claranet 2 mbit line for ADSL! :-(

Thanks for the pointer though I appreciate that you took time to reply.

--
The email address this message was posted from is valid but will expire.
If you want to contact me several days after my posting you can find a
contact email address on http://ruari.com/

In article <(E-Mail Removed) m>,
Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> What would people here recommend? Does anyone have particularly good or
> bad experiences with one or the other. I am also open to suggestions of
> other providers though I must add that after my Bulldog experience (my
> last ISP) good customer service is more important to me than saving a
> couple of pounds per month (I'm not looking for the cheapest provider
> around unless they also have a sterling reputation for customer service).
> Also I don't need any extras such as web space, email, etc. (I'm only
> looking for the ADSL connection).

I've been with F2S on 2mbps for about five months, Zen prior to that.
F2S are a very good ISP IMHO, can't comment too much on the support side
as my connection has been very reliable so I haven't needed them.

Metronet also seem very highly regarded. Much smaller ISP, and
depending on your usage quite a flexible range of packages (shame about
the high setup fee).

One thing I would bear in mind is that both are monthly contracts, so
you can easily migrate if you need to.

I would say that I have a nagging doubt if F2S will be able to keep up
their levels of performance. Between themselves and Zen they seem to be
getting the lions share of the people who are leaving Plusnet because of
their usage restrictions - and once some of these folks get an 8mbps
connection and higher.. :-)

cheers,
Paul
--
(E-Mail Removed)

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:56:26 -0400, Ruari Callow <1i83-(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On Fri, 30 Sep 2005, Ruari Callow wrote:
>

>Ok, I guess I was wrong I am swayed by money after all. Claranet are 'a
>lot' more expensive for my needs/usage. It seems like Claranet are
>specialising in business access with unmetered 20:1 Contention ratio
>packages only as per:

Clara's 2Mb package is £35 per month, as I understand it.

--
Tony )