Broadband

[nosey-p]

I have been with Virgin for about 4 years and generally I have been happy with the service. Always able to connect and get very few disconnections. But I am paying £14.95, which I think is to munch in today's market. All I use it for is surfing the net and e-mails, I don't use it for downloading music.

I am a Talk Talk customer and Sky. They keep phoning me trying to get me to change to there broadband for free, but I keep herring of bad reports on both of them.

So which is the best offer out there?          

[Swinebag]

i"ve got talk talk broadband for free, but you do have to switch to their international tariff which is £20 a month. This is a pretty cheap deal, but as the phrase goes "there is no such thing as a free lunch". The modem they send you is pants and loss of connection is far too frequent. The customer services is a joke. However, since I bought a NETGEAR wireless modem thingy (£30) I have had no problem with speed or connection

I am no techbot so only deal in things working rather than finding causes for and mending faults, so at the moment i"m pretty happy with TT.

[HaworthBantam]

Wayne, I was with Blueyonder until they became Virgin and then I moved to BT. If Virgin hadn"t taken over I would still be with the cable supplier as I think it"s the best broadband you can get.

Any company that relies on phone lines based on BT technology, which is pretty much all except cable, have a theoretical max band width which cannot be exceeded without a major overhaul. I know of no one who has come close to the theoretical maximum, due to line quality, distance to the exchange etc. You also need to use filters attached to your phone line otherwise phone, internet etc suffer.

With cable, I"m not sure what the max band width is, but it"s got to be at least 10 times that of BT technology.

You never know what you might need your broadband for in the future, Wayne, and is £14.95 really that expensive ? If I were in your shoes (and it was still Blueyonder), I"d be sticking with cable.

You could also phone your cable company and tell them you"re thinking of moving because you can get a better deal elsewhere. They just might reduce the price or offer you something in compensation.......

Just my humble opinion.

[nosey-p]

I have not got cable; I was with virgin before it became virgin media  

I have tried the "I am moving supplier" routine, but I was out bluffed again    

[HaworthBantam]

I have not got cable; I was with virgin before it became virgin media

, I see. Thought about going cable.....?

I have tried the "I am moving supplier" routine, but I was out bluffed again  

Have you thought about trying the "I am moving supplier" move online, rather than live ?  

[lukybugur]

I have tried the "I am moving supplier" routine, but I was out bluffed again

Get the MAC code telling them you"re DEFINITELY changing - that scares them

A basic package from any of the many suppliers will be good enough for surfing t"internet, checking emails and playing poker so go for the cheapest. They"ll provide you with some generally duff hardware (Virgin are actually one of the better ones - they give you a decent Netgear router if memory serves me right) so I"d recommend you buy a good, easy to set up router with Auto-Connect (see here) with the money you"re saving each month.

If you have a mobile phone contract with Orange of £30 a month or more, you can get free broadband from them too.

[TopPair2Pair]

I used to be on SKY but then moved into a diff gaff which had Virgin Media and tbh I can"t see much difference between what they both offer, cant really offer any advice on Talk Talk as never had it.

If your deciding between sky and vm I would go with whoever is cheaper.

[smileriraq]

its a bit cheeky but i do this regularly

ring virgin up get put through to cancellations dept say that you want to stay with virgin but BT are offering you broadband for £10 a month. My brother works there and most times youll get it