As some of you may know, lately AOL have enraged me so much I am now looking to change my internet service provider.

Has anybody got any recommendations for good service or tips for anyone to stay away from?

Ideally, I'd like to be able to have an account where my phone calls would be included and unlimited internet access.

I would be grateful for any advice any of you may have!
Cheers!

I've been on BT for a while now - does the job well!

Loads of others on here are also on BT too

Orange and the Livebox have served me well for a good 2 years now with no problems whatsoever. If you have Sky though you might want to get the whole TV, Broadband and Telephone package as it works out cheapest for most people.

AOL has gone down the drain since Carphone Warehouse took it over a while ago and moved everyone over to their crap servers. TalkTalk are also owned by CPW, so I'd steer clear of them too.

O2 and BeThere were supposed to be good but I've recently heard they're a victim of their own success, and are now suffering from congestion problems due to popularity. Not all exchanges can get O2 / BeThere though, anyway.

I've probably heard the least negative stuff about Orange and Sky actually - and as Tom22 says, Sky does a pretty good package for those who have Sky TV.

It also depends on the quality of your phone line, internal wiring, local exchange, wiring between your pole and the local exchange, and the quality of your router. But being with a crap ISP in the first place is a bit like polishing a turd and no matter how good your phone line is, if your ISP is crap, your internet will be too...

Oh and I've also heard BT are quite expensive and a lot of people are suffering speed issues with them too, but I don't know if those are just localised problems.

I think cable broadband is definitely the fastest and you can get pretty good packages with cable TV and internet - but I've also heard bad things about Virgin (one of the main cable suppliers) so it's difficult to know who to go for!

I use Virgin Media. Some people, like Lewis hate it, but it's rarely let me down.

lol, surprisingly they haven't been that bad recently. Can't remember my connection going down in ages, although it did nearly every day in 2007...

Some good websites to have a look at are http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ which has details of ISPs, as well as ISP-specific forums so you can see what people are discussing about various ISPs.

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/ also has a handy feature where you can search for your local exchange and view details about it, as well as seeing which services are available in your area. It'll also tell you if your exchange is LLU-enabled - and if it is - then you can have access to many more ISPs than if it isn't.

well thankyou all very much for your advice and help so far, it has helped me as I am really at the end of my tether with AOL!!! I think everyone who uses them should boycot them for them to realise what they are doing to us!!!

I will certainly be doing some research into everything you've all said, and will let you know what I find! Thanks for those addressed David, I'll have a good browse through those!

I have been with Orange for many years through it's various guises and I find them OK, however I can see the exchange from here so that might help

aohell are poor as are talk talk

I was with Freeserve to begin with, and we've never changed: Freeserve changed to Wanadoo and now to Orange Broadband.

I have had 'free' TalkTalk broadband for about 3 years now. £21 (I think) for unlimited broadband and unlimited calls to landlines 24 hours a day, mobiles and premium rate calls are barred here (too many teenagers around), so I never pay extra. Have never had a problem, great value, so despite what others might say I can only recommend it.

i have talk talk and it is poor tbh

Let the internet snobbery begin!



I have Orange so I look down on AOL and Tiscali but I look up to Vigin Media..

Hahaha, no surprises there that AOL is worse than all of the others.

I'm Virgin Media and I look down on everything.