First time internet advice

[Geoff]

Regarding ISP's I would forget anyone that offers a deal that sounds too good to be true. It usually is! Download speeds aren't the "be all and end all" and the speed quoted is usually the absolute maximum if you live right next door to the BT green box.

The average user won't need fiber optic and a standard broadband connection will be quite adequate for general web surfing, YouTube, email and the occasional download. Do watch out for limits on data usage though. Some packages have stupidly low limits and rely on you going over this to make their money.

My personal recommendation would be Plusnet for fast speeds at a competitive price and good customer service.

Make sure you download an antivirus as the first thing you do when you get online. Either AVG or Avast are both free for the basic package which seems perfectly adequate.

[roy]

Been with Plusnet for about 5 yrs, even brought them to Hastings when I moved here, cant fault them to be honest,reliable cheap and Sheffield based company whats not to like,well there is one gripe,ok for the last 4 yrs plus when you was close to your limit they would email yo to tell you you was approaching your limit,thats stopped so if your not careful you wil go over your limit and end up paying a extra £5 for the next amount of data used.My limit is 10 so I make sure to check now when I think im getting close to the limit,lol well I am from Sheffield and we tykes dont like to spend money unless we have to lol.Otherwise great company and English speaking customer service people.

[Richard]

I use "TalkTalk" despite its complicated billing itemisation, the charges cover land-line and internet with very generous usage and low mobile costs.
Unlimited downloads
Staff are in India and take some time to understand the accent but they eventually fix any issues and end up asking if I need to speak to a manager if there is anything I am unhappy about.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadba ... orts-4214/

[Geoff]

I can only speak from personal experience, but for me Talk Talk (previously Tiscali) were a nightmare when I moved house a few years back. They didn't realise they had only taken 10 digits as my new phone number (not 11). The switch over process ended up taking six weeks while they tried to figure out why it wasn't working. It was only after weeks of head scratching that I made them read back to me all they had as the new property details, only to discover they had messed up the simplest of things. It was a real pain in the neck speaking to an Indian call centre who then tried to relay the information back to their English tech guys. All this prompted me to move providers asap when the contract lapsed a few months later.
I guess the moral is, an Indian call centre will allow for a cheaper service to the customer. But if you have a problem then I wish you best of luck with the accents and lack of knowledge.

[moonjiver]

Thanks, some very useful advice here and people's actual experiences are the most helpful thing. Yes, I've had my eye on Plusnet for a while, they seem to have acquired a very good reputation whereas TalkTalk gets terrible reviews on the internet forums. I'm with PO Phones but may do a switch to get broadband, I'm less concerned about cost than efficiency.

The only really contentious factor seems to be download allowances, it seems difficult to judge in advance how much you are going to need. I use internet a lot for info, not much for music, games, video but I am likely to want the odd films sometimes.

Thanks a lot. I may comment more later .. during normal hours

[Richard]

I agree about TalkTalk getting "bad press" but if you experience problems you can always ask to speak to a manager and they fix things quickly, alternatively proceed as follows:
Press the number for the "I want to leave" and they will be very nice and offer all kinds of help very quickly.
The total cost is not much more than the standard line-rental for the B.T. telephone alone and includes unlimited broadband and 24/7 free landline phone calls.
My Mobile is an additional £3.75 a month and gives me 200 minutes talking plus 3250 texts.

[roy]

I ought to add that Plusnet allows you unlimited downloads after midnight until 8 am,I tend to download films and the like between these times,its very competitive on price,but for me being able to speak to English people in the Sheffield call centre is what swings it,never want the hassle again of getting through to India for help

[moonjiver]

Thanks, some very helpful stuff posted here. The current TalkTalk deals are extremely tempting (who doesn’t want to save money?!) but I don’t think I could cope with trying to communicate with Indians, lovely people though they are, I experienced all that before I moved my mobile away from EE (terrible service).

I’d forgotten about Plusnet’s unlimited downloads after midnight – that’s the sort of thing that swings a customer. One or two late nights sometimes to save cash. Now .. I told you I was thick about these things - presumably by downloading a film you mean saving it and watching it later? Not watching it at that time, as if I was watching a Youtube video. I was thinking of subscribing to one of the film websites later ..

One more point. I rather like my free evening calls from PO Phones (even though I don’t use the landline a lot). As far as I can see, I’d lose that bonus - Plusnet (and most providers) offer only free weekend calls, only TalkTalk does the 24/7 calls. Well, maybe I will have to make that sacrifice in return for the other things ..

[Geoff]

Downloading a film will use the same amount of data transfer (bandwidth) as watching it via a streaming service. Both require the film to piped down the line (so to speak). If you have the choice then download it rather than stream it, as once it's on your computer you can watch it as many times as you like without using any more bandwidth.

Personally I don't really use my home phone for outgoing calls as the mobile comes with so many free minutes that I might as well use that instead.