Recommended Broadband providers for small business
Discussion
Right, had it up to here with our current providers - their support is absolutely shocking.
So can anyone recommend a half-decent ADSL broadband supplier suitable for a small business (ie reliability and fault resolution times/methods are top priority).
Mr Beeston - any preferred suppliers from your perspective? I'll be wanting to transfer domain control as well and, while our ADSL obviously has no connection with the dedi server we'll be getting from you, if I can keep everything as "close together" as possible, so much the better.
(Coverage of Reading AND Edinburgh would be preferred if there are any regional considerations as we have lines in both locations)
So can anyone recommend a half-decent ADSL broadband supplier suitable for a small business (ie reliability and fault resolution times/methods are top priority).
Mr Beeston - any preferred suppliers from your perspective? I'll be wanting to transfer domain control as well and, while our ADSL obviously has no connection with the dedi server we'll be getting from you, if I can keep everything as "close together" as possible, so much the better.
(Coverage of Reading AND Edinburgh would be preferred if there are any regional considerations as we have lines in both locations)
Edited by graham@reading on Tuesday 5th December 11:07
graham@reading said:
So can anyone recommend a half-decent ADSL broadband supplier suitable for a small business (ie reliability and fault resolution times/methods are top priority).
If those are your top priorities, then it has to be BT. Most other providers simply buy the ADSL line from BT and rent it to you, therefore if anything goes wrong they are normally as much use as a beer tent at an alchololics convention, simply because it is not their kit that has failed.
I have been with BT for nearly two years and can count the number of times it has been down on one hand. Of those times it was down, it was back within the hour for all apart from one and that was back within the day.
We had Tiscali on a construction site for 10 months and they were shit on a whole new level... It was down nearly every week, for best part of a day when it was down, and the call centres... well... what was I saying about a beer tent!
HTH
ThePassenger said:
Hate to say it but if your looking at ADSL then your going to have one or more BT landlines installed; never had a problem with OpenWorld whilst we were on it, but I don't know much about their business class offerings.
Well yeah, we already have ADSL thus a couple of BT PSTN landlines
Martin Keene said:
I have been with BT for nearly two years and can count the number of times it has been down on one hand. Of those times it was down, it was back within the hour for all apart from one and that was back within the day.
I have been with BT for what seems like several lifetimes, and it goes down every time it rains. Despite paying extra for premium support and multiple engineer visits (at least 5 in the last month), I'm still not convinced it's repaired (the last engineer buggered off without informing us what he'd done, and although it slashed down this morning, it stayed up, so maybe, just maybe ...). Not impressed.
Edited by zumbruk on Tuesday 5th December 13:12
zumbruk said:
I'm still not convinced it's repaired (the last engineer buggered off without informing us what he'd done, and although it slashed down this morning, it stayed up, so maybe, just maybe ...). Not impressed.
Go to another ISP if you like but I'd put money on you seeing the same old engineers whoever it is (unless it's cable obviously).Can I quickly clear this up for everyone please:
All ISPs (except those who have their own kit in exchanges) will purchase their ADSL connections from BT Wholesale.
Even BT Retail (commonly known as Openworld for home users) has to purchase their ADSL connections from BT Wholesale, so all ISPs are in the same boat.
It is a common misconception that any support against the ADSL line is better just because you are with BT Retail - the two are completely seperate entities as recommended by OFCOM.
However, they are able to deliver a combined bill, which is the confusion lies.
Any physical line problems will always be escalated through to BT Wholesale - and thus OpenReach engineers
In short, its a minefield, and I still don't have any idea who is good and who isn't - Plus.Net are ok, as long as you don't mind not being able to phone them.
I'm fairly confident Zen are well revered - and so shall be giving them a punt...
All ISPs (except those who have their own kit in exchanges) will purchase their ADSL connections from BT Wholesale.
Even BT Retail (commonly known as Openworld for home users) has to purchase their ADSL connections from BT Wholesale, so all ISPs are in the same boat.
It is a common misconception that any support against the ADSL line is better just because you are with BT Retail - the two are completely seperate entities as recommended by OFCOM.
However, they are able to deliver a combined bill, which is the confusion lies.
Any physical line problems will always be escalated through to BT Wholesale - and thus OpenReach engineers
In short, its a minefield, and I still don't have any idea who is good and who isn't - Plus.Net are ok, as long as you don't mind not being able to phone them.
I'm fairly confident Zen are well revered - and so shall be giving them a punt...
neil_cardiff said:
as long as you don't mind not being able to phone them.
And there's the rub.
I'm happy to have web- and email-based support for my home ADSL, but no way am I not having a telephone contact for work's connection. My 4 instances of holding for 1 hour each today with this shower are equivalent to no phone support at all.
Bit of a problem when the actual line's causing an issue.
ThatPhilBrettGuy said:
zumbruk said:
I'm still not convinced it's repaired (the last engineer buggered off without informing us what he'd done, and although it slashed down this morning, it stayed up, so maybe, just maybe ...). Not impressed.
Go to another ISP if you like but I'd put money on you seeing the same old engineers whoever it is (unless it's cable obviously).No cable here. I don't quite live in the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from my office window.
Tiscali provide the IP address, but as neil_cardiff rightly points out, the physical bits of wire are provided by BT no matter which ISP you go to.
(Where does LLU fit into this? I know it means the DSLAM in the exchange belongs to your ISP and not BT, but presumably BT still own the actual physical local loop? And even if they don't, it'll still be the same hairy external wireman who comes to fix it when the rain gets into a junction, 'cos the ISP won't have any wiremen.)
Ah.
Forgot about that.
LLU controls the internet transit from the ISP to the end user - thus allowing complete control over how much, when and what gets to the end user.
Ultimately, if something of the ISP blows up in the exchange, the ISP fixes it (hoping that the insurance covers whatever else it broke).
However, if its a line issue, then a hairyarsed BT engineer will appear in this case (i.e. if someones lopped your physical line in half or something).
The lines blur a bit, but in short, we all get BT Openreach for most physical problems.
Any support offered by an ISP is their service included in the cost of your ADSL connection.
I only want wires only, no free modems, or fancy software, so Plus.Net at the time were great - offering exactly that for only £15 at the time.
However, home users will find the additional packages offered by the likes of OpenWorld very useful (i.e. its very 'hand-holdy' and does it all for you via some fancy software).
For those who know what they are doing, in many cases whether or not you can get through to the bastards is the main selling point...
Edited to add: Little known fact - did you know that if you want to do ANYTHING within BT's buildings or physical conduits and ducts, you need to have public liability insurance of over £20 million? No wonder OFCOM have been trying to prise open their grip on the Comms market...
Forgot about that.
LLU controls the internet transit from the ISP to the end user - thus allowing complete control over how much, when and what gets to the end user.
Ultimately, if something of the ISP blows up in the exchange, the ISP fixes it (hoping that the insurance covers whatever else it broke).
However, if its a line issue, then a hairyarsed BT engineer will appear in this case (i.e. if someones lopped your physical line in half or something).
The lines blur a bit, but in short, we all get BT Openreach for most physical problems.
Any support offered by an ISP is their service included in the cost of your ADSL connection.
I only want wires only, no free modems, or fancy software, so Plus.Net at the time were great - offering exactly that for only £15 at the time.
However, home users will find the additional packages offered by the likes of OpenWorld very useful (i.e. its very 'hand-holdy' and does it all for you via some fancy software).
For those who know what they are doing, in many cases whether or not you can get through to the bastards is the main selling point...
Edited to add: Little known fact - did you know that if you want to do ANYTHING within BT's buildings or physical conduits and ducts, you need to have public liability insurance of over £20 million? No wonder OFCOM have been trying to prise open their grip on the Comms market...
Edited by neil_cardiff on Tuesday 5th December 16:23
agent006 said:
For business you want any ISP who can offer you a proper SLA backed contract. Many many ISPs won't do this, the only one i can remember offhand is Easynet/Ukonline.
Do they now? I'm on UKOnline at home simply because they could offer fast speeds. Might give them a bell.
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