Page 1 of Changing broadband providers, help please?

I run a web design company from home so obviously it`s important for me to be online all the time. Been with freeserve which then changed to wanadoo, then taken over by orange. Was fine before orange got involved but now it`s s***. Been off about 5 times so far this year, all problems on their end which they didn`t know how long they would take to fix, and all ended up being several hours. Obviously this looks bad on me if I can`t upload sites etc so fed up to the back teeth with them.

I`m really looking to switch to someone else more reliable, ideally a smaller dedicated company that has a good rep. Now there are a few issues I`m not sure about:

The speed would need to be up to 8mb with unlimited downloads (that what we get on orange)

Ideally I`d look for a free router but don`t mind paying for one, but it would need to cope with 2 wired PCs, a wireless PC and wireless Xbox 360.

I want as little down time as possible, heard about people being offline for weeks when switching which obviously isn`t an option. What would I need to get from Orange in order to start up immediately with someone else? Could I get it over the phone? For example would it be possible for me to sign up with someone else, get all the stuff delivered and then cancel with Orange and get online with the new company that day?

And finally (and the big one) is I`m currently in a contract with Orange till next Feb, is it going to be hard to get out of if they`re not providing the service they`re meant to? I don`t expect it to be perfect but it was down for 5 hours yesterday and nearly a whole day only 2 weeks ago, hardly what I`d call satisfactory.

Any help would be much appreciated

UQ Web Design ¦ Offensive 101

Quote:
is it going to be hard to get out of if they`re not providing the service they`re meant to
The problem here is no consumer broadband supplier offer a "service level" contract ie they don`t provide any backup connection/compensation when the service is unavailable for whatever reason.

I`m with Sky which is mostly ok but then mostly ok isn`t going to be good enough for running a business. Maybe you need some kind of dial up back up which would obviously be very slow but would at least allow you to get access if the broadband one is down?

Edit Zen offer advanced care support thing for extra £12 pm Link

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You got us into this parking lot pal, you can get us out!

This item was edited on Wednesday, 4th June 2008, 10:24

Terminating the Orange contract early may be a problem.

Zen have always been good, but pricy, especially for high volume users. Until recently I was responsible for about 25 Zen ADSL connections. I would say that their CS has declined a little but is probably still better than most. As Mr Smee says, you can pay £12 pm for improved support.

I switched my own connection to Vivaciti about a year ago. Very pleased with them - good value - decent bandwidth - no throttling or traffic shaping - excellent CS. TBH most of the Entanet resellers seem to have a pretty good reputation.

If you want reliable, plus.net are excellent. Great customer service and they do a teleworker account with a lot of really good features.

I bitterly regret cancelling with them to go with AOL, to be honest. I only did it to get a free PS3, but their service has been dire recently.

Have a look at 02 mate. Very good speeds up and down and very little downtime time which is literally a couple of minutes here and there. £15 a month for 16mb or £10 if you have an O2 mobile, pay as you go works but you need to top up at least a tenner every 3 months. I joined from AOL and the whole thing took roughly 7 days.

Bryan

I`ve seen o2 and my mobile is on contract with them, but just not sure if they`ll got the same way as orange, who were also fine at first, but then because they try to do too much, the service ends up being s***. That`s why I wanted to go for a dedicated company.

Just a bit worried about downtime as even 7 days is alot for me.

UQ Web Design ¦ Offensive 101

BT Broadband is fine when it`s working but if anything goes wrong (and I`m talking about at their end and not your pc or router) they are the worst company I have ever come across.

They have screwed my connection up twice and in each case it took them four weeks to reconnect me.

In fairness I hear similar stories about Tiscali sky Talk Talk Virgin etc

My work pays for a BT Business broadband connection for me. That might be the way to go. IIRC they provide some sort of SLA for connection issues. Plus have a dedicated business support line in case of issues (based in the UK). You do pay a little more for it, but if you want a reliable service you`re going to have to.

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

Can I assume cable isnt an option??

You MUST get a mac code from ur current supplier b4 u can get the new guys to connect u, when I changed there was no interuption during this time.

i`m fairly happy with ntl/virgin.

Only been down twice as long as i`ve been with them ( 2 yrs+)