Pipex FUP, where to go next?

[alvinlwh]

Hi all,

I just got an email from Pipex saying:

We can confirm that your online request to cancel your Pipex Broadband
service has now been initiated. A 'cease order' will be issued to BT
for the removal of our broadband service from your telephone line.

I was shocked as I had never request any cancellation of any kind. So I phone them up asking them what the hell is going on. I was told that because of my high usage, I am in breach of their FUP. I told them according to their FUP, they are supposed to warn me first before cancelling my service. Well I did not get any warning. I was told to either reduce my usage or go with a MAC. Well, I picked the second route. Now I have 14 days to get myself another broadband provider.

At first I planned to go with AOL for their "free" laptop offer, not too bothered by the 24 months contract, but after reading some posts here makes me think again.

Currently I am on Pipex Max, the "unlimited" package, which cost £24.99, one of the highest priced broadband package around. I am willing to pay more for unlimited (or at least higher caps). But after some searching around, all of them seem to be capped at about 40GB/month. And some providers seem to cap/restrict P2P traffic.

Can anyone here recommend a provider that have a more reasonable cap and does not restrict P2P traffic? I knew Pipex does not as I have mine bouncing off the stops at 2mps. But now they are cutting me off, I have to get a replacement, fast.

Thanks!

[witchwq]

If your exchange is open to Be Unlimited, and you are not far from the exchange, you can go with them. Fast internet, online tickets to solve your connection problems and so on. But you must be aware, that sometimes you need to try and understand how ADSL2+ works (it is different to standard ADSL you have now). They have FUP but noone had suffered from this. It just need some good will, patience and understanding. The cheapest package is with 12 months contract, the rest is without contract, but you have to give them 3 moths notice if you want to go somehere else, or pay 40 pounds.

[aik6980]

I'm stucked with Tiscali Pipex before, and I knew that their service is unprofessional like hell.

If you're looking for ISP which is more straight forward. I highly recommended Entanet. They're limited allowance and a bit more expensive, but the speed and reliability is the best

I'm with ADSL24 by now, and still happy with them

[Melstin]

As an IT professional, I'd advise you to have a look here:

DSL ZoneUK - ISP ratings

I'm with Newnet at the moment and they are very good, so much that I have given them 5 new customers.

[dowbulldog]

Definately go for enta.net, ive been with them about 7 years, 30gig daytime monthly allowance with 300gig allowed 10pm till somewhere around 7am, im pretty much into p2p, never hit my limit yet

[demon_x_slash]

Can I query this with the OP? We're on the same package, have been for about three years now, 'unlimited' at £24.99, and we were told very recently that not only do we not have a FUP, but that they don't packet-sniff either and therefore restrict certain ports. I'm not sure who to believe, now...

[TaxedAndConfused]

I use BT and they haven't attempted to stop me using P2P which I do quite heavily (e-book addict). I read somewhere that if you use a torrent client which uses encryption (I use uTorrent) they can't detect it anyway.

I have noticed it goes slower in the evenings (I assume this is because of competition from other users at the exchange) but overnight or in the middle of the day sometimes I can get D/L speeds of over 250 kb/s.

[alvinlwh]

demon: Yes there is a FUP, check on their website. As for pocket-sniff, not sure what is that, so I do not know.

Taxed&Confused: Downloading ebooks will hardly match what I am downloading (full length movies), so I think you should be quite safe.

Anyway an update, after kicking up a huge fuss with OFCOM and ISPA, Pipex finally gave up and refunded me 2 months of fees. If anyone is having problems with them, I suggest you doing the same.

[TaxedAndConfused]

Originally Posted by alvinlwh

Taxed&Confused: Downloading ebooks will hardly match what I am downloading (full length movies), so I think you should be quite safe.

*Looks over to full-of-movies and e-books 700GB HD...

True however I leave my main PC downloading pretty much all the time, nobody has moaned so far...

[th3joker]

I used Bulldog Broadband for a couple of years and was able to download over 1TB every month. They had no problems with this.

I was forced to move supplier when we moved house and since Pipex had bought Bulldog it seemed a natural choice, I soon received the same letter as the OP and looked around for an alternative.

I have now been with Eclipse Internet for around 8 months, they have a monthly peak limit of 50 or 60GB a month and unlimited off peak. During peak times they tend to throttle it down to about 300Ks and through the night it isn't throttled (800Ks).

I still manage to download up to 1TB a month if I want to but seem to download less nowadays.

Personally I would recommend anyone still using P2P software to look into a usenet account, the download speeds are at the maximum your connection allows. I can download an episode of Lost in about 10 minutes, a feature length documentary in under 20 minutes.

Most ISP's throttle P2P 24/7 and you also have to share (upload) things, which is where most people end up with legal problems.

[alvinlwh]

Joker,

With Eclipse and Bitcomet, I managed to get up to 500kps (on a 6.5m connection) sometimes. I think Eclipse did not throttle P2P, at least not by much.

[th3joker]

Hi Alvin,

I think they have started to throttle more recently, during peak hours my speeds drop to about 250-300kbps and then gradually increase after midnight until they max out again at around 3am until about 9am. They drop to about 400kbps until 12ish then down to 350kbps until peak 6pm-12pm where they go to 200-300kbps again.

It seems to be any type of traffice too FTP/Http/NNTP and torrents, though I have used torrents only once or twice for some obscure stuff.

Personally I use it for work about 99% of the time and the 1% of personal use would be just email.

I have their Evolution Option 4 which allows a limited amount (50GB) at peak times and unlimited outside of that. It's not cheap but I wanted a premium service and am more than willing to pay for it.

I'm pretty happy with them, it is annoying though when they deny traffic shaping and/or throttling when they blatantly use it.