The BEST site to check before purchasing/moving (Make this a sticky?)

Loster

Hi there,

I will not make any broadband choices before checking this page on this site (I have no affiliation with it btw):

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php

It has ratings and comments by hundreds of people (very up to date). A great resource for those signing up to or switching broadband services.

:T
Loster

penrhyn

How can you possibly compare ISPs when the number of respondants vary so much.
One near the top had less than 100 replies, whereas Virgin had well over 1000.

Loster

Each ISP only get on the ratings graph when 50 people have commented and rated it. Good enough for me that is.

Bigger (and badder) ISP's are bound to have more respondants.

Reading a few of the comments always works for me...

JayTee99_2

@Loster
it would have been interesting if you stated who your ISP is

that site has some very good info, but the ISP ratings should really be treated with extreme caution imo

the site is, i believe, run by an Entanet reseller (nothing wrong in that, but it might be nice if the association was mentioned on the site)
8 or 9 out of the top 10 are Entanet resellers/Entanet (again nothing wrong in that)
but really, people are voting for the same ISP (Entanet) with just minor changes, such as separate billing, webspace, email etc

As already said, the figures don't mean much, with very low score ratings hitting the top ten ('weighting' might be useful).
The speed ratings are particularly interesting because everyone knows that Entanet have had speed problems off-peak (when everyone piles in)
so what, or when, do the extremely high speed ratings refer to? or are they fibbing ?

Don't believe me? well here's something to watch.
TitanADSL are currently on the sub-ratings with less than 50 votes.
as soon as they hit 50 (which probably won't be too long) they will go into the top ten, probably knocking out one of the non-Entanet/resellers
and who are TitanADSL?
why, another Entanet reseller
then they would have the whole of the top ten.
i'm not having a 'go' at anyone, just pointing out a couple of things.

This site gives a much better comparison for 'Speed', 'Reliability' and 'Customer Service'

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

if you hover over the results, there is additional info.
you probably won't find 9 out of the top 10 from dslzone listed here because currently only ISPs
are listed, not Visps or resellers
so in the above examples you would need to choose Entanet to make any comparisons.

Loster

Hi JayTee,

my ISP is Virgin ADSL.... unfortunately! 2nd to bottom! My year long period is up very soon (they have the discretion to charge £50 if you cancel within a year). I shall certainly be switching after then.... using this website or the one you've posted. "Be" looks like a good prospect at the moment, same price as I'm paying now....

I'm not sure about it being run by an Entanet reseller. It does declare it's sponsors at the top; can't see it concealing another. Their sponsors do quite well on the charts, but are not right at the top. I don't suspect corruption.

Perhaps Entanet are just generally very good (though more expensive than others I've found)..... interesting about the off-peak overload though.

Though I take your point about a lot of the top ones being Entanet resellers. Perhaps the site should implement some way of telling this. Separating the first line ISP's from the resellers. Though I suppose there will be genuine differences between resellers on customer service and price (two of the criteria they rate them on)

Weightings by number of respondants could be useful, yes. As it is though I find it a great resource, if, as you say, it is not taken a scientifically precise ratings guide, but a more general indication. The comments do that for me.