[ QUOTE ]
Check out
www.adslguide.org.uk for info.
I have Nildram and they are always in the top 3 service providers each month for everything. Can't fault them. Make sure you get shot of AOL as soon as possible, they are evil!
[/ QUOTE ]
There speaks a chap who knows his ISPs. I spent two years with Nildram on their 2 megabit business product (I forget what it was called at the time) with a few bolted-on IPs etc. - and they were indeed excellent. I recall only one serious service-outage during that time (because unlike most ADSL providers, Nildram runs the majority of the backbone their customers sit on (afer BT's portion of course!)); and it was blisteringly quick. Their POP3 machine decided it didn't like my never-changed password one or twice too, but they were easily fixed within a few minutes.
The only complaint I had was that if they tried to process a payment, at lets say 16:30; and there was some issue, you could stand to get home a few hours later and find your connection suspended. Not something I disagree with on a residential package; but to cut-off a business connection without any contact to see if it's only a simple problem, and then send your payments staff home at 17:30 seems more than a little shabby to me. The part that made me really irate is that (not even thinking about a phone-call here...) they didn't even send an e-mail - and to me, an ISP is the last breed of company to have an excuse for that. They did say it would be addressed, but it never was during my time with them; perhaps it has now.
That is the single complaint I could make about Nildram though; otherwise their provision of the service was top-notch. I use a small provider now, because they're more customer-service focused than Nildram, and considerably cheaper on a similar package to that which Nildram previously provided me. They are exceedingly helpful if you have to phone them; and always try their hardest to expedite solutions. However; they have made a few school-boy errors; and on occassion I've wondered if I wasn't a technical professional in the IT business, whether I would've managed to get things solved easily. Recently, my static IP mysteriously became dynamic, but to be honest I just can't be bothered telephoning to sort it out - but I am sure if I did they would be as keen to help as ever. The documentation and online information relating to server info (DNS, POP, SMTP etc.) is extremely flaky; and wildly inaccurate in most cases because they actually retail a brown-box ADSL product which they can brand as they choose - I think this is probably the cause of inacuracies and the occasional inconsistency.
...It was also diamond advice on adslguide.org - that's probably the best resource for information and ratings on the DSL providers in the UK - there is even a list (sorted by a few grades of product-pricing) of total cost of ownership for each ISP (be careful though, some of the shockingly cheap ones near the top are people like Bulldog, or as I prefer to call them, Bulldust. They come in cheap because you get an internet connection - and that's IT. No email, no webspace, and if they're honest - NO BACKEND. That is of course fine if you only use hotmail (or similar), and either don't have a website or don't mind using geocities (or similar) - If you like to get all the other creature-comforts of a proper internet-connection, Bulldust are definately off the list.
...Anyyyyyyhow, Nildram get my recommendation too, as does adslguide.org - just figure out what you need from the connection and that site will show you who's best for what.
Regards,
Rob.
