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Business Internet Provider
grassracer - 7/2/12 at 07:20 PM

Its time to properly sort our internet at work, for years we've used and got away with a standard talk talk package probably tailored to home use however we are currently having nothing but trouble and we need the net like never before....all suppliers pricing is only available electronically, as is our technical data information I feel its starting to cost me custom!!
Can anyone speaking from experience recommend me a good package/supplier or even tell me where to look.
Also I fear its time for a new business pc what do I need to buy spec wise

lsdweb - 7/2/12 at 07:38 PM

Orchard Hosting - http://orchardhosting.com/

Very helpful service! And you can have everything from simple web pages to stuff I don't understand!!

Regards

Wyn

britishtrident - 7/2/12 at 07:39 PM

I used to always recommend Zen they have the best reputation in the business but in the end the BT bit is always going to be the weak link. Personally I fell out with them when I had a major line speed problem and athough they were getting paid a fatter price I had to make a big fuss before they would call BT in.

After ZEN we ran two ADSL lines for reliability the backup line was with 02 and we migrated the Zen line to Plusnet.
O2 were good (reliable and fast) but it was only a very basic ADSL service with no added extras.


These days we only have one ADSL line which is with Plusnet and they get things fixed when they go wrong the account also has good extra user configurable features such mail filtering and extra mail accounts. For a backup internet connection we have a 3 Mobile USB dongle but have never needed it.

[Edited on 7/2/12 by britishtrident]

paublo999 - 7/2/12 at 07:54 PM

Idnet were excellent. Have heard good things about zen too

tegwin - 7/2/12 at 11:41 PM

We used to use Demon at work..... two ADSL lines and a load balancer.... Very good service...

As a consequence my parents are with them for their home broadband.... have been for atleast 6 years... no problems atall....ideal!

RichardK - 8/2/12 at 09:44 AM

Swift Internet for me and all of our customers when we were in the UK, smallish company but top service. http://www.swiftinter.net Ask for Martin or Hayley, say Richard from Oz sent ya if you do get in touch!

Cheers

Rich

stevebubs - 8/2/12 at 10:37 AM

quote:
Originally posted by grassracer
Its time to properly sort our internet at work, for years we've used and got away with a standard talk talk package probably tailored to home use however we are currently having nothing but trouble and we need the net like never before....all suppliers pricing is only available electronically, as is our technical data information I feel its starting to cost me custom!!
Can anyone speaking from experience recommend me a good package/supplier or even tell me where to look.
Also I fear its time for a new business pc what do I need to buy spec wise


You don't say what your trouble is (Failures / general low speed / slows down at peak times) so it's hard to give a direct solution.

For cost-effective resilience, I would either

a) go to SamKnows and look to see who can provide LLU capability in your area I would then order a line from 2 of those suppliers.

b) Move to a single supplier that is recommended but have a 3G dongle / MIFI device for when your fixed line has issues.

Point of note - many business packages have different contention ratios to that of consumer.

HTH

S

Peteff - 8/2/12 at 10:55 AM

Have you contacted Talk Talk about a business package ? Is the problem with the internet or your old computer ? I've been on Talk Talk at home for over 2 years and not had any problems, a friend of mine who is only 2 streets away has same and can somehow manage to cack his connection up on a weekly basis but it's always something he has done

britishtrident - 8/2/12 at 11:45 AM

TalkTalk and the companies now part of the TalkTalk brand ( including Pipex and Tiscali) have long had a bad reputation particularly for not fixing faults quickly or at all.

As regard reliability if you exclude DNS problems then reliability shouldn't be much different between suppliers, the key factor is how quickly the ISP rectifies the fault. Because ISPs have to pay BT to investigate line faults if no fault is found some are very reluctant to book a BT engineer call out even if all the symptoms point to a line fault. T

There are couple things you can do to improve reliability, I keep a spare router setup ready to go, I have my network settings are set to point alternative DNS server as well as my ISP ie my ISPs DNS servers with Google DNS as backup

grassracer - 8/2/12 at 06:54 PM

Thanks for that folks, once I get a pc sorted I can hopefully make some progress

Jasper - 9/2/12 at 10:07 AM

I would always stay with BT for my internet cos it's their line. Twice there's been a line problem and because I'm a business customer they come out THE SAME DAY. Talk Talk said it would take up to 5 days before they even scheduled a visit.

And again cos it was BT when they came out a saw the lines at the back of my shop weren't in great order they put in all new copper, very nice a seemingly skilled engineers too. I now get a regular 17Meg and it's realtively cheap on a phone package deal too.


As for a business PC I would recommend the Dell Optiplex range (if that's what they're still called) - simple business machines (I don't need expensive graphic or sound cards) made with better quality components. Been running full time for 4 years now and has never even crashed - completely solid as a rock. And it came with one site 5 year warranty for around £500.