I've been with Nildram for a number of years and while they were never the fastest or cheapest service they were reliable.  That is until they recently got taken over by Tiscali and now the service is appalling.  Trying to play multiplayer games is dodgy as there can e sometimes 7 or 8 random disconnections in a few minutes.

Tech support that used to be good has went to hell as well, the fact that I bought an ADSL modem from a shop and not from them (at nearly double the price) means they say the fault 'must be' with my modem as I haven't got their approved model.

I've been looking at Virgin Media.  At present I'm paying £23 a month for a slow adsl connection and £16-19 for phone from Talk Talk.  Apparently Virgin can do a better service for cheaper.  Has anyone else used, or know anyone that uses Virgin Media.  I know they might not have top notch reputation, but honestly the way things are going, they can't be any worse.

I'd like to say I could offer some useful info, but I just realised recently that my own connection is a shambles.

It started off as Wanadoo, but they sold out a while ago and Orange took over.

The sevice seems to be fine and reliable - 2 MB is the speed my area can handle (although I note that Virgin claim they can do 6 or even 8 at times - since this would use the same line, I wonder how trustworty that one is) - and loss of service has been next to non-existent.

What I find I don't have is any means of contacting them!

The Wanadoo account details online all appear to have evaporated, and none of my logins etc from the original account seem to work. If I do need to contact them, it looks like landline time.

A also use my own kit to connect, and if the "voice" on the end of the phone at the call centre ever tried to pull the "Oh, you're not using our modem" line, I just dismissed them (the front-line staff are thick, and can only work from a script) and asked to be connected to a supervisor - they can't refuse outright as the calls are monitored by superiors, and they also can't waste time arguing, or their call-handling and succes rate goes down, and their job is at threat, so you can use the dreaded call-centre to your own advantage.

I've been using this site to keep an eye on them, but you need to read the small print - not the headline numbers!

http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/

I used to have Freeserve which were taken over by Wanadoo ( France Telecom?).  The service became poorer so I switched the BB and phone to Toucan.  Guess what, they were taken over by Tiscali which I think may have belonged to the Italian telecom company.

It is all fine until you hit a snag and then you are on to a dreaded asian call centre.  I have great difficulty understanding them and they found a scots accent totally incomprehensible.

I think you are looking for another holy grail!

These asian call centres are a particular brainbug of mine, I object to them mainly because of the language problem, but some people if you say that call you 'racist'.

I'll swear that you spend at least half the time repeating everything you've said to them.

Ah, I see what you mean

Since I'm not likely to have a cable sub any time soon, that detail tends to slip my mind as it's not a consideration, but your point is well made.

I was only looking at the summary or bottom line that comes up when I query the "best deals" in my area, and had noticed that the Virgin package went up and down in the speed quoted in the offer at different times - I also plead "I waz conned" since the summary page comes with a rather snazzy Google map that shows you address and where your applicable telephone exchange lies so you can see the distance invloved.

To carry on to another issue, one of the things I find particularly irritating at the moment is that nearly all the providers only quote their "Deal Price" in big print - in other words the monthly charge for the first 6 months, first year, or whatever other period it applies for, and you have to dig into the small print to find out what the real cost will be once the deal has run out, and add in whatever line requirements go on top as well.

Thinking back, I'm sure the three Virgin packages I was reading involved having a phone line as well, no choice, and the cost was in addition to the super-duper low ISP charge in two cases - in the third and most expensive high-speed deal this was "free" inside the package, but it cost as much as the others when you priced it up after the deal was ended and you included all the complsory "options".

I find it all very shabby now, and designed to confuse the unwary, presumably sucking the suckers into a deal that looks low per month, but mounts up to something horrible when all the charges are included and the "offere" has expired after a few months. If you're a new subscriber, and the offer was only 6 months, you could be locked in for 12 or 18 months as leaving the ISP earlier means buying out, or paying the fees for the lock-in period, even if you leave early.