ZEN Broadband

[R2B2]

Yeah, a well trodden subject I know but....

Does anybody have Zen broadband, or know somebody that does..? I've been looking at what they have to offer... and it looks good. I've been doing some comparison tests here -

www.adslguide.org.uk

.. and Zen consistently come out favourable, consistently overall fastest connection during last six months sample period (even beating BT etc!)., amongst other things. (check out their compare tool - very useful)

1/2 meg package ?23.82 month, no usage restriction, NO min contract, but you have to buy Modem (?34) and pay activation fee (?50). The ratings on this site are compiled from user feedback so should be quite representitive.

Anybody have any knowledge of Zen broadband??

I had a look at that new Tiscali ?15.99 deal. Only 150kbps, typically running at 128kbps, so no huge improvement over dial up really where large filles are concerned.

BT have come out with a new package today, I think. ?19.99 month, 1/2 meg, but limited to 1gig per month traffic, and usage charges after that?? any good d'ya think?? How much is gig per month??

So far, Zen has it by a nose... unless you know better!!

:beer:

 

[Samster]

Rob - in answer to your PM, it wasn't me that mentioned Zen in the past, however I've just spent a wee while on that adsl guide site and they do come out very well indeed.

Now the best bit about Zen is that the minimum contract length is one month! Awesome. That proves that the product sells itself.

Another point that proves their an honest bunch is that there are directions to their offices on their website! Rare these days indeed. Try finding your way to AOL's offices!

If you haven't been there already - http://www.zenadsl.com

Looks good. Bear in mind you require a BT phoneline that connects to an ADSL enabled exchange, and an ADSL modem. The one Zen can provide costs about ?34 plus a couple of microfilters will cost another ?13. All in all that's about a wunner for the hardware and the connection fee and then it's ?23.82 a month unlimited.

 

[Samster]

PS - a Gig is 1GB - 1000Mb - which in my terms is about 18 album downloads.

 

[kiransoar]

I have used Zen for broadband for about 18mths IMHO, I have found them excellent.

One word of warning though - they're tech supoort is 9-5 and now on Saturdays for limited hours. They want to go 24/7 but that isn't running yet AFAIK.

 

[fat bert]

Think you'll find that~~~

The BT cheapo package limits you to just half a Gig per month!!

You'd soon use that bandwith up - then what?

 

[Bobsilverbird]

Broadband

I'm in the middle of changing over to Pipex. There was very little between BT Zen and Pipex.
Reasons for going to Pipex:
BT Failed to respond after 10 days So what does that tell you.
Pipex do all the change over and when done AOL and their Broadband are out of my life for ever.
Already have modem and filters so it seemed the best option. Will let you all know my experience when connected.

 

[R2B2]

Thanks for your input guys

I've just been browsing around Zens website again and their price of ?23.82 month is exluding vat! so the real price is ?27.99. Bugger - I thought that was an odd amount.

But still very much in their favour is I also just spent some more time on the adsldguide site and done a couple more six-way comparisons....



First six:
AOL
BT Internet
Tiscali
Pipex
NTL
ZEN

Second six:
Bulldog
Pipex
Supanet
Tiscali
Virgin
ZEN

Adslguide show three catorgories. Speed, Reliability and Customer Service. In both comparisons ZEN came out top in all three catogories... by quite a margin too!

So, it's a bugger about the price being more than I thought but they are still looking good based on everything else...

 

[kiransoar]

Clive

Have a look at the adslguide site. It is truly great. The lists created by Rob are his own. The site does not do a top 10 etc. But it allows you to select up to 6 ISP and compare them against each other. You select which 6 you want from a huge list. Eclipse is bound to be there. And if you like Eclipse, you can rate it personally so it adds value to the ratings.

Rob - make sure you look at Nildram. They're up there with Zen.

To be honest, it may be worth paying more for a better ISP. Focus on contention issues. No point going with AOL/BT etc when all their other users are on and sucking up bandwidth. That's why it often pays to us an ISP which is primarily business focused. So when I use the web (i.e. at home on weekends and evenings) bandwidth is freed up as offices are shut.

HTH.

 

[R2B2]

Mmmmmmm....

... been having another long browse around the adslguide site and the Eclipse & Nildrum sites.

Clive - I had a look at eclipse and you're right, they are rated well. I did another 6-way comparison with Eclipse and Nildram included, and this time it produced different results (below). But try as I might, I couldn't find the difference between the 500 lite package and the regular 500 Eclipse packages. There doesn't seem to be mention of the differences other than the price of course. I presume the lite deal must have usage restrictions but that's just guessing. Have a snoop around that site Clive, and vote on your Eclipse if you want - that's where the guide ratings come from! (find the little blue box on left of page and select "compare" to do your own comparison tests while you're there!).

Kiransoar - I had overlooked Nildram as I'd never heard of them and they are right up there aren't they? Two quids a month more than Zen... but highly rated.

The next six compared:

One-tel
Nildram
Eclipse
Blue yonder
Freeserve
Zen

Zen, Nildram and Eclipse came out top three and quite close together in this one, but Zen still took it in the three categories.... except back in August last year when Eclipse was fractionally ahead on all three accounts, but then just slipped marginally for some reason. But all three very close!

So at the mo it seems to be between Zen, Eclipse and Nildram. But taking all things into account, Zen still has it - just!

Thanks for the good advice on contention issues Kiransoar - I read up on that and understand it a bit better now, - the power of the Forum eh?

:beer:

 

[Steptoe]

ISP - Broadband

Take a look at

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/index.php?s=

Very interesting comments from real usershttp://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/index.php?s=

 

[R2B2]

Jeez Steptoe....

Most folk on the Forum will have read about the consistent problems I've had with AOHell, but there's a lot of folk posting similar stories to mine on there. There's people on there who cant stop AOHell collecting from their credit cards MONTHS after they have cancelled contracts. One guy's post I saw says he has even had the official industry watchdog on the case to try and stop them..... cos, like me, they wont answer his letters or communicate with him!!! (same prob as me).

Another guy has so far waited 16 weeks for AOL to release his line so he can migrate because of reliability issues. I don't feel so alone now!

I find that a bit scary as I'm about to (thank god) dump them myself, never to be involved with the feckin crooks again... EVER!!

Anyway, interesting site.

 

[Steptoe]

Rob P XX

I know, its scary how these "major players" get away with it

I cant get Broadband, and have ended up with NTL, which apart from a few connection issues early on, has been OK and is a good price for un-metred net and all local and national rate calls

 

[R2B2]

Zen won by a nose in the end....

... although it was a close call between Zen, Eclipse and Nildram. Signed up yesterday. Deciding factors were......



Zen was ?2 cheaper month than Nildram.

Zen was a pound cheaper than Ecilpse (although it's ?5 dearer than Eclipse Lite).

Zen came top in ALL the 6-way comparisons that I did on the adslguide site.

Zen guarantee no contention.

Zen operates a I month contract policy

Zen includes a dial-up back-up facility (with an 0845 number). They don't all do that.

Zen's lead time is only 5 days!

Due to the nightmare I've had with AOHELL I'm a bit paranoid about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, so I've researched the alternatives as best I could. I've spoken to Zens Customer Services twice with a few questions and my conversations with them have been nothing short of a revelation compared to that of AOHELL.

But, of course, it's early days yet. I hope I've gone in the right direction. I'll let you know later!

 

[R2B2]

I will indeed......

....... do that Clive.

As I said, it was a close run thing in the end. From what I've learned during all these tests/comparisons etc I dont think anybody could go wrong with either Zen, Eclipse or Nildram to be honest.

Time will tell.....

 

[ianrobbo1]

two penneth worth

I've been on Tiscali, for a bit now and so far I've no major problems with them, its been me:blush:

 

[mikew]

Re: two penneth worth

Originally posted by ianrobbo1
I've been on Tiscali, for a bit now and so far I've no major problems with them, its been me:blush:

Wish I could say the same, I have perservered with Titscali for 2 years, and I?m ditching them as their service is nothing short of appalling, and their "helpline?" don?t even bother, Tis shite.

Reliably so.


Watching for Rob?s feedbeck with interest :beer:

 

[R2B2]

So far...

... so Good!

Well it's been a couple of weeks now and all is very well. It was five working days only from my on-line order to the line being active. I thought that was good as most others are 10-15 days, I believe.

I did ring once each their Tech support line and Customer Sevices while getting things setup (0845 numbers). A very simple one stage menu to choose from and then straight thru to a real person (now THAT I like!) after only 4 or 5 rings. Both were very helpful and personable. It made the switch worth it to me just for that alone!! A world apart, in fact, from the the response I was used to from the dreadful AOHell.

Their e-mail interface is extremely basic and featureless though. But I guess it is intended as more of a backup than anything else as most people would prefer to use Outlook Express or another mail chucker of their choice. I used Turnpike, from Demon, - ?15 + vat for a one-off licence code to avtivate it.... and it's MILES better than OE, and it integrates with explorer, so it's real easy to use. Once you use this you would never go back to OE. Thanks to Jaws for the recommendation!

You get issued an allocated pop3 mail-box address to which you can choose to add 5 aliases. It's not done on screen, you mail Customer Services with your choice(s) and they are activated within the hour, with a mail to confirm this. You also get a dial-up facility thrown in (0845 number) for back-up in case the ADSL sevice is ever down.

The speed?? Well, I've not had broadband before so the 512 kbps seems lightening quick to me!

I'm not sure how all this compares to broadband setups with other ISP's, but I certainly didn't have any complaints... and I'll be leaving them some very positive feedback on the adslguide site.

All in all, unless something deteriorates drastically I think this is going to be a happy venture as opposed to the stressful ongoing battle I had with AOHell.