
Speed
Will this explain why the 8mb link we pay for, runs at about 5mb in the day and 300kb in the evening? Are the bank throttling them?
Shares in Tiscali have been suspended on the Italian stock exchange after tumbling almost 50 per cent this morning on news it failed to meet a debt repayment. The group - whose UK ISP brands include Tiscali, Pipex, Freedom2Surf and Nildram - said over the weekend it would try to renegotiate its loan agreements. Tiscali owes …
Once had Tiscali as an ISP, biggest mistake I ever made. I was without connection for nearly a month before they eventually let me go to another supplier because they were unable to fix the problem at the exchange.
Thumbs up to them going down the pan, not to the company themselves...
I was with Tiscali once, absolute nightmare!! Service was never great and if you ever wanted to move away from them, boy they make it hard!! Also don't ever try and call them if you need any help or have a query....they never answer and are useless!!
It's sad however that they will take Nildram and Pipex with them. Nildram were a very good company until the takeover...a nice small-ish ISP with good service and customer service. I guess this is what happens when a large ISP offers lots of money to takeover a small ISP!
... what about all those companies ...
Hopefully any company that really, really needs the internet to run it's business (rather than merely as a toy for it's employees) will have both redundant and diverse[1] feeds. If they don't have these already then they'd better have a really fast plan in place to get them,
Of course those companies that only have internet connectivity for their employees to goof around on could see a massive rise in productivity if their ISP goes bust! Clouds? silver linings?
[1] i.e. connections entering their business from more than one physical location, so someone with a JCB can't dig up both their feeds at the same time.
Years ago I used to recommend Pipex and Nildram all the time, great little companies. Then Shitscali came along and the service levels went down quicker than a twenty dollar whore. And as for trying to escape it's clutches, what a nightmare. I've moved nearly everyone off them now, thank goodness.
Nasty nasty nasty company.
I have been a long-time Pipex customer - from the early days of DSL. Great service, customer help on the VERY rare times i had occasion to call was superb. I was even a shareholder so did well out of them. Then along came Tricksally - abysmal service, numerous drop-outs (line and staff), price hike and a usage cap that is crap> billing service was abysmal for several months. Good riddance I say, now where's me coat - I think i left it here with a slip of paper with my MAC code in the pocket
If the way they run their service is anything like their corporate activity.
Had them when I first went ADSL, I stayed 5 weeks, got told not to download more than 50mb in an evening, had sub dial up speeds. Went to f2s, left when it was announced they bought Pipex. Had my phone with them, they forgot to charge me for 10 months, admitted it was their fault so I got 10 months free calls, which was nice.
Pipex ROFL. The biggest bunch of cowboys this side of the atlantic.
I had the CEO once personally promise to call me back in 10 minutes, never did.
Shame Freedom2Surf and Nildram sold-out, perhaps their original owners will get them back for a knock-down price, though it's probably too late; image tarnished.
Go for an EntaNet reseller (if you don't mind peak being 8am-12am with generous peak usage tariffs available (unlimited off-peak)) or Zen if you've got the cash.
This is one company that totally deserves to go under.
Without a doubt tiscali and it's recent acquisitions are some of the worst I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Wasn't always the case - nildram and even pipex were ok before tiscali got hold.
If you are a customer leave now - there are far better options.
by all the negativity towards Tiscali. I have been with them for a couple of years now and have never had a single problem. My 8mb line is always up and running at 7mb, which is fine with me. No one ever gets the advertised speed of broadband lines, not unless they live in the exchange.
Billing has always been spot on, and when I recently added Homechoice and phone to my package, I did it all online and it was all installed within a week and working perfectly. The installer even offered to tack the wire to my skirting boards, which I didn't take him up on as I haven't entirely decided where to put the router yet.
I really hope they don't go down the drain, as I am quite enjoying only having to pay £2 extra a month for TV and Phone, saving me £11 that I don't have to pay to BT, and another £20 I don't have to pay to Sky.
Judging from the comments on here, looks like I am the exception rather than the rule! (story of my life)
Mine's the one with the Tiscali bill in one pocket and the £29 pound I am now saving every month in the other
I've had two 'dial-up' accounts with Lineone, now Tiscali, that date back to me using them for dial-up on my Dreamcast and Psion Series 5 (Lineone had a virtual ISP called psion.net that Psion recommended) back in the late 90's. It'd cause me some disruption to lose the POP email addresses associated with these accounts. There has seldom been any problem on these email accounts in 11 years, so I can't really complain about Tiscali.
I suppose that I should use this as a warning and switch email accounts for me and the wife around now as these addresses were never guaranteed, and I pay precisely sod all for them as I've had DSL with Zen for 7 years.
The danger to the BT network is quite high, IE lightning down the power cables at your site jumps over the phone system and pass's down to 2 exchanges killing them both off(unlikely i know being an ex CSE) but still it could happen and they must charge a pretty penny for it to be honest...
The other way is microwave link or fibre.
I finally left Nildram a couple of months ago after being with them since they were good (i.e. pre-Pipex), and I'm with Be now. They're so much better it's unbelievable... Good online control panel that lets you choose speed vs reliability, fast (16Mbit - really, most of the time), a good IRC channel and forum for support, good phone support and best of all, cheaper.
Can't really think why I stuck it out with Nildram for so long...
Of course, Be could easily go down hill, but I'm enjoying it right now...
Always had a great service and connection from Tiscali, and the free international landline calls 24/7 suits me (and my Australian girlfriend) just fine.
It makes me wonder how many people have got bad service compared to ones that get good service from them.. I've heard some real horror stories about them.
Myself included. Been with Nildram for donkey's years (5+) and never had a single problem - and no outages that were their fault (rather BT). And they've never tried capping my transfer either, or doing funky things with BitTorrent traffic, etc.
Let's hope they get bought up by someone else. Quite happy for Tiscali to go down the pan - used to be with them for dial-up and they were rubbish. Just hope they don't take Nildram down with them...
Not least because I don't want to have to teach my folks to use a new email address...
Good heavens - what nonsense. A single lightening strike will just happen to kill two exchanges by hitting one customer site? Well, if lightening strikes at customer sites were causing so much trouble, then it would be happening all over the place. As it is, quite apart from the basic phsyics problem of getting very high current flows down several km of thin copper, the termination at the exchange is quite well protected, and any surge that did happen would be limited to the affected line cards.
The real reason that single properties will not generally be connected to two different exchanges will simply be one of cost and configurations. Telephone networks have historically grown out from exchanges, and the ducting, copper loop, and configuration systems will be laid out that way. Also, systems and support arrangements are likely to be organised along geographical lines.
Should you have sufficient money, then any telecoms provider is going to be happy enough to provide diversely routed communications connections, but it will be expensive. Generally a gaim for the big boys. Very large data centres, large call centres and so on might have this - not medium sized companies.
Provided you can get it a 3G card in your server an a limit to services that use it (SMTP collector on limited attachment size) is a reasonable contingency plan for a micro business. Many people would find it hard to get dual redundant lines int their office (PS JCB is a trademark although in the dictionary as a digger see PSION and net book issue, other types of mechanical digger should also be considered)
I am deeply moved by this. Who would have thought a crap ISP whose sole selling point is that they are really cheap would have run into trouble considering how tight the average UK broadband punter is with their cash?
Another pile crap high, sell crap cheap ISP, the biggest of the lot could be going, fantastic.
Sorry to all those people who might find themselves having to pay more for broadband internet and telephone than 4 pints in a London local now.
"Paris - Well even she has enough brain-cells to steer clear of tiscali as an ISP."
Quite, but do you have the brain cells to come up with an incredibly witty and funny Paris Hilton remark and complete the caper by remembering to actually select the icon before submitting?
You, sir, are Milhouse.
Like many here, I was with LineOne in the DialUp days, Tiscali bought them and killed them.
I was with Pipex BB, no complaints, I even took out a second 12 month contract to get my monthy fee reduced by £5, then Tiscali came along and slashed my 8Mb speed to 300k.
At least now I'll be able to waltz away from my 'contract'.
Another very satisfied long-term customer here. I haven't detected any degradation in service and the help desk (last time I needed them, which was last year due to a BT problem) are still the same charming, intelligent, helpful folks in Aylesbury.
I wonder if Adrian Mardlin (yes really) would be interested in buying them back?
At least I have a mobile phone.
OK, BT still provide the physical line, but what do I do it Tiscali collapse? I get a good dealon Interent and phone calls.
I don't depend on a Tiscali email address. but getting at my email will be tricky.
I suppose Ofcom will be in chocolate teapot mode.
Duh - landline to your local BT exchange and microwave to another carrier's site.
I know the UK is behind the times in many ways, but if we can manage this here in NZ without difficulty then surely at least some primitive form redundancy and diversity is achieveable over there.
.. people who, like me have had an absolutely flawless service from them. My 8Mbit connection actually is 8Mbit, and regularly achieves the appropriate real life download speeds, even in the evening. It seems reliable too...
To the person who reckons I should get my head looked at, I suggest that, like all ISPs / exchanges / phonelines / usage, there are good stories and bad stories. I chose Tiscali because I passionately hate BT, as every interaction with them is painful, expensive and drawn out.
Broadband and phone for £15 - BT charge you £10 a month (soon to be £11 I note) just for the phone. Reckon I've saved at least a fiver a month (more like a tenner for an unlimited connection) for the last 2 years...
Jumped ship from Tiscali to PLUSNET Pro package just before christmas, alleluya, what a difference a decent ISP makes. I was getting around 2.5meg download maximum and less during peak times, now I get a rock solid 4.5meg download and I'm over 2 mines from the exchange.
All those who are happy with Tiscali, you're fooling yourselves, jump, and jump NOW !
Anyone see The Gadget Show yesterday? They gave a very favourable recommendation regarding Tiscali's phone and broadband package. Red faces all round there then me thinks, don't these people do any sort of research other than listen to the corporate drivel that they spout. Trouble is a lot of people will be under the impression that the presenters actually know wtf they are talking about.
Difficult to feel any sympathy for the corporate entity - I used to have F2s as an ISP - it was bought by Pipex and started to fall apart - but it was striking just how fast the service went downhill once Tiscali got involved. I bailed out as Tiscali bought Pipex. I guess as Wall Street found out the world is beginning to run out of idiots to buy crap products.
I've been recommending KeConnect to my customers for years and they are superb. Constantly No.1 on www.thinkbroadband.co.uk for speed, reliability and customer service.
They do packages from £9.99/m but most of my customers go for the £19.99/m package. If you want something dirt cheap, then look elsewhere and give them a miss, but if you want to avoid another Tiscali then they're the one in my upinion.
You can migrate fast and free to them once you've got a MAC from Tiscali. Enter it here: https://signup.keme.net?ref=BROCO and you'll be with a company who won't let you down and will give you the best customer service you've ever experienced.
KeConnect are extremely overpriced for the service they offer imo
http://www.keconnect.co.uk/products/residential/broadband/
While the thinkbroadband comparison you comment on is very misleading as they have only an average of 43 ratings while the majority have many hundreds or thousands. You must be a major share holder or an employee to recommend such a vastly over priced service, up to 8Mbs 10 GB usage allowance and charged @ £2.18 for every 1GB over the Fup is extortionate.
"Wall Street found out the world is beginning to run out of idiots to buy crap products."
Oh God! Let's hope so! I, like many here, have seen the service go down the pan as soon as 'Tiscrappy took over. I had an F2S broadband account and it started off great, but when taken over, the service went rapidly downhill. Our business had a Nildram account which was brilliant until they were taken over, and their service went "crappy". 'Tis-certainly-crappy.
I'm a distributor and customer with the Utility Warehouse discount club, I can recommend them and generally do on a regular basis (kinda the whole point of the distributor thing really). 'course, I don't s'pose El Reg likes people spamming the comments section with affiliate links and things, so I will resist the urge :-(
Paris, 'cos she could do with resisting the occasional urge.
Despite my best intentions to resist marketing urges, I see Mr Rogers' affiliate link made it through moderation and have therefore decided to abandon all urge resistance forthwith. Therefore -
If you're with tiscali (or any other ISP) and you'd like to have an internet connection with a company that prides itself on customer service (94% of respondents in a recent customer survey say they'd be glad to recommend the service to others, excellent reports in a consumer magazine that i'm not allowed to name (bah!), UK call centre that answered 90% of support calls last year within 15 seconds) then you could do worse than checking out http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/C13976
oh, you can get 5% off your shopping in bunch of high street stores as well.
/end marketting blurb.
sorry, had to get it out of my system :-)
mine's the one with the 'utility warehouse authorised distributor' logo.