raden wrote:

Are you looking for a business type of contact hours and responses or
is domestic enough?

I just need a cheap and cheerful way to read emails for CET and access
the web

Generally avoiding the mass market big ISPs would be a way to get better
support, and especially steering well clear of things like TalkTalk.

I still use plusnet, and have often recommended them for that type of
use, in that they tick most of the boxes (24/7 support not on premium
rate and the support used is usually reasonably clued up), and the
packages they produced were quite good value etc. In a way they started
out a bit like Demon of old. Having said that I usually use POP3 email
boxes bought externally (from pipex ultimately).

However they have had a number of technology stuff ups in the recent
year and also support responsiveness fell of a bit which will have put
some off. They have just revamped their package range and deleted the
PAYG one that was particularly attractive to more serious users. They
were also recently bought by BT, which may mean they can invest more or
it may mead they just get absorbed by the Borg, so I will reserve
judgement for a bit. They do still have business packages at reasonable
prices though.

The usual problem seems to be the smaller ISPs win in terms of support
and flexibility, start growing, but can't afford to invest enough in the
infrastructure and soon become attractive targets for acquisition by one
of the big boys. In the case of being bought by someone like Tiscali
that usually spells the end of any individuality they may have had as
they are just used to add numbers to the portfolio, and their staff etc
get replaced by call centres. Getting bought by BT however (so far at
least in the case of plusnet) do seem able to leave the bigger companies
acquired alone to trade on their own brand and merits.

Of the budget ISPs I have also heard a number of reasonable comments on
Madasafish...

(A difficulty you find when researching these things is that much of the
stuff written in "review" of ISPs is shaped by a particularly vocal
group of users who primarily want a way of slurping P2P video content
24/7, and hence are always bumping into the ISPs fair usage policies.
Needless to day if your needs are different it can be hard work getting
the info you need).

--
Cheers,

John.

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