Happy with IDnet. However interested in Xilo, can anybody fill me in with the pluses and minuses? Honest replies would be appreciated. On a stagnant rural exchange that will not change for the foreseeable future. ;)
The best person would be Dorset, but he hasn't been around for a while. You could try and PM him.
Quote from: Glenn on Apr 04, 2011, 19:16:05
The best person would be Dorset, but he hasn't been around for a while. You could try and PM him.
Thanks. ;)
The major downside for me for the full Xilo LLU product is currently the lack of phone airtime packages.
I tried to help someone on their forum with that and recommended IDNet and got booted without warning.
Not a company I want to do business with.
Also their registered office is a company that provides registered office services for companies so wonder what they are hiding.
Quote from: pctech on Apr 04, 2011, 19:33:52
I tried to help someone on their forum with that and recommended IDNet and got booted without warning.
Not a company I want to do business with.
Also their registered office is a company that provides registered office services for companies so wonder what they are hiding.
I found I think it was matt really helpful when i chatted with him, same as Steve though, no phone pacakge so thats a no go, Xilo seem to get good ratings from people from what I have seen if you want to go full LLU.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/reviews/726/reviews.html
Quote from: pctech on Apr 04, 2011, 19:33:52
I tried to help someone on their forum with that and recommended IDNet and got booted without warning.
Not a company I want to do business with.
Also their registered office is a company that provides registered office services for companies so wonder what they are hiding.
Maybe they use registered office services themselves, they are a reseller not a full blown ISP as such.
I was with Xilo (Opal LLU) for just under a year and beside a few initial teething issues, which were caused by Opal and quickly resolved, the service was rock solid. The support is fantastic and I have received responses to my to tickets on weekends and late at night within minutes. They have a few staff it seems as Tom usually replies at night and have a female staff member working the billing department.
The only reason I left was due to them not offering call packages and Sky had enabled my exchange. Sky was absolute rubbish though and didn't even manage to get me connected after a number of weeks downtime so I moved back to IDNet as the exchange now has 21CN WBC.
We recently switched to Xilo's LLU Talk PRO 50 package, and so far are quite pleased with the choice. Our internet connection is now much more stable, also several times faster than was ever possible with IDNet, and this at half the price IDNet used to charge us. We used to have frequent internet connection problems and/or slowdowns while with IDNet, probably because of its usage of the unreliable BT 20CN network, which IDNet never managed to resolve. We don't have any of these issues on Xilo's CPW LLU.
Having said that, switching to LLU probably only makes sense on shorter landlines, like ours, in order to get the full increase in speed, and things might be different on BT 21CN networks, though BTs dreaded IPProfile still applies on 21CN, too.
Quote from: pctech on Apr 04, 2011, 19:33:52
I tried to help someone on their forum with that and recommended IDNet and got booted without warning.
and you are surprised? The forum rules do not allow the promotion of other ISP's.
QuoteNot a company I want to do business with.
They have been around providing hosting services for many years and have plenty of satisfiied customers. I have found them to provide a very honest,open and exemplary personal service.
QuoteAlso their registered office is a company that provides registered office services for companies so wonder what they are hiding.
As do 100,000's of other perfectly reputable companies, it's called a Registered Office.
Quote from: wdforte on Apr 04, 2011, 19:10:45
Happy with IDnet. However interested in Xilo, can anybody fill me in with the pluses and minuses? Honest replies would be appreciated. On a stagnant rural exchange that will not change for the foreseeable future. ;)
The packages at Xilo will change as the CPW/TT/Tiscali offerings are added to more exchanges, just keep checking what is available. Certainly phone packages are supposed to increasing.
There are full LLU and shared LLU as well as BT services available depending on what is in your exchange.
The service I have had has been superb, I have much better throughput with no lags at anytime even with big events like spots or royal weddings going on, the b/width package suits my needs better and the cost is very favourable. The one issue with 3 hours downtime was a lorry took out a fibre cable which was down to OpenReach to fix .
I think it's wrong that people are extolling the virtues of Xilo on this (Idnet) forum. It is not a reciprocal arrangement so should be stopped. :evil:
You raise an interesting point, Alf. If Xilo don't allow mention of their competitors, should we?
Quote from: cavillas on May 05, 2011, 16:07:34
I think it's wrong that people are extolling the virtues of Xilo on this (Idnet) forum. It is not a reciprocal arrangement so should be stopped. :evil:
Really? Then you had better also remove every thread about all the other ISP's and services that get made here on a regular basis ......... ;)
Lets see what happens when you stop all comment about Zen,Sky,BT,Plusnet,Virgin et al.
Peace will reign and we shall only allow posts praising IDNet. ;)
Quote from: Rik on May 05, 2011, 16:54:42
You raise an interesting point, Alf. If Xilo don't allow mention of their competitors, should we?
On the other hand, it's not a policy which reflects particularly favourably on them (imho).
In all seriousness, I agree, Bill. It seems defensive and petty.
The fact that Xilo censor mention of competitors as they did when I tried to help one of their members when they didn't offer landline services at that the time indicates a fear that their product is not competitive IMO.
At the time I was considering Xilo myself but that put me right off and made me think that they probably do not welcome opinion that does not praise them.
I'm happy with IDNet for my phone service and Zen for my broadband.
Quote from: pctech on May 05, 2011, 17:41:35
I'm happy with IDNet for my phone service and Zen for my broadband.
Were I to be unhappy with iDNet that's the way that I would go. I still think it's a pity that iDNet were unable to come up with an alternative supplier, so people could rid themselves of BTs DLM if they so wished.
Greater choice and iDNet's service would be a good offer if it could be made to work.
I wonder if it was just that the wholesale price was too high, I know that AAISP charge a lot more for a BE Wholesale line than they do for a BT one.
There's a difference between mentioning another ISP as part of a genuine enquiry or comparison, and blatant advertising. The latter, of course, we would frown upon. :)
Indeed
Quote from: pctech on May 05, 2011, 18:30:59I know that AAISP charge a lot more for a BE Wholesale line than they do for a BT one.
But then, for £26/month Goscomb Technologies will give you 60GB from BT or 200GB (and a higher upload speed) from Be :dunno:
http://www.goscomb.net/connectivity/broadband/consumer
Alwsyd thought AAISP was a tad expensive for what was being provided but then again I think they add a fair margin.
Quote from: pctech on May 05, 2011, 18:30:59
I wonder if it was just that the wholesale price was too high, I know that AAISP charge a lot more for a BE Wholesale line than they do for a BT one.
I suspect that was probably it, or the alternative supplier set a minimum number of subscribers before they would play. Impossible to forecast demand which would leave iDNet in a pickle if they did put money upfront and the anticipated number of subscribers failed to materialise. Given iDNet's prices are at the high end, albeit good value (IMHO), I doubt they could push them much further without offering more than they do currently.
Either way we'll never know :(
They can be competitive with the likes of IDNet, Zen etc if your usage pattern fits with their off-peak periods... mine doesn't so they're not!
We do know that IDNet have been investing in fibre, ethernet and more bandwidth, Tac, so I tend to agree with you. It's a very chicken and egg situation, I suspect, where the 'unit price' for a connection depends on the number of connections, so it's not only a financial risk, but it would be very hard to set up a tariff. It may well be that which makes AAISP's Be connections more expensive than their BT ones.
I did research setting up an ISP a few years back and stopped after I saw the price of BT Centrals.
No cheap, are they, Mitch. :o
Quote from: Rik on May 05, 2011, 19:10:29
No cheap, are they, Mitch. :o
Or always reliable for what you have to pay either.
Quote from: cavillas on May 05, 2011, 19:19:56
Or always reliable for what you have to pay either.
All the more reason to go LLU and get away from that equipment then ;)
Quote from: Rik on May 05, 2011, 18:59:10
We do know that IDNet have been investing in fibre, ethernet and more bandwidth, Tac, so I tend to agree with you.
One good thing about the investment in addtional capacity that Simon_iDNet referred to in a recent post is that it suggests the demand is there and the business is growing ;D
Quote from: Rik on May 05, 2011, 18:59:10
It's a very chicken and egg situation, I suspect, where the 'unit price' for a connection depends on the number of connections, so it's not only a financial risk, but it would be very hard to set up a tariff. It may well be that which makes AAISP's Be connections more expensive than their BT ones.
If (and of course we don't know), this was the case it would have been pretty near impossible for iDNet to make it stack up since there were too many imponderables. Maybe a risk worth taking if you have major financial backing, but not for a business like iDNet, especially if they are already committed to significant additional investment in their BT based operation.
Quote from: DorsetBoy on May 05, 2011, 19:28:31
All the more reason to go LLU and get away from that equipment then ;)
I looked at building my own too. But it involved lots more beer and stickytaped routers. :whistle:
Quote from: Technical Ben on May 07, 2011, 21:46:03
I looked at building my own too. But it involved lots more beer and stickytaped routers. :whistle:
A copy of most BT exchanges then ;D