Zen or Pipe X ?

[007]

Right, i'm on Zen. Paying some silly amount of ?23 a month plus VAT. I was talking to some guy in comet the other day, and he really recomended Pipe X. He said he was getting silly download and upload speeds. Where as mine drag along quite alot at times.

What do you think? Any experiances of Pipe X?

I think I can get the 1mb for the same price of what i'm getting with Zen.

Originally I was told to go for Zen instead of Pipe X. But i'm not sure now after looking at the prices.

Cheers

Scott

[Ravon]

Ask Chad, hes on pipex.. from what he's told me there very good , only downside i have heard is that there help desk is wank

[Ginger Tosser]

I sure the prices will come down in time, i'd say if your happy with zen and what they offer (email etc) then for the sake of a few quid its probably not worth moving. Can you get 1mb on your exchange?

[007]

Well, I don't even use the Zen email. I haven't been on the Zen site for months.

For the same price, 1mb seems pretty tasty. Is there a chance I can't get it though? Where can I check?

[superkully]

Go pipex. Techies really do know what they're talking about and always friendly.

[Ginger Tosser]

Most ISP site will have a checker, i think they all link to the same BT site. Zens one is here

[df0notfound]

i use pipex, pretty decent I've found and the helpdesk managed to help my dad set it up after the computer got wiped and I was at uni so couldnt do the settings for him. Surprising thing is they managed to get it running even though we have the stupidest modem ever (you have to press alt+p and alt+a or some crap to get in to its actual settings)

[Firsty]

Pipex are great.
I found their helpdesk very good, and they keep the service status very up to date. They'll also work on problems very quickly if something ever comes up. I've had it since October and there has only been one outage. However it was planned for maintenance and happened when I was sleeping, so that's all good.

[Spatial]

Another vote here for Pipex.

The connection I have has been really great, no downtime so far and really great connection speeds.

They're customer service is pretty crappy in my limited experience although I've only had dealings with them regarding my initial order via e-mail. As in most cases I'm sure if you ring them up they're a bit better.

[ascender]

Another vote for Pipex.

[Zed]

I'm with Pipex too - connection seems fine-good, customer support is good when you can get through (as in quality of answers), but they never answer emails, and 10-30mins waits on the telephone is not on.

I dont know if they are any cheaper, but compared to mates on other providers i think i get much better uptime!

[Taurine]

Static IP!

I'm not sure how useful these things are in this day and age, but back in the day a static IP was like the holy grail. Maybe its not like that anymore because its so uncommon...

Anyway, Zen give you a static IP for free. Last time I looked Pipex charged an extra ?5 a month. The other cool thing about Zen is they have a minimum contract of 1 month. A lot of companies (don't know about Pipex though - Demon are bad for this one) make you sign a contract to use their service for a year - if you don't like their service you have to pay the rest of the year's fees to get disconnected!

Anyway, I'm a satisfied Zen customer. I haven't experienced slow downloads at all. Given that ADSL is a contended service you might be sharing your local line with up to 49 other people, and I don't think moving to Pipex wouldn't change that. But that doesn't seem very common, maybe if you live in a dense urban area like London its more likely?

You will get much better information and advice at http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ where you can read about other peoples' experiences in the extensive forums, and also check the speed ratings of all the ISPs, worked out through thousands of people each month running a speed check via that website.

[gIzzE]

I have both, Zen is definitely better, Pipex can slow down a little in the evening whereas it never does with Zen (didn't realise till I had Zen mind you).
You can get 8 static ips with Zen for the same money as 1, do you need them though??
I would rather have 512k with Zen than 1mb with Pipex, because I am no longer a leaching whore But if you are pulling stuff down all day you may be better with a 1mb Pipex connection.

At the end of the day do you need static IP's ? Yes = Zen
Do you use your connection for surfing or Leaching ****? if leaching then get 1mb Pipex
?6 a month is not a great deal of money, but you have one of the best isp's out there and I think you would notice the difference if you went backwards.