Please help a ADSL Broadband clueless newbie

[fuzzybee]

I'm finally made a decision to upgrade from AOL dialup, i know many people regard AOL as a ****e way to surf the net but to be honest i don't have many complaints.

So i have shortlisted either going with AOL broadband for the easy option more for the missus as she says shes happy with AOL and knows how to use it or should i go with PIPEX.
Both are available in my area but strangely not BT broadband ??
I would have no download limit with both options of AOL broadband Gold (?24.99 pm) or PIPEX Solo 500 (?23.44 pm)
Both offer free setup and modem etc but you get a free mcfee firewall protection with AOL, is this something i should consider.

Does anybody have either and whats your view on them

[VR46]

I personally have NTL, I know people with Pipex who have never had any problems and really rate their service, if I was in your shoes I'd go for Pipex.

[mid]

Have AOL fixed the problem that they were the one ISP in the country that XBox Live didn't work with yet?

[Treble]

I use Pipex, and have no complaints whatsoever. I haven't looked into the T's and C's about download limits though (I don't download much at all -- the odd gaming vid, not really anything else), so you might want to see what the deal is with both of them.

I went for the (I think) Pipex Xtreme Solo, where you provide your own kit (filter, router etc.), but they enable the line for free, and it costs about ?20.44 a month, iirc.

[Ginger Tosser]

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/

For all ADSL info you could look here

[Siri]

Have AOL fixed the problem that they were the one ISP in the country that XBox Live didn't work with yet?

They have with AOL broadband, but only on the Gold and Platinum ranges. but they're 512k and 1mb, which are the only sensible options for Live anyway, I would think.

That and there's little ways of making those services dial up without connecting through that **** browser, as well as AOL providing their own little dial up program. I'm on AOL Gold at the moment, and it's not at all bad, especially with these new dial-up features - only problem is that my BT line has a fault, which makes it search and initiallise the ADSL line every, ooh, 15 minutes? but that's another story altogether

[charlaph]

I've just ordered 512k via Pipex, based on personal recommendations from several people who are fairly high users of broadband and all say they haven't had any problems with Pipex, as opposed to several poor reports of AOL on the forums of adslguide.org.

Now I wait and see how everything goes.

[Magnakai]

I'm with AOL dial-up at the moment, and I too have very few complaints, other than they seem completely inable to get it working properly on my mum's mac.

I too have just ordered Pipex. I was leaning towards Nildram, but now that Pipex bought them out, I can't see any point.