hi everyone, can anybody recommend a reliable broadband service here in shrewsbury? thanks

I use virgin and pay £17.99 for up to 8Mbps download speed, no contract and starts at £14.99 per month although I pay £17.99 to get the faster speed. Mine was up and running after about a week, no problems with it at all. Your distance from the exchange determines what speed you get and they do a survey without having to visit you and before you pay anything!

Regards

Michael

I've been with Virgin for some time and find it ok. You can get a 1Mb connection now with a 3Gb/month download limit for £9.99 if you don't mind being tied into a 12 month contract. If you go to www.dslzone.net you can compare broadband providers. The site will tell you how far you are from the exchange and even what minimum speed you can expect on your line.

DONT use UK Online,i use Wanadoo now,no problems so far.

I am on the main Shrewsbury exchange and I have been on Tiscali for a few years now but recently I have been having problems with spam/scam emails flooding the tiscali mail system (i.e. sent to tiscali addresses other than my own) and that tiscali don't want to give me the 1MB connection that I pay for.

I started on 512KB connection but upgraded to 1MB and it was fine for a while but the speed dropped so I logged into my account and they said I have a 512KB connection not a 1MB that I pay for so off I go and upgrade to 1MB again and several weeks and multiple reboots of the router later and speed tests reveal that I am only on a 512KB connection when my tiscali account says I'm on a 1MB.

Tried to contact tiscali but they are all but useless so I had a look at BT Broadband and based on my phone number they claim to be able to offer me a 4.5MB connection so I am planning to jump the sinking ship that is tiscali and embrace the darkside of BT broadband in the next few weeks.

I have proper hosting for email and websites so hopefully it should be too difficult to switch.

Does anyone have any advice on switching providers?

I swapped from Pipex to Orange and the process was very smooth. I phoned Pipex for a mac code then called to register with Orange giving them the code.

It took a couple of weeks then one day I could not log in via Pipex, so I entered the Orange details and away I went.

The connection is a better speed than Pipex 2MB and as I have a mobile account with Orange I no longer have to pay for my broadband.

If you live in Sundorne, the exchange you are connected to will make a lot more difference to your broadband speed than your choice of service provider!

Check which exchange you're on. BT's website bt.com has a broadband speed checker which will tell you which exchange you are on and what your maximum broadband speed is likely to be.

If you live in Sundorne, your closest exchange is in Harlescott, close to the new Tesco's site. If your line is connected to there, you should expect at least 4.5 Mbps.

But you may find that your line is connected to the Shrewsbury exchange on Town Walls in the centre of town, which is a lot further away. As broadband speed rapidly diminishes with distance from the exchange, you may find that you are limited to a fairly slow maximum speed from this exchange.

However, if you phone BT to complain about this, and ask to be connected to Harlescott exchange, you will likely be told that it's not possible, and that it's not BT's policy to let you choose which exchange you are connected to! In which case, please write them a very stroppy letter!

Richard Mills