Broadband Related > ISPs

Zen or IDNet (simple version!)

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Pirran:
Hi All

I am new to the forum and to be frank I am unlikely to spend much time here as I don't have a particular interest in IT, however as a member of various other niche forums I am sure there are many knowledgeable and experienced people here and I'd be most grateful for your advice.

I have been living overseas for almost a decade, and am now moving back to the UK. I need to set up a fibre connection at home and have done some homework on ISPs, whittling the shortlist down to Zen or IDnet as being the best at a reasonable, albeit premium, rate. Today I called both to ask a few Qs, and to me they seem very similar in terms of speed, traffic management, connection time, price, etc. As mentioned I don't have a particular interest in IT, and my understanding of detailed IT technology is limited, so whilst I have browsed some of the Zen vs IDnet threads on here, to be honest I can't really understand all the talk of single thread performance, latency etc, so can't really make an informed final choice.

Zen is slightly more expensive per month/year than IDnet, but this may be offset by the free Fritzbox 3490 modem/router vs having to buy one for IDnet. So I guess my questions are:

1. Does either of these two offer a discernibly better service/connection than the other?

2. Is the free fritzbox good enough (don't like the look of it, but reading reviews it seems to be fairly well rated), or is the c. 100 quid TP Link VR600 from IDnet worth paying for (or maybe I shouldn't even consider routers when deciding an ISP?).

3. Overall, which one should I go for? As I am not an IT professional or gamer I imagine that I'll be perfectly happy with either, as they both seem to get generally good reviews and comments regarding speed and reliability, but since I have the choice, I may as well make the best decision I can!

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice.
Pirran

NEXUS2345:
I have been on  BTW ADSL2+ with Zen for just over 18 months and have been extremely satisfied so far. I am at the moment seeing ping spikes in a game at around 22:00-23:00 hours, but I believe this is either the games network or something local to me.

In terms of the router, I can't be sure, but what I will say is they certainly changed, because they used to only offer the ZyXEL VMG-1312 for free.

jaydub:

--- Quote from: NEXUS2345 on April 21, 2017, 01:38:01 AM ---I have been on  BTW ADSL2+ with Zen for just over 18 months and have been extremely satisfied so far. I am at the moment seeing ping spikes in a game at around 22:00-23:00 hours, but I believe this is either the games network or something local to me.

In terms of the router, I can't be sure, but what I will say is they certainly changed, because they used to only offer the ZyXEL VMG-1312 for free.

--- End quote ---

Just checked out the Zen web site and the Fritzbox is now the free option on migration.

I wonder whether they were having issues with the VMG1312 or have just run out of them.

That's a pretty amazing offer from Zen: a £138 router for free.  Just a bit of a shame about the Lantiq chipset.

Pirran:
Thanks guys. What's a Lantiq chipset?

Any other experiences/ recommendations between these two companies? I am still struggling to decide which to go for!

cheers

Pirran:
......just checked the numbers and the additional outlay on the router for IDnet is offset by the lower prices over 3 years. It would seem a bit odd to me to select an ISP based purely on the router, but unless there is a particular bias to the service of one over the other I may end up dong just that......in which case, which is better, the fritz box or a TP link vr600?

cheers!

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