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[phi2008]

My Plusnet price rise e-mail has come through and since I've been having issues with my connection(that only occur on non-VPN connections) I've decided to switch ISPs and networks. TalkTalk residential have a bad reputation(I've used them before), TalkTalk Business however get great reviews on TrustPilot(7.9 out of 10) - it's really hard to get good scores on self-selecting user reviews.

The average cost over the 24 month contract works out pretty much exactly the same for me as Plusnet(if I need to leave early I can do so in the 2nd year for £125 early termination - or I presume penalty free if there is a price rise). Advantage over Plusnet is pretty much instant UK customer service, no long waits on the phone or in chat - I've also been impressed by their helpfulness when I've spoken to them about the odd issue.

So ... now tell me why this is a terrible idea and why I should select somebody else? 

[les-70]

   They are not too bad and if you use its features the "complete" package is very good value.  You get through to UK support quickly and the support people mostly seem to know their stuff but to be limited in what they can do without going to a higher level.  I had some evening congestion once for about 3 weeks but it was accepted as fault straight away and after a few weeks fixed. 

   There are two drawbacks in my opinion. 

  1. They provision on standard and not fast profile and won't change you to the other.

  2. You go to full metallic path to their equipment which is fine apart from making later moves to other ISP's potentially more troublesome.

[jid]

I know of two businesses with TalkTalk Business broadband - both Fibre 76meg.

No issues with either, but as Les mentions they do fully  take over the line, so moving away is a little more of a challenge than a BT Wholesale provisioned line.

[LinuxPhil]

I have been a TalkTalk Business customer for some time. I originally subscribed to Freedom2Surf (F2S) ADSL Broadband back in 2004 and was migrated to TalkTalk Business when F2S was taken over and have been with them ever since.

I recently upgraded from ADSL to the Fibre Complete package and also transferred my line rental and telephony package at the same time. The overall cost is comparable to what I was previously paying for broadband, line rental and calls.

My house is right next to the cabinet (estimated line length <100m) and I achieve ~74mbit download and ~19mbit upload speeds as reported by speedtest.net, which I assume is as good as it gets.

In all the years I've been with them, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had issues. I had an ADSL modem die after a lightning strike around 10 years ago (not their fault), and once service died for 24-48h due to equipment failure at the local exchange, so I've not really had much occasion to contact their customer support. The service has otherwise (touch wood) been very reliable with excellent uptime.

For me there were a couple factors that massively influenced my decision who to take a fibre package from:

1. I run a server from home so needed a fixed IP address (Fibre Complete gives me 4 fixed IPs) with no blocked services.
2. I see absolutely no point having a fast package with usage limits, so I wanted an unlimited package.

After I purchased my upgrade to fibre I had to converse with their support dept to update the rDNS on my IP, which after a few emails back and forth their DNS dept was able to resolve for me. It took a couple days to sort out as they confirmed my identity and gathered the necessary information from me, but I always felt like the situation was progressing and they knew what I was requesting and what they were doing. Overall I was satisfied with the service as I had not expected that particular task to necessarily be straightforward.

TalkTalk Business are currently supplying a Huawei HG635 SuperRouter which should be OK for most home/small office users. It seems stable and fast in my experience and the wireless is more than adequate. It handles port forwarding. My only gripe was the firewall, which although adequate for most SOHO users did not give me the flexibility I was looking for so I chose to add a separate firewall box to my setup.

If you have any specific questions regarding the service, please feel free to ask and I'll be happy to share anything I know.

[phi2008]

I assume the connection is just DHCP(as opposed to PPPoE) the same as TalkTalk residential? I'll just be using my pfSense router rather than anything they supply.

[burakkucat]

I assume the connection is just DHCP(as opposed to PPPoE) the same as TalkTalk residential?

It is still the Openreach G.993.2 (VDSL2) service, using a tagged VLAN (101), between the modem (or modem/router) and cabinet based DSLAM.

If one was to connect just a modem to the incoming pair, a device that provides a PPPoE client would then be required to establish the higher level link to the CP/ISP.

My understanding of LinuxPhil's set-up is that he is using the CP/ISP supplied modem/router (a Huawei HG635) which takes care of everything, with all the required ports in the firewall open. That HG635 modem/router is then followed by a separate firewall box. (Of course one can easily get into a double-NAT type situation with such a set-up.)

[phi2008]

I'm probably missing something in your reply ... with TalkTalk residential you simply plug your router into the Openreach modem using DHCP as opposed to PPPoE, like a standard LAN.

EDIT:

Looks like TT Business probably does not use DHCP. Pulse8 who I believe resell TT Business, do use standard PPPoE IIRC.

[les-70]

If one was to connect just a modem to the incoming pair, a device that provides a PPPoE client would then be required to establish the higher level link to the CP/ISP.

 This is correct with a separate modem the connection to the router is PPoE. I was not impressed with the HG635 itself.  Modem was normal BCM63168 performance but wireless was mediocre.

[LinuxPhil]

It is still the Openreach G.993.2 (VDSL2) service, using a tagged VLAN (101), between the modem (or modem/router) and cabinet based DSLAM.

If one was to connect just a modem to the incoming pair, a device that provides a PPPoE client would then be required to establish the higher level link to the CP/ISP.

My understanding of LinuxPhil's set-up is that he is using the CP/ISP supplied modem/router (a Huawei HG635) which takes care of everything, with all the required ports in the firewall open. That HG635 modem/router is then followed by a separate firewall box. (Of course one can easily get into a double-NAT type situation with such a set-up.)

Correct. For ease of use, I just set up my firewall box on a separate subnet after the TT SuperRouter so am indeed doing the dreaded double NAT. That said, it works for me.

My firewall box (Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite) is capable of acting as a PPPoE client, but from what I've read (on the TT community forums) some have had difficulty getting the TT HG635 SuperRouter to work in bridged mode. I don't think it helps matters that some TT users are describing TT residential setups whereas others are on TT business but they often don't differentiate this fact.

[tickmike]

On my HG612 I have turned off the firewall, can you not do that on your HG635 ?.
I use the Hardware firewall / router  (smoothwall) so I do not 'double-NAT' 

[psychopomp1]

Another happy TalkTalk Business customer here. Been with them a good few years now, get rock solid 75/19 mbps speeds on FTTC 24/7 with no congestion at peak times.  Any issues have been satisfactorily dealt with by their Warrington based telephone support....many of whom are ex-Zen staff.

They also offer a very nifty smartphone app which allows you to use your landline calling plan on your mobile (using mobile data or wifi) and this works well on my iphone 6. As I have the 'complete' TTB package, i can make calls to UK landlines and mobiles from abroad free of charge, this must have saved me a small fortune.

Not really a fan of ISP supplied routers so using a HG612 VDSL2 modem hooked up to a Linksys EA8500 router running DD-WRT firmware and this works like a dream.

[Weaver]

I presume that TT Business can't be rubbish because Andrews and Arnold resell their services a lot, pretty much wherever they can in preference to BT unless they have no choice or where they want to offer a customer service from two simultaneous different providers to get improved reliability through diversity.

[burakkucat]

I presume that TT Business can't be rubbish . . .

Indeed. The TT Business service is quite highly rated.