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Author Topic: Alternatives to AAISP  (Read 5677 times)

Jon21

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Alternatives to AAISP
« on: September 20, 2018, 11:44:30 AM »

I’m just wondering what alternatives there are to AAISP? I’ve had no issues with A&A since joining them nearly 6 months ago but unfortunately, one of my part time jobs isn’t looking secure at the moment. This may lead to a reduction in income. I probably won’t know for definite for a couple of weeks. The minimum term with A&A finishes next month. I could drop down a tier on the quota system but that’s only going to save me £5 and it wouldn’t be enough of an allowance.

Things I’d like from a potential new ISP:
IPv6. Would seem a backwards step to go with anyone who isn’t providing that now.
Unlimited or a high data allowance
A uncongested network
Up to £45 a month

Uno, Zen, even Sky could be possibilities.

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dee.jay

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2018, 12:07:45 PM »

You could probably negotiate a deal with Sky on their FTTC.

They indeed provide IPv6
Unlimited
Uncongested network - well for me, I can start downloading at any time of day, and in the 6 years I've had FTTC with them, and 10 years I've had some form of connection with Sky, it's always worked at 100% of the line rate speed.
My Sky Fibre Pro has been discounted to £21 a month (£18.99 line rental) £40 a month all in.

However, customer service................. It'll be a vastly different world to AAISP as you are no doubt aware. However, they do fit the criteria.
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Starlink and AAISP L2TP combo routed by opnSense on proxmox

Weaver

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2018, 12:45:20 PM »

What about idnet? A clueful outfit.

I would also ask AA for suggestions. It can’t hurt. If you are happy with them you will save some money and be unhappy with someone else, you chose them for a reason. I know what it is like to need to economise, I haven’t worked in many years.

Useless point: One option that might very well make no sense at all is to use their L2TP service. That is something that I have occasionally thought about, but as I said propbably will make no sense for you.

Other things to cut out instead: [Sincere apologies since you have probably looked at all of these already] I cut out Sky satellite TV. That saved us a fortune. I could get rid of the TV license but my wife still watches normal TV over Freesat. What is the deal about line rental currently. Can you get rid of PSTN phone service if you have any and go VoIP with AA or go mobile only? I half-use AA VoIP, in the sense that I do not use it over DSL, AA redirects it to my wife’s mobile phone.

I currently use the traditional ‘units’ tariff, which has no limit. You just get charged for what you download by the byte and you prepurchase a certain amount of download ‘units’ of your choice at a cheaper rate, which is a slight money saver if you are sure you will download more than a certain amount. I always get it wrong and prepurchase too much thus wasting a small amount of money. All uploads are free. I can’t work out how it compares for cost with the new ::1 deals where you do have a download limit.
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Weaver

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2018, 12:59:05 PM »

Another thought: Burakkucat uses TalkTalk and is happy with them, and I think some of our users use TalkTalk Business. They are after all the wholesale carrier that AA uses for a large proportion of their own customers.

Techno people such as me love IPv6. It is after all slower than IPv4, yay. IPv6 could be added separately onto an IPv4-only ISP by the use of a tunnel: eg using AA’s L2TP service over eg TalkTalk or by getting a tunnel from Hurricane Electric. These tunnels free you from censorship, and an L2TP tunnel can even give you back real IPv4 address blocks freedom from NAT and so on. But it is all more hassle and the L2TP service costs money, thus defeating the point.

Really, really whacky idea: [I know it’s a stupid idea] share internet access with an incredibly friendly and trustworthy neighbour if such exists. Share costs. Could use a line of sight rf link, such as the 60GHz Mikrotik device in my recent post. Ubiquity do iirc do outside long range high quality rf kit. That way two or more neighbours could share costs, if the relationship makes it feasible. Can use firewalling and other technologies to keep users apart. (I already do such isolation: friends coming to stay can use the internet in my house but cannot talk to any of my own machines on the wired or wireless LAN. So there are various ways of keeping people separated, using very different methods.)



Final thought: Talk to other AA users on IRC. Use collective brainpower to attack the problem.
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jelv

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2018, 01:52:08 PM »

If you are on Home::1 and paying for more than the 200GB allowance have you looked at gaming the system to save money? If your monthly usage is less than 800GB it can be done.

You are free to swap between the 200GB, 300GB and 2TB every month if you want and you keep your quota bonus. The 300GB option is totally redundant as you can effectively have a 800GB allowance for an average of £7.50 over the cost of the basic 200GB Home::1.
 
This is how you do it:
  • Month 1 2TB package: Use 800GB which means you carry over 600GB (half the unused 1.2TB)
  • Month 2 200GB package: Starting allowance is 800GB and all is used
  • Month 3 back to 2TB and keep repeating.
AAISP have confirmed in a post on the TBB forums that this is acceptable.

You may find you can save even more if you need to only be on the 2TB package one month out of three if you have sufficient quota bonus carried over.
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Jon21

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2018, 02:04:31 PM »

If you are on Home::1 and paying for more than the 200GB allowance have you looked at gaming the system to save money? If your monthly usage is less than 800GB it can be done.

You are free to swap between the 200GB, 300GB and 2TB every month if you want and you keep your quota bonus. The 300GB option is totally redundant as you can effectively have a 800GB allowance for an average of £7.50 over the cost of the basic 200GB Home::1.
 
This is how you do it:
  • Month 1 2TB package: Use 800GB which means you carry over 600GB (half the unused 1.2TB)
  • Month 2 200GB package: Starting allowance is 800GB and all is used
  • Month 3 back to 2TB and keep repeating.
AAISP have confirmed in a post on the TBB forums that this is acceptable.

You may find you can save even more if you need to only be on the 2TB package one month out of three if you have sufficient quota bonus carried over.

I didn't realise that could be done. Most that has been used in a month is 304GB, which was August. For some reason, I thought more was being used. Currently have an allowance of just over 3TB, which would never be used in a month. Not quite sure why AAISP don't have say a 500/600GB tariff. As you say, the 300GB tariff seems pretty pointless.
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Weaver

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2018, 02:16:16 PM »

I asked on IRC and the consensus was ‘talk to AA’ and Sky and TalkTalk work.
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dee.jay

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2018, 03:15:42 PM »

I think if they changed the 300GB to 750GB that would be a good middle ground, seeing as they have scaled up the 1TB to 2TB, but, I don't have access to all their figures and data consumption across all subscribers. :)
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Starlink and AAISP L2TP combo routed by opnSense on proxmox

jelv

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2018, 03:52:48 PM »

@Jon21
Looks like you only need to be on 2TB one month in three.

https://aa.net.uk/broadband-regrade.html has instructions on how to change your tariff which (will come in to effect 1st October). I suggest you should change to 200GB now while you ponder your options as if you are going to migrate it won't go through before next month. You'll start next month with well over 1TB allowance!
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highpriest

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2018, 05:18:54 PM »

I'm with Zen and only have good things to say about them. Support is top-notch and their network is solid; I've not experienced any congestion in the ~9 months that I've been with them.

You get one static IPv4 and a /48 IPv6 prefix. I pay around £36 a month (via a deal advertised on The Big Deal) for unlimited 80/20 FTTC. No idea how much data we use but it's likely to be quite a lot (most Sky catch-up and Netflix, both in 4K where available). But hey, unlimited :thumbs:
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Zen | Zyxel VMG8324-B10A (with RFC4638 patch) | EdgeRouter PoE | UniFi AP AC Pro + Lite

Weaver

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2018, 06:22:22 PM »

I myself used Zen (adsl) as well as AA for a while, at a different site, but Zen did not have IPv6 back then and I was fed up with waiting for it, plus I only got a /29 IPv4 back then from Zen. AA basically won out because of being far more fully featured and the channel bonding was the thing that swung it. Zen was great though.
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Jon21

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2018, 07:18:08 PM »

Thanks for all the replies so far. At the very latest, I should know either way with regards to this particular job, by early November. This is when the new owners come in.

Out of interest, is there an up to date list of PoP’s for Zen? Samknows suggests that Zen don’t have  their network equipment at the local exchange but I believe it’s potentially out of date. I think they use TTB or BTW otherwise?

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j0hn

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2018, 07:44:22 PM »

Almost everything on SamKnows is out of date.
I don't think they even update their broadband coverage stuff now.

They concentrate on their white boxes now.

The zen broadband checker should tell you if you are "on net".
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jelv

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2018, 09:57:49 PM »

I stopped looking at SamDoesntKnow ages ago!
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sotonsam

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Re: Alternatives to AAISP
« Reply #14 on: September 21, 2018, 11:04:28 AM »

Have Sky stopped forcing people to use the Sky hub out of interest? That has always been one of the things which has put me off them, and any other ISP's which force their kit on you. I've got my own Zyexl device so all I will never need are the PPPoE info from ISP's, but it seems some are quite reluctant to give it out or are very confused at the request (I had a similar experience with Vodafone not so long ago) - I just remember Sky were always a little bit funny about using non-standard kit.
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