Broadband - again

[froglet]

Buldog have been getting a lot of bad press recently:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/20/bulldog_measures/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/20/bulldog_asa/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/bulldog_ofcom/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/15/bulldog_logo/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/15/bulldog_ispa/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/14/ispa_bulldog/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/06/bulldog_asa/

Alf I don't personally use PlusNet but I have several friends who do and they are happy with the service.

Graeme

 

[trevtheturner]

I have used BT Openworld dial-up for a long while, with no problems whatsoever (apart from the slowness, which is obviously common to all on dial-up).

Broadband has recently become available in my area and I am looking at BT Yahoo! (better the devil you know, etc........) together with the BT Voyager 2100 router and the BT Voyager 1050 adaptor. This will be purely for personal use - no business use contemplated. I see that Tony uses the Voyager system (BT broadband as well, Tony?) and is happy with it.

I have often read: "Wouldn't have BT" or "Don't touch BT", etc. And of course similar comments about virtually every other brand - so I understand Alf's dilemma! I am in the same situation.

Is there any specific reason why BT might be considered not as good as the other brands or is it really just a matter of personal choice?

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[aldel]

Alf,

Over the past few years I have installed and set up the internet for a large number of people and so had the benefit of seeing and experiencing the Pros and Cons of a number of different suppliers. The long and short of it is that if you live in a large city then you do have a choice but remember that a large number of suppliers are using either a cable company (telewest in the South West) or are on a BT line. Telewest have no capping but I doubt that you have it where you are. So choose BT. If you do then check the amount of the capping for each tariff (its the total of both up and down traffic). Why go to another company when they are using BT broadband as the underlying supply. If you bust the capping you easily have the option of moving up to the next band. Don't over look that you get virus checking and anti spam with BT Yahoo broadband plus a USB ADSL modem/router which have no bad reports in the computing press.
Please, please do not even consider AOL which PC repairers find a nightmare as it spreads everywhere and is difficult to remove.
You get what you pay for and I have not come across another supplier that is so superior that they stand out as a "must have" others are OK-ish until you have a line problem or require support.
You will always find someone who has had a bad experience with a company but I recommend BT.

Regards, Aldel

 

[sxlalan]

I used to use PlusNet for dialup a couple of years ago and they were cheap, reliable and had great customer service (now there's a rare combination). Not sure what their broadband package is like though or if they have changed in since I left them (I get BB through work now so didn't need an independent provider)

Cheers

Alan

 

[Jake]

Alf,

Why go to another company when they are using BT broadband as the underlying supply.l

Because BT's retail packages are overpriced

 

[beech1948]

Alf,

I have no idea what you want to spend. If your like me I want it free or below £5 andf I want it now. So much for dreams.

I have had a BT BUSINESS ADSL line now for 4 yrs and recently upgraded to 2Mb bandwidth for free. Contention ration 1:30

Problems: ZERO
Tech issues: 5. All resolved with free tech support 24/7 in less than 20 minutes. Note all tech issues were due to changes in settings caused by other software.

Price £29.99. Its expensive I know BUT it just works. You too can have a business strength ADSL from BT.

I have ignored BT Yahoo as its too restictive for my use due to caps and contention ratio of 1:50.

Despite other groans about Auntie BT I have found them to be supperb and to be recommended. They do after all own the network unlike the rest of the suppliers who are just virtual network suppliers.

regards

Alan

 

[tim]

Alan

The only prob with your BT Business suggestion is the fact that you also need to have an existing BT business line.

If you don't, then you are required to convert to BT business before following this route. I was going to go this way until I read that bit in their T&Cs.

I'm most likely going to use Zen.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Alf]

Why go to another company when they are using BT broadband as the underlying supply.l

Because BT's retail packages are overpriced

Wot he said. The vibe I'm getting on BT is they're great for business, but not so hot for residential - which is what I am. And nope, we don't have cable out here in the sticks, and I've suffered under AOHell when I first went online so I know to steer clear of them. :shock: Ach, I'm coming round to the idea of just sticking a pin in a list and seeing which I hit... :lol: Although I have yet to find anyone saying anything serious against PlusNet, but many, er, pluses for their customer service, so I'm sort of tending towards them now. The irony of all this agonising is in all likelihood it'll turn out the bits of string looped between telegraph poles in these parts won't be up to the task anyway. :roll: As long as I don't get the Maxi equivalent in ISPs... [-o<

Cheers, Alf

 

[beech1948]

Alan

The only prob with your BT Business suggestion is the fact that you also need to have an existing BT business line.

I'm most likely going to use Zen.

Cheers

Tim

Tim,
I have a second domestic line which I use for my business..there was no compulsion to change to a busines line...but things change I guess...I have not heard this condition from BT.

 

[tombo]

Alf,

about 3 years ago i agonised over the choice of provider and after extensive research narrowed my choice to nildram or zen. In the end i picked Nildram and everything was great, but as i had so few problems i started to take that level of service for granted. So when UKonline announced 8mb coming to my area i jumped ship, BIG mistake. Eventually i complained enough and they let me out of the year contract and i have been back with Nildram for about a week..... bliss. Both nildram and zen were on the radar again because over that last 3 years they have consistently been rated well, i think that zen have a slightly better product but nildram are offering a half price 2meg deal if you sign up in july and that swung it for me. I have regularly (1-2 years) had good vibes about plusnet so you are probably ok with them.

I would also suggest some non obvious things to consider

• What are the payment arrangements many provider charge to your credit card each month. I want to treat my broadband like any other utility so direct debit is important to me
  
  if you share the connection/pc do you get separate email accounts, if not how are you going to deal with the separation of mail
  
  do they provide newsgroup access some dont and you cant read the 'wrec' ' great interest to us woodworkers
  
  do you need a static IP address

As to routers i have recommended the netgear to friends & family quite a few times, and none have bit me on the *** so i can say its a good choice. Though i am a bit of a masochist and hard cabled my whole house. When i did it wireless was still 1-2meg and expensive. Even today with 108meg mimo wireless routers available i would do it again but install even more!

Tom

 

[llangatwgnedd]

Thank God Im on cable.

Lot to choose from Alf, lot of Irons down drain if picked wrong ISP.

Best of luck anyway, you want look back at 56k.

SDP

 

[tim]

Alan

Quote from BT website:

Important: to order BT Business Broadband you must have a BT Business phone line. If you
need to change your current phone service to BT Business,* please do this before ordering
broadband. Tell us when you order that you require the line for broadband.

*Associated line installation, rental and call charges will apply.

I assume they realised it was a better deal for most domestic consumers so this is their way of reducing uptake.

Cheers

Tim

 

[dedee]

if you share the connection/pc do you get separate email accounts, if not how are you going to deal with the separation of mail

Tom, if one has broadband & is therefore always on line are separate email accounts really necessary? With gmail offering 2GB of email space and even Yahoo offering 1GB do the web based email services make the offer of x number of email accounts offered by broadband ISPs worthless?

Even on my dialup at home I now prefer to use gmail and yahoo rather than download potential dross into my PC with outlook.

Andy

 

[tombo]

Andy,

if gmail works for you then thats great, i personally value the control and speed that a pop/smtp gives me over my messages plus i am not a fan of webmail type interfaces. A shared pop account between my wife and myself would be a disaster, we tried that and she deleted all my important tool offers, so in revenge i deleted all her miss selfrige offers :twisted:. Much better now we have separate mail accounts. So far google seem to be acting honorably but as the service is free who knows which way the wind will blow in the future. Finally I am a netscape/mozilla user and know not of this outlook you speak :wink:

Tom

 

[dedee]

Tom,

Fair enough. Why are you not a fan of the webmail type interfaces? Is there something I should be aware of? I rather like the security of seeing who a mail is from before downloading it on to my PC which I see as the big advantage of web based mail.

I am by no means a heavy user - probably only about 10 mails a week (+ spam of course).

Andy

 

[Adam]

Andy,

if gmail works for you then thats great, i personally value the control and speed that a pop/smtp gives me over my messagesTom

Interetingly, I find Gmail faster than any other pop/smtp that I've ever come across. This is not the case with other webmails. Also, I find the web interface far more 'intuitive' on gmail than any other email/webmail system I've come across.

I've now given up with a "home" account altogether. I copied in the adress books to gmail, so haven't lost any contacts.

Adam

 

[cambournepete]

If you're worried about downloading dross emails then use something like mailwasher. I use it to blacklist all the spammers and it only downloads a little of the text of an email so you can see what it's about if you want, allowing you to download just those you want and delete those you don't want from the server without ever downloading any dodgy pictures and attachments to your PC. You have to turn off the automatic checking in outlook or whatever, but so what. It can wash multiple accounts as well, which is really useful. It's also reasonably cheap.

Highly recommended.

Pete

(edited to make a little clearer)

 

[tombo]

Andy,

web interfaces have certainly gotten better over the years, i'm using one now to compose this message. But it does not compare the rich environment that my mail client gives me in terms of managing attachments, spell checking, filtering formatting and use of screen real estate. I cant help that it bugs me for a 2 line message i may have to download a couple of hundred kilobytes, i know i must be getting old i still think in terms of a 9600 baud modem.

Tom

 

[Chris Knight]

Tom,
Don't be so sure. PM me your email address and I will send you a Google invite -- try it!

 

[tombo]

chris,

well i suppose, what have i got to lose... you have mail

Tom