Broadband Providers - some recommendations please!
Discussion
Hi, recently I've grown sick & tired of my blo*dy dial-up connection so I have decided to take the plunge & sign up for summat quicker, like.
I am not in a cable served area so my choice right now is limited to, erm, BT and that's it. Is it possible to get service form other companies? Has anyone any tips on stuff to avoid? Cost?
Much appreciated
I am not in a cable served area so my choice right now is limited to, erm, BT and that's it. Is it possible to get service form other companies? Has anyone any tips on stuff to avoid? Cost?
Much appreciated
An ex-colleague of mine has set up on his own and is reselling Broadband accounts through another ISP. The problem they have is that BT can offer free connection and cheap hardware that they just can't afford to match. They are £1 / month cheaper than BT but you can work out for yourself how long it takes to get back the £60 setup alone.
So, you may find BT is the best option.
It's not all bad news, though. I have been with BT for about 9 months now. It genuinely worked straight out of the box, and I've never had a single dropped connection, slow day or any other fault :temptsfate:
So, you may find BT is the best option.
It's not all bad news, though. I have been with BT for about 9 months now. It genuinely worked straight out of the box, and I've never had a single dropped connection, slow day or any other fault :temptsfate:
rsi1974 said:
I have AOL through BT its good so far, seems to clash with a couple of programs, but I find it easier to leave the said programs off my system and download as and when i wanna use them-dont take long...been BB for about 1 month now, its fab...
how much is it per month? did they charge you for the setup kit (line splitter etc) I think this is a bit much - £50 and they want my business!
Can we move this to the Computers Forum - If you only have one PC, most Broadband providers will supply an ADSL Modem and phone line filters either free or for a small cost. Some will also include free connection, other will charge a small amount. They also come with different contract lengths from 1 month to 12 months. Monthly cost vary as well for basic Broadband speeds of 512K, although Bulldog have a special offer on higher speeds.
For a full list of providers/costs/etc go a check out www.adslguide.org.uk
For a full list of providers/costs/etc go a check out www.adslguide.org.uk
A mate at work told me today that he had AOL and that they censor what you can browse quite heavily with their filters. Also i think i read elsewhere that if you have a problem with your ISP then they will have to go through BT as most people use a BT line and some people have been having problems getting an engineer to check their line?
I have recently installed BT broadband through BT openworld and have had no problems as yet apart from a half hour on the phone with a tech to reconfigure my outlook express 6 to accept broadband so it didn't keep disconnecting when i wanted to read my mail.
I have recently installed BT broadband through BT openworld and have had no problems as yet apart from a half hour on the phone with a tech to reconfigure my outlook express 6 to accept broadband so it didn't keep disconnecting when i wanted to read my mail.
Since it's BT you need to look at ADSL companies and decide which is the best for you, personally I went with BT because:
- with it's current offer (one month free) it's £6 cheaper than Freeserve
- 50mb of webspace
- if anything goes wrong you are direct to BT and it is faster to get it fixed.
- the free hardware for Freeserve only exists for upgrading users and was the USB anyway.
If I were you I'd follow me and get BT, very easy to do (assuming all goes well tommorrow - getting it installed then), it's on your credit card as well!
check out www.dslsource.co.uk & www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk for your hardware, cheaper and Ethernet versions over the flaky and potentially slower USB items sold by BT and other companies.
Stefan
- with it's current offer (one month free) it's £6 cheaper than Freeserve
- 50mb of webspace
- if anything goes wrong you are direct to BT and it is faster to get it fixed.
- the free hardware for Freeserve only exists for upgrading users and was the USB anyway.
If I were you I'd follow me and get BT, very easy to do (assuming all goes well tommorrow - getting it installed then), it's on your credit card as well!
check out www.dslsource.co.uk & www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk for your hardware, cheaper and Ethernet versions over the flaky and potentially slower USB items sold by BT and other companies.
Stefan
I use BT - BB at home. Mine is through the BT-Retail wing rather than openwoe. I think is something like £25 or £28 a month.
Difference between the retail option and "Openworld" is that I don't get the webspace, email addresses, junk mail and filtered content. All I get is a DHCP service with a fat pipe onto the web. Both mine and my wife's email is web-based, so I don't want or need to use something like outlook. I have my own firewall s/w, so the retail package suited me.
All broadband providers will end up back on BT's system somewhere. BT have the only publically available hardware.
Sheepy
Difference between the retail option and "Openworld" is that I don't get the webspace, email addresses, junk mail and filtered content. All I get is a DHCP service with a fat pipe onto the web. Both mine and my wife's email is web-based, so I don't want or need to use something like outlook. I have my own firewall s/w, so the retail package suited me.
All broadband providers will end up back on BT's system somewhere. BT have the only publically available hardware.
Sheepy
check out zenadsl www.zenadsl.co.uk/ mine has been permanenty connected with not a single minute of down time for over a year now
dontlift said:
check out zenadsl www.zenadsl.co.uk/ mine has been permanenty connected with not a single minute of down time for over a year now
Yep, I am with Zen also and they have been very good.
zen, nildram and bulldog are groovy. As sybaseian suggested look at adslguide.org.uk It's a great site. Good overview of the harware and the ISPs. If you do a bit of homework you probably won't go for a household name ISP. Frankly, there isn't much in it, but the smaller firms seem to offer better customer service.
I can't really fault BT for my broadband. There a little bit of a nightmare to get hold of at times, but who isnt these days...
The only problems I had was with the cheapy USB modem they supplied with the package. It kept randomly dropping the line, ditched that and brought a nice netgear one and all is fine
The only problems I had was with the cheapy USB modem they supplied with the package. It kept randomly dropping the line, ditched that and brought a nice netgear one and all is fine
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