Broadband

[John]

Evening people,

I know NTL don't cover the area I live in, so I'm looking at alternative arrangements for Broadband installation for later on this year.

Apart from Telewest, Freeserve, Blueyonder, and any other 'main' ones, does anyone have any other Broadband connection that isn't so popular that they are really pleased with?

Appropriate links can be posted and I'll mod them when I view them.

Thanks!

[bigcumba]

At the moment I think Tiscali are doing a special offer on their 150K service for around £15 a month - you need the usual BT phone line for this one.

[bigcumba]

Just checked the website, it's £15.99 for 150K, £19.99 for 256K and £24.99 for 512K

www.tiscali.co.uk

[John]

Excellent, thanks mate, I'll look into what they have to offer. :)

[tophatter]

im with NTL so cant really offer much advise of any use to you S.J. but i find it amazing that the providers still have areas they dont cover (i tried to get B.T. before NTL but area wasnt covered) I know virgin.net do one but don't have personal experience of how it performs. Maybe there is an online website of one of the internet mags that rates them, i use to buy .net magazine and i know they used to have a monthly feature of the top 50 performers.

[John]

Tiscali are the best option for me so far I think. Freeserve and BT charge you an arm and a leg, and that's just for installation and modem costs! And Blueyonder is owned by Telewest. I'm still shopping around, so I'll have a look at Virgin.net

[John]

P.S. I also find it amazing that the major ones like NTL and BT don't cover certain places - I'd have thought for some people it would be a necessity almost.

[tophatter]

Just had a quick look and found a site called broadband-help.com. I think it is quite indepth because i cant understand half of it but has ratings and reviews of providers

[John]

Cheers mate, I'll have a look at that tomorrow when I have more time. :)

[Workshy]

I'm with Freeserve and havent had any problems.

They were I know recently offering free modem pack (was £79.99 when I got it)

[matthewluck]

Keep getting flyers in the post for NTL even though they dont cover my area!

Can nget BT broadband, got knocked on here in september - Is there any point in getting broadband if you have a crap old pc?

[John]

Absolutely matt, as it has more to do with the speed of your broadband package than the PC itself. Although having a fast processor and lots of RAM can help download speeds.

[Workshy]

Absolutely matt, as it has more to do with the speed of your broadband package than the PC itself. Although having a fast processor and lots of RAM can help download speeds.

If your browsing mainly then a lower standard pc wont hurt too much.

If your downloading (music, films, games etc etc) then obviously a decent size (40GB minimum in my eyes, I'm struggling on a 80GB!!!) hard drive is needed.

Also remember these modem packs/software have minimum specs that you'll need to look into.


More importantly, on a side note, clean out your rubbish bin and internet cache regular and de-frag every 2 weeks or so depending on your usage.
Its amazing how much difference this can make.

[ADIPaul]

Hi All,
New to this forum and noticed this thread. I have been with PlusNet for 3 months now and very pleased with my "Homestart" 512k connection. £25 p.mnth. and no probs.
Also, they scan all emails for viruses and a free firewall can be downloaded from the portal.

Try adslguide.org.uk to compare ISP's

TTFN,
Paul.

[rusko]

I use freedom2surf and no problems good help line only needed it once when i was setting it up. I think they scan e-mails for viruses and have found any. Its £22.50 a month and they do a package for the modem, although a bought my own. As i say no problems so far.

[John]

ADIPaul welcome to the forum. Is your package Broadband or ADSL?

Rusko, what speed do you get for £22.50 a month?

Thanks in advance.

[ADIPaul]

Hi SJ,

Broadband is just a general term for anything faster than the original 57k telephone connection. It includes cable and satellite connection.

ADSL is an upgrade of your telephone line at the local exchange. Not all exchanges can supply the upgrade yet and you need to be within certain distance of the exchange (1 or 2 miles - I'm not sure which).
I plumped for PlusNet after checking out the website www.adslguide.org.uk and doing some reading etc. It's a very useful site explaining all about broadband and has user comments, message boards and comparison tables.

Staff at PlusNet frequent the message boards and give help which impressed me.

Paul.

[John]

Thanks Paul, will have a closer look at it shortly.

Happy punting! :)

[ADIPaul]

PS. I've edited my last message 'cos I'm not normally up at this hour!!

[John]

Me neither, just doing some Australian Racing through insomnia...

[ADIPaul]

Yeah, I've been doing a bit of laying on there

[Win2Win]

The PlusNet banner is on the main page :)

I've used them for 2 years with no problems, and plenty of freebies in the service as well.

[rusko]

Its a 512k. Try the adslguide website for info, i found it extremly useful.

[John]

Keith,

I started the signup process for PlusNet just to see what's needed to buy, things seemed a bit pricey.....

512K Option @ £14.99, not sure how much bandwidth I'll need so I chose the lowest option (1Gb) that had no reflection on the price.

Then chose the USB Modem @ £44.99, followed by the one-off activation fee (monthly contract) at £70.50.... so that's £115 just for the setup.

Then I stopped as I don't want to actually sign up yet.

Is this how much broadband costs? I remember when we got NTL installed the setup and installation was free.

Thanks.

[sparkyminer]

I use Tiscali SJ @ 589.9 Kbps, never had a problem, I think they've just reduced the price as well.

[Win2Win]

Depends on what you want SJ. Plusnet offer an excellent reliable service, but the contract is on a per month basis, unlike the others which lock you into a 12 monthly contract, and throw in a cheap modem, and are only 1GB monthly download. Read the small print, as after that it is usually £2.50 per GB extra.

Plusnet puts everything upfront, and you order what you want, and if you need to switch to higher bandwidth it's easy.

If you use the yearly option they waive the activation, and you can pick up a modem from Dabs for around £20.

[John]

Brilliant, cheers Keith.

[rogsrogan]

All,
seen an advertisment by www.getbroadbandanywhere.co.uk. Total set of package is 129.99 plus 35 quid set up fee. You can then choose the package you want, the best deal at the moment is 2MB/s for 19.99 a month. Only draw back is you need to have a normal dial up connection for your URL's. The costs work out as:

129.99 Equipment such as dish, modem, LNB, coax
35.00 One off connection fee
20.00 A month thereafter
10.00 Cheap internet provider using normal dial up


164.99/12 = 13.75 a month over a year for first Year

13.75+20+10 = 43.75 a month for the first Year thereafter 30 a month and thats for 2Mb/s downlink

I have been onto all of the review sites and the customer support is excellent. Also the satellite E-Bird 33 deg East has recently been launched and is purely for broadband satellite. Definatly worth a look at, and no I don't work for the company just want to pass on what seems a great deal

Regards,

Rogs

[Win2Win]

The problem with satellites, and always will be, is available bandwidth. I doubt you are allowed unlimited downloads a month, as the satellite wouldn't be able to cope, each company using it is set a quota per month that is available, and they have to share it out with users. it also has a latency of about 4 seconds, and you need to add on the cost of the upload ISP.

BT will have 99%+ of the exchanges upgraded by this time next year.

If you also have a Sky dish, you need planning permission for a second dish.

[Kevin]

At the moment satellite broadband links tend to "drop out" when there is heavy rain - yesterday was bad enough to affect satellite broard band, something to consider depending on the rain you suffer. :)

[rogsrogan]

Yep,
Ku band satellite systems do suffer from a loss of signal during heavy rain. Ref the E-bird 33 deg East satellite I mentioned earlier on. This satellite is dedicated purely to broadband. The satellite is not relaying any TV or radio thus providing mega bandwidth for users. The satellite also has 20 transponders. I'm buying my package in September so I'll keep you all informed as to how it goes.

Regards,

Rogs