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UK BROADBAND USERS.

Soapy Sam

Penultimate Amazing
S
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
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I'm fed up with Freeserve pay-as-you-go dropping connections and taking years to download. I've decided to spend some dosh on a broadband link. I need some advice.

I intend to use a router modem, which I will buy myself.
I have a BT line, rated OK for broadband by them. Whether this is ADSL or ISDN, I dinna ken. I assume the former.
I had thought of going with BT to simplify billing, but- Anyone out there with experience of UK broadband connections? Any reccommendations? Anyone to avoid? (BT??) Setup and running costs?

Suggestions and comments please .

Nb I'll be away for a few weeks, so I will not be responding to comments. I will read and refer to them when I get back though.
Thanks.
 
Unless BT have started blatantly lying (yes, I know...), that a line is fine for broadband means for adsl.

I use Nildram and I can't recommend them highly enough. I go for the second-from-cheapest option, but there is a good array of packages for you to trade off your budget against your needs.

It took me a couple of days longer than promised to get fully set up, but that was entirely down to BT. Whoever your service provider, your connection is through a BT line; you are at their mercy.

I've been running it at this (geographical) address for over six months, 24 hours a day. The only downtime I've had in that time was for about six hours when the local exchange was struck by lightning. Nildram support were fantstic, keeping me up to date, and ringing me back to notify me first when they had traced the problem, and then again when it was sorted.

Oh, and they're the, or one of the, fastesst rated adsl providers in the UK.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Rat.
 
I also use Nildram, have done for about 6 months now. The connection has been faultless - I have never once had a single problem connecting, and have had a good fast connection every time. A friend who plays online multi-person games almost incessantly says that he's had continuous connections lasting weeks or more without a problem.

One complaint though - I did recently move house, and it proved to be quite a long and frustrating process to get the line moved to the new address. For instance they wouldn't accept the request by phone, they wanted me to email them - and seemed genuinely confounded when I gently pointed out the impossibility of emailing to ask them to connect internet access up to my new flat, because I didn't have any internet access...

Eventually they had me write a letter, but they then kept me waiting for several weeks before I heard anything more - two or three emails I did send (via a free standard dial up connection I set up) went unanswered. All told it's been about one month from asking for the move now, and they have told me it will go in sometime this week.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I'm fed up with Freeserve pay-as-you-go dropping connections and taking years to download. I've decided to spend some dosh on a broadband link. I need some advice.

I intend to use a router modem, which I will buy myself.
Click to expand...

A router modem via an ethernet connection is a good way to go. Most of the rubbish that scans ports, etc, just hits the router and never makes it to your PC.
 
A good site for info is www.adslguide.org.uk

I would also say Nildram as they have one of the best connections around and don't tie you to a 12 month contract like BT. They can do this because they know their service is good so you won't leave ;-).. as for those companies with long contracts ... well it doesn't take rocket science to work out why ;-).


They certainly mean ADSL (512 To 2000 download) and not ISDN (64 To 128 download), the latter when you sit down and do the sums is rediculously priced vs performance. To be honest with ISDN you will still suffer from all the problems you see now - dropped cons- slow - cutoff limits - absolute nightmare :-(.

A router is certainly the best option (compared to a USB modem).
The only problem is that setting up a router isn't always easy.
I would look for a router with combined ADSL modem that has both Ethernet and USB options of connecting.

Once you try Broadband you will wonder why you put up with Narrowband for so long. I think living in a Broadband area and being a regular net user and not having it is an insult to all those poor people that BT can't/won't provide :-0.

On word of warning - just because your within range doesn't mean you will be able to obtain Broadband :-(. They do a line quality test which you can fail if it's crap cable etc.. ohh yeah and it's still not BT's fault their cable is crap and there is nothing you can do about it.

AX
 
I have a router/modem and it works a treat (based around the Conexant ADSL chipset, which you can read about at ADSLGuide.org). As mentioned above, most dodgy traffic never makes it past the router, so my software firewall doesn't get a great deal to do (not that I'd ever consider running without it mind you!).

At the moment I am with BT Broadband (the wires only package, not to be confused with BT OpenWorld), and the service it fine. Always quick, and there has been no downtime that I can recall in the year I have used them as my ISP. They aren't the cheapest however, by a long shot.

Soon I will be moving to plusNET, where for less money I can get the ADSL line, 250MB of webspace, domain hosting, PHP and database, etc, etc.
 
I've just started using pipex as they scored well for user satisfaction and performance on the adslguide website above. Very good customer service thus far. Definitely check the adslguide website. Useful resource.
 
Still abroad for a bit longer than anticipated. Managed to log on and read the replies. Thanks for the information, one and all.
There's a strong vote for Nildram there.
I'll be checking out the resources mentioned when I get home, which I hope will be the start of December.

Cheers.
SS
 
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