Back Online
An engineer called today and left having installed a "new" phone-line. Hurrah. I am now back online, albeit at the painfully slow rate of dial-up.
Even more maddening is the wait for a broadband service to follow. Normally about two weeks. Why?! We've known our landline number for a while now, so I tried to speed up the process by starting the application last week. However, Pipex (my preferred provider) customer support warn that you can't begin an application for a line that doesn't exist. Trying to and then failing would mean the loss of the setup fee! But now we do have a phone line I still can't apply for ADSL. The availability checker tells me it's an "invalid number". One possible reason being:
It's a new number which has not yet been recorded on BT's systems
How long do I have to wait for this, I wonder. Maybe long enough to decide which service level I want to apply for. Do I want a business level service with a contention ratio of 20:1 - instead of the usual 50:1 - and twice the price? Do I want the 1Mbps service and double the price again? Do I want a static IP address for an extra £2 a month?
| Home User 500 | Home User 1000 | Business 500 | Business 1000 | |
| Download Speed | 512Kbps | 1Mbps | 512Kbps | 1Mbps |
| Upload Speed | 256Kbps | 256Kbps | 256Kbps | 256Kbps |
| Contention Ratio | 50:1 | 50:1 | 20:1 | 20:1 |
| Setup Fee | £60 | £60 | £60 | £60 |
| Monthly Fee | £24.95 | £34.95 | £49.95 | £69.95 |
| Annual Fee | £299.40 | £419.40 | £599.40 | £839.40 |
It's easy to look at the difference in monthly fee as minimal. That's until you look at the annual fee. Can I really warrant spending £840 pounds just to be connected to the internet for a year? Right now I am thinking I should stick with what I am used to - 512K and 50:1 contention - which works perfectly well. If it ain't broke don't fix it!
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You can subscribe to an individual
I agree with you. It the connection for 512K works fine why need more. You can always upgrade later when your business needs it.
Just wondering, why do you use BT? Freedom2Surf et al are much cheaper and you don't have to wait 40 mins on the phone for the few times you need tech support....
I use Eclipse Internet
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Where I get 1024k down, 256k up, static IP address (you can get more than one if you want it) and a domain name for about £42 a month. This includes their "domain services" which means I get all my email and http requests forwarded onto my statisc IP address so I can run my own servers at home.
They seem to frequently come highest on ADSLguide for speed, and I have to say their reliability and customer service are excellent.
Craig
Depending on whether you do over 30Gb a month, BT are doing 1Mb connections for ■26.99/Month which roughly works out to ■323 for a year.
Although it does appear you are happy where you are...
What, the maximum download you get from ADSL is 1Mbps?
Over here in Belgium we can go up to 3Mbpms download stream and 128K upload stream with Skynet.
This is the default service and only costs 38 euro per month.
Just thought I'd share this with you guys to annoy you :-)
Forgot to include:
Included is
- 50 MB web space
- 50 MB mail space
- 5 email address aliasses
Would recommend eclipse or zen.co.uk Jake - I use Zen and they have always been good and I get a full subnet of fixed ip at no extra charge.
If you order ADSL before your line is installed BT will accept the order, process it tell you its done - but then it doesnt work (and they dont tell you) - then you have to go through the whole process again (thats what happened to me anyway).
I agree with most of the comment here, I've just got 512 50:1 from ZenADSL (who rate very highly) - the only problems being with BT not meeting their connection date. I pay ■23 a month - with a fixed IP address. I didn't go for their eqipment but bought my own wireless router (3com) from ebuyer.co.uk
Jake,
don't forget to minimise bandwidth theft by using mod-rewrite -- especially if you are going to pay by the MB! (If you check the small print, BT caps total monthly bandwidth, even if it doesn't charge you extra, initially.)
Ref:
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Patrick
Thanks guys, I'll have a look at these companies before making my mind. The only reason to go with Pipex is that I've used them for 3 years now and had no problems at all. Reliability is more important to me than speed.
I second Steve on Zen.
good support, short contracts, loadsa IP addresses, solid performance.
I've used them for a couple of years and would recommend to anyone.
Wow! Pricey over there. Here in Canada you can get 4000Mbps down and 800Mbps upload for ■288 ($Cdn 720).
Actually myself and 2 neighbours share the cost with our locked-down wireless network. At 100m range for the access point, spreading the cost works out great.
Michael
Thats it.
Moving to Canada!
Whoops!!! My previous message should have read 400kbps and 800kbps. No gigabit service to the house yet. Hmmm... there are those 13 massive 8" fiber trunk cables that Sprint laid along the old rail line beside my neighbours house. :)
Proofreading is underrated.... 4000kbps/800kbps
Jake,
Defintely try Eclipse (www.eclipse.net.uk). They do a 'flex' service, which for 15.99 is 256k download, but you can visit their website and crank it up to 1mb for only a few pence per hour. Great if you want slightly better than dial up for browsing, and then big bandwidth for when you know you want that big download. I use their standard service at 512k, and have had no problems. As I'm on a rural exchange, contention at the exchange isn't an issue, it might be if your in a urban area with lots of other users.
Eclipse is also good in that they don't hold you to a long contract (1 month notice) so even if it doesn't work out, you can either change package or ISP with ease.
Cheers
Dave
Jake,
I've used freedom2surf for well over a year now. 512k, 50:1 and static IP for ■22.50 a month, with free activation. Never had a problem!
Just my tuppence worth.
Cheers
Ben
Jake,
I am doing the same thing as you - having to cancel Pipex at my old address and get a BT phone line put back in at my new address.
My opinion of Pipex has gone down enormously - they sent me a snotty letter saying the cancellation fee has not been paid even though I told them to take payment. But I can't get in touch with them - they ignore emails and the customer services number refuses to even put me in a queue! It just says they are too busy and hangs up.
Have you had any problems?
I think it'll be Eclipse at the new house....
I may live to regret this but I went with Pipex (512K "Business" at 20:1 contention ratio). I know what you mean Dorian; Pipex seem to have that air about where they think they're estabilished enough to forget what matters - customers! That said, I've never had an issue with them so I'll stick with them until I do.
Jake,
Pipex are obviously giving you celebrity treatment. Actually, seriously, you've just given them some free advertising: have you thought about brokering a better deal? (You'll have to talk to someone VERY senior to overcome the "it's a standard contract/price" mindset. What is in your favour is the monthly readership of this site: you are literally a (minor -- no offence intended :o) celebrity and weild some not-inconsiderable indirect power over many people's buying decisions -- certainly mine. I'm surprised Prominic haven't given you a prefential deal...)
Patrick
1Mb Home Pipex. Quick as owt for the biggies and unlimited. No probs in 3+ years either.
Could you explain noob me what a contention ratio is?
Jake,
I don't think you'll regret it, the actual quality of network service from Pipex is great. I've raved about them to friends because my ADSL connection was never ever down and always speedy!
Only when I've had to deal with customer services due to the house move have I started to think they're not the best.
Cheers.
Contention ratio, as I understand it, is as follows. The 512KB "pipe" is shared with other users. If you have a ratio of 50:1 you share with 49 other users. Hence, the lower the ratio the more bandwidth you get. I think!
Jake is right, although at the moment it's not likely that there will be 50 simultaneous broadband users . I wonder if there is any speed difference between a 1:50 contended pipe with say, 6 users and a 1:20 pipe with 6 users.
Paul - not so fast. Here in Dallas we get 3Mb down, 512 up for $39.95 / mo.