UK ISP's ??

[orange]

Hi All,

Can any of the UK techs suggest or recommend a good ISP that they have personal experience with! I'm currently with LineOne.Net and i'm also signed up with BT's Surftime package. I'm after either a surftime capable ISP or else an ISP that offers a fixed monthly charge for unrestricted access, even if only evening and weekends. Also, i'd prefer not to have the usual '2-hour' cutoff and an ISP that carries Usenet in its entirety.

BTW, ADSL is not yet available in my area so i'm dialup only...

[Radical Dreamer]

I have no advice to give, but I must say that I am glad to be in the US because I could nto stand to be cut off every 2 hours

[Garfield99]

Ello Orange

I use Aol (i know AOHELL) but for what i use it for its just fine, usally just checking out the latest tech info, reading posts in here and hopfully helping peeps in the chat room if i can, building and updating my website when i get the time :-)).

With Aol it's £14.99 a month unmetered access 24/7 u also get 7 email address (that are also ya screen name if u pop in to Aol chat)which come with 2 meg of web space for each name, the only times i've found that ya cut off is if your not active for a period of time it will flash up a warning message then cut the connection, or if the connection is iffy or if connie having a bad day u may find ya self getting booted.
If your playing on-line games Aol is probably not the one to go fore as if heard u can get some very bad lagg.

People ethere hate Aol with a passion or they think its gr8, i on the other hand think its ok as it does all what i ask of it most of the time (touch wood)so i'm happy enough.

Hope this info is of some help.

[Archer]

Try looking at www.Libertysurf.co.uk just been bought out by Tiscali and offer 50Hr/month anytime @ £5.99
100Hr/month anytime @ £ 9.99
Also ADSL or PAYG

[orange]

Thanks for the replies guys (Radical Dreamer i envy you!). AOL is not for me, but thanks for the info. As for Liberty...well i'd rather steer clear of any company thats a subsidary of Tiscali. I had no end of trouble after Tiscali took over World Online, who were my previous ISP. So i came to LineOne...and guess what? Yep, they've also recently been taken over/merged with/whatever Tiscali, hence the lack of Usenet that they used to carry. World Online also used to carry Usenet and when Tiscali came on the scene the service was reduced.

Thanks anyway.

[Geek #1]

Try Totalise PLC @ www.totalise.net.

I've been using them for a year or so now and have now problem.

They also offer a number of special dial up services that are a HELL of a lot cheaper than BT packages.

[Papa Smurf]

Andi seems to be on a winner with LibertySurf, I did hear a lot of VERY bad reports with the service b4 they were bought by Tiscali, things seem to have gotten a lot betted since Tiscali came on the scene.
I personnaly user WorldOnLine which is also part of Tiscali. Prices are the same as Andi mentioned but u can also add a £14.99 option for unlimited access. I get no connection problems, no drop off after 2 hours and the d/load speed seems to be constant speed.

If you want to look round for ISPs yourself I recommened going to http://www.net4nowt.com/ for some more information. This site does give very honest reviews for various ISP's from the users.
Its well worth a visit

Cheers
Papa "Just doing some Surfin" Smurf

[NooNoo]

Dear Orange

I am afraid the two hour cutoff is a way of life in the UK...unless you want to pay through the nose.

I have been burnt by the likes of Redhotant and BigBlueSky, but am in the fortunate position to have had my monies worth when compared to BT or AOL packages.

I have plumped for Freeserve - while it still has the two hour cutoff it is at £12.99 per month the best value provider. Download speeds are excellent for dialup and I have only failed once to connect first time, and I think that may have been because BT are working on the lines down the road.

The downside is that support is costly being a premium rate number, but I suspect you would not need it anyway!

The only other thing you have to put up with using Freeserve is the guy who names the servers seems to be a pokemon freak!

The other thing worth investigating is a cable tv and internet package - from £25 for cable modem - no cutoffs. If you have a cable provider in your area the package is well worth a look if taken as a whole, ie the phone bills, the Sky subscription and the cable modem are very cost effective - but you have to have their phone system which is cheaper.

I would jump at it, except that they will not be cabling our area in "the foreseeable future". Dammit!

[Who Me]

Well as an Ex Worldonline user myself I have to agree with NooNoo. If you have cable available in your area it is the way to go.

[antonye]

I use Demon Internet at home, which is only a tenner a month (11.75 inc vat) and gives you all the usuals - 20Mb web space, ftp access, unlimited email accounts at your host, etc.

With this, you can get the BT SurfTime for 6.99 per month (inc vat) for free evening and weekend internet calls or BT Anytime for 14.99 per month (inc vat) for free calls at any time. It's the same package you get with other ISPs (as they all do it through BT) BUT with Demon you don't get the 2 hour drop.

Even if you don't want to pay the extra for the BT packages, they have an 0845 number (penny a minute off-peak) and an 0844 number which is even lower.

Demon have been around for years and have always been good for me over the 6 years I've been with them. You connect to the line first time (never get an engaged tone!) and all their services are pretty good - games servers, news feeds, etc - and have a really good uptime. A lot of my mates moved over to BTi when it was on the SurfTime offer, but have since moved back now that Demon do it, have better services and don't have the line drop.

See their website for more info.

HTH,

[DeaJae]

im with NTL, AOL wasn't feastible with me cos im a games player and their pings suck.
the performance also depends on what horrors BT is doing to the local area, my area's deteriating quite badly and theres been like 10 BT vans rushing around my town this morning (Secret BT ASDL squad.. doubt it).
anyway, BTinternet,NTL, freeserve and anything based on the BT surftime always uses BT's infastructure for access. i believe NTL has a seperate DNS. Libertysurf use Level3.net which have all the grubbins of BT but out of BT's clutches, but LS sucks *** for gaming and is very laggy if you can get on ( this might of changed cos they are rite assheads for overwhelming theirselfs).

[antonye]

Originally posted by DeaJae
anything based on the BT surftime always uses BT's infastructure for access.

No, this is not correct.

The BT SurfTime package is merely a paid subscription on your BT phonebill that will automatically deduct the cost of calls to the SurfTime numbers (0844 *).

ISPs are given a SurfTime number(s) which are simply "redirected" through their own system.

Some companies may repackage what is essentially the BTinternet service, or buy blocks of internet access from other ISPs (there are only about 6 true ISPs with backbone access in the UK - the rest buy bandwidth from these) but this does not mean that all SurfTime access is routed through the BTinternet infrastructure.

As your SurfTime package is independant of who your ISP is, you will be able to switch to another ISP that offers the SurfTime (0844) number without having to re-sign for SurfTime.

The SurfTime subscription charge is automatically added to your phonebill and the calls to a SurfTime number deducted - your ISP only acts as an "introducer" to the BT SurfTime service.

It also means that you can't give your account details and SurfTime number out to mates as the calls are not deducted from their phonebill if they don't pay the SurfTime subscription.

HTH.