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w hole

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Hello All

Anyone know of any 'sensible' broadband forums.

I am under pressure from SWMBO to get it installed, - to many incomming calls going to 1571 - and am looking at options.

At the moment, being a meanie, am considering Tiscali £15.00 3x option, but wanted to get some feedback from other users.

Regards

W. Hole
 

guiri

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www.adslguide.org.uk is excellent!

There seems to be a trend now towards capping your bandwidth. I have pipex at 23 GBP per month, at 512K unlimited downloads, but BT would charge you 20 GBP per month with a 1GB cap per month. 1 GB is not a lot if you want to stream music, video or download Microsoft security patches!

So think carefully what your usage will be. If it's just email and light surfing, then you'll probably be fine.
 

w hole

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Hello G.

Thanks for the reply, I have had a look at the site, and learnt quite a bit from it.

I don't think I want go go above 3x or 5x to begin with, so from what I can see the two best options -pricewise- are Tiscali and Pipex.

Both seem to come in for a bit of moaning on the forum, but Pipex would seem to have less than Tiscali.

You are with Pipex, how long have you been with them, and what are you experiences so far?

Kind regards

W. Hole
 

guiri

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After moving house, I got broadband installed with Pipex even before the curtains were up, so that would have been around May 2002. At first it was a bit flaky, but BT were still on a learning curve (ie. firmware changes at the exchange every five minutes).

I have an always on router, and the only time I have lost the connection in the last year that I have noticed was the BT fire in Manchester - not really Pipex's fault.

I think there are a few moaners on the adslguide forum, but people don't go online to say how wonderful it is. Personally, I'm very happy with Pipex, but perhaps I'm not a very demanding user. They are the biggest provider, and are a very reputable and longstanding business ISP, which is one of the reasons I didn't hesitate to sign up with them. They are not going to disappear tomorrow (famous last words)!

They even had a scheme on one point to recommend a friend (I got a free month :) ).

Regards
 

w hole

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Thanks G.

Keeps them on the top of my list!

I don't suppose anyone reading this has any experience of their 3x or 5x service, but if they have, I would be most interested in any commnets.

Kind regards

W. H.
 

Sab

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I use www.fairadsl.co.uk/ at £18.49 per month plus VAT. No restrictions as far as I can tell and has its own forum. No problems with them up to now.
 

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w hole

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Hello All

Thanks for the replies and advice.

In the end I decided to go with Pipex, and [so far anyway] have been very pleasantly surprised by the service they have provided.

The signing on arrangements were very straightforward, and when I called their support line [local dial rate by the way] I got such a positive and professional response, that quite frankly I was genuinely 'taken aback' with.

I also received three confirmation Emails at various stages of the process, letting me know exactly what the position was, and giving me access to a WebPage where I could check out the progress of my order at any time.

The modem and CD arrived on Friday, and also a letter confirming my 'log on' details, and informing me that I was due to connected up by BT on Wednesday next [11th May].

Well you know what us nerds are like, so I couldn't wait to get the box open, and as SWMBO is across the sea at the moment, I thought I would connect it up 'in advance' so that I wouldn’t waste any time later on.

Well - what delight - it connected me up at my subscribed speed straight away, and to the time of posting has only 'dropped', me a couple of times - in the wee small hours - when I would have been fast asleep if SWMBO was here anyway.

I did need to call the support line a couple of times to sort out some physical configuration with my NTL dialler boxes, and once again, they were so helpful, and knowledgeable.

If you can't afford the full package, and like me don't want to be restricted to 'capping', at this stage I can do nothing but highly recommend Pipex 150 to you.

[Note: I am not now nor ever have been an employee of the Company]

Will keep you posted on any further developments, but if you would like any further info meanwhile, feel free to contact me.

Kind regards

W. Hole
 

bigrandydavid

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funny that. i only just read this thread but i researched this to death and spent hours looking on adslguide.org and i arrived at the same conclusion.
pipex for me. i was due to be connected last night but its not happened yet, my order status hasnt updated but i suppose they are relying on bt to change the line so i m not moaning (just yet)
 

bigrandydavid

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blimey crikey charlie

i`m getting a transfer rate of 501 kbps
thats bloody fast!
 

guiri

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Is the 501 kbps figure the estimated true speed on the adslguide checker?

I'm getting 462 kbps actual speed, 498 kbps true speed estimated.

Regards
 

bigrandydavid

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its 501 true speed, estimated about 463.
i used the adslguide checker, same as you.

i should say that the line was connected on time on thursday. it was my own stupidity that prevented me from connecting.
i set it all up wrong :p
 

w hole

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Hello BRD

I guess you are subscibing at the 10x rate, I am on the 3x rate, and although Windows reports 500Kbs connection I am getting a download speed of about 150Kbs.

I see that my old dialup ISP [NTL] are also trying to get on to the Broadband Bandwagon for customers outside their cable network, but their service was so poor on dial up, that there is no way I would have taken them on for Broadband.

Think I will have to subscribe as PAYG to maintain my old Email Addresses, but am contemplating letting them go. There is so much spam about nowadays that it might be a idead to start with a fresh 'identity'.

Thanks for your input.

Regards

W. H.
 

guiri

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If I can make another recommendation (without sounding like I work for them), I have used www.bigfoot.com for a long time for email forwarding, so never needing to change email address when changing isp.

They do a free service, I actually subscribe to the anti spam forwarder for 5 USD per quarter (which also gives a web interface).

Regards
 

rolfw

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I have retained all of my old E-mail addresses (12 in total), I can't send mail from them, but I can still pick up incoming mail.
 

jimbo

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Can I ask what was the speed/cost Batman?
 
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