Kevin Groat

As per topic, considering BT HH. On a standard line at present, BT are offering the upgrade for £74 install and £28 monthly line rental. Is the service worth it, anyone had any problems with it ?

Kevin.

stevem2k

HH as in ISDN ?

Wouldn't one of the broadband offerings ( DSL or Cable ) be more suited ?

Steve

MartinM

HH is old technology - slow/expensive for what it is. You need to try to get DSL or cable broadband these days...

Generally, I'd suggest, in order:
- if you're in a Telewest or NTL cable area, go with those
- if your in a DSL area (chech via http://www.bt.com/broadband/) then go with it, as a principle
- IMHO, don't go with BT. Use another provider. I looked very closely at Nildram, but in the end went for Eclipse - £50 sign up, £22.75 pcm for the standard 512k down/256 down, with the added advantage that its on a one month rolling contract. As they're small, you even get to talk to real people in the sales/invoicing/technical lines

http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ is a fantastic place to start

boomer

..but at least with HH you get a guarantee 64K (or 128K if required) rather than (as per ADSL) sharing 512K with up to 49 other people!!

As more and more people subscribe to ADSL, the likelihood of getting the advertised half-meg connection will reduce significantly.

Dunno about cable though?

mb

Kevin Groat

Thanks for the replies folks. Couple of further things that I maybe should've mentioned. My location - Shetland !, suspect it's BT or nothing. And the other carrot for HH was the 3 incoming lines this gives you, effectively, 1 private no.,1 work related no. and a dedicated computer connection - or you can combine 2 to give a faster internet link. Do any of the options above give you this flexibility ?

Kevin.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Works fine for me & is the only solution available ATM in my area. Beats SDU hands down every time but the only problem I've had is finding someone that'll do Surftime with 128K

Certainly is very useful for browsing internet & dealing with a problem on the phone at the same time. However, I'd go with ADSL like a shot if it became available.

Might try & blag the boss into a 256k leased line though

boxst

Hello

Puff: Did you find anyone for 128K surftime?

As for ISDN, it's great. Much better than dial up in terms of consistent speed. And the lines can be joined for that extra 128K boost.

The only other comment I have is that ISDN gives you two lines, not three?

Steve.

Kevin Groat

I thought BT's HH gave you 3 standard lines but if you want a faster internet connection, you can link 2 together to use the phone and the ISDN connection. Certainly HH gives you 3 separate phone numbers.

Kevin.

dsmith

You have 3 numbers (Analogue-1, Analogue-2 and ISDN) but only 2 channels.

Either of the 2 channels can be used for any function at any time

i.e.

Use 1 channel for 64K isdn. Receive Incoming call on either analogue number.
Use 1 channel for incoming fax, still recieve calls on the other.
Surf internet via 64K ISDN and still grunt at parents on the normal phone

The 2 available ISDN channels can be used together as per std ISDN-2 (but you cant then use the phone simultaneously). There are however only a few ISPs which will currently support it for various economical/technical reasons. In pracitice (imho) its not worth the hassle unless you absolutley must download large quantities of ****

Its by far the best option for me currently - Enables reasonable Internet surfing, reasonable dial-up to work, allows me to work from home and use the phone and computer together.

If Cable or ADSL became available I would probbaly change - but then I'd lose by ISDN Work dial-up so I'm not sure.

Deano

Kevin Groat

Deano,

Thanks for the reply - you seem to be in a similar position to us, wanting to work from home and still having the phone available.

Kevin.

dsmith

Yep, In fact even with the two channels I soften get frustrated. When working from home I often have the laptop dialled into the corporate LAN for mail, and another PC dialed into our test bed to access either the project network or reference model. I then end up using the mobile for voice. I prefer the land line for audio-conferences so end up juggling available channels. Unless your company offers internet accessible VPN access then IMHO HH still offers the best deal for Internet Access/Work from home flexibility.

Deano

RichiW

I`ve had isdn for the last 4yrs.Alot better than 56k but not as good as Broadband.Which i may add is not available where i live also

HH/ISDN Recommended though

Rich.

ChrisB

I've had HH for a couple of years now. No cable or ADSL in my area (which is NOT in the sticks, only a few thousand houses off our Exchange ).

Internet dial-up with BT Anytime seems a lot more reliable than modem users. Maybe my router redials so quickly I don't notice though?

Chris.

nkh

I have HH, look into connecting to HH with USB rather than the traditional ISDN terminal adapter.

BT gave me a test cable when they installed the box on the wall, a mate didn't know you could just plug a USB cable into the box directly and spent a fortune on a terminal adapter.

ChrisB

I'd be suspect of the BT USB TA.

An Eicon Diva PCI Internal Card is £50 these days and will have far better drivers and support IMHO.

dsmith

USB ? - now how would I plug that into my 1603 ?

My father is getting HH shortly and is intending to use the USB - I'll be interested to see how he gets on - as I've always steered clear of it as well.

Deano

Trumble

I've got HH with surftime into demon - no problem very useful for the two lines - would agree with the previous comment - as more people come online with DSL it will slow down lots !

I'm in two minds - should I stick with it or not.

T.

boomer

Trumble,

i am with Demon, and originally thought about HH (with BT SurfTime) but then ADSL came along which initially looked a better proposition

However, Demon can't provide SMTP mail (plus a few other bits and bobs) with ADSL; plus the potential (indeed probable) of 10kbps (thats BITS per second) download as the contention ratio builds up - thus HH looks more and more interesting!

BUT, i can't find any info about HH access on the Demon web-site (and it is not so easy on the BT one either!).

What are the current costs for HH via Demon (e-mail via profile if you want) and is there any web info?

Cheers,

mb

Trumble

boomer YHM

RichiW

Get ADSL, forget ISDN, you can always get it later IF the ADSL drops off, but i cannot see that happening for awhile, if at all.


Rich.

RichiW

And if your going the HH/ISDN route, buy the ASUSTEK 128K Adapter from http://www.scan.co.uk/, its the one that all the gamers use, and for good reason!

Rich.