Hello.
I will shortly be moving home & leaving behind my beloved Blueyonder 1mb connection & going to a rural location with not much hope of cable or ADSL.
I don't want Satellite because of the cost & high ping, so am considering a home ISDN line.
Can anyone with any experience of this explain to me how much this will cost, as BT's pricing policy is very confusing?
Is there an alternative ISP to BT?
What hardware is required for a home user other than a second line?
What sort of ping would I get on average??

Cheers!!

Darren

 

Hello Daz

I had ISDN before I moved to an ADSL enabled area.

See http://www.bt.com/homehighway/what_i...bttogether.htm for converting to Home Highway and relevant per month charges.

I used www.123isp.co.uk to connect at 128K. It was okay, but you are limited to 400 hours per month on-line.

Steve.

 

Hiya,

Home hiway gives you 128k total over two lines. You can use 64k data and a voice line simultaneously, or 128k using both lines for data, depending on how you connect (it's dial up).I was paying about £30 pcm but that was over a year back.

I think there are limits to how far the line can be from the exchange, but not nearly as stringent as ADSL.

You will need an ISDN card in your PC (£20-£50) or an external router (£+++) to hook up.

Hope this helps
Joolz

 

Do you need a modem??

 

You can use a normal modem through one of the analogue ports if you chose Home Highway but much better to get a ISDN Terminal Adapter like Joolz mentions.

 

Just checked and as long as you have a usb port you don't need to use an ISDN card anymore.

 

I'm on home highway - one thing you need to bear in mind is that if you go for surftime (7 quid a month) and use and 0844 number (Evenngs / weekends free) then you might not beable to use all 128k - it depends on your isp.

With demon only let you use 128k on 0845 numbers - so you pay as you go and it doesnt come under the surftime allowance.

All a total con - because now wait for this :

<rant_on>

if (like me) you want to swap to ADSL from Home Highway you have to pay 50 quid to convert back to PSTN.

Unless you use BT as your ISP via Openworld or BT Connect where mysteriously ITS FREE. No other ISP I have found will cover the cost of conversion.

So the bottom line is once your on HH it costs to swap off unless you want to go with BT.
</rant_on>

Phew I feel better now.

T.

 

Is it much of an improvement on a standard modem though?
What sort of ping would I be getting?
At the moment its below 30

 

A good ISDN ping will probably be around 70ms.

 

I can be expensive, as you are actually making a data call or two if you want 128k. I have a Shiva ISDN router that I can sell you which can be configured as a "on demand dial" or dedicated connection.

I had ISDN a few years back before my ADSL and I was with an ISP that gave me 24/7 access for a fixed fee hence I left it connected all the time. Most isp's cottoned onto to this and changed their terms and conditions and hence I got booted off

My current isp does do a ISDN business setup which does give you a dedicated ISDN modem their end and hence you can connect 24/7 using a 0845 number and pre-paided phone calls. This is quite expense @ about £100 per month last time I looked.

If you require any more help, give us a shout
Regards
Gareth

 

I use HH and it costs...

approx £25 for Line. Includes the ISDN (2x 64K) and hence normal phone rental and that also includes my normal non-isp phone calls. Before HH my phone bile was about £10/month - so thats £15 extra.

On top of that you need to pay your ISP dial-up fees. I use an anytime package for £15/month flat fee.

IMHO I would avoid the USB option and use a decent ISDN TA card in the PC.

I have no chance of ADSL for a while and ISDN is still the best option. But keep your eyes open though for any signs of local wireless ISP solutions. There are signs of these popping up now. Hopefully this will increase.

Deano

 

Get the bog standard package from BT - £15 a month, I think. Sign up with these guys for £18 a month and get 200 hours at 64K or 100 hours at 128K on a 0808 number (no further call charges).

I was running 2 lines before and I reckon I'm about £350 a year better off.

Cheers
Kav