pslewis

I'm NOT offering it!

Just need some help and advice - thinking of moving to Broadband

1. Is it worth it over all?

2. How likely is it that I would connect at 512k? Or 1M for that matter!

3. I have heard good stories about PlusNet and terrible stories about NTL and some others ........... BT seem OK but they are the most expensive of the lot

4. I am on BT SurfTime at the moment, will I have to mess about a lot if I don't use BT for my Broadband --- can I use the same e-mail as I have at present (btinternet e-mail?)

5. What should I look for?

6. Are you more at risk of hackers and stuff?

7. Please insert a question of your choice and answer it

Thanks in anticipation

Pete

jjones

broadband is exellent for ****.

what do you use the internet for?

you can only connect to ADSL at 512 if you pay for the 512 service - it doesn;t work like your 56k modem. goto http://www.adslguide.org.uk/qanda.asp?faq=beginners for more info.

Corgi

1. Yes

2. Very

3. PlusNet is ADSL, NTL are cable, if your after ADSL then PlusNet, Pipex, Nildram and a couple of others are the ones to go for.

4. Dunno

5. Erm?

6. Yes, you will need a firewall (Sygate)

7. Do you like downloading lots of ****, warez and other copyrighted material.......Yes?.....then once on broadband you'll never look back

pslewis

On Q7. Yes I have been known to make back-ups online of music I have in my CD collection

**** interests me VERY little at my age - I have my memories to keep me warm - I'll leave the 'Tissue/Monitor Moments' to you young boys!

I have no cable in the area - so, its ADSL then?

Thanks for the link - will go there now!

Pete

pslewis

I have my XP Firewall up - surely thats sufficient?

Pete

ozzy

Are you kidding. Since when has Microsoft been known for tight security?

No, it's not enough and I certainly wouldn't trust it on it's own. ZoneAlarm and Sygate do free personal firewalls.

Broadband is an always on connection and given the higher speeds it's more prone to hacker attacks. As long as you take precautions, I wouldn't worry about it. I've had Blueyonder broadband for 3 years and NEVER had any problems with hackers.

I wouldn't go back to dial-up, but I'm just used to the convenience of having a permanent connection and it means the rest of the family can share a connection.

Depends on price and whether you're happy to pay a higher fixed fee every month. If all you do is surf basic web pages (no streaming media, radio, etc..) then it may not be worth the cost.

Anyone with Internet connection (regardless of type) should have a firewall + virus software & keep both + the Operating System updated regulalrly. Virus updates should be checked daily for new releases

Stefan

pslewis

Cheers Stefan - sharing a connection?

Does that mean we can have numerous PC's in the house connected? ie. a desktop and a Laptop? At the same cost?

Pete

Corgi

Yes it does, you can have your own network all using the same connection.

Fatman

Strictly speaking most domestic broadband services are intended to be single user. However, it's generally accepted that households have multiple computers. Thus multiple connections are tolerated, rather than explicitly allowed. Shouldn't be a problem.

I had ADSL for about 3 years before moving house a few months ago. The new place is too far from the exchange for broadband. Dial-up feels like returning to the Dark Ages! Once you've tasted broadband you won't (want to) go back.

Nick

You can except some providers will not allow this, like BT for instance. I also used to have Demon Surftime 24/7 & now have 2mb Demon ADSL. It's much better & make the computers seem faster. Even a P3 900 seems quicker!

The speed ADSL you can have is determined by your line quality & distance from your local exchange.

bigsinky

@pete

yes you can have more that one computer linked to a broadband connection. if you link the modem via a router/hub you can connect as many pcs as you have connections on your router/ hub. i got myself a little 4 port router, which has NAT and builtin firewall and have all 3 computers linked in and if i want my work lappy plugged in, i can do that as well.

as has been said before once you get broadband you will never go back.

and i have gold wheels btw, but that doesnt make me a bad person

cheers

sinky

ozzy

Yes, you can share connections. I honestly don't see why any ISP should have a problem with this. At the end of the day you pay for a specific speed of internet connection and you can't go beyond this with any number of PC's attached.

If your ISP complains tell them to **** off and take your business elsewhere.

Stefan (sharing 3 PC's since 2000 and now added 2 x XBOX's)

Suresh

Back to the old boy's original topic...

1. Yes
2. I am connected at 1M and it is reliably fast. Had a 2M connection, but it was double the price and too much capacity for my needs. 8M is also available here, but I have no use for it at present.
3. Have no idea about uk providers
4. ditto
5. Price. Brand. Helpdesk availability. Something about contention ratios
6. No great risk if you have a good firewall - such as zonealarm as suggested above
7. Is it going to be plug-and-play like everyone tells me? Not bloody likely. Setting up your connection and router is going to take about 20 hours. Get some geek to do it for you in excahnge for one of your old copies of razzle.

Good luck.

Suresh

Simes777

Nick,

I know BT get a fair amount of bad press, but they do allow multiple users on a Broadband connection. Just check the BT website.

Simes

mattstant

FWIW i have NTL cable broad band at home and BT broadband connect at work NTL has been superb and BT sucks simple.
My own personal experience of NTL appears to fly in the face of "Convention"

Scooby96

Pipex are pretty good

Chris L

My experience of NTL has been pretty good too. Their customer service call centre can be a little interesting, but in terms of the actual service they deliver it is very good. In almost two years, I think I have been offline for less than 3 days (once due to a faulty cable modem, that was replaced inside 48 hours). Speeds are very consistent. I'm on the 600K cable modem service and I always get that or even a little bit above.

Of the DSL operators, my pick would be Nildram or Pipex - no experience of Zen, so I can't comment on them.

Chris

djuk

The same goes for me with NTL, the service itself has been absolutely spot on - fast and reliable all the time. The customer service side of things is certainly very interesting and on the 2 instances in over a year where I have had to speak to them its been.... an experience!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

PSL, go for Nildram, superb.

Geezer

I use Eclipse, always been happy with them, cheap too.

As for a firewall, as previously mentioned, get a router/ADSL modem. Built in firewall means you don't have to run those nasty software ones, which really **** you off wiht their constant interfering and doesn't take up valuable CPU cycles!

Geezer

Chris L

Setup Sygate properly and it will run smoothly with very little resource consumed (typically about a third of what IE uses) and with little or no interference. Being paranoid, I actually run two firewalls

Chris

Buckrogers

Pete, stick with dial-up, it will be too fast for you and your pace-maker wont handle it.

Get it, you'll never look back!!