ian/555

Ok before you say do a search, I am interested in what level of service your isp promised you and at what call charge/cost and have they managed to deliver it?

(If you can spare the time to reply i would be very gratefull, i am hoping that someone somewhere has got a good deal!)

Did they say unlimited blah blah blah, free this and that 24-7.

Are they quick to respond to any technical problems?

Has the actual time it takes to log on been getting longer and longer?

Has the amount of times you get booted been getting more and more frequent?

Do you find it hard to get reconnected once booted?

Has the programe they supplied developed any strange "faults"?

Lastly if you would reccomend them, why would you?

My own experiance with Libertysurf is that,
it takes them a long time to respond to my emails for technical support.
My log on programe has developed some faults which dump me.
Sometimes i cannot get connected at all.
When i am booted i have to wait a long time before the progame closes and will let me log on again.
I can even get booted after just 5 mins at times.

Mr.Cookie

Hi

NTL Cabletel are fantastic £10 a month dont pay for the first £10 of voice calls thereafter you start paying but cheaper than BT only snag is you need to either be in NTL tv region or have BT line which they will then issue you with a small box which does all the fancy stuff.

Cheers
Simon

Ps Here's there addy

Mr.Cookie

Sorry forgot to add only bad point is 2 hour connection limit but you can reconnect straight away and auto dissconnect after 10 minutes of no activity but one way round this is to get outlook to check for mail ever 9 minutes

Simon

simes

Ah yes, but do they give you squash coaching ?

Sorry mate, couldn't resist!

Mr.Cookie

LOL

Probably not

Simon

CC

Hi, I've been with LocalTel (now part of World Online) for roughly 6 months. They offer free off peak access as in 18:00 - 0600 weekdays and 18:00 - 06:00 Friday to Monday morning.....BT also advertise free 'off peak' access for a price (so how is it free!?) but this is only from 18:00 - 00:00 on weekdays.

To obtain LocalTels free access you must change your phone provider to LocalTel, you still pay the line rental to BT, but your call charges are paid to LocalTel which are 10% cheaper than BT anyway.

The service has been very good. I'd say 90% of the time you connect at the very first attempt.

It drops out very occasionally, and do mean occasionally as in hardly ever.

Reconnection is just a simple case of dialling in again, usually at the first attempt.

I'd recommend them as I have been thoroughly impressed by the high level of service provided. I nearly cancelled LocalTel to sign up to a 24/7 free service with a one off fee as some of my friends have....but i've seen the extremely poor level of serivce that was provided and I'm glad I didn't bother now.

LocalTels helpline is not free, it is charged at a local rate ie 5p min. but you always get to speak to someone. They have failed to send me one itemised bill which was sent as soon as I phoned them.

OK, it's not 24/7 access, but it's good quality access at the time when most people will be able to go on the net (not working), and no I don't work for them .
Chris.

[This message has been edited by CC (edited 22 August 2000).]

Stuart H

I'm with BTInternet on the Anytime package (£25.99 per month). I get free calls 24-7 and a decent service.

It connects first time about 95% of the time, and very rarely drops the line.

They have the silly 2 hour limit 'to protect network integrity(?)' but you can re-connect straight away. They reply to e-mails for technical support fairly rapidly, but in 9 months I've only had to use it twice so they've got to be doing something right.

Downsides are the helpline has suddenly become an 0906 number (50p a minute), but there again I've only used it once. They also have an intermittent problem in a certain IP range which slows things down, but I can't say I've ever been affected by it.

I would definately recommend them, purely on my personal experience. Everything has worked nearly all of the time, I get a reliable, fast (124500) connection through my 56k modem, and very very few technical gremlins.



[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 23 August 2000).]

ChrisB

BT Internet - £9.99 for free off-peak access (something like 7pm to 12pm weekdays and all day Sat / Sun).

The service is generally good, although the support newsgroup is full of people complaining about poor stability and speed. I use the ISDN service (on Home Highway at home) - the ISDN dial-up seems more reliable than modem. BT haven't worked out how to time limit ISDN sessions (they claim a 2 hour kick off) - I've had over 9 hours in one connection during the weekend. If you are booted, then you can go straight back on (my Win 2000 workstation is set to redial on link failure so I don't have to do a thing if I get booted).

I don't ring the support number as the staff a) aren't that great and b) I'm not paying 50p per min.

Having said that, the service was completely hosed last night - e-mail and news was very dead. I'm also have a strange problem when dialing BTi (one I don't see when using other ISPs) which they haven't been able to resolve yet.

Cheers,

Chris.

PeteC

Ian,

You seem to be a bit unlucky with libertysurf. I can't remember exactly when I signed up with them, but it must have been about 5 months ago.

Initially, I found that signing-on could be a real pain ( - I tried for about 30 minutes on one occasion!), but I've never been booted off, or had it die on me.

Over the last three months though, there seems to have been a vast improvement. I hook up first time, every time. I don't tend to stay online for more than a couple of hours anyway, so have never been chucked off, and therefore can't comment on how easy it is to log on afterwards.

I also maintain a freeserve link as well, for the very rare occasions when I want to hook up during peak time. No problems with freeserve, but as I don't have any with libertysurf either I tend to stick with them.

Have no experience of support from either.

Pete

M@TT

Luckily I'm in the NTL area and with the phone line rental of £7.95 ish comes free internet calls 24/7 They will cut your connection after two hours (easy to connect) and if you are inactive for 10 mins, but as mentioned above this is easy to solve by checking for mail every 9 mins. I have had a 100% connection record so far and e-mail tech support replies are back within the day.

No downside YET ??!?

salsa-king

we havw NTL phone line, and have had the NTLworld for the last 3 weeks, all free, very good,
but, am having problem using my POP3 sever which i WAS using when i had the Btclick.com connection!?
so at the mo car't pop3 down load my e-mails to my reading programme!!
but can read e-mail now on line!

DavidG

Slighly off topic but have any Demon users noticed a dramatic worsening of service recently? It takes several tries to get on, you get bounced off and sometimes its really slow. Changing to a different dial-in number usually helps one of these but makes another worse? I've changed nothing on my set-up but the probs have started recently.

I'm reluctant to move as generally they're good but I'm getting fed up. My suspicion is they've taken on more users than they can handle.

muddy

I have just changed my ISP recently, due to the fact that the company has probably lost millions. I was with 4unet,a £20 one off payment for 24-7 free interent and cheap telephone calls, however connection was crap, took 1/2 hour to connect and cut-off after an hour. Still haven't recieved a telephone bill off 4unet either after 6 months, so they aren't getting paid now,and now I find that the service is closing at the begining of September. It's probably the same thing thats happened to AltaVista, cause their service has aslo closed.

So now I thought I'd pay for the service and chose Bt Surftime Off-peak(6pm-8am mon-fri and all weekend) which is £5.99 a month(ChrisB £9.99 is alot!!!!),using freeserve as your ISP on Bt surftime gives you a rebate of £3 per month effectively making the charge £4.99.
Which you can't complain about really, good service, almost automatic connection and with the reliability of BT.

Muddy.

ChrisB

Muddy,

My exchange hasn't been 'Surftime enabled' yet

BT amaze me at times.....

Chris.

[This message has been edited by ChrisB (edited 23 August 2000).]

Doc

I'm using libertysurf unlimited and I'm really happy with it. At first it was awful but now I get through first time nearly all the time. No more disconnects than with my last provider and I think these are down to the line noise anyway.

simes

DavidG

Yes!

Do you get the whining modem effect too?

I changed numbers too which helped, but I find that occasionally it still happens if I connect by firing up the browser, but if I connect via Dial Up networking it always works, weird.

I've been a Demon user for years and I'll stick with it for now unless it gets really bad cos like you say generally it has been extremely reliable. And of course when things do go wrong the support is free.

Apart from the hassle of changing, (new email address to all and sundry etc etc), I'm really waiting to see what happens with ASDL.

Cheers

Simon

IWatkins

Hi Guys

I'm with Netcom and have been for over two years. I must first say that I do not pay for my call charges or subscription as work pays for it as I work from home.

Monthly fee is around 10 pounds a month and call charges are charged at the LoCall rate.

Tech support is available via email (usually under 10 minutes turn-around) but even better, 24/7 telephone support on a National rate number. Phone is usually picked up within seconds by someone who actually knows what the hell they (and you) are on about.

I used to use a modem and that was 99.9999% perfect for call connection and never got drop-outs.

I have been on ISDN for a year now and connection setups are mega fast with no drop-outs. I have had the occasional no answer but that has been down to BT rather than Netcom.

Netcom also support various ISDN routers (unofficially) so I can use a Cisco ISDN router to them, which is nice.

Service is excellent, you don't need to use their software (which is actually quite good). They also have a great news server carrying all the tech support newsgroups.

Cannot fault them, but if I had to be really picky, I would say they are moving a little too slowly towards supporting SurfTime. But then my exchange won't be ready for that until 2010 anyway, knowing BT

Cheers

Ian

DavidG

Simes - no whining modem (yet...)

Lee

Am I the only one on freeserve ?

was on BT Internet - ok and like ChrisB said, I could hold the line open all weekend if need be.

freeserve, tenner a month, isdn access via my router, 2 hour-ish timeout but instant reconnect (ah nice to have a router!).
tech support DIRE DIRE DIRE. But hey, once its up and running why do you need support ?

Shark

I'm with CC, I would post exactly the same except that I've been with them 9 months.

Logged 154 free hours last month - perhaps I need to get out more

David

ian/555

Thanks for all your opinion's and review's.

I am still not sure if i should change my isp yet but if the service don't improve i will probably go with BT or Ntl.

Chris L

Ian

One more for your list - I use Freedom to Surf - small ISP, but very good. All you pay is a local rate call - no special software. NEVER had an engaged signal, NEVER been thrown off (no time limits) - performance is very good and they've got multilink working properly which means I can run 128K on my ISDN line (unlike BT...). Totally anonymous as well which I prefer.

Don't be fooled by the 'free' ISPs as recent events have shown - they ain't gonna work!

Word of warning if you are considering ADSL. Just remember that at the moment all suppliers are reliant on BT (they are effectively reselling BTs service). This means that your connection will goto a BT exchange and through their equipment and network before it reaches your ISP's network. This means that performance will be very variable - take with a large pinch of salt, the bandwidth figures quoted.

Things won't really change until 1 July 2001 when BT lose their monopoly on the local loop. However you are still going to have to wait for other suppliers to install their equipment in BTs exchanges.

However - having said this, my ADSL line is on order - simply because my company is involved with developing DSL equipment. DSL is the way forward, it is just going to take a little time to get up to speed (no pun intended).

Chris

Steve Perriam

hi

i use BT free.

£10 a month for free connection each evening and all weekend. seems a bargain to me ?

i remember logging into Bulletin Boards around the country on national rates with 14.4 modem not that many years ago !

2 hour disconnection is not usually a problem and it always re-connects immediately.

never use the helpdesk cos i can usually sort it out and 50p min is not cheap.

looking into ISDN and hoping the cable or ASDL comes along soon and it not stupid money ?

steve

BarryK

Ditto ChrisB.

Although I have friends and colleagues who find the V90 connection a bit sparse.