Are there any good ISPs?

[Dan Dare]

After paying huge 'phone bills with Netscape, and huge monthly bills with AOL I would like a descent service with free calls. Any recommendations?

[JP Justice]

Be very careful about Freeserve's free calls deal (£10 per month minumum sub).
I paid loads of money to BT on the old Freeserve deal, and applied for Freeserve Time. After a couple of months or so I was allowed to sign up, and it worked. Then I made my big mistake. I had a new modem line put in, and Freeserve did not recognise my password because my number had changed. I called them and they promised to change it in two or three days. Seven weeks ago, that was, and I am still being fobbed off with promises. They have charged me all the same.
Worse, I try to connect every day to see if my boat has come in, and in anything like a peak time the modem returns an unobtainable signal, suggesting that FS have bitten off more than they can chew, and the system is in overload. For the time being, at least, avoid. And sell the shares!

[Tartan Giant]

Hello there DD,
Have a look at www.net4nowt.com (http://www.net4nowt.com)

All the gen is there for you !

[BoeingBoy]

Hello JP. I looked at the freeserve offer and noted in the small print that only 2000 people would be allowed online at any time!!.

So I suspect you are right that they are fobbing you off due to the fact that 1999 people have since turned up online without problems.

I recently signed on with BT internet pay as you go, due to daytime rate being 2p a minute. (Half that of Gateway with it being my favourite number). Sadly this has flow rates as low as 14000 kbps during the day meaning that whilst you pay half price you take twice as long.

[Roger That]

I have an account with www.madasafish.com (http://www.madasafish.com) who make all sort of guarantees about speed and availability. They also have inclusive monthly deals and adsl packages available.

I have to say, can't fault them in any way - fast and easy (If only I could find a woman that way .......).

Roger T

[Flying Banana]

I've just dumped BT Internet as their service has deteriorated to the point where trading standards should look into them calling themselves an Internet Service 'Provider'

Just signed up with surfsaver, www.surfsaver.co.uk (http://www.surfsaver.co.uk)

One off payment of £39 and 24/7 0800 access. Can take a few tries to get connected during busy periods but connection is good, download speeds are up to five times greater than I was getting on BT and it doesn't take six hours for an email to turn up (that's if it doesn't just go missing as it does with BTi)

[beaver eager]

I've been on lineone for about a year and always had a good service paying only for the 'phone calls. No serious problems with connection, or anything else for that matter (although the help line is expensive at 50p per minute)! They've got a new deal now for which I'm registered and waiting. You pay a one off fee of £20.00 for a plug-in gadget that routes your national and international phone calls (not local calls as they're cheaper with BT) automatically through their network and as long as you spend £5.00 a month on calls with them, all your internet calls both peak and off-peak, will be free. It remains to be seen whether the service will deteriorate, though it's probably worth a try for £20.00.
I'll only have one 'gadget' and make only certain types of calls via that 'phone socket (the rest of your sockets will be as normal - you'd need a gadget for each socket) keeping my eye on the bill (which will be available real-time on-line) until I'm sure that these call are really not any kind of rip off.
Apparently they reserve the right to cut you off after 15 mins of inactivity or 2 hours total (but you can re-dial) which I think is not unreasonable for a free service and anyway I'm not that big a nerd! Yet.
Details on www.lineone.net (http://www.lineone.net)

------------------
Keep it up!

[This message has been edited by beaver eager (edited 06 July 2000).]

[acpo]

I was able to sign up with Freeserve time on the second day that I applied.
I pay £10 a month and that covers all internet time and gives me £10 of voice calls as well.
I have had no problems at all with them and would recommend them to anyone.

[JP Justice]

acpo:

Any chance you could give them a ring and ask them to connect me? Eight weeks coming up, and the "Customer Service" people are still lying.... "in a day or two..."

I am going to issue proceedings in the county court on Monday.

[Tartan Giant]

JP Justice,

Much like yourself, I too am having trouble with an ISP.
Their name is FREE-Call UK.
Last September I was promised software to enable "free" internet calls via a 0800 link.
Despite many complaints, they just bumble on and on making excuses via a standard email broadcast.
They have taken my money and have failed to deliver.
I wrote to my local trading standards, but because they could not get a reply from FREE-Call by email, they told me there is nothing they can do for me !
Likewise OFTEL threw my complaint back saying, "seek independent legal advice". Great help these watch-dogs !!!

I would like these FRE-Call UK buggers to get some bad press.
Would it be worth taking the same line as you via the County Court ? How much would that cost me ?

[JP Justice]

Tartan G:

The court fees are not that much; your local county court will have a list. The problem is finding who to sue; Freeserve is a PLC, and worth going for - that may not be the case for everyone.

I am not expecting the court to solve my problem, just to allow me to contact the press in the hope of embarassing Freeserve, and thus move up the queue.

[InFinRetirement]

JP. I just signed up to IG Click. £50 initial fee + £30 - annual fee - no internet charges all free, all day, all year. No catches, nothing that is apparent anyway. Forums on ISP's say that it is a good one.

They say they will connect me in 20 days. We will see, but I will let you know.

[JP Justice]

Freeserve Update: still waiting! Customer service continue to lie, but their phrasing is so consistent that they must be reading from a script.

And, if I connect from my voice number, there is no, repeat no, chance of a connection between 6pm and 11pm - just an unobtainable tone.

I am surprised that this hasn't made the press yet. I will see what I can do.

16th July update: I'm still waiting and they are still lying.



[This message has been edited by JP Justice (edited 16 July 2000).]

[JP Justice]

Today's paper says that Line One has pulled its £5 per month service for financial reasons. Punters who have signed up are not happy.

Reading between the lines, I guess that Freeserve are hanging fire on routine fixes like amending phone numbers (like what I want them to do)for a similar reason. That would explain the lies.

But....this is supposed to be a Plc, up there in the FTSE index. Is this the way for a serious public company to behave?

I would dump the shares asap if I had them.

[Flying Banana]

For more info on the line one pullout go to http://www.ispreview.co.uk/
loads of info on everything ISP related.

Interesting news, demon are planning to launch unmetered access. 128k ISDN access for around £40 a month.

[JP Justice]

Thanks FB, an excellent link. Somehow it isn't so bad when you are not the only one being messed about.

[Scallywag]

TG, thanks for that excellent link to http://net4nowt.com/index.shtml that you posted, there's alot of good gen to be had from that site.

Here's a couple of others people may want to try. http://www.thematrix.org.uk/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/

Scally

[Sensible]

Just got myself connected to 'thefreeinternet.com' I paid 50 quid inc the VAT for a year. When I can get connected - it takes abot 5-8 attempts at peak times, it seems ok. In spite of upgrading my modem, I still have difficulties sometimes with connection - thats on top of the times when the line is busy - Virgin was and is great but the phone bills - thats why I changed.