0800 ISP's

[mfds]

Can anyone recommend a good 0800 ISP ?

I currently use The Free Internet at £90/year all in, but find the connection goes slows to a snails pace after 20 minutes.

I am tempted with BT, anyone tried them or others ?

[SLF 999]

Im with BT Anytime (£14.99 per month), as there are no cable companies in my area and usually connect at about 44000kb - 45300 Kb very unusual to get 33600 but disconnect and reconnect and it usually back to 44k. Download speeds are usually in the region of 8 - 12K per sec, although if busy this can drop to about 4kps.
One thing I should say is that its on its own telephone line, so this may help the quality, as there is no other interuptions to service eg people calling, switching between pc and phone etc.
Dont have many complaints about the service, never been let down but one drawback is it auto disconnects after 2hrs no matter if you are using it or not, apart from that all seems ok.
Interested to hear of others experiences.

[Gentleman Aviator]

I've been using OneTel: www.onetel.co.uk (http://www.onetel.co.uk) for over a year now.

They charge 1p per minute on an 0808 dial up ( it is a free phone! )

Money is sucked from your credit card at the end of the month. Dial up is easy, speed is fine, never had a problem with the billing.

GA :cool:

[ 15 July 2001: Message edited by: Gentleman Aviator ]

[KwikPhix]

I'm with BT Anytime and have been with BT Internet (surftime,payg) since Sep 2000, the service was good at first then went slowly downhill when I converted to Anytime in Feb. maybe lots of new customers swamping the system? It was absolutely diabolical in mid May and didn't seem to recover until the last 2-3 weeks but they seem to have sorted it out, for the last week I've been connecting at 1st attempt several times a day at alltimes (Shift worker) with speeds of 48k bps the lack of speed has never been an issue with me, I've always had 42k+ bps however the inability to access drove me to trying out the AOL free trial, I never, ever connected to AOL higher than 35k also my computer started to misbehave very badly it crashed loads of times until i binned AOL, I'm not saying that AOL was the culprit but it is no longer in my system and my system is now behaving, AOL didn't do it for me but I know personal friends who are very happy with it, Horses for courses....? BT No problems with billing but 50p per min for help(even if you're 'phoning to complain about poor service!) Why not give BT PAYG a try if you like it switch to Anytime.

[Sidestick]

As far as free ISPs go, I've found "ntl world" excellent. A genuine 24hrs/day 0800 dial up, which works well with no hang ups etc. Terms & Conditions ? Of course!

Basically you must spend £15/month on (non-internet) phone calls from at least one of your two registered landlines - certainly not difficult in this household! You do NOT need to be on cable to use the service - just a BT line and either use a (free) ntl box or dial 1263 before making a call - works well here in a remote part of Scotland where even BBC2 is quite advanced!

Phone calls are cheap too and SIMPLE compared to BT. 3p/min peak, 2p/min offpeak, 1p/min weekends whether the call is local or national.

Anyway enough of free advertising for ntl, except they are very good (and free) to use.

[EGTE]

Sidestick

Same call pricing as BT Together then!

[WhiteSail]

A friend of mine recently joined 08002go.

I went to his home and checked it out. It seems very good, but if your interested, they are limiting new subscribers, so get in quick.

Apparently, as they improve their bandwidth, then they accept more subscribers, so their server does not become over loaded.

Its a 24 hour service, no call charges for a monthly subscription of £9.98p.

I am now looking seriously at joining.
http://www.08002go.com/

Hope this helps.

[Professor TailSpin]

I currently use BTInternet Surf package and connect on average at 48k bps. Not noticed any particular problems or issues over the last few months, but the 2hr cut off is a tad annoying at best.

Did try freeserve before that, but connection speeds ranging from 35k bps to 42k bps (never higher than 42k bps!).

If you can I would recommend going broadband which is available through a load of cable operators for something like £25 a month all in. Most of my friends who have this service cannot fault it (when it eventually gets installed!).

[mfds]

Thanks for the replys ....

Anyone else used 'Thefreeinternet' ? Is it only me who finds the connection grinds to a halt after 25 minutes .... they blme BT and the bandwidth of the line to their own telecoms company ..... Maybe this would also happend to me with another ISP ?

Thefreeinternet is a good deal at £90/year all in, plus the software has an 'auto redialler' although most times it connects 1st time ....

Maybe better the devil I know ...

[Sensible]

I've used thefreeinternet for a bit over a year now, never experienced problems as you report, odd occasions at peak times I get an engaged tone and need to redial once or twice or three or more!! and sometimes I get a slow connection when I simply hang up and redial. Worth the money!!

[MightyGem]

Have to agree with Sidestick. Been using NTLWorld for 6 months now with no problems. EGTE their call charges may be the same as BT Together, but you are not paying £15 a month before you make a call.
:rolleyes:

[lekkerste]

Has anyone tried Worldonline Tiscali's unmetered offering? I'm with AOL at the moment and though I get a first-time connection just about every time, at 57k, I really dislike their version of explorer and am looking to change.

[xsimba]

I too can recommend ntl. Their product is pretty good and fairly reliable. However, be warned, if you ever need to speak to their customer services be prepared for a great deal of frustration. They must employ the most idiotic, untechnical people they can find.

What was that phrase about monkeys and peanuts??!! :rolleyes: