unlimited access isp?

[activewaypoint]

Moving into the sticks where broadband hasn't reached yet......
looking for an isp to access through a bt line. Any experiences?
I've done a search of prune pages....what's the latest?
ps: is there anyone other than aol who has local access numbers
abroad?

[Nightrider]

In the UK....Onetel is the answer!

[spannersatcx]

ntlworld works fine to!

[BOAC]

AWP - I find AOL the best solution, despite its 'death grip' on your computer and its 'dorky' front end. For £14.99 a month I have fairly reliable free dial-up from anywhere in UK and pretty reasonable rate access around Europe (my patch).

I just use it as a dial-in and run my email and browser programme through it, so have very little to do with its email and browser systems.

Onetel STEADFASTLY resist a move into Europe for local dial-up, depsite their much vaunted European 'tie-ups' and are missing a huge trick! There are other services, GRIC for one. I'm sure an 'intelligent' search on Google or Jeeves would find them?

[Unwell_Raptor]

Avoid BT anytime and Freeserve similar. They are not what they say they are and they will start to bu**er your connection about if you use the supposedly unlimited service more than they think proper.

Broadband is the only way to go. Try putting pressure on BT

[brockenspectre]

works for me and has done so for about 6 years! If you only need to collect/write mails you can log on anywhere in the world via any ISP/internet access and go to www.AOL.com and collect/write mail .. you do NOT need to log in as yourself and incur the overseas charges that accrue if you are a UK AOLer ....

Otherwise if you are OK with incurring charges you can log on as yourself via any machine running AOL pretty much anywhere in the world!! (I personally have only done this in Europe/USA thus far).

Good luck in making the right choice for you!



:D

[timmcat]

Freeserve Anytime without a doubt, but only if you manually configure the installation..ie DONT use the disc from PC World / Dixons.. but yes there is a 2 hour limit per session..

Tim

[rob_frost]

I would agree with timmcat. It works fine for me. But I couldn't say what would happen if you used it 12 hrs a day, as I don't do that. There's also a second number, which is useful sometimes.

Avoid AOL. I used it for a while, then realised how bad it was. The only advantage I can see if that you don't get disconnected after 2 hrs. Try http://www.ispreview.co.uk/ The forum is quite good, as you can see people comments on each ISP.

[DB6]

Don't know about outside the UK but Claranet has always been quite good, although I only use the freetime offpeak thingy.

[activewaypoint]

Thanks for all that.....anyone tried BT's home highway? I've read their blurb and it seems one can get 128thingys/sec using isdn....whatever that is! Is this a viable alternative to broadband?

[What_does_this_button_do?]

ISDN is not a true competitor to Broadband as it's only 128k at best and it's charges at a pence per minute charge as well as a 120GBP per quarter line rental.

If you're a serious Broadband user you could have Satelite DSL.

B

[activewaypoint]

Satellite? Bet it costs a fortune. I did read something in the Sunday Times and the gist was that downloads were super quick but you had to send through the dial up telephone line. Perhaps I misunderstood.

[fobotcso]

BT's Home Highway ISDN cost me £75 per qtr inc VAT and for that I got two analogue voice lines and a double 64kbs data line. I had three 'phone numbers but could use only two lines at a time. You could double the data lines to get 128kbps but you would pay extra for that.

Add to this £48 per qtr for BTAnytime and you get £123 total Service Charges or about £500 per year. "BT Together" contract gave various other benefits. Only cost of 'phone calls to add to this.

Not a bad package for a country dweller.

Past Tense now as I've just upgraded to ADSL Broadand and I'm well chuffed. A download that took 10 mins this morning took 32 seconds this afternoon! (That's 1.8Mb of McAfee weekly upgdate.)

Email/msg me for more details if needed.

[Sledge]

Ive been using this company for 3 months now : http://www.satdrive.com.
I pay £14.99 per month and download most times at higher speeds than broadband.Upload is via normal modem and download is via satellite.
In fact these are the reults from a recent speed test using http://www.bandwidthplace.com/

81.9 megabits per second

Run the test again Discuss in the forum
Details

Your raw speed was 81920000 bits per second which is the same as:

Communications

81.9 megabits per second
How communication devices are rated. Kilo means 1,000 and mega means 1,000,000. Examples include 56k modem and 10Mbit Ethernet

Storage

9.8 megabytes per second
The way data is measured on your hard drive and how file sharing and FTP programs measure transfer speeds. Kilo is 1,024 and mega is 1,048,576.

1MB file download

0.1 seconds
The time it would take you to download a 1 megabyte file at this speed.

Rating

Compared to all connection types worldwide, yours is fantastic
Info


test type Downstream Test v3 (200 KB idt type)

test was run 21:51CST Jan 2, 2003

IP address 213.1.131.216

[activewaypoint]

Thanks people, excellent feedback! :cool:

[rob_frost]

9.8 Mb per second...... Makes ADSL look slow....:)