Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Jimbob on 15 May 2009, 11:09:18
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Ive jsut had a mail from Zen, they are discontinuing there binary news group service.
This was one of the reasons I liked them, up with good speed - 1 meg line, which is as fast as it will go, 5.5k from exchange , and reliability, and download limits (was unlimited, now 100g per month)
This is costing me just under £30 a month.
So time to look elsewhere
Linespeed - they all use the other system now, so expect will get what line can support
Cap - Want as much as possible
Newsgroups - good coverage, but if cheap enough will use easynews or someone instead.
Need VPN support, I know sky dont allow this anymore.
Also want reliability, and a static IP address.
Decisions Decisons.
Dont use news as much as I did, but wouldnt like to be without a good feed.
Do I stay, or do I go, I cant return as my current package is not available once you leave, and current offerings not as appealing.
Could have done without this >:(
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maybe plusnet unlimited for £15, plus $9 on easynews
Looks to fit the bill
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Not many offer static IP (or 8 statics in your case), so tying yourself down before you start.
Its something I look in to regularly, due to similarish requirements (only I need more IPs), though I don't use NNTP. I just keep coming back to Zen...
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Also remember, that other ISPs count upload as well as download towards your caps, so don't let that catch you out!
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maybe plusnet unlimited for £15, plus $9 on easynews
Looks to fit the bill
As discussed, you may find the shaping a bit heavy.
Additionally, moving ISP will put you on a MaxDSL type product. The older legacy products have a bit of an advantage in that they use seperate, now near empty, VPs, so you will get pretty much the stated speed all day, every day. MaxDSL products will tend to slow down peak times due to VP and Central congestion. Thats an over generalisation, but you get the idea.
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Yup, looking round, not much matches what I have :'(
may just have to swallow $9 for news access and stay with Zen
trouble is they are just so reliable!
Ive used various others ISP's in other peoples houses, they all have 'higher speeds', but feel much slower ;D
And where I am, its a one way street, no way back to where I am, so have to be sure its the right decision.
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Only you can choose - everyone's needs are slightly different.
Zen certainly appear to be the best for me at the moment, though I am lucky enough to have 2 lines (other with another ISP), so I can decide what traffic type is best suited to which line - some stuff definately runs better over the other line that syncs up at 6.9Mb (3.5km line length).
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And where I am, its a one way street, no way back to where I am, so have to be sure its the right decision.
Is your exchange unbundled?
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And where I am, its a one way street, no way back to where I am, so have to be sure its the right decision.
Is your exchange unbundled?
Mine certainly is. Unable to find a decent ISP who can meet my needs though, IPStream or otherwise
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And where I am, its a one way street, no way back to where I am, so have to be sure its the right decision.
Is your exchange unbundled?
yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
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And where I am, its a one way street, no way back to where I am, so have to be sure its the right decision.
Is your exchange unbundled?
yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Hmmm, none of which I think will match your requirements.
At 5.5k, I don't think the ADSL2 ones will help a great deal speed wise either :'( - though every line is individual.
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yes, i'm right on the limit.
My old ISP demon would only let me have 512, wouldnt even try better.
Spoke to Zen, hmmm maybe, we will put a manual step on the order to try. Fair play they did, migrated me over at 512, days later upgraded to 1 meg. Been solid ever since.
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yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Go with o2 then.
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Stats :
ADSL Information (ADSL Firmware Version: E.67.2.55 )
ATM Statistics TX Blocks RX Blocks Corrected Blocks Uncorrected Blocks
17077777 16839952 0 3013
ADSL Status Mode State Up Speed Down Speed SNR Margin Loop Att.
T1.413 SHOWTIME 288000 1152000 17.5 59.0
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At 5.5k, I don't think the ADSL2 ones will help a great deal speed wise either :'( - though every line is individual.
He won't be any worse off, but he'll certainly be paying less.
As you say though, every line is individual (I get more than I should get in theory).
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yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Go with o2 then.
There £22 package looks promising
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
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At 5.5k, I don't think the ADSL2 ones will help a great deal speed wise either :'( - though every line is individual.
He won't be any worse off, but he'll certainly be paying less.
As you say though, every line is individual (I get more than I should get in theory).
If going to o2, he'll be losing his range of IPs, and dropping to just 1 - not sure how important that is to him, he'll also be losing Zen's customer service, which is a million times better than O2s. Again, not sure how important that is.
Lastly, its slapped on top of Be's network, which isn't great in some areas - advanatge of legacy IPStream is it bloody good in all areas now.
Up to Jimbob to make the decision - other ISPs will be cheaper (Zen are one of the most expensive, but also one of the most stable), depending what fits his requirements.
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yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Go with o2 then.
There £22 package looks promising
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
Std + static IP would be cheaper, can't see any benefit in more expensive packages considering your poor line...
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Beware of ADSL2 though as its suffers more regular dropouts due to trying to push the boundaries a bit further (somewhat dependent on the settings the ISP sets at the exchange end, Virgin seem the worst with regaulr LCP failures)
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yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Go with o2 then.
There £22 package looks promising
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
Std + static IP would be cheaper, can't see any benefit in more expensive packages considering your poor line...
yes, just realised i would be paying an extra £10 for a load of license i dont want, speed I cant use & cust service I hope not to need, and a router that i have nothing compatible with ;D
yes I have 8 IP's, but never got round to setting up differnt services to have diffent ip's so not important.
Just need 1 static
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yes, AOL, talktalk, 02, orange & sky
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNCSS
Go with o2 then.
There £22 package looks promising
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
Std + static IP would be cheaper, can't see any benefit in more expensive packages considering your poor line...
yes, just realised i would be paying an extra £2-3 for a load of license i dont want, cust service I hope not to need, and a router that i have nothing compatible with ;D
yes I have 8 IP's, but never got round to setting up differnt services to have diffent ip's so not important.
Just need 1 static
Thats good, as they are generally appalling! They can make BT Broadband's CS look good :o
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There £22 package looks promising
It will be £17 if you happen to be an o2 customer
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
I've been with them since last June. Never had a loss of service, although they did have a DNS issue that lasted for a week (that can happen to anybody, and there was nothing to stop you using your own DNS as a temporary fix).
Bandwidth wise, I'm a serial downloader easily hitting 80 - 100GB per day and they haven't complained once.
Hardware wise, the supplied router (Thomson) isn't quite my cup of tea....but it will be good enough for the "home" user.
I got in before the price hike, so I'm paying £15 for the Pro package.
All in all, can't fault it.
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
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Beware of ADSL2 though as its suffers more regular dropouts due to trying to push the boundaries a bit further (somewhat dependent on the settings the ISP sets at the exchange end, Virgin seem the worst with regaulr LCP failures)
Correct. BT tend to use reasonable parameters on their Max products for getting max line speed.
Its very unlikely that any rate adaptive system will ever retain the stability of fix system (for marketing reasons mostly).
The uptime of the fixed line that runs this forum:
System up: 188 days 19 hours 14 minutes
Line up: 187 days 23 hours 12 minutes
Max line, right next to it:
System up: 86 days 14 hours 15 minutes
Line up: 29 days 9 hours 23 minutes
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There £22 package looks promising
It will be £17 if you happen to be an o2 customer
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
I've been with them since last June. Never had a loss of service, although they did have a DNS issue that lasted for a week (that can happen to anybody, and there was nothing to stop you using your own DNS as a temporary fix).
Bandwidth wise, I'm a serial downloader easily hitting 80 - 100GB per day and they haven't complained once.
Hardware wise, the supplied router (Thomson) isn't quite my cup of tea....but it will be good enough for the "home" user.
I got in before the price hike, so I'm paying £15 for the Pro package.
All in all, can't fault it.
Can drop to their basic package.
its newsgroups I want, not DNS (although that does come in handy)
dont need the router anyway, I am already running far better hardware than they are supplying.
Just wonder what the speeds would really be like :-/
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Beware of ADSL2 though as its suffers more regular dropouts due to trying to push the boundaries a bit further (somewhat dependent on the settings the ISP sets at the exchange end, Virgin seem the worst with regaulr LCP failures)
Correct. BT tend to use reasonable parameters on their Max products for getting max line speed.
Its very unlikely that any rate adaptive system will ever retain the stability of fix system (for marketing reasons mostly).
The uptime of the fixed line that runs this forum:
System up: 188 days 19 hours 14 minutes
Line up: 187 days 23 hours 12 minutes
Max line, right next to it:
System up: 86 days 14 hours 15 minutes
Line up: 29 days 9 hours 23 minutes
Where as Virgin are very agressive and hence I have an up time of around 8 hours on average. But, they can then market as having the fastest broadband (when it rather works!)
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There £22 package looks promising
It will be £17 if you happen to be an o2 customer
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
I've been with them since last June. Never had a loss of service, although they did have a DNS issue that lasted for a week (that can happen to anybody, and there was nothing to stop you using your own DNS as a temporary fix).
Bandwidth wise, I'm a serial downloader easily hitting 80 - 100GB per day and they haven't complained once.
Hardware wise, the supplied router (Thomson) isn't quite my cup of tea....but it will be good enough for the "home" user.
I got in before the price hike, so I'm paying £15 for the Pro package.
All in all, can't fault it.
No, it can't and won't happen to most reasonable ISPs, as it is the easiest problem in the world for them to fix >:(
But easy for tech users to fix as well :)
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Just remember, their calculation of what you will get is just a guess (although the guess is invariably right).
I was told I would only get 14Mbit. I pull 17.5Mbit when it's dry and 16.2Mbit when it's raining......I'll go outside and attack the BT box on my wall with some mastic if the speed drops any more when it's wet ;D
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There £22 package looks promising
It will be £17 if you happen to be an o2 customer
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
I've been with them since last June. Never had a loss of service, although they did have a DNS issue that lasted for a week (that can happen to anybody, and there was nothing to stop you using your own DNS as a temporary fix).
Bandwidth wise, I'm a serial downloader easily hitting 80 - 100GB per day and they haven't complained once.
Hardware wise, the supplied router (Thomson) isn't quite my cup of tea....but it will be good enough for the "home" user.
I got in before the price hike, so I'm paying £15 for the Pro package.
All in all, can't fault it.
No, it can't and won't happen to most reasonable ISPs, as it is the easiest problem in the world for them to fix >:(
Until you know what the problem was, and how it came about....how can you say it WON'T happen to most reasonable ISP's?
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Agreed. But we can't :'(
I think in the case of O2 (and indeed most current suppliers), esp with your line stats, stability will be the biggest issue.
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Just remember, their calculation of what you will get is just a guess (although the guess is invariably right).
I was told I would only get 14Mbit. I pull 17.5Mbit when it's dry and 16.2Mbit when it's raining......I'll go outside and attack the BT box on my wall with some mastic if the speed drops any more when it's wet ;D
Luxury!
at the moment, I know I can run at full speed, up or down 24 hours a day
speed may only be 1 meg down, 256k up, but it works flawlessly.
Once I make this decision, I know I cannot go back to where I am, so it HAS to be a better service, couldnt tolerate any less (but would have too :'()
Sync speeds mean nowt, its the real world that counts and you can;t find out till its too late :'(
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There £22 package looks promising
It will be £17 if you happen to be an o2 customer
still need extra news service, But ill have a read up on em :y
I've been with them since last June. Never had a loss of service, although they did have a DNS issue that lasted for a week (that can happen to anybody, and there was nothing to stop you using your own DNS as a temporary fix).
Bandwidth wise, I'm a serial downloader easily hitting 80 - 100GB per day and they haven't complained once.
Hardware wise, the supplied router (Thomson) isn't quite my cup of tea....but it will be good enough for the "home" user.
I got in before the price hike, so I'm paying £15 for the Pro package.
All in all, can't fault it.
No, it can't and won't happen to most reasonable ISPs, as it is the easiest problem in the world for them to fix >:(
Until you know what the problem was, and how it came about....how can you say it WON'T happen to most reasonable ISP's?
Whatever the problem, it is easy to fix. Most ISPs have sufficient DNS capacity to cope with single server outage. Even if you lost all your DNS servers, how long does it take you to get them back?
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Just remember, their calculation of what you will get is just a guess (although the guess is invariably right).
I was told I would only get 14Mbit. I pull 17.5Mbit when it's dry and 16.2Mbit when it's raining......I'll go outside and attack the BT box on my wall with some mastic if the speed drops any more when it's wet ;D
The sync change will be due to a renegotiate, which will cause a line drop :'(
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Just remember, their calculation of what you will get is just a guess (although the guess is invariably right).
I was told I would only get 14Mbit. I pull 17.5Mbit when it's dry and 16.2Mbit when it's raining......I'll go outside and attack the BT box on my wall with some mastic if the speed drops any more when it's wet ;D
Luxury!
at the moment, I know I can run at full speed, up or down 24 hours a day
speed may only be 1 meg down, 256k up, but it works flawlessly.
Once I make this decision, I know I cannot go back to where I am, so it HAS to be a better service, couldnt tolerate any less (but would have too :'()
Sync speeds mean nowt, its the real world that counts and you can;t find out till its too late :'(
Be's network is reasonable in most places, but problematic in others, so ideally find someone off the same exchange who runs o2/be. Thats still not a guarantee, as if its a larger exchange, they may have multiple pipes...
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So IF i swap to O2, they reckon 3meg!
£12 + $9
If only you could really try before you buy :-?
Just remember, their calculation of what you will get is just a guess (although the guess is invariably right).
I was told I would only get 14Mbit. I pull 17.5Mbit when it's dry and 16.2Mbit when it's raining......I'll go outside and attack the BT box on my wall with some mastic if the speed drops any more when it's wet ;D
Luxury!
at the moment, I know I can run at full speed, up or down 24 hours a day
speed may only be 1 meg down, 256k up, but it works flawlessly.
Once I make this decision, I know I cannot go back to where I am, so it HAS to be a better service, couldnt tolerate any less (but would have too :'()
Sync speeds mean nowt, its the real world that counts and you can;t find out till its too late :'(
Be's network is reasonable in most places, but problematic in others, so ideally find someone off the same exchange who runs o2/be. Thats still not a guarantee, as if its a larger exchange, they may have multiple pipes...
noone I know unfortunately, everyone is on the big names
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Even if you lost all your DNS servers, how long does it take you to get them back?
You seem to think you know everything about everything already, so quite frankly I'm amazed you haven't told me.
The sync change will be due to a renegotiate, which will cause a line drop :'(
It doesn't drop the line when a speed change occurs.
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other way of looking at it....
currently paying £30
to get what I want its £40 with Zen, or £20 with O2 (or whatever elsewhere, but the best LLU option on the exchange prob makes sense I reckon)
So...Is the £40 option twice as good as the £20 option....
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other way of looking at it....
currently paying £30
to get what I want its £40 with Zen, or £20 with O2 (or whatever elsewhere, but the best LLU option on the exchange prob makes sense I reckon)
So...Is the £40 option twice as good as the £20 option....
Unlikely, but only you can answer that with your priorities...
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I can only speak from personal experience JB, and I have had no reason to fault them.
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Even if you lost all your DNS servers, how long does it take you to get them back?
You seem to think you know everything about everything already, so quite frankly I'm amazed you haven't told me.
The sync change will be due to a renegotiate, which will cause a line drop :'(
It doesn't drop the line when a speed change occurs.
a) I assumed you'd know
b) Its ADSL2 isn't it? :-?
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You can Have it Good, Fast & Cheap.....Any 2
;D ;D ;D
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You can Have it Good, Fast & Cheap.....Any 2
;D ;D ;D
But we want all 3, and more ;D
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You can Have it Good, Fast & Cheap.....Any 2
;D ;D ;D
Actually, thats one YOU can't have :'(
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I can only speak from personal experience JB, and I have had no reason to fault them.
Granted, but we have VERY different lines. If I was close to the exchange, the promises of good speeds would be reason to take the risk.
Where I am, I know I get a good service, and just unsure if it will be matched.
I may jump, find I have 3 times the speed, and decent upload, and wonder what all the fuss was about.
If I do, and dont, I will regret the move for a long time.
Its not all about price, but value does come into it. and £40 a month is getting to be too much.
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You can Have it Good, Fast & Cheap.....Any 2
;D ;D ;D
Actually, thats one YOU can't have :'(
ok, ok...
You can have it Good, fast as possible, and cheap.....any 2!
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Got it!
Re-enable my 2nd line to the house, get O2 on that and compare.
If I am happy then cease the 1st line ;D ;D ;D, if nto cease the 2nd ;D ;D ;D
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Got it!
Re-enable my 2nd line to the house, get O2 on that and compare.
If I am happy then cease the 1st line ;D ;D ;D, if nto cease the 2nd ;D ;D ;D
Expensive option (do you need the BT line for 12months, no idea what their current rules are), but would defo show what is best for YOU
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just thinking.....never had confimation the other line had been officailly ceased.....And I dont get the bills :D
Now wheres a handset to try it out ;D ;D ;D
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just thinking.....never had confimation the other line had been officailly ceased.....And I dont get the bills :D
Now wheres a handset to try it out ;D ;D ;D
Keep in mind the minimum o2 contract length is 12months...
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even if it is active, i can't do anything with it as its not my line, all billed to work.
Cant even get into the provided router, all locked down :'(
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After much deliberation....
Ive only gone and done it.
Zen provided my mac code within minutes.
Signed up (via quidco for £50 cashback)
Lets just hope I'm happy when Its all swapped over.
Jaime, did you find that bit we were talking about? :y
My new newsgroup provider is proving very good - Astrawebnews, and have been filling my hard drives! all for £7.5 a month.
So all in all saving about £20 a month, hope its worth it :-?
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just checked quidco......
they have given me the old cashback rate of £70
happy days!
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hope it suits your needs :y
If its that good, and that stable, guess where we'll be hosting the oof server after me ::)
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hope it suits your needs :y
If its that good, and that stable, guess where we'll be hosting the oof server after me ::)
:o :o :o :o
You trying to announce your retirement?!?!
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Keep in mind the minimum o2 contract length is 12months...
They give you 30 days to decide if you are going to commit to a 12 month contract, and in the highly unlikely event you have to call the support department....you get to talk to an english person, in england, on a freephone number, who won't ask you to insert the Windows CD after the first question (thats worth the monthly fee in itself these days).
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Keep in mind the minimum o2 contract length is 12months...
They give you 30 days to decide if you are going to commit to a 12 month contract, and in the highly unlikely event you have to call the support department....you get to talk to an english person, in england, on a freephone number, who won't ask you to insert the Windows CD after the first question (thats worth the monthly fee in itself these days).
Ah, missed the 30 bit in first read :)
The tech support is only as good as the agent (if they don't use scripts) or the donkey management bearucrat with no real job if they do use scripts.
I would have to say, of all the ISPs I've dealt with (and thats an awful lot), Zen's are the best by a considerable margin. Whether that alone is worth the cost depends on your needs. Zen also have one of the best networks in relation to subscriber numbers. That said, their servers aren't the best imho, hopefully some of the money that was spent on nttp binary retention can go on beefing these up.
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I would have to say, of all the ISPs I've dealt with (and thats an awful lot), Zen's are the best by a considerable margin. Whether that alone is worth the cost depends on your needs. Zen also have one of the best networks in relation to subscriber numbers. That said, their servers aren't the best imho, hopefully some of the money that was spent on nttp binary retention can go on beefing these up.
As you say, horses for courses really.
While one ISP may excel in one particular department, they may not necessarily be so hot at something else.
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I would have to say, of all the ISPs I've dealt with (and thats an awful lot), Zen's are the best by a considerable margin. Whether that alone is worth the cost depends on your needs. Zen also have one of the best networks in relation to subscriber numbers. That said, their servers aren't the best imho, hopefully some of the money that was spent on nttp binary retention can go on beefing these up.
As you say, horses for courses really.
While one ISP may excel in one particular department, they may not necessarily be so hot at something else.
Aye, one thing OFCOM have managed is a reasonably deregulated, cheap ISP choice in the UK
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all this talk has got me thinking about moving isp shame i live in a backwater with break all infrastructure
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNHR
:(
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all this talk has got me thinking about moving isp shame i live in a backwater with break all infrastructure
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNHR
:(
3 LLU providers, and all universally accepted as shite......guess it's not your week ;D
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all this talk has got me thinking about moving isp shame i live in a backwater with break all infrastructure
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/WNHR
:(
3 LLU providers, and all universally accepted as shite......guess it's not your week ;D
Wonder if the WHorehouse's network will improve now they are swallowing Tiscali (who have a reasonable network and infrastructure)
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Tiscali & good in the same sentence.......can I have some of the s**t you are taking? ;D ;D
Tiscali have never been any good TB, and that has never been a secret
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You use the words Tiscali & good in the same sentence again, and I will drive to Northants and give you a slap ;D ;D ;D
Tiscali have never been any good TB, and that has never been a secret
They have a pretty good network and infrastructure. Not all their network users at the wholesale level choose to pay for a higher level of service.
Tiscali as an end user ISP isn't too bad if you don't need to talk to their customer service. From memory (will have to check tomorrow), they traffic shape out p2p and some nntp, so not ideal for a small proportion of internet users.
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well line swapped while I was away.
Plugged the new router in on Saturday, and so far all good.
was getting 1 meg down, 256 up
now getting a steady 3.5 meg down, and 700K up!
Been on all weekend, and very impressed, today is the 1st day conecting to the pc remotely, and it is so much faster as well.
Providing it stays like this I'll be very happy.
Want to change my phone socket faceplate, and need a new faceplate - router cable as mine is looking a bit tatty and too short.
cashback has been reduced to £50, that bit was too good to be true.
Very good wireless range on the router, much better than my old one, but dont like it much, even logged in as superuser, I dont seem to have a lot of options / info, but it was free :-?