advice on best ISP for us

Hi,

I know that regular group users must get sick of these questions, but I do
need a bit of advice.
We have had virgin.net for a few years now and, to be honest, it has never
worked properly. It's common to go for days without being able to connect.
We set it up to work with a netgear DG834G router, for our PC and laptop.
This might well be the problem, but we have contacted them on many occasions
to no avail.
We need the following:
Wireless support
Newsgroups
VPN support
a decent monthly usage limit.

I was thinking of moving to BT total broadband option 2, and using their
homehub and returning the Netgear. Is this is best thing to do, or should I
be looking elsewhere?

TIA.

"Aaron Borbora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:hqOQg.36950$(E-Mail Removed)...
: Hi,
:
: I know that regular group users must get sick of these questions, but I
do
: need a bit of advice.
: We have had virgin.net for a few years now and, to be honest, it has never
: worked properly. It's common to go for days without being able to
connect.
: We set it up to work with a netgear DG834G router, for our PC and laptop.
: This might well be the problem, but we have contacted them on many
occasions
: to no avail.
: We need the following:
: Wireless support
: Newsgroups
: VPN support
: a decent monthly usage limit.
:
: I was thinking of moving to BT total broadband option 2, and using their
: homehub and returning the Netgear. Is this is best thing to do, or should
I
: be looking elsewhere?
:
: TIA.
:
:

Just spend a bit of time reading the posts here before you make your mind
up.

Then when you have sorted one or two you like the sound off post back-an I'm
sure someone will have something bad to say about them


Chris


--
Cheap As Chips Broadband http://yeah.kick-butt.co.uk
Superb hosting & domain name deals http://host.kick-butt.co.uk

"Joker7" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:451409b4$0$3613$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Aaron Borbora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:hqOQg.36950$(E-Mail Removed)...
> : Hi,
> :
> : I know that regular group users must get sick of these questions, but I
> do
> : need a bit of advice.
> : We have had virgin.net for a few years now and, to be honest, it has
> never
> : worked properly. It's common to go for days without being able to
> connect.
> : We set it up to work with a netgear DG834G router, for our PC and
> laptop.
> : This might well be the problem, but we have contacted them on many
> occasions
> : to no avail.
> : We need the following:
> : Wireless support
> : Newsgroups
> : VPN support
> : a decent monthly usage limit.
> :
> : I was thinking of moving to BT total broadband option 2, and using their
> : homehub and returning the Netgear. Is this is best thing to do, or
> should
> I
> : be looking elsewhere?
> :
> : TIA.
> :
> :
>
> Just spend a bit of time reading the posts here before you make your mind
> up.
>
> Then when you have sorted one or two you like the sound off post back-an
> I'm
> sure someone will have something bad to say about them
>
>
> Chris
>
Thanks

BT or PlusNet. I've heard bad thing about the latter on here, however.
>

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:38:23 GMT, "Aaron Borbora"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>BT or PlusNet. I've heard bad thing about the latter on here, however.

I'll bet you have. You either have to be :

a) a muppet;
b) heavily into referrals;
c) genuinely clueless;

to be recommending Plusnet to anyone. Pick your group

I would feel happier recommending someone to Tiscali than Plusnet -
yes I know Tiscali are utter crap too, but my personal opinion is that
you have more chance of getting truth out of Tiscali than Plusnet.

To the OP - BT Retail will do you just fine. It's not the best by any
means but it is an order of magnitude better
--
John Naismith

On 22 Sep 2006 John Naismith wrote:

>a) a muppet;
>b) heavily into referrals;
>c) genuinely clueless;
>
>to be recommending Plusnet to anyone. Pick your group

so you have checked <http://yeah.kick-butt.co.uk> have you?

"Aaron Borbora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:hqOQg.36950$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> I know that regular group users must get sick of these questions, but I
> do need a bit of advice.
> We have had virgin.net for a few years now and, to be honest, it has never
> worked properly. It's common to go for days without being able to
> connect. We set it up to work with a netgear DG834G router, for our PC and
> laptop. This might well be the problem, but we have contacted them on many
> occasions to no avail.
> We need the following:
> Wireless support
> Newsgroups
> VPN support
> a decent monthly usage limit.
>
> I was thinking of moving to BT total broadband option 2, and using their
> homehub and returning the Netgear. Is this is best thing to do, or should
> I be looking elsewhere?
>
> TIA.
>

I would suggest before jumping ship that you identify the problems you are
having with your connection first. If there is a problem with your BT
landline or the internal wiring within your house, changing ISP's will make
no difference.
If you post the connection info from your router here someone may be able to
identify the problem. If it is your equipment or your BT line then get that
sorted first.
I use the same router on Virgin and have a rock solid connection with the
only downtime being when there is a rare server problem at Virgin, so it is
not Virgin itself but your connection that is at fault in some way if you
are unable to connect etc:.

--
Paul Woodsford
Remove NOSPAM to reply.

Paul Woodsford wrote:
> "Aaron Borbora" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:hqOQg.36950$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I know that regular group users must get sick of these questions, but I
> > do need a bit of advice.
> > We have had virgin.net for a few years now and, to be honest, it has never
> > worked properly. It's common to go for days without being able to
> > connect. We set it up to work with a netgear DG834G router, for our PC and
> > laptop. This might well be the problem, but we have contacted them on many
> > occasions to no avail.
> > We need the following:
> > Wireless support
> > Newsgroups
> > VPN support
> > a decent monthly usage limit.
> >
> > I was thinking of moving to BT total broadband option 2, and using their
> > homehub and returning the Netgear. Is this is best thing to do, or should
> > I be looking elsewhere?
> >
> > TIA.
> >
>
> I would suggest before jumping ship that you identify the problems you are
> having with your connection first. If there is a problem with your BT
> landline or the internal wiring within your house, changing ISP's will make
> no difference.
> If you post the connection info from your router here someone may be able to
> identify the problem. If it is your equipment or your BT line then get that
> sorted first.
> I use the same router on Virgin and have a rock solid connection with the
> only downtime being when there is a rare server problem at Virgin, so it is
> not Virgin itself but your connection that is at fault in some way if you
> are unable to connect etc:.
>
> --
> Paul Woodsford

Thanks.
We have a NTE5 faceplate filter from clarity.it. The Netgear is
connected to the RJ11 socket on this and oes pick up ADSL (the 'i'
light is green). There is only 1 phone extension, wired to the
filtered termins of the faceplate. This connects to a multi-handet
Panasonic DECT system.
When useing the hardwired 'speedtouch' modem the connection is fine
(1Mbps - we do live about 4 miles from the exchange), but with the
router it hasn't worked well in 3 years.
Faults include:
No ADSL (light on neatgear flashes orange) - solved by faceplate filter

Not connecting to network - solved now
And the most common one (our current fault). PC and laptop are
connected to the wireless network with good/excellent signal and the
Netgear is connected to ADSL. However, when you try to open a webpage
you get 'couldn't find server'.
We really don't know what to do. Virgin support can't help and we've
spent enough asking them now.

The reason we were thinking of moving to BT would be that it would have
the homehub and the BB from one place, so there could be no passing the
buck.

However, if we could sort the current thing it it would be even better.


Thanks,

Aaron.

In response to what Aaron <(E-Mail Removed)> posted in
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com:

> And the most common one (our current fault). PC and laptop are
> connected to the wireless network with good/excellent signal and the
> Netgear is connected to ADSL. However, when you try to open a webpage
> you get 'couldn't find server'.

This can be caused by DNS setup problems.

--
Joe Soap.
JUNK is stuff that you keep for 20 years,
then throw away a week before you need it.

Joe Soap wrote:
> In response to what Aaron <(E-Mail Removed)> posted in
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com:
>
> > And the most common one (our current fault). PC and laptop are
> > connected to the wireless network with good/excellent signal and the
> > Netgear is connected to ADSL. However, when you try to open a webpage
> > you get 'couldn't find server'.
>
> This can be caused by DNS setup problems.
>
> --
Any ideas how to sort it out?

Thanks.

In response to what Aaron <(E-Mail Removed)> posted in
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com:

> Joe Soap wrote:
>> In response to what Aaron <(E-Mail Removed)> posted in
>> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com:
>>
>> > And the most common one (our current fault). PC and laptop are
>> > connected to the wireless network with good/excellent signal and the
>> > Netgear is connected to ADSL. However, when you try to open a webpage
>> > you get 'couldn't find server'.
>>
>> This can be caused by DNS setup problems.
>>
>> --
> Any ideas how to sort it out?

Open a DOS window. If
ping 130.133.1.4 works, and
ping news.individual.net doesn't, you have a DNS problem.

--
Joe Soap.
JUNK is stuff that you keep for 20 years,
then throw away a week before you need it.