Another ADSL Newbie Question

As my exchange is due to be enabled fairly soon, I have some questions regarding
ADSL & the equipment I will need.

I am fairly convinced that I will change from Freeserve to Zen--everything I've
read about both ISPs seems to favour Zen in the ADSL stakes.

1. Am I right to go for Zen, or should I stick with Freeserve?
2. Are there any other ISPs out there offering a better service than either of
these two?
3. Should I go for the Home or Office 500 service? The only difference I can
see is the contention is lower with the Office 500 service. Is it worth the
extra monthly charge?
4. As I only have the one PC--an AMD Athlon XP 2600 with 1024Mb RAM--I don't
think I will need a router and will use a USB modem. Anyone any comments /
suggestions to the contrary?

TIA

Duncan

--
"I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to prophesy
after the event has already taken place. "
~ Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman, writer (Nobel laureate in
literature, 1953)

"Paul Hughes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bfsfp4$qd3$(E-Mail Removed)...

> I am fairly convinced that I will change from Freeserve to Zen--everything
I've
> read about both ISPs seems to favour Zen in the ADSL stakes.

You might want to go to groups.google.com and see what's been said about Zen
in this group over the last month or two. Not good, and I'm speaking as a
Zen customer.

> 1. Am I right to go for Zen, or should I stick with Freeserve?

I'd say Freeserve for now, Zen's main selling point ATM is a one month
contract so if you decide they suck (and a lot of people have) then you
don't have to stick with them for too long.

> 2. Are there any other ISPs out there offering a better service than
either of
> these two?

Depends what you want from the service really, I haven't heard anything bad
about Freeserve for a long time and Nildram are also warmly regarded.

> 3. Should I go for the Home or Office 500 service? The only difference I
can
> see is the contention is lower with the Office 500 service. Is it worth
the
> extra monthly charge?

I've been on the entry level home services from BTO and Zen, contention
ratio has never been in an issue on either of them for the 2.5 years I've
been on BB.

> 4. As I only have the one PC--an AMD Athlon XP 2600 with 1024Mb RAM--I
don't
> think I will need a router and will use a USB modem. Anyone any comments
/
> suggestions to the contrary?

Yeah, there are issues with some USB DSL modems, notably the Alcatel and
Voyager kit. Some modems break the USB specifications and draw too much
voltage from the host machine, which causes instability and (in my case) a
gradual slowdown on the system so that after a while I had to reboot. It's
particularly bad on Athlon systems as they're pretty power hungry anyway and
you've got another strike against you if you're running a VIA based mobo.
Solutions in the past have included using a PCI modem, an external USB hub
with it's own power supply and of course using a router would also "solve"
it.

"Paul Hughes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bfsfp4$qd3$(E-Mail Removed)...
> As my exchange is due to be enabled fairly soon, I have some questions
regarding
> ADSL & the equipment I will need.
>
> I am fairly convinced that I will change from Freeserve to Zen--everything
I've
> read about both ISPs seems to favour Zen in the ADSL stakes.
>
> 1. Am I right to go for Zen, or should I stick with Freeserve?

Freeserve does not come out very well in the comparision stakes at
www.adslguide.org at present when I compared with Eclipse (my ISP) and ZEN,
however I don't know if the speed guide is from speed tests or from users
impressions.
Both ZEN and Eclipse are small, so may have limited resources to tackle
problems. Freeserve is BIG so may not have the political will to tackle
problems which only affect one user...

> 2. Are there any other ISPs out there offering a better service than
either of
> these two?

I think that depends on what you want. If you can live with daytime traffic
limits A and A (www.aa.nu) offer a cost effective and well supported
service. Also check out http://www.ispreview.co.uk/broad1.shtml for a list
of currently well supported ISPs.


> 3. Should I go for the Home or Office 500 service? The only difference I
can
> see is the contention is lower with the Office 500 service. Is it worth
the
> extra monthly charge?

I don't know of any one who has gone for the Office version. At present most
folks get their full rate for much of the day. I guess that this could
change in the future, but I would certainly start with the home.

> 4. As I only have the one PC--an AMD Athlon XP 2600 with 1024Mb RAM--I
don't
> think I will need a router and will use a USB modem. Anyone any comments
/
> suggestions to the contrary?
>

I would get a router. The USB modem are sometimes problematic. The most
common run very close to the power limits for USB. Sometimes the PC power
managment decides to power them off while you are downloading. If you get a
router with NAT and a firewall you will get an extra level of protection
from hacking and trojans (though you may find you can't exchange files via
MSN Messanger).

> TIA
>

Thats o.k. , hope you find this helpfull....

> Duncan
>
> --
> "I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to
prophesy
> after the event has already taken place. "
> ~ Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman, writer (Nobel laureate
in
> literature, 1953)
>
>

I am interested you say Freeserve is o.k.
I currently use Freeserve for mail and anytime dial up
but got the impression they are not so good for ADSL?

In response to original query :
my shortlist is:
Plusnet (£21.99 / month, static IP, one month contract)
Nildram
Andrews and Arnold (best if I could afford it - no more than BT - just not
as cheap as PlusNet)

cheers

Ian


"Draxen" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3f22243f$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Paul Hughes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:bfsfp4$qd3$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> > I am fairly convinced that I will change from Freeserve to
Zen--everything
> I've
> > read about both ISPs seems to favour Zen in the ADSL stakes.
>
> You might want to go to groups.google.com and see what's been said about
Zen
> in this group over the last month or two. Not good, and I'm speaking as a
> Zen customer.
>
> > 1. Am I right to go for Zen, or should I stick with Freeserve?
>
> I'd say Freeserve for now, Zen's main selling point ATM is a one month
> contract so if you decide they suck (and a lot of people have) then you
> don't have to stick with them for too long.
>
> > 2. Are there any other ISPs out there offering a better service than
> either of
> > these two?
>
> Depends what you want from the service really, I haven't heard anything
bad
> about Freeserve for a long time and Nildram are also warmly regarded.
>
> > 3. Should I go for the Home or Office 500 service? The only difference
I
> can
> > see is the contention is lower with the Office 500 service. Is it worth
> the
> > extra monthly charge?
>
> I've been on the entry level home services from BTO and Zen, contention
> ratio has never been in an issue on either of them for the 2.5 years I've
> been on BB.
>
> > 4. As I only have the one PC--an AMD Athlon XP 2600 with 1024Mb RAM--I
> don't
> > think I will need a router and will use a USB modem. Anyone any
comments
> /
> > suggestions to the contrary?
>
> Yeah, there are issues with some USB DSL modems, notably the Alcatel and
> Voyager kit. Some modems break the USB specifications and draw too much
> voltage from the host machine, which causes instability and (in my case) a
> gradual slowdown on the system so that after a while I had to reboot. It's
> particularly bad on Athlon systems as they're pretty power hungry anyway
and
> you've got another strike against you if you're running a VIA based mobo.
> Solutions in the past have included using a PCI modem, an external USB hub
> with it's own power supply and of course using a router would also "solve"
> it.
>

"Paul Hughes" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bfsfp4$qd3$(E-Mail Removed)...
> As my exchange is due to be enabled fairly soon, I have some questions
regarding
> ADSL & the equipment I will need.
>
> I am fairly convinced that I will change from Freeserve to Zen--everything
I've
> read about both ISPs seems to favour Zen in the ADSL stakes.
>
> 1. Am I right to go for Zen, or should I stick with Freeserve?

<snip>

It came down to a choice between these two for me a couple of months ago. I
opted for Zen because of the a) monthly renewable contract, and b) speed
comparisons charts were favourable at the time I looked.

Speeds have indeed proven to be all I could hope for and I connect first
time every time. There have been one or minor service drop-outs by all
accounts these have been mostly down to BT. The only reason I can see *not*
to go for Zen at this time is that they have had horrendous problems
providing a News service ! [Monty can confirm this ] If this is very
important to you then I'd hang fire for a while.

One other thing that may we worth thinking about: Zen *appear* to be
p2p-friendly at the mo, whereas Freeserve are not.

Geoff