Dial up to BB questions

Hello all,
Happy New Year.
We have been using BTOpenworld and now BT Yahoo! Internet dial-up for
years, but are now feeling the restrictions on downloads and general
useage.
Our computer is about 40ft from the main telephone connections and our
diaup modem is connected via 3 extension leads.
I read on one newsgroup of someone hard wiring his connection for BB.
I assume he meant soldering the extension lead together rather than
using the plugs.
What would happen to our existing BT email account, and will we have
to use BT PAYG dial up to access it?
We need access to newsgroups, so BT BB does not look like an option.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Regards
Geoff

Charity for African Education
Helping education in Africa
www.africaneducation.org

GeoffH:
>Our computer is about 40ft from the main telephone connections and our
>diaup modem is connected via 3 extension leads.
>I read on one newsgroup of someone hard wiring his connection for BB.
>I assume he meant soldering the extension lead together rather than
>using the plugs.

Not necessarily, it's the quality of the connection from your house to the
exchange that matters.

>What would happen to our existing BT email account, and will we have
>to use BT PAYG dial up to access it?

Not necessarily, you will be able to retrieve the emails from your new BB
connection for as long as BT keeps your email alive,
you may have to log in once in a while to keep it, varies with ISP's, I
don't know about BT.
If you have enlightened ISP, such as PlusNet, you can even send emails as if
they were from your BT email.

With PlusNet you get 1Mb/s - twice the std BB speed, for £14.99 including
1Gb/month, if you use
more you get charged £2 for each extra Gb.
PlusNet has won the best consumer ISP and best consumer service awards just
recently. News server is OK, except for binary content.
Yes, they just had a 3 day email outage, but other than my service over 18
months was faultless.
if you decide to go with PlusNet please use 'jerryw' as a referrer and save
me 25p, thanks,
regards,
Martin

Martin² wrote:
> GeoffH:
>> Our computer is about 40ft from the main telephone connections and
>> our diaup modem is connected via 3 extension leads.
>> I read on one newsgroup of someone hard wiring his connection for BB.
>> I assume he meant soldering the extension lead together rather than
>> using the plugs.
>
> Not necessarily, it's the quality of the connection from your house
> to the exchange that matters.

It's also the quality of the internal wiring as well & multiple plugin
extensions deffinitely isn't good quality & could cause big proplems,
especially with the SNR let alone your line losses.......

"GeoffH" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello all,
> Happy New Year.
> We have been using BTOpenworld and now BT Yahoo! Internet dial-up for
> years, but are now feeling the restrictions on downloads and general
> useage.
> Our computer is about 40ft from the main telephone connections and our
> diaup modem is connected via 3 extension leads.
> I read on one newsgroup of someone hard wiring his connection for BB.
> I assume he meant soldering the extension lead together rather than
> using the plugs.

No need to solder. But the use of a single cable with a twisted pair such as Cat
5 cable or (I think) modern 4 wire phone cable, would be better.

> What would happen to our existing BT email account, and will we have
> to use BT PAYG dial up to access it?

You can keep a BT email account active by dialing in 1-3 months. You would then
be able to receive POP3 mail via this account. You should send email via your
chosen broadband ISP's smtp mail server. (In the case of Pipex using whatever
return email address that you like. Now is the time to consider an ISP
independant email address. e.g. by using www.123-reg.co.uk

A couple of months ago you could only downgrade to a dial 0845 ... type account
and keep your pop3 email account by phoning the BT account people (and being
persistent with the Indian ladies on the other end.)

If you downgrade using the BT Yahoo Web site you loose the Pop3 account - though
I think that you can re-instate it later. What is almost impossible is to
delete your credit card details from the BT Yahoo web site.

> We need access to newsgroups, so BT BB does not look like an option.

Use of news.individual.net is free.


--

Michael Chare

Martin:
>> Not necessarily, it's the quality of the connection from your house
>> to the exchange that matters.

Kraftee: (no spell checker ?)
>It's also the quality of the internal wiring as well & multiple plugin
>extensions deffinitely isn't good quality & could cause big proplems,
>especially with the SNR let alone your line losses.......

We have 1Mb/s BB running over two long extension cables (router in the
attic),
4.9km from the exchange, no problem what so ever.
Speed tests are normal daytime and very high at night.

But it *may* be different for the OP, which is why I said 'not necessarily'.
So trying it first is the short answer.
Regards,
Martin

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Michael Chare" wrote:

>What is almost impossible is to delete your credit card details
>from the BT Yahoo web site.

could you not alter the expiry date to "next month" if not replace
the card number with one you've had and cancelled in the past ? It
is unlikely a check (by attempting a transaction) is made when every
alteration is made of the details, just a check for a valid card with
;'enough digits, right checksum' type tests, surely).... Peter M.



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

On 12 Jan 2005, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Michael Chare" wrote:

>Now is the time to consider an ISP independant email address.
>e.g. by using www.123-reg.co.uk

Nah, far too sensible... people *like* having mail addresses tied to
an ISP so they are obliged to "jump through hoops" to keep them active
when they later change ISP for a better deal... Anyway, for .com/org/
net/info it is worth looking a little further afield, eg ev1servers.net
ot hostway.com perhaps. Also, registerfly.com for their spamfly so as to
have the contact mail addresses found through 'whois' to be spam trapped
and updated weekly to reduce chance of spammers getting junk mail to you.




--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

"Peter M" <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Michael Chare" wrote:
>
> >What is almost impossible is to delete your credit card details
> >from the BT Yahoo web site.
>
> could you not alter the expiry date to "next month" if not replace
> the card number with one you've had and cancelled in the past ? It
> is unlikely a check (by attempting a transaction) is made when every
> alteration is made of the details, just a check for a valid card with
> ;'enough digits, right checksum' type tests, surely)

You need to know a number with a valid check digit. The problem is that you are
only allowed a couple of errors before it starts rejecting all inputs.

You can also enter bank account details - keep thinking !


--

Michael Chare

On 12 Jan 2005, in uk.telecom.broadband, "Michael Chare" wrote:

>You need to know a number with a valid check digit.

I am fairly sure I have some old credit cards which were from accounts
I closed when they introduced annual fees, so not a problem! Peter M.



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

>You need to know a number with a valid check digit.

You can mix the four digit segments from two or more different credit cards,
usually works.
Regards,
Martin