Need advice on setup and equipmant.

Current setup - BT Home Highway ISDN. Wife uses dial-up VPN to her Company
intranet and email (currently through Tiscali but has been Claranet and BT
Click - depends on the IT dept!). I dial-in to an ISP of my own choice.

Broadband coming in Dec this year. Presumably all we need is a router (I
would like one that does wireless and cable connections as my laptop is
wireless-enabled but hers is not) and the ADSL modem to connect to whichever
BB supplier we decide on? As we are on Home Highway, is there any price
advantage with going to BT Broadband (email and news can be independent of
ISP as I know that the bog-standard BT BB doesn't have email or news), or is
the BT BB service so dire that any other supplier is better?

Gordon uttered in <(E-Mail Removed)>:

> Broadband coming in Dec this year. Presumably all we need is a router (I
> would like one that does wireless and cable connections as my laptop is
> wireless-enabled but hers is not) and the ADSL modem to connect to

Plenty of those available, D-Link, Netgear, Linksys, Solwise - pick your
poison.

> whichever BB supplier we decide on? As we are on Home Highway, is there
> any price advantage with going to BT Broadband (email and news can be
> independent of ISP as I know that the bog-standard BT BB doesn't have
> email or news), or is the BT BB service so dire that any other supplier is

It's amazing how often this question comes up, given the massive archive
Google Groups has.

Look at someone other than BT - they're invariably cheaper, and have better
options. I use Force9 (Plus.net), others like Zen or Nildram.
www.adslguide.co.uk (or is that .com?) should help.

--
Posting addr feeds straight to DCC and others. dhill + nana = cricalix ,
net for direct mail.

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:09:16 +0100, Duncan Hill
<(E-Mail Removed)> strung together this:

>www.adslguide.co.uk (or is that .com?)

No, .org www.adslguide.org Although there is a .com but that's not the
one that is generally referred to here.
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd

"Duncan Hill" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:40f5307b$0$7801$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Gordon uttered in <(E-Mail Removed)>:
>
>
> Look at someone other than BT - they're invariably cheaper, and have
better
> options. I use Force9 (Plus.net), others like Zen or Nildram.
> www.adslguide.co.uk (or is that .com?) should help.
>

I wasn't thinking about the monthly running costs, I was thinking about the
initial cost of reverting from a HH line to a POST (is that the term?) line.
I've heard rumours that it is MUCH cheaper if you go to BT BB rather than an
independent supplier.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Gordon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Current setup - BT Home Highway ISDN. Wife uses dial-up VPN to her
> Company intranet and email (currently through Tiscali but has been
> Claranet and BT Click - depends on the IT dept!). I dial-in to an ISP
> of my own choice.
>
> Broadband coming in Dec this year. Presumably all we need is a router
> (I would like one that does wireless and cable connections as my
> laptop is wireless-enabled but hers is not) and the ADSL modem to
> connect to whichever BB supplier we decide on? As we are on Home
> Highway, is there any price advantage with going to BT Broadband
> (email and news can be independent of ISP as I know that the
> bog-standard BT BB doesn't have email or news), or is the BT BB
> service so dire that any other supplier is better?

Wireless routers all, as far as I know, have one or more wired ethernet
connections, so you can mix and match how your various PCs are connected.
[My 3Com wireless router has 4 wired connections, but this can be extended
by using a hub].

It's not clear from your post whether you are aware that BB ties you to a
single ISP as far as the BB connection is concerned (but you can, of course,
make dial-up connections to other ISPs, using a normal analog modem plugged
into a voice socket).

In order to convert from HH to ADSL, the line first has to be converted back
to a normal POTS line - for which BT normally charge 50 quid. I believe
that, if you opt for BT Broadband, they waive this charge. However, the
general concensus in this NG seems to be that BT is sufficiently dire for it
to be well worth paying the 50 quid in order to go with someone else! I did,
anyway - and am with PlusNet whose service is, on the whole, ok (*no-one* is
perfect!).

I'm not sure how your wife will connect to her company intranet with a BB
service - other than dialling in with a modem, which would be slower than
the current HH connection. Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me in th
is area will advise you.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

"Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> Gordon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
> Wireless routers all, as far as I know, have one or more wired ethernet
> connections, so you can mix and match how your various PCs are connected.
> [My 3Com wireless router has 4 wired connections, but this can be extended
> by using a hub].

Thanks - that clears that one up!

>
> It's not clear from your post whether you are aware that BB ties you to a
> single ISP as far as the BB connection is concerned (but you can, of
course,
> make dial-up connections to other ISPs, using a normal analog modem
plugged
> into a voice socket).

No, I knew that

>
> In order to convert from HH to ADSL, the line first has to be converted
back
> to a normal POTS line - for which BT normally charge 50 quid. I believe
> that, if you opt for BT Broadband, they waive this charge. However, the
> general concensus in this NG seems to be that BT is sufficiently dire for
it
> to be well worth paying the 50 quid in order to go with someone else! I
did,
> anyway - and am with PlusNet whose service is, on the whole, ok (*no-one*
is
> perfect!).

Ah, that's what I was after! thanks - I'll pay the £50!

>
> I'm not sure how your wife will connect to her company intranet with a BB
> service - other than dialling in with a modem, which would be slower than
> the current HH connection. Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me in
th
> is area will advise you.

Most of her manager colleagues are already on BB so the set up is normal for
the company.

Thanks for the info!

"Lurch" <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:09:16 +0100, Duncan Hill
> <(E-Mail Removed)> strung together this:
>
> >www.adslguide.co.uk (or is that .com?)
>
> No, .org www.adslguide.org Although there is a .com but that's not the
> one that is generally referred to here.

The same site also appears via http://www.asdlguide.org.uk/ - the letter
d, s, and l in a different order





James H

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 14:22:18 +0000 (UTC), "J Houston"
<(E-Mail Removed)> strung together this:

>The same site also appears via http://www.asdlguide.org.uk/ - the letter
>d, s, and l in a different order
>
Well, nearly, just the d and s transposed as that's the most common
mis-spelling of ADSL.
You'd be better of going directly to the correctly spelt domain
though.
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Gordon <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> "Tiscali Tim" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>
>> In order to convert from HH to ADSL, the line first has to be
>> converted back to a normal POTS line - for which BT normally charge
>> 50 quid. I believe that, if you opt for BT Broadband, they waive
>> this charge. However, the general concensus in this NG seems to be
>> that BT is sufficiently dire for it to be well worth paying the 50
>> quid in order to go with someone else! I did, anyway - and am with
>> PlusNet whose service is, on the whole, ok (*no-one* is perfect!).
>
> Ah, that's what I was after! thanks - I'll pay the £50!
>

It pays to go with an ISP who will do a "managed" conversion - just in case
your line fails the ADSL linetest after reverting to a POTS. Then, HH would
be re-instated at no cost to you. If you use an ISP which *doesn't* offer a
managed conversion, you will have to make your own arrangements for BT to do
the HH to POTS conversion - and if it subsequently fails, you'll have to pay
to have it converted back again - adding insult to injury!

PlusNet is one of the ISPs offering this - which was one reason why I chose
them. My previous ISP - Freeserve (now Wanadoo) doesn't or, any any rate,
didn't.
--
Cheers,
Tim
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Gordon wrote:

> Current setup - BT Home Highway ISDN. Wife uses dial-up VPN to her Company
> intranet and email (currently through Tiscali but has been Claranet and BT
> Click - depends on the IT dept!). I dial-in to an ISP of my own choice.
>
> Broadband coming in Dec this year. Presumably all we need is a router (I
> would like one that does wireless and cable connections as my laptop is
> wireless-enabled but hers is not) and the ADSL modem to connect to
> whichever BB supplier we decide on? As we are on Home Highway, is there
> any price advantage with going to BT Broadband (email and news can be
> independent of ISP as I know that the bog-standard BT BB doesn't have
> email or news), or is the BT BB service so dire that any other supplier is
> better?

Check out the other providers on www.broadband-help.com the other site .org
is a paid for site and does not list the smaller and less costly providers.

You bought HH instead of ISDN and BT are the one's who priced ISDN out of
the market place, so why should you go with them for provision of your ip
services?

ISDN is a switched service with a contention ratio of 1 so be careful who
you choose advertising a ADSL service. They quote the maximum speed of the
service (usually 512Kbps) but the guaranteed speed is the maximum burst
speed divided by the contention ratio and if the contention ratio of 76
alleged by some users means that you get rates of 6.7Kbps. Even one channel
of ISDN guarantees you 64Kbps.

Remember, the more users they have on your exchange (assuming the bottleneck
is there) the more you will go down to the guaranteed speed.

I advocate ADSL annex B adsl over ISDN, so ask your BT, MP and MEP why you
are denied the services that other EU countries have had for years?

--
Lioncom adsl 4 port router, Nildram adsl running on Redhat 7.3. You can see
and hear me and my pal Joe Longthorne on uktalent.org.