Is TISCALI broadband any good?

Hi
What are the pros and cons of Tiscali broadband please?
Is their service reliable?
Do they do newsgroups?
Thank you
--
Martin
©¿©¬

Pros: Cheap. I pay £15 pm including 2Mb BB, phone line rental and free
weekend UK/International calls. Free modem. 12 month contract as opposed to
TalkTalk's 18 month. No reliability problems since I joined in September.
Newsgroups via news.tiscali.co.uk.
Cons: £30 setup fee. 0871 number for support calls - even BT line faults.
Haven't been able to find a way around this on saynoto0870.com. Email
support often refers me to the 0871 number.


<Martin ©¿©¬ @nohere.net> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
> What are the pros and cons of Tiscali broadband please?
> Is their service reliable?
> Do they do newsgroups?
> Thank you
> --
> Martin
> ©¿©¬
>
>

"Jessica B" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4763f945$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Pros: Cheap. I pay £15 pm including 2Mb BB, phone line rental and free
> weekend UK/International calls. Free modem. 12 month contract as opposed
> to TalkTalk's 18 month. No reliability problems since I joined in
> September. Newsgroups via news.tiscali.co.uk.
> Cons: £30 setup fee. 0871 number for support calls - even BT line faults.
> Haven't been able to find a way around this on saynoto0870.com. Email
> support often refers me to the 0871 number.

By contrast: Zen

Pros:
Superb technical support
Reasonable cost: £18 per month with 2Gb per month download limit (you can
pay extra if you want more, as and when you need it). Or unlimited download
if you choose the 250 kbits/sec line speed.
Static IP address
Your own choice of router
1 month minimum contract
No confusion with telephone calls - you pay for line rental and phone calls
separately, from whoever you choose.
Newsgroups from news.zen.co.uk
Support on 0845 number, and they ring you back to check progress of any
faults
Painless transfer to new location when you move house - provided the new
property already has a phone line.

Cons: £40 setup fee

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:24:37 UTC, "Graham J" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

> By contrast: Zen

Very similar to AAISP. As another data point:

> Pros:
> Superb technical support

Same.

> Reasonable cost: £18 per month with 2Gb per month download limit (you can
> pay extra if you want more, as and when you need it). Or unlimited download
> if you choose the 250 kbits/sec line speed.

£18.99 a month for 2GB limit, applies only 0800-1800 weekdays (free at
other times and over Christmas). Can pay extra if go over one month.

> Static IP address

As many static IPs as you need - free. Also free .uk domain name.

> Your own choice of router

Same again - or free loan of router.

> 1 month minimum contract

Same.

> No confusion with telephone calls - you pay for line rental and phone calls
> separately, from whoever you choose.

Same. Can provide a no-calls phone line to use, if required.

> Newsgroups from news.zen.co.uk

Newsgroups from gradwell.com

> Support on 0845 number, and they ring you back to check progress of any
> faults

Support on geographic number.

> Painless transfer to new location when you move house - provided the new
> property already has a phone line.

Likewise.

> Cons: £40 setup fee

About the same - may be slightly more. There will generally be a setup
fee if a short term contract is offered.

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

In the dim and distant past on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 12:04:53 GMT
it was rumoured that Martin ©¿©¬ spake thus:

>Hi
>What are the pros and cons of Tiscali broadband please?
>Is their service reliable?
>Do they do newsgroups?
>Thank you

Depends what you want to use it for.
I understand their newserver is crap. I'm on Tiscali, but I've never
used it, since I use Teranews and newshosting.
What sort of service you get seems to be a post code lottery. If you use
p2p a lot or are heavily into games then pay a bit more and go
elsewhere. A decent ISP won't cost you very much extra and will save you
a lot of hassle.

I'm connected to their Gloucester Point of Presence hence avoid Milton
Keynes and generally get 95% speed and sub 25ns pings (on a 1 Mb/s line)
--
I'm an Amberholic and damn proud of it!
www.amberholics.com

[snip]

> I'm connected to their Gloucester Point of Presence hence avoid Milton
> Keynes and generally get 95% speed and sub 25ns pings (on a 1 Mb/s line)

When I did electronics we used a rule of thumb of 10 nS per foot for signal
delay times on cables. Just how far did you say you were from the exchange?

-- Graham J

On Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:57:23 -0000, Jessica B wrote:
> Pros: Cheap. I pay £15 pm including 2Mb BB, phone line rental and free
> weekend UK/International calls. Free modem. 12 month contract as opposed to
> TalkTalk's 18 month. No reliability problems since I joined in September.
> Newsgroups via news.tiscali.co.uk.

Their news-server is known to be unreliable.


> Cons: £30 setup fee. 0871 number for support calls - even BT line faults.

AFAIK the setup fee only applies if you choose a package with included line
rental.


Christof

--
http://cmeerw.org sip:cmeerw at cmeerw.org
mailto:cmeerw at cmeerw.org xmpp:cmeerw at cmeerw.org

Bob Eager wrote:

> "Graham J" wrote:
>
> > Support on 0845 number, and they ring you back to check progress of any
> > faults
>
> Support on geographic number.

You can talk to IDNet's support on their FREE 08000 number !

Graham

In the dim and distant past on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:54:45 -0000
it was rumoured that Graham J spake thus:

>[snip]
>
>> I'm connected to their Gloucester Point of Presence hence avoid Milton
>> Keynes and generally get 95% speed and sub 25ns pings (on a 1 Mb/s line)
>
>When I did electronics we used a rule of thumb of 10 nS per foot for signal
>delay times on cables. Just how far did you say you were from the exchange?
>
>-- Graham J
>
LOL
well the m key and the n key are pretty close on my keyboard...
--
Signature being refurbished with go faster stripes

Nena Fan wrote:
> In the dim and distant past on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:54:45 -0000
> it was rumoured that Graham J spake thus:
>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> I'm connected to their Gloucester Point of Presence hence avoid Milton
>>> Keynes and generally get 95% speed and sub 25ns pings (on a 1 Mb/s line)
>> When I did electronics we used a rule of thumb of 10 nS per foot for signal
>> delay times on cables. Just how far did you say you were from the exchange?
>>
>> -- Graham J
>>
> LOL
> well the m key and the n key are pretty close on my keyboard...

:-)

A ping is typically around a 56byte packet: so a ping return down a 1mbs
line is about the time to send 1000 bits.. about a millisecond..

Propagation delay will not be anything like that.. a 3km line is 90usecs
each way, so under 200us for the round trip.