Which Broadband provider? Advice for newbie please!

Hi, I am planning on getting broadband - have tried to research it but end
up going round in circles at various sites reading different reviews and
different services etc.
The first offer I saw was the free modem/connection with BT Broadband @ 27pm
but haven't seen many good reviews and BT also don't provide email etc
Other options seem to be vispa, plusnet, bulldog, tiscali etc

Basically what I'm after are:
A very fast and reliable connection
Ideally free (or cheap) modem and connection
Included email (pop3 & smtp)
Good support

I'd also like an offer for domain hosting but can't see any info on
the sites I've visited. I hope this makes sense and would be very
grateful for your advice and experience and some suggestions!

Many thanks!
John

"John Cook" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c1laac$1in7au$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi, I am planning on getting broadband - have tried to research it but end
> up going round in circles at various sites reading different reviews and
> different services etc.
> The first offer I saw was the free modem/connection with BT Broadband @
27pm
> but haven't seen many good reviews and BT also don't provide email etc
> Other options seem to be vispa, plusnet, bulldog, tiscali etc
>
> Basically what I'm after are:
> A very fast and reliable connection
> Ideally free (or cheap) modem and connection
> Included email (pop3 & smtp)
> Good support
>
> I'd also like an offer for domain hosting but can't see any info on
> the sites I've visited. I hope this makes sense and would be very
> grateful for your advice and experience and some suggestions!
>
> Many thanks!
> John
>
>
Check out
http://freeola.com

Got the 2mb service, excellent, and using their free hosting too.

On 26 Feb 2004, "John Cook" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Basically what I'm after are:
>A very fast and reliable connection

So is 500 k OK, or do you really mean 1 or 2 Mbps ?

>Ideally free (or cheap) modem and connection

Not quite as many of those around. Some "all in one" deals
are, however, ie spreading the cost of the setup and/or the
modem. In any case, when you get a "free" USB modem, you'll
often be locked into a 12 month contract (not sure about the
deal from Virgin.net, but even if there's a free setup/modem
you might find there's a 12 month minimum or a "penalty" that
means leaving before 12 months will cost you the normal setup.

>Included email (pop3 & smtp)

I'd expect one or other, but not both.

>Good support
>
>I'd also like an offer for domain hosting but can't see info

Well depends a bit what you want the web site/domain for as
to the best ISP. Up to this point, I'd be suggesting you
look at PlusNet (0845 for support, plus web/newsgroups),
which gives 250 MB of web space, but then again if your
domain was for business you'd need a business account.

They have a number of setup options, including their 24.99
a month "EasyStart" which has a 12 month minimum (or 99.99
cancellation fee, covering the modem and BT setup) but it
is for residential. You can have POP or SMTP (fixed IP
is standard on their ADSL accounts). If you go back to
the BT Broadband site, their "Essentials" include Mail
and have a link to Claranet. Clara has a Webhost a/c
for 29.99 a year (which includes domain registration
and hosting [but with a 1 GB limit per month for web
traffic]. Claranet has a good mail filtering facility
which can be used on domain hosting accounts, but I'm
not sure if they offer SMTP on this particluar account
(they have many other packages in the Clarahost range).

>
> Basically what I'm after are:
> A very fast and reliable connection
> Ideally free (or cheap) modem and connection Included email (pop3 & smtp)
> Good support
>
> I'd also like an offer for domain hosting but can't see any info on the
> sites I've visited. I hope this makes sense and would be very grateful for
> your advice and experience and some suggestions!
>
> Many thanks!
> John

Check out www.metronet.co.uk. Its pay as you go broadband, no good for
gaming, but if you want to just get email and newsgroups with the odd bit
of www, then its ok. I download around 2GB of data last month and it came
to £17 approx inc vat.
Usual disclaimer

Dave

--
And you were born knowing all about ms windows....??

> Other options seem to be vispa, plusnet, bulldog, tiscali etc

I`m with Pipex and have been generally very happy with them - they`ve had
a couple of down-times for email and some other rare "problems" but
generally superb all-round.

Plusnet have a guy from tech support who takes the time to resolve
problems in this newsgroup, which is always a GoodThing (TM) - and they
seem to have a very good overall feedback profile from customers. One
nice touch that was mentioned in a post a couple of weeks back was when
someone tried what could have been a potentially trojanised access upon
which the account was blocked instantly and a warning page displayed.

Having hung around here for a little over 12 months, i`d have no qualms
about recommending Plusnet despite not using them !

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
* old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

don't make domain hoisting an issue

some isp's charge way too much for domain hosting anyway and there are more
importasnt considerations like how good and cheap is the support

all isp's fall over now and then, but some more than others, it seems

personaaly i would put good support as top priority, all other things being
equal

i don't know why adslguide waste so much time on speed trials

who gives a damn , fast or slightly faster , so what


if the domain hosting charges of your chosen isp are too high, uk2.net will
register you a dot com/net/org for 34 pounds for 2 years or a dot uk one
for 10 pounds

you get free redirection to you bb email account or whatever

"Colin Wilson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) t...
> Other options seem to be vispa, plusnet, bulldog, tiscali etc

I`m with Pipex and have been generally very happy with them - they`ve had
a couple of down-times for email and some other rare "problems" but
generally superb all-round.

Plusnet have a guy from tech support who takes the time to resolve
problems in this newsgroup, which is always a GoodThing (TM) - and they
seem to have a very good overall feedback profile from customers. One
nice touch that was mentioned in a post a couple of weeks back was when
someone tried what could have been a potentially trojanised access upon
which the account was blocked instantly and a warning page displayed.

Having hung around here for a little over 12 months, i`d have no qualms
about recommending Plusnet despite not using them !

--
Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
* old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

Thanks for the advice so far guys - very helpful.
But it gets even more confusing when each suggestion is for a different
provider!!
After spending too long with too many crap isp's I really want some level of
comfort with broadband knowing I'm with a reliable service at a good price.
So...more help would be appreciated!!

I've been looking at this for a while monitoring this newsgroup

I have come to the following conclusions:

# most well known names are not very good for ADSL!
# BT are costly and don't offer much and bad support
# There seems to be a shortlist I came to:
Plus.Net
Nildram
Pipex
Andrews & Arnold

There are many more and I'm sure there are good ones

I got it down to 2:

PlusNet
and
Andrews and Arnold

Andrews and Arnold seem to be better generally but are more expensive

So I have gone for PlusNet (family member uses their 512K 18.99 package and
is fine)
I have gone for 21.99 512K package with:
static IP
good support
250MB webspace - with PHP and MySQL!
can host domains for £1 per month I think
P2P (messenger)
binary newsgroups
fax 2 email
offer 12 month or 1 month contracts
etc.

So far they have answered my support postings and calls very well.

Can't tell u more till BT have switched my HomeHighway ISDN for ADSL next
week

If you did go for PlusNet and felt friendly - my referral ID (enetered on
signup) is "neltek"

cheers

Ian


"John Cook" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c1ljoa$1jgg3f$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the advice so far guys - very helpful.
> But it gets even more confusing when each suggestion is for a different
> provider!!
> After spending too long with too many crap isp's I really want some level
of
> comfort with broadband knowing I'm with a reliable service at a good
price.
> So...more help would be appreciated!!
>
>

"I_N" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c1ll2l$7en$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I've been looking at this for a while monitoring this newsgroup
>
> I have come to the following conclusions:
>
> # most well known names are not very good for ADSL!
> # BT are costly and don't offer much and bad support
> # There seems to be a shortlist I came to:
> Plus.Net
> Nildram
> Pipex
> Andrews & Arnold
>
> There are many more and I'm sure there are good ones
>
> I got it down to 2:
>
> PlusNet
> and
> Andrews and Arnold
>
> Andrews and Arnold seem to be better generally but are more expensive
>
> So I have gone for PlusNet (family member uses their 512K 18.99 package
and
> is fine)
> I have gone for 21.99 512K package with:
> static IP
> good support
> 250MB webspace - with PHP and MySQL!
> can host domains for £1 per month I think
> P2P (messenger)
> binary newsgroups
> fax 2 email
> offer 12 month or 1 month contracts
> etc.
>
> So far they have answered my support postings and calls very well.
>
> Can't tell u more till BT have switched my HomeHighway ISDN for ADSL next
> week
>
> If you did go for PlusNet and felt friendly - my referral ID (enetered on
> signup) is "neltek"
>
> cheers
>
> Ian

Hi Ian, I would certainly refer you and plusnet is on my shortlist.

Thanks John

Ian

(now just to get this wirless stuff working ;~o )

"John Cook" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:c1lljf$1kb9e4$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "I_N" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:c1ll2l$7en$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I've been looking at this for a while monitoring this newsgroup
> >
> > I have come to the following conclusions:
> >
> > # most well known names are not very good for ADSL!
> > # BT are costly and don't offer much and bad support
> > # There seems to be a shortlist I came to:
> > Plus.Net
> > Nildram
> > Pipex
> > Andrews & Arnold
> >
> > There are many more and I'm sure there are good ones
> >
> > I got it down to 2:
> >
> > PlusNet
> > and
> > Andrews and Arnold
> >
> > Andrews and Arnold seem to be better generally but are more expensive
> >
> > So I have gone for PlusNet (family member uses their 512K 18.99 package
> and
> > is fine)
> > I have gone for 21.99 512K package with:
> > static IP
> > good support
> > 250MB webspace - with PHP and MySQL!
> > can host domains for £1 per month I think
> > P2P (messenger)
> > binary newsgroups
> > fax 2 email
> > offer 12 month or 1 month contracts
> > etc.
> >
> > So far they have answered my support postings and calls very well.
> >
> > Can't tell u more till BT have switched my HomeHighway ISDN for ADSL
next
> > week
> >
> > If you did go for PlusNet and felt friendly - my referral ID (enetered
on
> > signup) is "neltek"
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > Ian
>
> Hi Ian, I would certainly refer you and plusnet is on my shortlist.
>
>
>