Which isp for a complete newbie?

A friend of mine who has no technical knowledge at all is planning to switch
from a flaky dial-up connection to broadband. She has only a basic pc, which
is quite a long way from her phone point. She uses an extension cable
between the pc and the phone point. She will use the connection mainly for
email and some surfing. Cost and capacity are less important than ease,
reliability and support. She lives in a rural area which has just been
enabled for broadband with up to a 2Mb connection. BT have already sent out
letters inviting everyone to sign up with them.
Which isp do you recommend?

> Which isp do you recommend?
==================================

All ISPs are unrelible. In the medium term, BT is no less reliable
than any of the others. BT, being the largest of the ISPs and
controls the national infrastructure, is likely to be around for
longer than the newcomers and in the long term is likely to slowly
improve its reliability.

Through thick and thin I have been a BT customer for 6 or 7 years. I
have not taken much notice of charges. But reliabilty, taking ups and
downs into consideration, from one month to the next, slowly improves
and is likely to continue to do so.

So I suggest you opt for BT Broadband. I have no intention of changing
ISP myself. I hold no shares in BT.
----
Reg.

> Which isp do you recommend?

Which ever ISP you eventually recommend to her, get her a ADSL router
which connects to the pc via ethernet. Very much better than any USB modem
and it will save you and her a lot of hassle. www.adslguide.org.uk is a
good place to compare ISP's.
And Ebuyer have some excellent, cheap single port ADSL routers.

HTH

Dave

>A friend of mine who has no technical knowledge at all is planning to
>switch from a flaky dial-up connection to broadband. She has only a basic
>pc, which is quite a long way from her phone point. She uses an extension
>cable between the pc and the phone point. She will use the connection
>mainly for email and some surfing. Cost and capacity are less important
>than ease, reliability and support. She lives in a rural area which has
>just been enabled for broadband with up to a 2Mb connection. BT have
>already sent out letters inviting everyone to sign up with them.
> Which isp do you recommend?


Before you recommend an ISP it would be wise to look at what hardware and
operating system she has. She needs to make sure she has an effective
firewall, anti-virus software and software that will protect against Trojans
and spyware. If she is going to use a "free" USB ADSL modem then Windows XP
is strongly indicated. Choose an ISP that provides 24/7 support and does not
expect users to call a premium rate number. She is almost certain to need
some onsite help setting things up which you might be able to do.

--
Regards from Peter Crosland

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
"Gribela" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> She will use the connection mainly for
> email and some surfing. Cost and capacity are less important than ease,
> reliability and support. She lives in a rural area which has just been
> enabled for broadband with up to a 2Mb connection. BT have already sent out
> letters inviting everyone to sign up with them.
> Which isp do you recommend?

BT are supposed to be decent as an ISP but are overpriced for what you
get IMHO.

It's the usual question of how do you get someone with "no technical
knowledge at all" online with a broadband connection without their
machine being infested within a week :-)

General advice would be to get her a router rather than a modem,
generally they're more secure and stable, and there are no drivers to
stuff up her computer.

ISP wise, I would look at (in no real order) Metronet, Freedom2surf,
Zen, Newnet, Eclipse, Pipex.

cheers,
Paul
--
(E-Mail Removed)

Gribela wrote:

> A friend of mine who has no technical knowledge at all is planning to
> switch from a flaky dial-up connection to broadband. She has only a
> basic pc, which is quite a long way from her phone point. She uses an
> extension cable between the pc and the phone point. She will use the
> connection mainly for email and some surfing. Cost and capacity are
> less important than ease, reliability and support. She lives in a
> rural area which has just been enabled for broadband with up to a 2Mb
> connection. BT have already sent out letters inviting everyone to
> sign up with them. Which isp do you recommend?

AOL - cheap help line; online support. Once she is happy with what she
is doing then move


--
zaax

On Sat, 5 Nov 2005 21:48:27 -0000,it is alleged that "Gribela"
<(E-Mail Removed)> spake thusly in uk.telecom.broadband:

>A friend of mine who has no technical knowledge at all is planning to switch
>from a flaky dial-up connection to broadband. She has only a basic pc, which
>is quite a long way from her phone point. She uses an extension cable
>between the pc and the phone point. She will use the connection mainly for
>email and some surfing. Cost and capacity are less important than ease,
>reliability and support. She lives in a rural area which has just been
>enabled for broadband with up to a 2Mb connection. BT have already sent out
>letters inviting everyone to sign up with them.
>Which isp do you recommend?
>

Didn't see this when originally posted Saturday.

My own experience is limited to virgin.net for DSL, they seem
reliable, and tech support actually answer the phone, although it's a
0906 number. Many people also seem happy with plusnet, (although a few
are not etc). Everyone here will have their own opinion:-)

One point though, I would suggest using a proper extension cable and
socket rather than a telephone extension cord.

[technicalish bit]
The 'flat' type extension cords don't contain twisted pairs which is
bad for the DSL signal, especially on a long rural line. Some people
get away with using them, but extension cable and sockets are dirt
cheap.
[/technicalish bit]

Also, the availability checker at http://www.bt.com/broadband/ will
give her some idea of the speed available. (The answer supplied will
apply to the line itself, and therefore isn't limited to BT broadband)

My tip is, if she's not a heavy downloader, even 1Mb or 512k is going
to seem incredibly fast compared to a dialup, and these days is very
cheap. (Deals for well below 20 pounds a month are available).

--
In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men,
women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were
REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy