I currently use AOL (£16 pm) for my dialup web access at home as I have two children. AOL has been very good so far with its high level of internet access security but recently, in the past 3/4 weeks, the service has become very poor. Connecting to AOL has become more difficult and the speed online is down to a dribble more and more.

 

Q1 - What ISP do you use and are they any good?

 

Q2 - Do they offer a "pay monthly" package with a 0800 number for the dialup connection?

 

Q3 - Do they support POP3 mail clients?

 

Q4 - It has to be reliable service, are they and is 24/7 access with no "time-on-online" limits?

John,

 

I use metro800 business, and the service is excellent.

 

http://www.metro800.co.uk/metro800/index.shtml

 

I work from home using ISDN 2e and I NEVER have to dial in more than once and it's on 12 hrs a day near enough.

 

The 24/7 deal does have a 4hr time out, guess it depends on the size of your downloads or if you are into online gaming.

 

hth

 

Tim

currently using tiscali. 14.99/mo, so it aint the cheapest but its a pretty good service. Its connected almost permanently, and they haven't moaned yet in the few months ive had it. BT cut me off cos i used it too much on the unlimited plan ;)

Madasafish best ISP by far! £14.99 a month, doesnt cut me off till 8 hours!!!!!!!!!! Its a no frills ISP, you dont get any dribble just a fast reliable connection.

 

Bite the bullet and go for broadband

Stuart is right. You won't regret it.

 

I've had 4 months of it and will be shortly moving to somewhere that doesn't have it. My life will not be the same !!!

Concur with Stuart on B/B - but if like me you live up some dusty old lane then dial up it will have to be.

 

Go get ISDN and use Onetel - 12.99/month 24/7 with occasional kick-off (when they feel like it)

 

The main reason I say onetel is they dont employ CLI (Calling Line Identification) so, ahem, you can use it on more than one PC (at the same time hehe)

 

It is a cheap option if you have multiple PC's to connect or want to use it on a laptop and PC etcetc...

 

http://www.onetel.net.uk

 

Customer services a joke though, so if you want me to help you set up dial-up networking gimme a call at work

 

01983 539666 - Glen

i use Bluyeyonder cable and i have a 1.2 meg connection :D

dont ask me how as it involved alot of arguing and alot more arguing lol, but i ended up with 1.2 meg and it is constant.

:D:D best 30 squid a month :D

Wow! 1.2 meg, that some hot Sh1t!!

 

I've got BT Broadband, 30 squid a month, and always on ... once you've had it (plus a working phone at the same time), you'll never believe you survived without it.

 

Couldn't recommend it too strongly ... of course, you do need to be able to access it. There's a postcode test on the BT Openworld website that should give you a pretty good idea:p

 

CheerZ,

John.

The BT one though, we have been waiting for that to come round here for ages. Over 2 years and they still havent. And I dont live in a cecluded area.

IMHO you wont be sorry with the broadband. I once had ISDN, which was nice I got 64,000 connection all the time and down loads of just under 8Kbs, but it wasnt worth the extra money for an extra 1.5kbs over a modem. However the extra £10 a month for an extra 55Kbs over a modem is worth it.

 

If you have a Cable phone its £25 a month for a 512 connection no limit of transfer. For an extra £10 a month its upped to 1024.

 

£15 a month for a Modem connection equals £2.14 per Kbs (kiloByte a Second)

£25 a month for Cable Blueyonder 512 connection equals £0.39 per Kbs

£35 a month for Cable Blueyonder 1024 connection equals £0.27 per Kbs

BT Anytime 24/7 and had it for a few weeks now.

 

I was with IC24.net before which was lo-call number.

 

I worked out that over a quarter it was about 15 squids a month with IC and BT was a mare to setup!

 

Not overly impressed with BT(what's new?) as sometimes it takes a few attempts to connect and although it seems to give me a better connection it seems slower than IC. Hmmm!!!

 

But hey, I can go on all week at anytime for about 17 squids a month.

Pipex adsl broadband. £23 per month & its damn fast!! (compared to my old dial up modem) :D

John, if you're in a cable area, odds are your best deal will be a broadband / telephony bundle. That's usually way cheaper than the next bet.

 

Which is ADSL - BT's is most expensive but there are loads of others as mentioned above.

 

As for narrowband (i.e. dial-up) apart from one or two (some of which have been mentioned above), you will find that the flat rate "all you can eat" services will get progressively more restricted. eg BT Anytime should now be renamed BT Sometime as you can only use it for 150 hours per month. AOL is doing the same.

 

This is because the business model for 24hr flat rate access simply doesn't work - it assumes that people only use the service for an hour or so a day. Then high users (Clarkey, me etc) get the service and sit there all day.

 

(BTW, the business model for ADSL doesn't work either but that's another story - fill yer boots while you can!)

No broadband here yet and I'm not wasting my money on ISDN until it arraives so dialup it remains. I don't need it all day but when I'm online I need the connection to be instant, fast and reliable. On previous experience that seems to exclude AOL and BT offerings. I am looking into a couple of ISP anytime services as suggested above and will see how that pans out for the future, at least until broadband gets to my area. Trouble having a T1 line at work makes everything so slow at home. Again thanks.

as Big Roy recommended, madasafish was a good reliable fast service, i used these before going broadband - also virgin was good.

Hi John,have you tried AOL 8!,cuold be the answer,currently on 7 myself,did find the page load a tad slower than AOL6,so i changed the order of the dial up numbers got better loading after trying a few variations,i hear that version 8 is very good,so will move up to that when i get a disc from somewhere,must say this have tried many isp's in the past still went back to AOL,customer service great,security great,very rarely get cut off,brilliant for the kids and i feel safe to let them wander on the net,AOLs parental controls are great,no worries them getting onto strange sites if you know what i meen,see ya,Tony:D

Tony, I can't even get AOL 7 to load on my laptop without a BSOD so decided as the kids are a little older I would get away from AOL and go direct again. But thanks anyway.

Does anyone know of any ISP offering 128K ISDN access for a fixed monthly fee or a way of using both channels without their knowledge? ;)

A work mate has just had NTL 128k access done ,£15 month, and free set up while promo on,says its excellent,would have it myself but no NTL cable round here.Tony

I've got Pipex broadband at £25 per month. Installation was free at the time. Its very fast and you can make calls on your phone while connected to the Internet. Downloads are very, very fast and you can connect 24/7

I can't wait for AndyP to post! LMFAO :D

Originally posted by jvnewcomb1961

having a T1 line at work makes everything so slow at home.

 

Move into a flat next to work and sneak an RJ45 cable out one night ;)