UK ISPs and TCP/IP

[Guest Germanboy]

Roight - now that I have tried and found out that BT Internet sucks at connection speed, are there any suggestions for (affordable) ISP service where you can actually have a game that is not slower than PBEM or exchanging the files via ICQ would be? And that does not constantly disconnect? Any suggestions welcome, and all of you snickering cheap ISDN/cable-modem US people, I don't like you...

Oh, and if anyone can riddle me why this bloody country does have a phone system that would make Guinea Bissau feel ashamed, I would be interested in hearing that too. Grrr....

UK - first to privatise their local monopolist, last to get anywhere with competition. Oh no, I am not bitter.

------------------

Andreas

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/greg_mudry/sturm.html">Der Kessel</a >

Home of „Die Sturmgruppe“; Scenario Design Group for Combat Mission.

[This message has been edited by Germanboy (edited 12-16-2000).]

[chrisl]

snicker

------------------

Slayer of the Original Cesspool Thread.

[Chupacabra]

Erm, just go to university! 9000 pounds a year for a T1 connection

------------------

Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

[David Aitken]

My ISP is Demon Internet (www.demon.net) and I am very happy with the service and reliability. A couple of months ago they brought out their Surftime package, which basically means that if your telephone company is BT, you can give them both 20 quid a month and get free internet phone calls. (You don't want to know what my phone bills used to amount to.) If your telephone company isn't BT you'll have to wait until BT unbundles its local loops (ie. opens them up to competitors) which, with a bit of help from the government, is scheduled to happen sometime before hell freezes over.

David

[kipanderson]

Hi,

I have both BT and ClaraNet. I am about to drop BT and only use ClaraNet. Their connection is far more reliable. Now the live internet version of CM is here one cannot afford to fool around!

All the best,

Kip.

[Private Pike]

Move to Hull, we've had un-metered internet access since 1998 and an independent (and actually quite good) phone company, Kingston comunications (half owned by the local council). Kingston comunications are currently offering ADSL digital TV & internet (sadly not to my computer...yet).

On the other hand I can think of a hundred other reasons not to move to Hull.

[Guest Germanboy]

Thanks for all the info. Private Pike - like you I can think of hundreds of reasons not to move to Hull, although it sports one of the great universities of Britain Kingston Comms is a good argument against privatising IMO. BTW, I have heard that if you have an ISDN line with BT and don't use it for two weeks (e.g. you are on holiday) they sort of 'borrow' it (you are of course welcome to continue paying for it) without telling you, and when you come back, notice it does not work and complain, they switch it on without ever telling you.

------------------

Andreas

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/greg_mudry/sturm.html">Der Kessel</a >

Home of „Die Sturmgruppe“; Scenario Design Group for Combat Mission.

[This message has been edited by Germanboy (edited 12-17-2000).]

[DrAlimantado]

I have 24-7F reecall. 20 punds for unmetered access. The only problem is that I have not been able to get TCP/IP to work, as I get disconnected every three or two minutes. Otherwise than that everything works like magic (except for the first month where I was not able to connect during evenings and weekends). As you can see, this is an ISP you can rely on not to wórk.

Kingston Comms a good argument against privatising? I thought this whole country was a good argument against privatising.

M

[phil stanbridge]

I use Redhotant 24/7. They've been reliable recently, although I use ISDN and the second channel isn't available to me so I can only get 7-10k a second instead of double that. Still way better than 56k mind you.

I would recommend them at the moment but there techy support is non-existant. You need to know what you're doing basically. www.redhotant.com

David, may I ask, do Demon support ISDN PPP do you know?

[Lah]

I have the same problems with dissconections and have heard that it happens if your line is idle for a few minutes, I got surftime 24/7 with Sniffout.com

I would play a lot more PBEM games but it just keeps dissconecting during the download of large files

If you can afford it then sign up for ADSL, I have, but they refuse to give you an installation date, gits.

Btw Demon does seem to have a very good reputation, but £40...

[David Aitken]

phil stanbridge wrote:

> David, may I ask, do Demon support ISDN PPP do you know?

Couldn't tell you offhand, but www.demon.net should have the info.

Lah wrote:

> Btw Demon does seem to have a very good reputation, but £40...

That's the most expensive package, for totally unmetered access. You get evening-and-weekend packages, or standard dialup if you only use it for e-mail. Other companies offer totally free access, but Demon is fast and reliable (and only disconnects you after about 8 minutes of inactivity). =)

David

[Holien]

Hey,

This will not be to your liking but my BT connection is on the whole quite reliable and while it does drop occasionally this only seems to be at peak usage in the early evening.

Maybe there is some difference in line qualities around the country?

I have a mate on NTL but they have a waiting period to join because of the uptake. He seems happy with NTL. I guess if you are in London that might be an option?

H