I got turned down for broadband last year, and the checker at bt wholesale
still says I'm too far away.

Anyway, just wondering if I have to:

a) wait until the 6th before I can put in an order with my ISP of choice

b) put in an order a few days beforehand to make sure I get it as close to
the 6th as possible

c) put in an order now and see if it's accepted?

It's not that I'm overly keen, it's just that my dial-up a/c rolls round on
the 2nd of the month, and I don't want to pay for a months access when I'd
only need the first few days of it. I clearly need some overlap though.

I was also going to ask for opinions on a good ISP, but I would prefer to
have my above question answered rather than see the thread purely turn into
another best ISP debate.

Oh, sod it....

I'm looking for low pings, decent newsgroup access, no restrictions on p2p
use, at least 3 email addresses (preferably with an optional filter and
accessable by webmail) and reasonably cheap with no connection fee. I
already have a modem and filters as Freeserve forgot to ask for theirs back
after I got turned down by BT last year and the BB trial period got aborted.

Miffed wrote:

Do this, with one of the ISPs that have announced they are accepting
pre-orders given todays news.

Plusnet, Zen, Eclipse and NDO have all announced their accepting
advanced orders *now*.

Couple of articles on Bug (see sig), plus the obligatory other sites
like AG, ISPR et al

--
Regards
Andy M Jenkins
UK Broadband Usergroup http://www.uk-bug.net

On 18 Aug 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Kráftéé" wrote:

True... I suppose someone could get a free connection and short
contract from ISP 'A' and then migrate to ISP 'B' at lower cost
than most charge for setup. I know which I'd suggest for 'B'
but not sure which can be identified as 'A' and none for the
whole list of the OP's requirements I can think of... Peter.

--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.
Depends on account that is opened by new customer, but good value ISP IMO.

"poster" <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
news:jkl7i09gg038jn0mf7j68tjngj2mkrkhfd@4ax.com...
Ok, so the null setup cost is a bit wishful, but the rest still stands. I'd
be particularly unhappy about capping, but I'm not sure whether my
requirements would put me as a particularly heavy user. I'm not planning to
download movies or download 24-7, but a fair bit of music and streamed
radio, as well as the odd game demo is definitely on the agenda. I'll be
limited to 512 I think, so I can't go mad anyways.

Miffed wrote:

You'll have to shop around to find something to fit all that, most ISP's are
capping on at least some if not all their services, a lot have restrictions
for P2P (sharing copyrite material) in their TOC & all have had problems
with their news servers, but some are a lot better than others, whilst
others are improving in leaps 7 bounds. As for the free connection
fee..........

Well as I said you've got some serious shopping around to do.....

Miffed wrote:
I know Plusnet are are taking pre-orders, they are a pretty good ISP,
have served me well, no caps, or restrictions, they do however have a
setup fee. I think Eclipse also meet the same requirements and also
charge a setup fee, so it's pretty much the same.

If you do decide on Plusnet, I would appreciate it if you use my referal
code: mgillespie

Cheers.


--
"This dog don't give a feck..."

On 19 Aug 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, "Miffed" wrote:

I don't think some of the extra features you're after are included in any
search tools (for example, I know there are multiple mail accounts on Zen,
but don't know how many, TBH). Capping is still easy to avoid, so not an
issue IMO. You could do worse than use <http://groups.google.com/> to be
able to look back at comments regarding good/bad views on news services
from different ISPs.

PlusNet has made major improvements to their news service in the last few
months - you can sign up online for an 0845 a/c and take a look at whether
they have groups you want (I expect them to, as they list 61000+ but also,
you could compare with Claranet. Clara is more costly, but has very good
mail filtering (see <http://home.clara.net/steve/filters/> and they offer
mail in a similar way to PlusNet/Freeserve eg userid@clara.co.uk or able
to make different addresses like somename@userid.clara.co.uk ) FreeUK.net
is a cheaper option than Claranet but offers access to their news service
(but with a 10 GB download limit each month, as that's important to you).

I've not used Claranet's ADSL but know users on FreeUK and myself use PN
for newsgroups and stream audio a lot of the time... Check out the news
services and see about comments from other ISPs - some seem to outsource
the news to US-based services so as not to have everything "in house".

--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 22:20:29 +0100, Miffed <me@here.com> wrote:

Hi,

If your line currently outside of the limits then we or any other ISP
can't place an order until September 6th because BT Wholesale systems
won't be ready until then and will reject it. To avoid any complications I
would recommend waiting until the 6th to actually place an order, and the
ADSL service should be active around the 13th. There is a higher chance
than normal that the service won't work from the start and a BT engineer
visit may be required to fix a line fault or install a new face plate so I
would recommend keeping your dial-up account until you know it works.

With Regards,

Dave,
--
| Dave Tomlinson Broadband Solutions For
| Customer Support for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc @ http://www.plus.net
+ ----- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet -----

PlusNet Support Team wrote:

Hi Dave,

This goes against the concept of Plusnet accepting advance orders for
the 6th Sept, doesnt it ?

--
Regards
Andy M Jenkins
UK Broadband Usergroup http://www.uk-bug.net

Andy M Jenkins wrote:
I assume they are willing to take orders, but like everyone else, will
sit on them until the 6th, just a free way to cash in on the bonanza...


--
"This dog don't give a feck..."

In article <N9KdnX0ROvg8PbncRVnyjg@giganews.com>,
andy_nfTORIES@btopenworld.com says...

Although we are taking advance orders we cannot actually do anything
with them until the 6th. We are taking advance orders because we know
that other ISP's will do the same and we would effectively be losing
customers.

If customers sign up on the 6th then their orders will be processed
using the automated systems - which is obviously what we would prefer
since it reduces the manual work we have to do.

Regards,
--
| Josh Berry.................Unmetered & ADSL solutions
| Customer Support..................for Home & Business
| PlusNet plc.....................@ http://www.plus.net
+ ---- My Referrals - It pays to recommend PlusNet ---+

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 21:05:05 +0100, PlusNet Support Team
<jberry@plus.net> wrote:

Lazy gits!! I know exactly where you're coming from though

You could put an order in with us now - but it would make not odds.
*We* can't place the order on BT Wholesale to enable your line until
after 6th Sept if you are over the *current* limits.

This is different from when a new exchange is enabled. If an exchange
enable date is announced we can place orders for it and they *may* go
live as soon as the exchange work is complete, though in theory again
we're not supposed to be able to get service until a week after that
time.

Still, it's ten days away - go down the pub and don't worry for a
week! :-)


"Miffed" <me@here.com> wrote:

---
Business ADSL solutions
www.wizards.co.uk

Well, we can do all of that except the no-connection fee. Frankly, if
you want cheap ASDL and no connection fee, you must expect some or
possibly even all of the restrictions you say you don't want. :-)

"Miffed" <me@here.com> wrote:

---
Business ADSL solutions
www.wizards.co.uk

Whislt it's true that the "migrate between ISP" fee is way lower than
the "setup new line" fee from BT, it's probably the case that any ISP
offering "free" connection in the first place will require you to stay
with them for at least a year.

The reality is the ISP pays BT £55 to connect a new line. If the ISP
only makes a fiver a month from your account (and the low-cost ones
will be lucky to get that much) it's going to take them almost a year
just to earn back the "connect" fee, let alone show a profit. Unless,
of course, you spend a few hours talking to their helpdesk at 50p/min.
:-)

poster <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote:

---
Wizards Ltd www.wizards.co.uk
UK supplier of Sonicwall, Watchguard, Zywall.

I think you'll find that Plusnet accept orders from End Users for new
lines but can't pass those orders on to BT until 6th Sept so you're
not getting a head start, just getting to the front of the queue for
when the shop opens.

As such, I guess, we can do the same! :-) However, our first priority
on Sept 6th is to go through all the orders we have from customers
already which were turned down, we'll automatically re-check them all
and get back in touch with the customer if it's now OK.

Andy M Jenkins <andy_nfTORIES@btopenworld.com> wrote:

---
Business ADSL solutions
www.wizards.co.uk

On 26 Aug 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Chris Comley wrote:

of course some don't hold a customer to the full year, but have an 'exit
penalty' instead, to cover the setup fee.

Not all the lower cost services have those... but some people complain
about even an 0845 charge. AOL might be their best option (with 0800!)

--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

poster <us-mail@rocketmail.com> wrote:

True, there are all sorts of variations. Our policy is to keep it
straight - so we charge a setup fee, coz BT charge us a setup fee, we
charge a rental, coz BT charge us a rental, etc. Our min contract
term is one month, and we don't have premium rate numbers. True, we
don't offer 0800...

---
Business ADSL solutions
www.wizards.co.uk