> Does anyone in NTL's UK-coverage area have any experience of switching from
> BT or whatever to NTL's cable-service?
Yes. I did it about March.
> For everyone's information, I believe that NTL offers a service comprising:
> 1. cable-TV
Yes.
> 2. Cable-telecoms
Not sure. Seems the same as BT to me.
> 3. 56k modem-compliant internet connection
Yes.
>
> AFAIK,
>
> 1) the cable-TV service includes several free channels
> and an option to subscribe to many more, but with
> no obligation to take any of the subscription channels.
Yes. They will probably give you a months free subscription to all
the channels (except films etc.) and after the month you will want
them all!
>
> 2) the cable-telecoms service is a telephone service
> to replace BT (or whomever), with call charges
> working out significantly less than BT's charges.
Yes. Local calls to other NTL customers are free. Normal rates are
3p, 2p and 1p per min for long dist(?), national(?) and local calls.
>
> 3) although NTL uses OPTICAL FIBRE cables, not
> telephone wires, the sonic signals generated by
> a modem and emitted as an analogue stream of
> electrical impulses for feeding directly into the
> telephone socket are converted by an NTL
> box into an optical signal stream
> (�20 or �40 instalation charge for the converter).
>
I don't know anything about a convertor. There is a connection box on
the wall for the TV cable and a normal looking phone connector.
Installation wasn't as much as �40 I don't think.
> 4) Internet access is 24-hour free and unmetered.
Yes :-)
>
> 5) Apart from the initial installation charge, the whole
> of the above can be had for �9.50 pm line
> rental, which is less than BT even without the
> unmetered Internet calls.
Yes, something like that, �9 ish.
>
> AFAIK also, the only snag is that one has to switch from BT to NTL as the
> telephone service straight away (which is not a snag because NTL is cheaper
> than BT) and there is a waiting list of several weeks before NTL's ISP
> connection becomes available to new subscribers.
That's about it. You can keep your old number as well.
>
> I already believe all of the above to be correct and I know already that it
> works for pee cee users.
>
> What I don't know is,
>
> ARE THERE ANY MAJOR PROBLEMS FOR AMIGA USERS?
A few problems.
>
> Has anyone out there connected to NTL's toll-free ISP connection using a
> decent computer of the Amiga variety?
Yes (decent Amiga? Well it is ok - see sig.).
> One minor problem I do envisage is having to use a pee cee to complete NTL's
> initial ISP setup. What I am assuming is that, once it IS all set up, it
> will simply be a case of transferring a few settings manually to the Amiga.
> Can anyone tell me if this is so? Are there any other problems? Can they
> be overcome?
The first think you do is find a pc that you don't mind screwing up a
bit. It should be a pentium. Run the CD and when it has filled up
the drive with tons of crap it will ask you for a few details and
register you with them (the CD might have changed since I did it, but
it should be similar). When it has all finished you should get the
connection details on the screen or in a file that you can print out
and take to your Amiga.
You only need a few things:
Dial up No.
Login name
Password
e-mail address
e-mail password
SMTP server
POP server
NNTP server
Domain name
Primary and secondary DNS servers
Enter these into your TCP/IP stack (I use Genesis) and away you go..
sort of.
When I first got NTL I was paying 1p per min and I never had a
problem.
When it went free I didn't have a problem for about 6 weeks and then
Genesis started crashing when connecting. I got some different config
settings for Genesis from the South Wales Amiga Group (I think) and
that fixed it for about 2 weeks. I then got another config change
from someone (on this list I think) and it worked for months without a
problem.
1 week ago I started having a few problems connecting. Sometimes it
will connect and others it won't - it either sits there for ever,
re-dials, or looks like it has connected but doesn't work (it took me
3 goes to get on just now).
It is probably a temporary thing but when you do get a problem there
is only the Amiga community to ask for help. One other thing is that
you will be disconnected after 2 hours (1h 59 mins actually). Also if
your line is quiet for about 5 mins you will also be disconnected (get
your mail prog to check your mail every 5 mins or your stack to
ping etc. to stop this).
You will have to configure you stack correctly or you will have
problems (with Genesis anyway).
I can give you my setting if you need them.
>
> Please help with this, someone...
Hope this helps,
Paul.
--
---------
Paul Kitching
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ: 79217765
A1200, Apollo 040/25, 32Mb Fast, 6.4 Gb HD, 12x SCSI CD,
56k V90 Modem, Squirrel SCSI, Zip Drive, AGA.
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