Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider (BT)
On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: Hi all - I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. Kind regards, Travis I was also with O2 (Be) and also was motivated to jump ship for the very same reason. The good news was that BT fibre was already becoming established in my area - it was frustrating to see all the cabinets go in and not have a fibre related connection myself - and also that BT had then recently changed policy to make their 'unlimited' options truly unlimited - removing the restrictions on P2P activity and uploads, for example. I had been resisting choosing a fibre connection partly on principle because I think P2P is so important for the internet. The connection activity went well (sigh of relief). And it continues to be good :-) The bad news is that I am now dealing with a massive org which occasionally morphs into a dozy giant. The installer guy was well informed technically, but on contract, so he reacted like an outsider, not relating to BT in company knowledge or attitude, confirming the idea that - somewhere - I was dealing with an amorphous unknown lumbering org. I had gladly accepted a cashback (well, voucher back) deal for Sainsburys vouchers (50 pounds) and the claim registration web page had an incorrect date which would invalidate my own claim, which caused me anxiety. I got some reassurance from the live chat help - I noticed this at pre sales time - but verbal reassurance was only partially comforting. Ultimately I did receive the promised vouchers, but the claim web page was STILL indicating invalid dates. Email accounts have been a pita. BT makes use of Yahoo mail, and I found that to use (BTYahoo) as SMPT server for my various outgoings I had to configure my BTYahoo settings to accept each email ID separately. I have a number of email IDs. Presumably because Yahoo see my mail initially, as alien. It does work, though, albeit an inconvenient hassle. The other day, I got an email from BT about the possible closure of my BTYahoo mail account. This was an offer that I could hardly ignore, nor even refuse. But unfortunately I did not even understand it. My contact to them yielded an explanation which I also did not fully understand. My BT fibre connection username is allocated to be the same as my BTYahoo email address, so I was confused that if I was one of those who chose to allow closure from non use of the BTYahoo email account, then I wondered what would happen to my connection username. I have since concluded for myself that in such a case, the username continues as an ID but even though it appears to be a real email address, it of course will not be. Such is the disconnect in an ISP which puts its email facility out to others. In my case because I make frequent use of the BTYahoo account to route my outgoing mail, I conclude I will not be seen as a non user of the BTYahoo account... Incidentally, I was connected with two boxes, not just one. A BT modem, presumably related to fibre, and a wireless router (BT Home Hub), whereas previously with adsl I had a single combined, modem router. For some reason, not sure what, I find that the BT router does not easily connect to new wireless devices (Android tablet, phones) although ok eventually. So far I have found that a router restart (has a button) does help. Oh, yes, as a Post Script: I registered with the BT forums support community - to try to better undertsand the promise of email account closure from 'non use'. I had some ROFL because - I used my real name (alan cocks), it was impossible because my surname got the response 'Bad word, please clean this up and try again' What a way to treat a long and illustrious family name so well known for its chickens business? ;-) hth -- alan cocks -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider (BT)
On 8 May 2013 10:26, alan c aecl...@candt.waitrose.com wrote: On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: Hi all - I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. Kind regards, Travis I was also with O2 (Be) and also was motivated to jump ship for the very same reason. The good news was that BT fibre was already becoming established in my area - it was frustrating to see all the cabinets go in and not have a fibre related connection myself - and also that BT had then recently changed policy to make their 'unlimited' options truly unlimited - removing the restrictions on P2P activity and uploads, for example. I had been resisting choosing a fibre connection partly on principle because I think P2P is so important for the internet. The connection activity went well (sigh of relief). And it continues to be good :-) That's one thing I like about Zen: they piggy back on the BT infrastructure so as soon as Fibre was available in my area, they were offering it. The bad news is that I am now dealing with a massive org which occasionally morphs into a dozy giant. The installer guy was well informed technically, but on contract, so he reacted like an outsider, not relating to BT in company knowledge or attitude, confirming the idea that - somewhere - I was dealing with an amorphous unknown lumbering org. I had gladly accepted a cashback (well, voucher back) deal for Sainsburys vouchers (50 pounds) and the claim registration web page had an incorrect date which would invalidate my own claim, which caused me anxiety. I got some reassurance from the live chat help - I noticed this at pre sales time - but verbal reassurance was only partially comforting. Ultimately I did receive the promised vouchers, but the claim web page was STILL indicating invalid dates. That's the other thing I like about Zen: small company and support know what they're talking about. Email accounts have been a pita. BT makes use of Yahoo mail, and I found that to use (BTYahoo) as SMPT server for my various outgoings I had to configure my BTYahoo settings to accept each email ID separately. I have a number of email IDs. Presumably because Yahoo see my mail initially, as alien. It does work, though, albeit an inconvenient hassle. The other day, I got an email from BT about the possible closure of my BTYahoo mail account. This was an offer that I could hardly ignore, nor even refuse. But unfortunately I did not even understand it. My contact to them yielded an explanation which I also did not fully understand. My BT fibre connection username is allocated to be the same as my BTYahoo email address, so I was confused that if I was one of those who chose to allow closure from non use of the BTYahoo email account, then I wondered what would happen to my connection username. I have since concluded for myself that in such a case, the username continues as an ID but even though it appears to be a real email address, it of course will not be. Such is the disconnect in an ISP which puts its email facility out to others. In my case because I make frequent use of the BTYahoo account to route my outgoing mail, I conclude I will not be seen as a non user of the BTYahoo account... Incidentally, I was connected with two boxes, not just one. A BT modem, presumably related to fibre, and a wireless router (BT Home Hub), whereas previously with adsl I had a single combined, modem router. Yes, I have the same: the router is the old one I had with ADSL, they just added a fibre modem (white box) in front of it and connected the router using PPPoE via the modem rather than PPPoA direct to the phone line. Actually, that's yet another thing I like about Zen: when I ordered my ADSL with them 2 years ago, they suggested a few models of routers I could use other than the one they supply and explained what features I needed to look for in order to be able to upgrade to fibre later without changing the router. And when upgrade time came, they asked what model I had, pulled out the spec sheet for that model and guided me through the re-configuration (which wasn't hard to be honest). For some reason, not sure what, I find that the BT router does not easily connect to new wireless devices (Android tablet, phones) although ok eventually. So far I have found that a router restart (has a button) does help. Oh, yes, as a Post Script: I registered with the BT forums support community - to try to better undertsand the promise of email account closure from 'non use'. I had some ROFL because - I used my real name (alan cocks), it was impossible because my surname got the response 'Bad word, please clean this up
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider (BT)
On 8 May 2013 22:00, Bruno Girin brunogi...@gmail.com wrote: On 8 May 2013 10:26, alan c aecl...@candt.waitrose.com wrote: I used my real name (alan cocks) Good old profanity filter! :-) who knew alan was a swear word?! what is the world coming to, I wonder... Seriously though, black-listing profanity filters NEVER do their job as intended! You just have to look at the emails that spam-filters miss to see how it's always possible to find a combination that isn't filtered. Though spam-filtering does give us a lot of research into bayesian filtering that should be applied to profanity filters instead of the out-and-out blacklists of words/part-words. -- Daniel Llewellyn -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. I've been a happy customer of Andrews and Arnold [0] for almost two years. I started off with a BT line, then switched to Be, but I'm also planning to move away from them with the Murdoch take over. AA deal with BT for you, and they do a good job of it. To be fair, the only reason I switched to a Be backhaul was cost. I won't go into all the details here, they're on the web site, but briefly the Home::1 package offers a real (no NAT) IPv4 address, a /48 native IPv6 block and 50GB any time downloads for £25 a month. After that, it's up to you to choose what add-ons you need. HTH, JT [0] http://aa.net.uk/ - -- - ---+ James Tait, BSc|xmpp:jayte...@wyrddreams.org Programmer and Free Software advocate |Tel: +44 (0)870 490 2407 - ---+ -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with undefined - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlGIxEsACgkQyDo4xMNTLib5XgCaAzoio0it0HzeZxAX5owopxC6 BRkAoLGclyNewZuzO/S98dGbUwbpKfvX =vP0B -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
If you are an EE (or T-Mobile or Orange) customer (either contract or payg) I would recommend EE's ADSL simply on price. I have been using them since February and have had no issues. Their cheapest package is £19/m including line rental (£24/m if you aren't an EE group customer). Speeds are pretty decent for ADSL, and they do shape traffic at peak times, but streaming a film or TV still works fine at any time, in my experience. On 7 May 2013 08:36, TT Mooney ttmoo...@dilettantism.com wrote: Hi all - I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. Kind regards, Travis -- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- Matt Wheeler m...@funkyhat.org -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL Provider
Talk Talk get a a lot of stick but I still think they are worth considering. The customer service can be a bit frustrating but, from a technical standpoint, I've never had an issue of any kind with them since I first signed up some years ago. They admit to shaping peer-to-peer at peak hours but I can't say I've ever noticed it having any effect. One point to bear in mind is that they are prepared to negotiate. Each time the contract is up for renewal (18 months) I dream up a fictitious quote from a competitor and they're always keen to beat it. I now get unlimited BB, line rental, unlimited calls (though not premium rate or mobile) and 1571 service for just over £23 a month. Talk Talk's supplied router is a nifty little device. It's provides strong wi-fi coverage all round the house which my previous Netgear router never could. A tip - the advertised BB costs from any ISP are often from. If you live in the sticks, like I do, you usually end up paying more. Nige -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
+1 AA On 7 May 2013 12:50, J Fernyhough j.fernyho...@gmail.com wrote: On 7 May 2013 10:07, James Tait james.t...@wyrddreams.org wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. I've been a happy customer of Andrews and Arnold [0] for almost two years. I started off with a BT line, then switched to Be, but I'm also planning to move away from them with the Murdoch take over. AA deal with BT for you, and they do a good job of it. To be fair, the only reason I switched to a Be backhaul was cost. I won't go into all the details here, they're on the web site, but briefly the Home::1 package offers a real (no NAT) IPv4 address, a /48 native IPv6 block and 50GB any time downloads for £25 a month. After that, it's up to you to choose what add-ons you need. HTH, JT [0] http://aa.net.uk/ - -- - ---+ James Tait, BSc|xmpp:jayte...@wyrddreams.org Programmer and Free Software advocate |Tel: +44 (0)870 490 2407 - ---+ -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with undefined - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlGIxEsACgkQyDo4xMNTLib5XgCaAzoio0it0HzeZxAX5owopxC6 BRkAoLGclyNewZuzO/S98dGbUwbpKfvX =vP0B -END PGP SIGNATURE- +1 for AA. I've been with them for several years. While they're not the cheapest the service level is exceptional, i.e. you get what you pay for. Speeds are always best-effort, there is no filtering or SPI, and the support team are highly knowledgeable and responsive. Just as an example, I moved properties and wanted to merge the new account with my old one. I went on IRC, asked, and was done in less than five minutes. You can also normally chat with the company owner (RevK). It looks like the Home::1 tariff is a good bet if you need 'net access during weekdays. Otherwise I'd stick to the unit-based system. In addition to the ~£20 base cost (including two units), one unit is ~£3.90 which buys you a mix of 1GB (or 2.5GB on 21CN ADSL2+) 9am-6pm and 50GB 6pm-9am, with night time special running 2am-6am with 1TB/unit. Weekends and Bank Holidays are 50GB/unit. If you over- or under-use the difference is carried over to the next month and you can change units on a month-by-month basis. J -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- -- Toby Satchell BSc (hons) -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
On 7 May 2013 08:44, Simon Greenwood sfgreenw...@gmail.com wrote: On 7 May 2013 08:36, TT Mooney ttmoo...@dilettantism.com wrote: Hi all - I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. I've moved to PlusNet for fibre and their ADSL offerings might be worth a look. If nothing else, they're honest about their traffic shaping (practically all ISPs do it, they publish their prioritisations on their website). They're owned by BT but their support and infrastructure remain separate. +1 for Plus Net from me too. I've had to phone their tech support a couple of times, and the first Tech's you speak to are very knowledgeable. They quickly go off-script and aren't phased by Linux clients. Neil -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? +1 for PlusNet Fibre. Local firm (oop 'ere, any road - they're based in Sheffield) with local tech support, who are knowledgeable, friendly, and flexible (especially when they spot that you are a bit competent). Great communication systems that keep you fully informed and updated about your account queries and support tickets. (Not that I've needed much of either - rock solid service with good performance.) mac -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
On 7 May 2013 15:12, mac ammonius.grammati...@gmx.co.uk wrote: On 07/05/13 08:36, TT Mooney wrote: I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? +1 for PlusNet Fibre. Local firm (oop 'ere, any road - they're based in Sheffield) with local tech support, who are knowledgeable, friendly, and flexible (especially when they spot that you are a bit competent). Great communication systems that keep you fully informed and updated about your account queries and support tickets. (Not that I've needed much of either - rock solid service with good performance.) mac I agree. My only problems have been with adsl congestion from the street cab. They might start by asking if you've rebooted Windows or purged your browser cache, but mention ping or traceroute and they get much more helpful. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] DSL provider
On 7 May 2013 08:36, TT Mooney ttmoo...@dilettantism.com wrote: Hi all - I've been a happy user of O2 broadband for years, but now that Murdoch has laid his hands on it, I want to change provider. Does anyone have a recommendation? I used to have BT, and they were mostly useless. There is a bit of bittorent going on, so I'm looking for an uncapped adsl2 service. Virgin Media is not available in my area. I've been very happy with Zen Internet [1]. Their phone support is not 24x7 but they are very knowledgeable and the few issues I've had have always been sorted efficiently. They are very happy to provide you with a router if you wish or to let you use your own if you have one and know what you're doing. Their standard broadband contract is a monthly rolling one so if you don't like it, you can cancel with no hassle. I recently upgraded to their fibre offering and it works a treat. [1] http://www.zen.co.uk/ Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
