Electronic Utilities

[ewx]

NTL's clever customer retention strategy means that their contract here is ending a bit after LNR moves out. I'm thinking of switching to BT for phones, Freeview for TV[1] and some as-yet unknown ADSL provider for Internet connectivity.

Phones: NTL's reliability has been less than stellar - we had to call them out to fix the phone line three times and only the third time did it stay fixed for more than a few months. BT's cheapest monthly rate (which implies online-only billing, which is fine by me) is only slightly cheaper than NTL's.

Freeview: I mainly watch Channel 5 and BBC channels, so there shouldn't be any problem with channel availability in moving away from NTL here. NTL's TV service is somewhat flaky (probably the fault of the awful STB but whatever.) I was thinking of getting a digital box with hard disk and dual tuner (Life On Mars is clashing with CSI at the moment l-)

ADSL: NTL's internet service has probably been the most reliable of the three for us (I know other people have found it unreliable). However I'll be glad to get away from their intercepting web and DNS proxies (the latter are particularly broken). The BT availability checker thinks my postcode could get 1.5Mbit/s which is a bit less than NTL seem to be providing right now but I reckon is plenty.

So, anyone got any advice/recommendations/disrecommendations?

Comments

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Order the BT line ASAP - it'll probably take days to set up, and you can't apply for ADSL (which does take several days) until the line is active.

Does your house have a fixed TV aerial? If so you may need to upgrade it to receive DTT.

I'm currently with BCN for ADSL, but about to switch to A&A (and regrade up to Max at the same time) - purely on price grounds, BCN are good and clueful and A&A have a good rep for same. The BT checker can be a bit variable when given a postcode - you'll get a more reliable answer when you have a real phone number to feed to it.

[1] Unreferenced footnote (core dumped)

[nunfetishist.livejournal.com]

Order the BT line ASAP - it'll probably take days to set up, and you can't apply for ADSL (which does take several days) until the line is active.

When we moved house, we ordered both the BT line and our Zen ADSL on the same day, even though BT said it might take a week for the line to become active. Zen where quite happy to accept the order, and when we moved (a week and a bit later), we just plugged in a modem and away it went.

[pm215]

Second the recommendation for A&A -- I've been entirely happy with them, they're reasonably clueful, you get the stuff like multiple IP addresses, and if you're usually at work during the day the limit-during-office-hours tariffs are good value.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

I continue to evangelise for Zen (http://www.zen.co.uk/) ADSL. It's not exactly cheap, but it works. Properly. In my experience.

[reddragdiva]

Seconded. We have Sky for TV, so I considered Sky's free broadband offer (they bought EasyNet and offer free DSL to any TV subscriber) - but looking at the numbers, I would have been paying about £5/month less for the same service I get now and not get a static IP. And have to use Sky's router.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

I have used Zen in the past and can testify to their 'just works' status. However, I've been looking at the pricing again, and I'm not sure Zen makes much financial sense, since they have now moved to metered bandwidth and the 'cheap' packages (which still cost more than the Virgin 2Mbit service) have very low (2GB/mth or lower) usage caps.

If possible I will likely be taking the Virgin phone and Internet bundle at £20/mth. I don't like them as an ISP, but when they're £15/mth cheaper than the competition, it's hard to know what else to do.

[sparrowsion]

Virgin phone and Internet bundle

That's probably what I'll try switching to, although they say they're only offering it to new customers or as an upgrade, and I don't think "Switching to Freeview will get me working interactive services, so it is an upgrade as far as I'm concerned" will wash. At which point, it'll be time to go down the same route as ewx (with the added complication that 1ngi can't risk having the phone number go).

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Yes, we're still on unmetered but relatively slow. At some point we will upgrade to the faster but metered service. The 2Gb is a specific light user option - we'd be going to the 20Gb for the same price we're currently on. http://www.zen.co.uk/Broadband/S_Business.aspx?page=518 - we used 20.54 last month though.

[nunfetishist.livejournal.com]

Snap. Zen are excellent. And one of the few ISPs these days that also provide a news server.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I really miss posting to NGs (google being rather crap for it).

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

There are some third-party ones you can use, no need to use your ISP's; e.g., http://news.individual.net/

[karen2205]

I like Black Cat for ADSL & BT for telephone services.

Check the Freeview site for Freeview coverage. For Bury St Edmunds it says 'no coverage', but I get coverage, I'm just missing Multiplex 2. I think Cambridge has better coverage, but it's worth checking with a local friend.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I already check that but there are lots of Cambridge people reading this journal who can say whether it works for them l-)

[fanf]

Our freeview setup works fine. The DVR does the job but has THE WORST user interface.

[aldabra]

I got a Freeview box, but it won't get CBeebies without an aerial upgrade so we're still with NTL for the time being. I'd be interested to know what you decide when you decide it.

[aldabra]

... so I've got a box I'm currently not using, if you want to check your reception directly. And, er, borrow it until you get around to getting something fancier; it's Tesco's cheapest, so won't have a dual thingie or anything.

[rmc28]

As Tony says, our Freeview setup is fine, but we did need to get the aerial upgraded. I can ask Julian who did it (we got both 4 and 16 NW done together)

[lnr]

FWIW our landlord told us the previous tenant had freeview, and I presume it's got a shiny new modern aerial up there somewhere, since it does work for us.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

BCN for ADSL of course!

[emperor]

I use BCN for ADSL - they are clueful, were very helpful when I had problems getting online. They're not the cheapest option, though.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

I'm a big fan of Zen as an ADSL provider.

[carbaryl.livejournal.com]

Zen are good, technically with customer service, etc. You get a static IP, which helps stuff (it's DHCPed but I checked and it's static). They have bandwidth caps (with extra Gbs buyable) at the moment unless you go onto 256, and they're quite pricey (We're on a grandfathered unlimited 512Mb), but very reliable.

Don't mention ADSL at all ever to BT on initial sign-up: pretend to be a shaker, :). Then separately order ADSL. Lots of people seem to have "found" themselves subscribed to BT's service.

Also, don't believe what anyone tells you about freeview reception: go on empirical evidence if you can, from borrowed equipment, or such like. Everyone in the box-shifting chain and the "advice" industry are paid (by customers or the state) to say digital is the new utopia and talk up reception and quality.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Hello carbaryl, I haven't figured out who you are yet...?

[gerald_duck]

I use mobiles for telephony — even at home — because it's no more expensive these days outside office hours. The landline is just there for the ADSL, my mother, 0800 and office-hours calls.

I use Zen Internet. They're currently still very good and very reliable, and when I got my installation done a few years ago they were astonishingly helpful. However, I gather the suits are beginning to move in and I've recently had some uncharacteristicaly jobsworth interactions with them. This may get worse.

I know a lot of people use Black Cat, but they strike me as being more interested in shiny toys than bulletproof infrastructure, and I have been decidedly dissatisfied as a client of a server they colocated.

For the moment I'm staying with Zen, but if I were buying ADSL again now I'd use Bogons, who have hosted my colocated server for the past two years.

[mikewd]

You should be able to get decent Freeview reception from where you are, but you may well need a new aerial - you need a wideband one to get get all the muxes in Cambridge, whereas the analogue one for here is only band A. Also, as DTT is sensitive to impulse noise interference from things like badly suppressed motors, you may find you want to replace the downlead with a better screened one.

I can recommend the Topfield TF5800 PVR - one of its neat features is that it has a published API allowing people to write add-on modules ("TAPs") to enhance/customise its functions and user interface. It has an enthusiastic user group in the UK and there are loads of TAPs offering all sorts of features. It also has a USB interface to allow uploading software and downloading/uploading recordings.

We use Nildram for DSL for our customers (and ourselves) and they do offer a very reliable service (so far they appear to keep buying enough backhaul and interconnect capacity to make sure they keep up with usage) and they still seem to have clueful people. However they're not the cheapest for home user packages and static IPs do cost extra.[Their home packages do include the option of a free PSTN voice call package as well which might make them more cost effective for you].

[ewx.livejournal.com]

If freeview will need a new aerial and cabling I suspect I might just stick with cable...