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)

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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].