I'm with NTL dial-up & as well as being cheap (£10 a month), they're very helpful & they've just cut the cost of the helpline by half

The only thing is, you hafta already be with NTL & cope with a 2 hour disconnect

4 ouf of 5

Well I know you said you probably wouldn't go broadband, but I thought I'd offer you what little knowledge I have just so that you could make a full informed decision.

I'm with Eclipse ADSL internet connection. Depending on what package you go with it's about £20-30 a month, which compared to dial-up is pretty damn good. And once you've used broadband it's hard to go back. Also after using Eclipse for about a year and a half I have no complaints. They've had very little downtime and no cut-off time at all.

Well when I had dial-up I was on Telewest's Surf Unlimited package. It was tied into my phone package, but roughly cost about £12 a month. For that you got unlimited any-time internet access with no timed cut offs.
However - the helpline is extortionate (about 50p a minute) and they keep you on hold for ever.

I now have telewest broadband which is £25 a month. Have considered returning to dial-up as I'm not online as much as I used to be, but I'd miss the speed - and the using the phone at the same time thing...

NTL are good, especially if you are going to have telephone and cable TV as well.

BT suck more than a large sucking object. Access theoretically limited to 150 hours per month, with a 2 hour cut off. Theoretically, as the chances of connecting at peak time are so slim that you'd have to be attempting connection all the time to make it to 150 hours.

Have not had any problems with Freeserve.

---

by Avenger
BT suck more than a large sucking object.

---

Yvonne?????

Pipex have a nice broadband starter set called solo2go, £15 setup fee, then £23 a month (inc vat). That includes the adsl modem, the line filters (to make sure that the telephone line and the broadband stay separate), well, everything basically

As previously mentioned, don't touch BT with a barge-pole, either their dial-up (slow, unreliable, limited and crappy), or their broadband (expensive, slow, unreliable and crappy)..

Virgin.net dialup is quite decent from what people have said

virgin.net dialup = NTL

I've got a Nildram ADSL connection. Ok its £30/month but has some cool bits thrown in that I won't bore you with.

Avoid BTanything. Its crap, slow, unrelaible, and I havn't started on the ADSL service yet.

If you live in a Telewest area then either the dialup or cable modem service are good value.

NTL area and the dialup is fine. 2 hour cut off is pretty standard.

NTL cable modem service. hmm. Too many horror stories and remember it says in the T&C's 1 gig/day download if they wish to enforce it.

That is all....

---

by guffer
virgin.net dialup = NTL

---

Its run by NTL but uses BT phonelines, Normal NTL requires you to have cable.

Im with Virgin Net Broadband and no problems so far.

I'm trying to sort out getting Broadband for my house at Uni, and its looking like I'm going to go with PlusNet after looking around a bit...

Has anyone had any experience with them and can advise me on whether this is a good idea?! I've nev er set up broadband on my lonesome before and I want to make sure I get it right

Try Nildram instead of Plusnet (plusnet's customer support is dire and their conections aren't all theat great..), as they have a "lite" scheme which costs about the same, but is a lot better

I have virgin dial up at the moment after a big fall out with Bt customer services and although they use BT lines they've been really great so far!

---

by Stoo
Try Nildram instead of Plusnet (plusnet's customer support is dire and their conections aren't all theat great..), as they have a "lite" scheme which costs about the same, but is a lot better

---

Thanks Stoo...I'm really not sure what to go for, as I can't ask my parents cos they don't know too much (and aren't too keen on me paying out for Broadband anyway!). I was thinking that PlusNet looked quite good, and was beginning to get my head around ordering it and stuff, but I might have to put that on hold...

I heard that they had a good reputation for customer service...

Will have to go and have another look around

*all thrown off now*

oh to be in a telelwest or NTL area again!

Ever since we moved and lost our excellent telewest service we have been using BTbroadband. I find it is slow and more expensive, unfortunelatly once you have broadband there is no way you go back to dialup so i am having to lump it

Thanks for all your advice! It's beginning to look like a toss up between Virgin and Telewest (if it's available). Now to see if there are any special offers!

I have seen one for Freeserve, where you pay £6.99 for the first 3 months, then £14.99 thereafter. I think the service is for unlimited time, but the bumph doesn't make it clear whether there is an additional charge on your phone bill. Also, I haven't heard much about this service.

The Freeserve one is unlimited hours, 2 hour cut off and the charge is all inclusive. I am on it, no connection problems at all, does exactly what it says on the tin.

Well until very recently I would have said Tiscali but now I'm having BT deja vu. The same unable to connect, being disconnected straight away all over again and it seems they've just started rationing their hours. Cursed dial up.

I have Freeserve Broadband. Had a couple of hiccups with it (being disconnected if the phone is used for example) but at the moment everything seems to be running smoothly. £27.99 per month, unlimited, no cut off, which suits me down to the ground. I've only ever used Freeserve, dialup and broadband to pretty much satisfactory service.

Have finally settled on Virgin with my flatmate. May upgrade to broadband soon too.