Any recommendations

[Custodian]

Fot PlusNet, it claims "No Support for P2P applications or Binary Newsfeeds."

Can anyone shed any light on what this means. Does it restrict the access to such programs as Kazaa and other Peer to Peer applications?

Yep... that's exactly what it means. No Kazaa or any other peer-to-peer applications allowed. That's cos they don't want you generating too much traffic. Also means it is likely they will get uppity if you generate a lot of traffic via any means (e.g. too many file downloads or uploads).

Also, any recommendations on modem hardware - those good and bad, ones to avoid etc.

I would also suggest a router, or more precisely a combined adsl modem/router/switch. Once this is set up an plugged in you are always online. Plus you can plug more than one PC (assuming you get a 4port switch variety) which is handy for local networking as well as sharing the adsl. If it has a built in firewall as well it is also more secure.

I don't think wireless is worth worrying about unless you really have a use for being able to connect away from the desk. All the bits you need cost more, and the technology (least the cheap stuff) aint as good as some hope, e.g. maintaining a signal thru walls.

Some of the suppliers offer to sell you a starter kit with their wires only service, but otherwise there are loads of places to get them. 2 very popular models are the Netgear DG814 and the Thompson SpeedTouch 510 v4 (which I have). Reviews of these and others are on ADSL Guide

 

[Gurnox]

Also, any recommendations on modem hardware - those good and bad, ones to avoid etc.

The D-Link DSL 504 router is pretty good. Dead easy to set up and very good value for money.

 

[.Wilier.]

willer, ..........loads of really usefull info..........
you might get lucky, or be stuck on 56k for quite some time.

Cheers matey, I'll drop them a line.

 

[Xavier]

The D-Link DSL 504 router is pretty good. Dead easy to set up and very good value for money.

Eurgh, you lie! They're horrible! Heh..

Xav

 

[Lazarus]

.......lots of help.....

Spooky!. Guy I was talking to at work (hardware buff) recommended EXACTLY the same setup (still waiting to hear what Netgare hardware he recommends, but possible will be :

As for the ISP - ZEN are edging it at the moment.

Thanks to all who contribued to my questions - im sure there will be many many more.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Zen ISP with this baby plugged in your end

 

[Jupitus]

Cheers matey, I'll drop them a line.

Wilier - you may also have heard that BT ran a trial of extended reach where they upped the allowable signal loss from 55dB to 60dB. Alot of people who had previously been too far from their exchange then fell within the new limits. The records in the number checker should have been updated, but it may be worth you asking specifically for a line test to be carried out. To be honest, in all my experience of trying to get adsl (it took me about 5 years and emails to the BT CEO to get activated) I found that the 'reroute the line' option is not one BT will pursue unless there is reason to due to a voice fault.

Good luck!

Jup.

 

[FanBoy]

By the looks of that photo, I purchased that exact adsl router a few days ago (the Netgear DG834). Its easy to set up and I've had no problems (after firmware updated - its vital [dont use the latest firmware, use the second to latest ] ).

I got mine from http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ShopGroupID=&CategoryID=1&ProductID=695 as part as a kit (two LAN cards and cabling included). This came to, with p&p, £99.

Hope this helps,

FanBoy.

 

[Lazarus]

I got mine from http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ShopGroupID=12&CategoryID=1&ProductID=729 as part as a kit (two LAN cards and cabling included). This came to, with p&p, £99.

Hope this helps,

FanBoy.

damn good price. cheapest ive founf so far was £131. Being Scottish, anyone who saves me money gets added to my xmas card list.

 

[adams901]

Guys,

Fot PlusNet, it claims "No Support for P2P applications or Binary Newsfeeds."
.

The £18.99 ADSL Home Surf accounts with PlusNet are not allowed access to P2P networks, whereas the £21.99 Plusnet ADSL Home accounts are allowed to access them.

I have been with plusnet for about 3 months now and am very impressed with them, no downtime yet.

I was with clara.net who are equally as good if not better, only reason I left them was because of the price.

The router I have is ZyXEL Prestige 650H ADSL Router, I got this from broadbandbuyer.co.uk. I was very impressed with their excellent customer services, I ordered 2 wireless cards, one of which turned out to be faulty. They sent me a replacement before they asked for the faulty one back.

 

[Gurnox]

Eurgh, you lie! They're horrible! Heh..

Xav

Well, the console SUCKS bigtime, I'll certainly grant you that.

Mind you, I am used to using nice expensive Cisco kit at work.........

 

[Dubbs]

How much you paying for that? As it sounds a bit shit as far as business lines go. 40:1

Sorry it took a while to get back to you. It's £37 a month but I got the cont wrong as it's 20:1 not 40 (oops!)

They can even do 1:1 if you really want it!

 

[Dubbs]

Zen > *



as to a router, the Draytek 2600 series are excellent, we use the 2600W which has both a WiFi access point and ISDN backup there's also a 2600We uni without the ISDN...

Xav

Completely agree. I'm putting Draytek vigor 2600 and 2600w in for our staff. Have been running my 2600 alongisde a dlink Xtreme 54Mb wireless and it all runs fantastically.... now to get the Xbox chipped and joining the PC on the network for streaming fun...

 

[Lazarus]

ok - the day is drawing closer and I still havent ordered me ADSL. Procrastination and lethargy have always been two of my strong points.

However, I have narrowed it down to 2 lucky companies:

ZenADSL Home 500

• 512Kbps download
  256Kbps upload
  50:1 Contention Ratio
  No call charges
  Always-on connection
  Fast installation - 5-7 working days
  Backup dial-in account
  Firewall and VPN Option
  Single/multiple static IP address(es)
  POP3 mailbox
  50MB Web space
  E-Mail Anti-Virus Protection
  Premier Customer Service and Technical Support
  Domain name registration / transfer set up charge waived*
  DNS services
  Access to over 40,000 newsgroups
  Global access to your e-mail with Zen Webmail

Activation Charge: £50.00 +VAT (if applicable)
Self Installation: Yes
Self Install Hardware: Microfilters can be purchased from your ISP for £6.50 each.
Wires Only: Yes. You can use your own router or modem.

Service Charges & Contract

Min Contract Period: 1 month(s)
Pay Monthly: £23.82 +VAT (if applicable)
Pay Quarterly: £71.46 +VAT (if applicable)
Pay Yearly: £285.84 +VAT (if applicable)

or

Plusnet Self Install

• WEBSITE
  Add an unique '.co.uk' web and email address for only £1 extra per month! One offer per account. [more]
  250MB of Web space for your own site [more]
  Support for Microsoft Frontpage 2002 extensions [more]
  Website Wizard - your website in an instant with this easy to use tool [more]
  Web stats - comprehensive statistics and logs for your Web site [more]
  
  
  E-MAIL
  Unlimited number of e-mail addresses (mailbox@username.plus.com) [more]
  SMTP mail delivery upon request [more]
  
  
  ENTERTAINMENT
  Dedicated games servers featuring many popular online games [more]
  Access to Broadband-based news and entertainment from BBCi [more]
  
  
  COMMUNICATION
  Fax2e-mail - get your faxes on your computer wherever you are [more]
  My Circular - Keep family and friends informed with your latest news [more]
  Web-based e-mail, Address Book and Diary applications [more]
  Experience thousands of newsgroups with our dedicated Usenet service [more]
  
  
  HOSTING AND DEVELOPMENT
  Host up to 3 domains at no extra charge [more]
  CGI bin access / Unix based shell for your Web development [more]
  MySQL/PHP/Perl facilities [more]
  Web-based Database administration system for MySQL [more]
  
  
  YOUR CONNECTION
  
  500 kbps Connectivity at 50:1 Contention [more]
  Support for v.90, Standard modems and ISDN up to 64k [more]
  Static IP [more]
  
  
  SUPPORT
  24-hour, 7-days a week technical support [more]
  Contact Us Online Support [more]

Installation
Activation Charge: Free
Self Installation: Yes
Self Install Hardware: Microfilters can be purchased from your ISP.
Wires Only: Yes. You can use your own router or modem.

Service Charges & Contract
Min Contract Period: 12 month(s)
Pay Monthly: £23.31 +VAT (if applicable)
Pay Quarterly: £69.93 +VAT (if applicable)
Pay Yearly: £279.72 +VAT (if applicable)

Both are very similar in monthly pricing (although Zen do charge an installation fee). One major difference is that Plus offer 250MB webspace compared to 50MB from Zen. My intent is to design a personal website, but Im not sure how much space these things take up.

Gut feel tells me to go with PLUS. Anyone persuade otherwise?

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Well Zen are consistently near the top of ADSL Guides user ratings. And the support rocks.

Zen you know it makes sense.

 

[Trem]

Within the next couple of weeks I will be going onto Bulldog, 2 meg for £29.99 a month



Edited to say - When I had Zen it was fantastic, 100% better than the joke that is NTL.

 

[Lazarus]

More questions.

guys,

as I threatened in the first post - I have some more questions.

I know that for ADSL, I will need to install Microfilters to allow access to the internet and also for phone calls.

The microfilter I am looking at installing is the full faceplate like :

However, Im trying to figure out how many I need.

I have 4 telephone sockets in the house and the computer accesses one out in the hall. Do I need one for each socket (only 2 phone sockets are actually ACTIVE - one in our bedroom which has the normal phone, and the one in the hall which has the pc currently hooked up)

I cant seem to find anywhere which solves my question.

TIA

 

[old.user4556]

At every point where you've plugging in a phone, you will need a microfilter to plug the phone into the "phone" socket. You can't just plug the phone into the normal socket without a filter. You can have up to 4 of these on the phone ring.

I have 4 telephone sockets in the house and the computer accesses one out in the hall. Do I need one for each socket (only 2 phone sockets are actually ACTIVE - one in our bedroom which has the normal phone, and the one in the hall which has the pc currently hooked up)

Therefore, you need one in the hall where the PC is going and one in the bedroom where you will plug the phone into the microfilter.

Is that answering your question?

Cheers

G

 

[Lazarus]

Certainly does Big G. Many thanks for helping out this ADSL noob





















can I borrow £24 quid ?

 

[old.user4556]

look into my eye...

 

[Insane]

quickly, you dont need to buy 4 of those faceplates, you only need one installed directly onto your master socket.

the faceplate has a filter already pre-installed into it, just means you need to run the cable from the master socket directly up to your ADSL modem/router

i literally have one faceplate on my master socket (bought from www.solwise.co.uk ) and my ADSL router is plugged into that socket, and theres no other filters in the house (except for the ADSL router box, which came with one)

 

[Lazarus]

insane - my phone will be plugged into one box.

my adsl router will be plugged into a totally seperate box - therefore the requirement of 2 faceplates.

 

[Trem]

YOU DONT KNOW!!!!!

 

[Lazarus]

YOU DONT KNOW!!!!!

erm.......WHAT!!!!?

 

[old.user4556]

trem

 

[Lazarus]

k guys

Almost there with all the thingies.

Found the Netgear DG834 router for £53.26 + vat and also thinking of a CDRW from the same place (save on delivery charges)

2 I have been looking at :

MSI 52x32x52 IDE Beige BURN-Proof Retail (27.60 +VAT)
or
Samsung 52x32x52 IDE BURN proof oem inc Software (£24.60+ VAT)

reason I was looking at the MSI is due to having an MSI mobo.

any stories (good or bad) with the above.

As for the ISP- Im waiting for responses back from Zen and Pipex to see if they support connection to a VPN before I decide. However, atm it looks like Pipex (cos im scottish and they are cheaper )

 

[Lazarus]

oh well, going with the MSI drive. Thanks for all the responses to the posts guys.

Ill be on whenver they connect me with a sooper dooper ping

 

[Lazarus]

ok - ADSL is now days away but I have a question.

It indicates that ADSL can be enabled ANYTIME up to 18:30. Question is - what will happen if it is enabled BEFORE I get home and havent put the filters in place - will it still work (the telephone I mean)

 

[Covenant]

If they activate before you get home, no big deal - once it's there, all you need to do is plug the microfilters into the faceplate (if that's the way you have it configured).

 

[Lazarus]

thanks Breni!

had visions of the "little lady" ripping into my masculinity (whats left of it) cos she couldnt use the phone