Internet Service Providers (1 Viewer)

phyllosc

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #1

I'm very unhappy with NTL Home, my ISP. They seem unable to maintain anything like a reasonabel connection time. It got so bad I started to keep a log of the number of disconnections and it's NOT unusual to have to reconnect every 2 or three minutes.

I'd be interested to hear of any ISP BF members might recommend. NTL doesn't cost me anything (the deal being I make my phone calls through them) but now, I'd rather pay for a quality ISP

Any recommendations out there?

Dave

 

birdman

Орнитол&

• Jul 17, 2003

• #2

I can't give you any comparisons, as I've never had anything else... but for the record, my ISP is Tiscali.

I guess the price of the contract is pretty much the same as all the others (I have off-peak for £11.99 a month narrowband).

You get told from the offset that they may disconnect you after a time, but that it will generally be not less than 2 hours, and reconnection is uncharged.

In practice I have been disconnected a couple of times - after lengthy durations.

I don't know if this is a Tiscali thing or a Browser thing, but if the browser is apparently inactive for about 20 mins or so (usually when I'm composing one of my overly verbose replies(!) ) I sometimes (but not always) get an alert box asking if I want to disconnect or stay connected.

I've been a customer for about 3 months now, and never been aware of any downtime or traffic problems.

Cheers

 

Michael Frankis

conehead

• Jul 17, 2003

• #3

Can you get Telewest cable broadband (blueyonder)? I'd recommend that highly - very rare that they're down (maybe once every few months or so, and never for long) and NO disconnections.

Michael

 

Paul Rule

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #4

Dave,

Are you currently using dial-up or broadband?, and if dial-up will you be looking to go to broadband?

Paul

 

pauco

Старлин&

• Jul 17, 2003

• #5

Dave
I have been with AOL since I went on line, and had no probs
with them you do get asked do you wish to stay on line if writing
a reply or long email, but have never been cut of. the only other change I would make is to go broadband.
bert

 

robinm

Registered User

• Jul 17, 2003

• #6

I use NTL Broadband and have found it very good. There have been occasional glitches with e mail, but never lasting more than half an hour. I wouldn't even have noticed that under dial-up but now I check email every 10 minutes. I have never lost connection totally.

Of course with BB all the sites just fly.

It is more expensive - I pay 24.99 for 600K download speeds - but in my case (I work from home) worth every penny.

 

walwyn

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #7

Are you sure its the ISP? I haven't heard any problems with NTL from those I know that use it.

It could be your phone connection. We were constantly being disconnected about 3 years ago until BT sorted out the corrosion in the switching box. Since then we don't have much trouble at all.

 

Paul Rule

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #8

Could also be a PC problem. I had a strange experience last night which I initially put down to a thunderstorm. My ADSL modem kept dropping every few seconds. I rang my ISP and of cause while I was on the phone to them it stopped happening as soon as I came off the phone and started surfing again back came the problem. I did not think it could be my PC because the modem is not connected to it, its connected to a router which has the main and my son's PC connected to it. After a bit of time it became clear that if I stopped using IE and he carried on we had no problems, as soon as I tried off it went again. After a re-boot of my PC all was well again, but I'm buggered if I know what caused that.

 

Lawrie Hodges

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #9

I've had a broadband connection to NTL Home for two or three months now and have had few problems. Prior to that I had dialup connection to two other ISP's and at busy periods repeatedly experienced disconnection. This is the main reason that I switched to broadband. The dialup connection became almost unusable except during weekday mornings, the most expensive time. With such a lot of picture viewing on Bird Forum and the speed of download with BB I cannot now imagine being without it.

 

KC Foggin

Very, very long time member

Supporter

• Jul 17, 2003

• #10

Another thought here if you are on dial-up is if you have call waiting and you don't have your internet connection set up for that you can be knocked off everytime someone trys to call you. Here I have to put a *70 before my dialup number.

 

Karl J

Well-known member

• Jul 17, 2003

• #11

Can't make comparisons to other ISP's but I have BT Openworld and it works well. It has been known to hang-up if I'm inactive for 20 mins or so, but I think its meant to do that. I have dial up, not broadband

 

paulsnokia

Photographer

• Jul 18, 2003

• #12

PIPEX no problems in 6 years

TTFN

 

phyllosc

Well-known member

• Jul 18, 2003

• #13

Thanks for all your responses.

I have emailed ntl help twice regarding this problem, each time in order to work out where the problem is originating (ie, PC, server or phone line). They have not replied!

NTL cannot offer me broadband - I guess because they don't have their TV cables in the neighbourhood - but the BT website says they can - I'm puzzled!

I don't experience any connection problems when making phone calls on the same line.

Dave

 

Paul Rule

Well-known member

• Jul 18, 2003

• #14

Dave,

I think I am right in saying that NTL only offer BB in areas they can offer cable TV services. From this I assume you still have a BT line, which means you can take up BB service from any one of the multitude of ISP's offering BB service (although Telewest may like NTL only offer BB via their own cables) as they all use BT Wholesale to connect their customers to the Internet.

Paul

 

Geoff Brown

Well-known member

• Jul 18, 2003

• #15

I have BT internet and no problems at all. They even filter out the junk e-mail for me as well.

 

Karl J

Well-known member

• Jul 18, 2003

• #16

Geoff Brown said:

I have BT internet ..... They even filter out the junk e-mail for me as well.

Click to expand...

Yes, good point which I failed to put in my original reply.

...... NO SPAM !

 

C

clive c

Well-known member

• Jul 18, 2003

• #17

For about thre weeks my NTL broadband was OFF at Midnight every night! some times again in the morning . Twice Iwas half way through a long form and then I lost it all when they disconnected I was very annoyed and was going to complain, when it has been OK for a fortnight Did they read my mind?

 

Surreybirder

Ken Noble

• Jul 23, 2003

• #18

Phyllosc
I only just came across this thread.
I have had ntlworld for a couple of years and think it's been excellent lately (though it went through a bad patch a few months ago). Of course NTL is on the verge of bankruptcy so I think they are signing up new customers faster than they are improving the service.
I have had a lot of help from the www.nthellworld.com forum (which works exactly like this forum). Might be worth a look. If your probs are something to do with your pc, changing ISPs won't help, of course.
(I'm on BB but will shortly be moving to a non-cabled area which will be like a bereavement!)
Good luck
Ken