AOL cause many problems in the internet world, your lucky you can access this site as at one point I was close to banning all AOL ip's. They use a caching and proxy system that doesn't agree with web standards, they have over enthusiastic spam filters, they bounce many many messages back to my servers for various trivial reasons, they think they own the internet, they try to censor the internet, they lull newcomers into a false sense of security by masking half of the internet and pretending their own intranet is actually the internet.... and probably a lot more that we don't even know about.. hehe.
Originally(not too sure what they do at the mo) they didn't 'connect you to the internet' they connected you to their own private network which had a gateway to teh Internet. However to do this they use a totally different protocol (netbui instead of TCP/IP) however in their 'wisdom' their install disc uninstalled TCP/IP from peoples computers. So if you tried for a month then tried to use anyone elses, your PC quite simply would not connect no matter who else you tried.
Teh other side is that as Roy has mentioned they have their own spin on censorship. They often hide perfectly usable parts of the Internet(Usenet for example was not available for YEARS and I believe has been withdrawn again!)
One other aspect that I find annoying(Although its not AOLs fault directly) is that a lot of their users tend to break lots of etiquette and AOL will do nothing about it where all other ISPs will warn and then boot troublesome users.
As for good guys, Pipex, Zen, Eclipse, Demon, plusnet all get good reports amongst people I know. It is as with mopst things in life, you get what you pay for. If you are constantly chasing the cheapest deal you will find they have to cut corners somewhere.
Teh other side is that as Roy has mentioned they have their own spin on censorship. They often hide perfectly usable parts of the Internet(Usenet for example was not available for YEARS and I believe has been withdrawn again!)
One other aspect that I find annoying(Although its not AOLs fault directly) is that a lot of their users tend to break lots of etiquette and AOL will do nothing about it where all other ISPs will warn and then boot troublesome users.
As for good guys, Pipex, Zen, Eclipse, Demon, plusnet all get good reports amongst people I know. It is as with mopst things in life, you get what you pay for. If you are constantly chasing the cheapest deal you will find they have to cut corners somewhere.
There are lots of difefrent 'options'. I'm with Pipex and have been for 4 years now! (EEEK!)I use a different ISP for dial up as it provides 'points' which I get prizes for. I got a 20 gig iPod last year.
The trick if you are thinking of moving is to go round the usual suspects and see who offers what you want, then check up on adslguide to see what people think of them.
The trick if you are thinking of moving is to go round the usual suspects and see who offers what you want, then check up on adslguide to see what people think of them.
Ian says yes
I am currently using Pipex and only had one little problem when they disconnected my account for a couple of days because I was being a naughty boy 
. I am about o change to the dreaded NTL. A good friend of mine has been with them for years with no problems. He is miffed that when he moves house he wont be able to use them still.
. I am about o change to the dreaded NTL. A good friend of mine has been with them for years with no problems. He is miffed that when he moves house he wont be able to use them still.
Neil said:
dreaded ntl ????
been with them for about 3 yrs and had only 2-3 minor problems (early on) now all is fine and they provide an excellent service imho.....
now watch il be offline for weeks
.........wheres that wood
Nice to here someone saying something good about NTL. I am interested to hear peoples problems with NTL and other ISP's.
I dislike AOL also. You can't use a router with some of their packages. People join AOL, buy a router to share the internet with a couple of PC's in the house only too find you can't on the standard package. I have no idea how the pricing structure works.
Why do you use the Platinum family package? What does it give you that other packages don't?
I dislike AOL also. You can't use a router with some of their packages. People join AOL, buy a router to share the internet with a couple of PC's in the house only too find you can't on the standard package. I have no idea how the pricing structure works.
Why do you use the Platinum family package? What does it give you that other packages don't?
I'm with Pipex, have been for 4 or 5 years and their service is excellent I have one issue though (a BT issue rather than an ISP issue) we are right on the boundary for the length of line from the exchange and as such I've had to have my connection throttled back from 2 meg to 1 meg due to frequent disconnects at 2 meg.
I still pay £23 odd for the uncapped Pipex service however I know I can get a 1 meg service for considerably less, but with cheaper services they're all capped - I'm going to run some software to see how much I D/L and then I'll have a good idea what capped service I can go for. I was going to go with Tiscali but having read some of the posts on ADSL guide forums I've changed my mind about them.
I still pay £23 odd for the uncapped Pipex service however I know I can get a 1 meg service for considerably less, but with cheaper services they're all capped - I'm going to run some software to see how much I D/L and then I'll have a good idea what capped service I can go for. I was going to go with Tiscali but having read some of the posts on ADSL guide forums I've changed my mind about them.
I use bulldog broadband, its UPTO 8M down and 512k up..
I live on lower manchester road and the exchange is just next to the bus station in accrington so live fairly close and get the full download and upload speeds which are around 830kb/s down and 60kb/s up
However, they have a bad reputation for customer service (I knew this before I joined them so ensured I phoned them practicly every day to ensure everything was fine). Their future is also unknown as last weeks Sunday papers were reporting that they might pull out of the retail broadband business, although I don't see that happening. (or if it does, they'll just transfer us to another provider)
I don't think their customer service is any worse than major ISP's such as BT and Wanadoo, i've had MANY more problems with them, and never with Bulldog. I think the majority is down to BT being crap, and since bulldog install their own equipment in the exchange, it cuts BT out somewhat, but not all together.
Few details:
I'm on the 'inter@ctive' package which is £19.50 a month
No download caps
Free modem (and I think at one point they were doing a router for £1 which retails at £50)
You have to transfer your phone line to them, its £10.50 which I think is the same as BT.
Oh and £1 connection or £1 to get a new line (needed if you're NTL customer)
However you can check the phone call prices etc along with what you get at http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/residential/products/interactive/index.asp#
I live on lower manchester road and the exchange is just next to the bus station in accrington so live fairly close and get the full download and upload speeds which are around 830kb/s down and 60kb/s up
However, they have a bad reputation for customer service (I knew this before I joined them so ensured I phoned them practicly every day to ensure everything was fine). Their future is also unknown as last weeks Sunday papers were reporting that they might pull out of the retail broadband business, although I don't see that happening. (or if it does, they'll just transfer us to another provider)
I don't think their customer service is any worse than major ISP's such as BT and Wanadoo, i've had MANY more problems with them, and never with Bulldog. I think the majority is down to BT being crap, and since bulldog install their own equipment in the exchange, it cuts BT out somewhat, but not all together.
Few details:
I'm on the 'inter@ctive' package which is £19.50 a month
No download caps
Free modem (and I think at one point they were doing a router for £1 which retails at £50)
You have to transfer your phone line to them, its £10.50 which I think is the same as BT.
Oh and £1 connection or £1 to get a new line (needed if you're NTL customer)
However you can check the phone call prices etc along with what you get at http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/residential/products/interactive/index.asp#
Last edited:
Yes, you can find out more about LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LLU
Aye, Neil, lads right. LLU is how most of the higher speed stuff is coming. Be are talkinga bout 24M lines and Accrington was listed for Feb untill Feb1 came round, now it says August.
The only bit I'm not keen on about LLU is that you normally have to take their phone package as well.
The only bit I'm not keen on about LLU is that you normally have to take their phone package as well.
Actualy, as far as im aware, bulldog is the only company that makes you take the phoneline as part of the package (correct me if im wrong). I'd prefer not to take the phoneline, but I think Bulldog are the only company that have unbundled the accrington exchange so I went ahead 