Genealogy Chat

The question of how fast your broadband service works is a matter for the BT exchange if you use their telephone line. We recently changed to Tiscali and requested the 2 mb service. We were told that our local exchange could not provide this speed and we now have 1mb which is fine for our needs. You can but ask! Pat

Hi Margaret who is that with ???

thanks you all for your interesting replies, was amazed when I saw all these responses. I am definitely going to look into it as I am sure I should have faster broadband than this for the money £18.47 seems a lot doesnt it ???

Not such a daft question Valerie, as I am thinking about Broadband, generated some very useful suggestions............thanks everyone. Lin xx

Newbies have two big costs to pay. Buying a special broadband modem costs around £40, and upgrading the phone line is around £50-£70. However ‘all-inclusive’ packages where the modem and line installation are part of the monthly fee are common, although almost invariably this means signing a year’s contract. Existing customers don’t need either of these, yet often pay a ‘migration’ fee to move, usually £15 - £30. Question 2: What speed? Internet speed is measured in Kbps, the amount of information transferred per second. A phone dial-up connection is 56Kbps, whereas basic broadband is 512Kbps, nearly ten times faster. Yet these days 1 up to 8 Mbps (1,000 or 8,000Kbps) are becoming increasingly common. There’s a massive difference between broadband and dial-up but the difference between 512Kbps and faster broadband has less impact, as it doesn’t automatically speed up web surfing. Some websites simply aren’t capable of pumping info out quickly. Faster broadband’s real impact is when downloading music, streaming video or online gaming, or if different family members connect on one line with different computers. In that case it’s worth focusing on faster broadband. Question 3: How much will you use it? Providers usually limit their charges on the volume of data, measured in Megabytes, MB, or Gigabytes, GB (1,000 MB). This is nothing to do with the time spent online. Leaving the internet connected doesn’t cost anything, it’s only ‘doing things’ that uses up the bytes. To put it in perspective, viewing 25 web pages takes very roughly 1MB, so a 1GB monthly limit means roughly 25,000 pages. For those just doing a little web-surfing or downloading e-mails, the limits are irrelevant. Yet downloading music software or videos eats up the data much faster, although even then only real musos or online gaming gurus will feel an impact.

Val, just copied this off Martin Lewis' money site: Newcomers: Cheapest ‘All Inclusive Packages’ All the following providers include the modem and connection fee within the package price. The choice is between speed and payment method. Super-fast 8Mbps at £13.99/month with 5GB download limit. Madasafish is currently offering a monthly pay service, with a year’s contract. The speed is an enormous 8Mbps (though some exchanges can’t do this so it may be slower). Its normal price is good, averaging £14.99 a month, but if you're in the know (i.e, its set up a special link because it knew this article is being written and MoneySavers want more competitive prices) and go via this link www.madasafish.com/cheaper the price is £10.99 for six months followed by £16.99 afterwards, averaging £13.99 over the year. (Note: there is no commercial relationship between this site and madasafish, this is just a special link). This offer ends 31 March. The article will be amended then. Major player 1Mbps at £14.99/month with no download limit. Big player Tiscali* charges £14.99 a month for up to a 1MB speed unlimited broadband package. Existing Broadband Users Cheapest Do check you’re allowed to switch. Many broadband providers contract you in for a year, and there are penalties for moving. To start, follow the cheapest packages for newcomers Though it doesn’t always work this way, currently all the broadband newcomer offers are also top deals for existing customers too. That’s Madasafish £13.99/month for super-fast broadband, and Tiscali* at £14.99 a month without a download limit (see newcomers section for details). However there's another provider to add in too. UK Online 1Mbps £12/month uncapped broadband. UK Online* is £9.99 a month, plus a £25 migration fee when you switch connection. As it’s a one year contract this works out at £12/month across the year. This is a good deal, but you have to be on what’s called an unbundled network to access it. Its website has details of who is eligible for its service. One concern is historically customer service feedback has been poor, with some reporting hassles in getting connected, so it’s a question of balancing service against its very low price. The Size of the Saving Claranet charges its new Home ADSL broadband users up to £60 for activation, £20 for a modem and then £30 a month even at low speed - £440 over the first year. Yet Madasafish’s faster service is £13.99 a month with no set-up costs, over £200 cheaper. The UK’s cheapest broadband providers Speed Set-up Cost Monthly Cost Annual Cost Newcomers Migration fee Newcomers Existing Users Saving Claranet 512Kbps £60 Free £30 £430 (1) £360 - Madasafish 8Mbps Free Free £14 (2) £168 £168 New cust: £262 UK Online 1Mbps - £25 £10 - £145 Existing cust: £215 (1) Assumed modem purchased for £20 (2) Averaged over the year’s contract

Hi again Val, I've had Tesco for a few years now. Changed from BT when their prices started going through the roof! (Dial up, at that time) Changed to Tesco dial up (fixed payment per month unlimited), then Broadband as soon as it was available. It was still the cheapest at the time. Although their prices aren't quite as low, as they were, I won't change, no matter how much cheaper some of the others are now. There have been so many threads from people on other ISP's continuously having problems, no service, ISP blocking spam mail that isn't spam!, problems when moving. Can't get anything done when something does go wrong. The list has been endless. I haven't had any problems - ever - with Tesco! Apart from when they launched the broadband service. It was a mess for a few days. I don't think they had realised how popular it was going to be, and just couldn't cope with the amount of 'traffic'. Was all sorted though, in just a few days. That alone makes me vary wary of changing. Have you had any problems with Tesco? Just asking, cos while I'm typing this, I was thinking that I don't ever recall seeing a 'bad' thread about Tesco internet! Debbie

We have 10 mb broadband which I don't see much difference in from when we had 3 mb (think mbps means mega bits per second). We only have the faster speed because my son pays for it and apparently it is most noticably quicker when downloading things - he can download a single in seconds and a whole album in less than a minute. Kath. x

Pat I'm in the same situation as you, farthest away from the exchange so can only have 1.1 You can test your speed at this site and the box on the right has some answers to common questions. http://specials(.)zdnet(.)co(.)uk/misc/band-test/quest1.html Remove ( ) Keith

Val just had a look and they have changed it a bit: £14.99 is for 1 meg whatever £17.99 a month for 2 thingys with automatic upgrade to up to 8 mg when your area gets it. Have a googe for wanadoo broadband - they have all these other options like wireless and including phone calls etc. Though I am going to have a look at Martin Lewis money site (I always check everything out there - he sorts out best buys for you) as I was wondering if there are better deals on now - Ive had this one for a couple of years.

Val, if you go down to the litle icon thing on the right bottom of your screen for your connection and click on it it should tell you what speed your connection is at right now. I have the top rate wanadoo - simply cos son needs the 30 mg download (he says) for all the war games he plays live with people. I think if you go for the lower ones its £14.99 a month?

Heather that sounds good is that expensive ??

Mine is Wanadoo and its currently 2.2 but they promise up to 8 - some areas are already on 8.

thanks for that Deborah, and Ian I love the description the bit with the twinkly lights , even I can figure that out, thanks a lot for giving me a smile .

You could also try switching the power off to your cable modem, the bit with the twinkly lights on it that plugs into the cable in the wall and then into your pc, and then switch it on again. But make sure your pc and other peripherals are switched off at the time. Switch the modem on and then when all lights are on as normal power your computer back up and see if that makes a difference. I remember NTL broadband made you do this to upgrade some modems.

Hi Val, I was on Tesco Broadband 512K, and had the same offer to upgrade free, to 1mb. I did it, just because it was free! I didn't think the 512k was slow, but also didn't notice a difference after the upgrade. Asked my S-I-L who's an IT person. He said it is quicker, but you would only really notice it when downloading music, films etc. Debbie

Thats okay I dont mind such a nice name ,I am sure I have been conned because I had a email from tesco to ask if I would like to upgrade to Broadband which is what I am paying for made me wonder if thats what I am getting

Sorry realised called you Heather in previous post Sorry Sue

Hi Val Mine is 2.2 if that helps Sue

thank you both I seem to have 1.1mbps whatever that means but thought I was paying for the fastest one that Tesco did