Which isp offers best ADSL/telephone deal at the moment

[bigjimbishop]

I'm confused with all the companies offering multimedia packages and replacing FT abonnement.

I'd prefer to use my own ADSL router than the stuff they sell as I have 3 PCs

I don't want TV but I'd take a cheap deal if TV was optional

I'd be happy with 1Mb down and 256Kb up

(ADSL arrives chez moi in a few months)

What are peoples experiences with Alice, Free, Cegetel, Clubinternet, Wanadoo etc.

Hardware, software and price?

does it depend on location?

Any opinions gratefully received

[Deimos]

Your need to check what will be available when it arrives as you may have less choice than you would like. Once it has arrived you can check on http://www.degrouptest.com/.

If ADSL is not due for a few months then offers will probably have changed in that few months (given also that a scheduled date will often slip).

Also, depending on where you are (incl. things like telephone line length to exchange, etc.) whilst people may offer you 8MB, in practice you may be less (e.g. 3-4 MB).

I have had ADSL for over a year now and after some months Cegetel started offering some limited service but they dropped-out so it was back to just Wanadoo – who actually offer a reasonable service in many respects.

Truth is there is no “best” or “worst” as it depends in details what you are looking for. Some bundle up loads of extras (e.g. free telephone calls in France, anti-spam, ant-virus, etc.) but you pay for it. Others offer high quality service which also cost. Others offer poor service and are cheaper. Many talk about all the stuff they are offering for the fantastic price of €xx.xx per month, but some of these facilities are only available in certain regions. Some require you to take their hardware and offer quite complex set-ups. When I got ADSL I did not have an ADSL router so purchased one from Wanadoo (an Ethernet one for €10 – I own it outright and it’s a decent Thompson one). “Pays your money, takes your choice”.

If you are several months away I would think about it much nearer the time as much is likely to have changed in that time.

Ian

[Lautrec]

Hi Diemos,

Read your reply to bigjimbishop and it has prompted me to raise some questions with you!

What exactly is a 'router' as opposed to a live box? I am about to transfer to Wanadoo from Tiscali as they are the only server that provides ADSL in our village. I have the choice of various options, for example 512k 1 mega, 8 mega or 18 mega, with of course ascending rates of payment!

I realize the more you pay, the faster the line. I think I will opt for either the 1 mega or the 8 mega. Would the 1 mega be much faster than the speed that I have been experiencing with my present server Tiscali?

When you take out a contract with Wanadoo, where and when do you get the livebox? Is it delivered to your door?

Would be pleased if you could help me!

Lautrec.

[Deimos]

[quote]Hi Diemos,Read your reply to bigjimbishop and it has prompted me to raise some questions with you!What exactly is a 'router' as opposed to a live box? I am about to transfer to Wanadoo from Tiscali a...[/quote]

This is in reply to Lautrec's question, though the forum software seems to be putting posts in the wrong order.

Deals keep changing and what is true at one moment cane easily change in the short term. Depending on how rural you (or you village is), your speed may be limited (check with FT rather than Wanadoo as Wanadoo can be a bit over optimistic). For example, I am 1Km from the nearest village and my max speed in 1MB (above that is totally unreliable). However, the next village has a speed limit of 512KB. In practice you will probably have two choices with Wanadoo – 512KB or 8MB. On a 512KB you should achieve 512. On an 8MB you could achieve anything between 512 and 8MB depending on the line quality. If you go for the 8MB and find it unreliable, you may have to telephone FT to get the rate reduced.

Some people own their Livebox. However, I think that Wanadoo are currently renting them out for €3 per month. I just use an Ethernet router (which I got from Wanadoo (purchased, no rental) for €10).

If you go for a LiveBox (which Wanadoo love to bits): if you do your subscription to Wanadoo over the telephone, then it will probably be delivered via the post. You can also go into an FT shop and do the sign-up there and would normally be able to walk out with one. However, once you have signed-up, Wanadoo then have to request FT to connect your telephone line ADSL to them which can take up to 14 days (it normally takes only a couple of days but some people still quote “can take up to 14 days”).

Routers:

There are two main ways of connecting your computer to the internet via ADSL. In one method you connect your ADSL modem directly to your computer via e.g. a USB connection. In this mode, the box allows your computer to communicate through it to the internet (a bit like a dial-up modem does). Some operating systems allow other computers on the network to talk to the internet through your computer (internet connection sharing – and the computer with the USB ADSL modem must be switched-on for the sharing to work !). In this configuration your computer “drives and controls” the modem and the connection and required software (drivers) to be loaded to allow it to communicate with the ADSL box.

An alternative is to have a router. With a router, the ADSL box is connected to your network rather than directly to a computer. The ADSL router contains stuff like your connection password, etc.. Your computer’s network is configured to use the router as required (i.e. for talking to computers that are not on your own network). With this type of connection, the ADSL router is pretty independent and can be used by any computer on your network (i.e. shared access for multiple computers – the ADSL router doing the “work”). In this mode none of the computers on your network need to have drivers nor special software loaded. Any of your computers can be switched on or off and the connection still works, etc.

An overview but I hope it illustrates the differences. Which is appropriate depends on how many computers you have and how you use the internet.

A Livebox can be run in many different ways. It is a “high end”/”high-functionality” box that includes USB, Ethernet, WiFi (radio network), etc.. Personally I’m not convinced the LiveBox is a particularly great device, but I’m sure there are others who love it.

Ian

[Ruth]

Bonjour Lautrec

              I don't know how long you have had ADSL in your village but can only pass on my experience in the hope that it may be useful. ADSL arrived in our village just over a year ago and all we were offered st first was Wanadoo. We were on Tiscali dial up which had just informed us that our monthly charges were going up to 30 euros. We decided to wait and lo and behold after a few months Tiscali said they could give us ADSL +free phone calls in France for 30 euros! Who could refuse?...the advantage being we didn't have to change our e mail address. At first it was 1 mega but after being taken over by Alice they have informed us that we are upped to 2 mega at no extra cost and they would continue to up us whenever possible. Sorry if this is not very technical but you may like to know what happened chez nous.

[Eslier]

If ADSL is newly available, or soon to be available in your area then you are most likely to find that only the Wanadoo service will be available to you for at least the first six months. The reason for this is that France Telecom own Wanadoo as well as owning the telephone exchanges that have to be upgraded and also the line to your house irrespective of who you are signed up with for telephone calls. Understandably, they keep the exclusivity of being the only company able to offer you ADSL for as long as they can get away with.

If you sign up with Wanadoo, I would recommend you don't go for the "Livebox" option. Select the simple ADSL modem option for which the usually only make a one off charge of 1€. Then you can either use this or, if you prefer, your own modem / router. There is no problem with using your own equipment as Wanadoo will provide you with all the connection information you need to set it up.

Unless you want to download video from the internet, then a 1Mb connection wil be more than adequate for all normal use. Remember that this is still at least 20x faster than dial-up !

[Deimos]

[quote]If ADSL is newly available, or soon to be available in your area then you are most likely to find that only the Wanadoo service will be available to you for at least the first six months. The reason ...[/quote]

To an extent it depends on the population density covered. My Commutateur Local is defined as “Zone Dense : Non” (with only 2000 subscribers). Thus it is not worth many other ISPs bothering as, even if they get a significant portion of the available market, it is still not too many people in relation to their costs.

When ADDSL 1st came it was just Wanadoo. The Cegetel started an offering (at limited speeds). Cegetel then dropped-out and it is back to only Wanadoo. Nobody is keeping the other ISPs out, it just is not worth their time and expense “getting-in”.

Ian

[bigjimbishop]

An ADSL router is a useful bit of kit for various reasons.

If you have more than one Computer and want to have net access for all then an ADSL router is connected and logged on all the time using little power and usually has a firewall built in for security.

Most isp's provide a single port (only one PC connected) ADSL modem and software which is not necessary at the least and invites spyware and advertising at worst.

You really don't need to use the ISP's software to connect thus freeing up resources on your computers for other things.

Also all your computers can 'see' each other and share files, printers etc across a home (wired or wireless) network.

Great if the kids are on messenger for hours and you want to look at google news while the misses plays Grand Theft Auto online.

I recommend Netgear dg834 which can connect 4 computers, has great security options and a wireless version for same price, about 87 Euro online from http://www.multe-pass.com/1/P/160482/default.htm

WARNING

Networks are a whole new world of pain. If you though PC hardware and windows related software was the limit then think again. Networks are a whole new can of worms so you need cultivate a different breed of support nerd.

Bon Chance

[Benjamin]

Bigjim

Could I ask another question concerning your reply posted today @ 15.26?

We purchased a new PC and moved into our house in March. The PC was purchased from a system builder who, as part of the deal, installed our Livebox together with related software because, not to put too fine a point on it, I was scared to do it! We only have the one PC and are not interested in any of the other services you can get via the LIvebox.

The reason we had a Livebox was because we could not decide where to site the PC in the new house and rather than being restricted to putting it where there were phone sockets we were told we could have it anywhere in the house (modern house so no thick stone walls to worry about). We have a dongle (?) in the back of the PC. At the time (don't know if they are still available) you could buy a Livebox from places such as BUT for 99 euros but we reasoned at 3 euros per month it would take 33 months for us to start losing and 33 months is a long time in computers. In January we will be 10 months into our contract so if there is another way of connecting to our telephone line without being plugged into a phone socket then we make decide to cancel the Livebox part of the contract with Wanadoo.

That's the history so now for the question. Is this what a router or router and modem will let us do? If so it then becomes a purely financial decision about what to do although (and I'm almost reluctant to mention this) we have not had a single problem with the Livebox or Wanadoo since the day it was installed.

 

Benjamin 

 

[Benjamin]

Lautrec

Can't answer the techie questions but our Livebox was delivered by post about two days after our system builder had arranged the contract with Wanadoo.

 

Benjamin

[bigjimbishop]

An ADSL router just allows many PC's (or MACs) to connect on the same line and has built in firewalls.

I recommend it to friends who have older machines because wanadoo and clubinternet automatically install a lot of unecessary software which slows their machines down to a snails pace.

You don't need it so on slower machines one can just set up a connection with the built in windows software.

The Router/ADSL modem/Firewall adds networking and security to a home setup so you don't have to pay the ISP extra for tighter security.

I think you can configure the Livebox without installing wanadoo software but if you have a fast machine then I guess it's not a problem.

But if you are running Norton (useless as it is) and wanadoo software then even with a fast machine their is a marked drop in performance. I've seen 30% CPU resouces used on 2.8Ghz P4 with 1Gb RAM where 2% is possible.

So it all depends on your needs and number of machines and surfing habits.

But if you have multiple users on line who are 'click happy teenagers' then you need some cunning solutions to keep it all going.

[Benjamin]

Thanks bigjim. So, it's stick with the Livebox or is there another solution to having the PC not plugged into a phone socket?

 

Benjamin