ADVICE: ADSL and the south coast.....

[bill hicks]

Since I'm moving on Saturday I need to find out about ADSL providers sharpish.

I would love to keep on with Blueyonder (beautiful, angelic, wonderful people) but we can't get cable at the new place so that's out. And they might be NTL down there anyway...

So all I'm left with is ADSL, which I know nothing about. I've heard Zen and Eclipse are good, but I'm not sure how widely they operate. The exchange in Chichester is enabled to high speeds and since it's a tiny little Daily Mail town you can walk across in three large strides I'm sure I won't be too far away. Does anyone know whether these guys operate on the coast? I think Pinball is Hants based isn't he?

Ideally I'm after uncapped, 1mb (although would settle for 512kb at a push) for a good price. Uncapped is extremely important since I download like a bastard. Don't care about email addresses and IPs etc. Just a basic service for me.

Any help most appreciated...my mate is going to have to sort out the phone line sometime in the next month and I'll start getting twitchy without a connection so I want to get all the research done now before I go.

[gazzyk1ns]

www.adslguide.org

My mate and Timmay are both very happy on Zen, I've never heard anyone say a bad word about Eclipse or Nildram either. Bulldog offer some interesting packeges.

[fanny splendid]

I think Timmay mentioned he was thinking about moving to Bulldog, but that link that Gazzy posted is your one stop shop for everything ADSL.

I'm with Eclipse, if that's any help, but I'm in the north. I think Terminally Relaxed was on Eclipse, too. In London, I think.

[bill hicks]

Cheers lads, Eclipse looks the way to go.

But does anyone know how to check availability? Since the flat is without phone at the moment I can't use the phone number checker, although the wholesaler package for Connect Lite 1000 is listed as the BT one...does this mean that they provide anywhere that BT has enabled with access? I know the local exchange is enabled up to 2mb thanks to there being a Catholic Girls school (fight it Matt, fight it....) just up the road and I got the postcode from that to check on the BT site.

Why hasn't he got a phone? Who the fuck hasn't got a phone???

[gazzyk1ns]

Without the phone number there's really no way to check, even a neighbour's number won't give a definite answer as his physical route to the exchange could be different. Having said that, not even the phone number checker gives a definite answer. The only way to find out for sure is to apply for it, no matter who you go with, BT will do an attenuation test on that specific line and if it's below a certain limit (60db IIRC, lower for 1/2MB services) then you'll get the go-ahead and should have no problems. Asking neighbours if they have it/can get it might give you a rough indication though. A lot of people think they can tell whether or not they will be able to get it by checking how far their house is from the exchange... that's a terrible idea, the actual physical phone line length to the exchange (known as the "local loop"), along with the age/quality of the cable(s), and how many joins are in it on the way are the only factors contributing to the issue.

[Doctor Stamen]

I'm with Eclipse and i think they're based on the south coast somewhere, so they might be a good bet.

[Timmay]

Yep, still with Zen. Never made the change to Bulldog - couldn't bring myself to make the step into the unknown waters. I have moved up to Zen's 1Mbps though, while not the cheapest ever, it's a very good service.

I did whore this BT press release on another thread, so there it is again in case you missed it. It's about how BT are going to test stretching the distance limitations for ADSL, to reach people further away from their exchanges.

[glitch]

I was with Bulldog last year. Great service, but you have to know what you're doing as it's a techy company for techies really. Their customer support consists of "google for it, noob"

Since moving from that flat I'm now with Virgin, as they're the only people providing it by the month without a contract, and no set up charge either (unlike Nildram).

[untitled_london]

bulldog

2Mb


owns

[fanny splendid]

Fuck, it's great what you get on the dole nowadays!

[untitled_london]

Fuck, it's great what you get on the dole nowadays!

heh. my gf helps me out a fair bit too - so don't think its all tax payers money.

the upload on the 2Mb package is sucky (30K) - my only complaint tbh.

i'll be upgrading when i move (within the next 3 weeks) to the full time 2Mb package.

i think that moving/ re-connecting/ upgrading/ downgrading etc, are the true test of a decent ISP. if you're ISP can't even manage to hold a connection, thats pretty much all your questions answered.

i only wish i was moving back to london so i could sample the 4Mb &/or 6Mb goodness.

[Crazy Penis]

I'm with eclipse aswell. Had no real problems except when I moved but I think that was my fault.