UK dialup / broadband question

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

so: i've taken Virgin's bait and signed up with the CD they sent me. i'm doing "pay as you go" which means no monthly bills. but i am billed at "Lo-Call" rate for the time I'm online. (also my return key is broken, but that's neither here nor there.) anyhow i have no doubt that i am getting screwed royally somehow. is there a better way for dial-up in London? SECOND QUESTION: what i really want is broadband. i can split it with my landlady. she already has AOL dialup. so she needs to get AOL-style broadband. the pricing is good, it turns out. free modem, free setup, 28 pounds a month total. so what's the hitch you ask? supposedly AOL broadband "doesn't work" with Macs. i refuse to believe it, though!! has anyone out there cracked this nut?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

AOl provide broadband via BT as i understand so see about BT's own OpenWorld service maybe as you could be better off going directly through them (i really hate AOL for some reason tho). i think you may also be in the blueyonder cable area and they provide a decent broadband service too (i use it here) for a sturdy £25 a month - you can even get a 1 meg line with them for around double that i think. they're running a free installation promotion at the moment too - but you'll have to check your postcard comes under their coverage.

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

My landlady needs to keep her AOL email addy though steve. There really is no way around it (I think).

Hey, my enter key works again!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

If you really need to stick with AOL then I'm think you might well be able to get around the Mac problem if you pay slightly more to get an ethernet modem rather than the bundled USB one. That gets around the problem of drivers.

Go to the Mac board at http://www.adslguide.org.uk - people there are very helpful and knowlegeable (but do a search on the archive first to avoid pissing them off).

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(If you can get her to agree to drop AOL then don't go with BT either - there are much cheaper and more reliable ISPs, by all accounts. Eclipse, Nildram, PlusNet and Zen are all highly rated by Mac users and some are not much more than £20 a month. All UK ADSL provider use BT's infrastructure, but most manage to do it better and cheaper.)

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 23:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Stevem, you hate AOL for good reason. They suck.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and BT and probably AOL too tie you in for a 12 month minimum contract, whereas the others give you a one month's cancellation period.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 23:10 (twenty-two years ago)

pipex adsl is £23 a month witha £17 set up. you get a modem and microfilters and stuff.

― dog latin, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 00:42 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.bulldogdsl.com/residential/index.asp

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 07:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i hate the way AOL brand themselves over everything, and Connie had a stupid haircut (smart move selling us America On Line by having a girl with a plummy British accent tho...)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 08:05 (twenty-two years ago)

If anyone can give me a walkthrough as to how the hell I get broadband working on the BEAST I would be extremely grateful.

Windows machine: insert cd. pay some money. KERPOW!

Linux: WHAT THE NUTS?!?!?!?!?! Firewalls? Extra computer as server?!?! WHAT?

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 08:06 (twenty-two years ago)

sarah, broadband by usb - forget it, broadband by ethernet, a doddle, configure router through a web browser, set the beast to pick up a DHCP address, Bingo.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 10:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks Ed - can you tell me what information I'd need from the broadband people? Ie do I phone BT and say "hello broadband please" - they give me some configurations and I go from there?

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

In my experience AOL is fine until you try to uninstall it, at which point it sticks its little claws into various other programs in your computer, drags them away with it and then nothing works. I think that's what happened - my flatmate at the time, whose computer it was, was not impressed.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

You need to know the user name and password, how the router gets it's ip address (static or dynamic,its almost certainly dynamic), wether they want you to use a NAT or NATP, the encapsulation (something like PPPoA VC-Mux), Bridged or un bridged, and what DNS servers they recommend you to use (although this isn't strictly necessary).

First reset your router, there will be a hole to stick a pin in somewhere, maybe its marked reset, it's not on mine. With your windows box find out what your router's IP address is (I think it's labeled default gateway in windows, buried deep somewhere in the network control panel, without looking at it I can't remember). Put the IP address into your web browser and it will ask you for a user name and password, it will say what this is in the router manual but will almost certainly be something like admin/pass, user/password or something like that.

Settings should go in the obvious holes, generally I found that, if you don't have a setting leave well alone.

You'll probably have to turn on the DHCP client (to get an IP address from your provider), input the PPP settings (service username and password), turn on the DHCP Server for your network and give it a range of addresses, 10.0.0.1 - 10.0.0.10 is good for your home network, turn on NAT or NAPT, input the prefered DNS etc. ave and away you go.

You could also try links from ADSL guide for a much cleare explanation of how to do this with picture and stuff, because having read that it confuses me.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

By all means keep working out your own issues, but mine is that I NEED TO GET AOL BROADBAND TO WORK WITH MY MAC.

Nick, that ADSL guide is great. It looks as though the only solution is to configure a computer running at least Windows 98SE and AOL 8 with - wait for it - "Internet Connection Sharing" !!!

My landlady, however, has Windows 95.

I have heard tell, however, that you can keep an AOL email account active for only £6 per month. Maybe I can convince her to do that, and use one of the fine providers mentioned above.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you should bump off your landlady.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Can your landlady not upgrade to 98SE? Failing that, what N. said.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I could live the rest of my life as "Kathianne"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

It does rather suit you.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I hardly look like I'm from Trinidad, like she is. But then, she looks Chinese. Have I stumbled onto something here? She says she's owned the place for 20 years, but she's scarcely cracked the age of 35.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

AOL delivers the elixir of eternal youth!

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

s/AOL/murdering your landlady/

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 11:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe my house has just passed on from one murderous lodger to another.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

Anybody know of a good email service that lets you have 20 megs or so of storage? Not looking for connectivity, just email.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 27 May 2004 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know about for free, but the service I use (see my email address) has several paid for options with easily cover 20mb. I've been very impressed with them, anyway.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 27 May 2004 12:48 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven years pass...

I've used Virgin Media for my broadband and email for years.

For reasons that I'm not absolutely clear about my account was moved to Talk Talk and I've just had notification that I have to change my email address and will lose access to all my Virgin emails.

Before I change over, I'm wondering about closing the Talk Talk account and starting off with someone new. Any recommendations? (Am in the UK).

― djh, Monday, 9 May 2016 17:41 (nine years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.