Selection of ADSL isp's

[Albacore]

This is avery difficult question to answer as it is personal pref. Eventually my area is going ADSL and I wonder what people are using. I have to up load and download files to and from the printers and also I send out proofs for the clients to have a look at and make comments.

The first question I would like to ask is, "has anyone found a ISP that they can rely on sending out files and a free firewall to stop the downloading of spyware.

What speed to you think a designer will have to use? I thought at least 1MB, and with the speed incresing very quickly due to the price drops. All of this is affecting my choice and I am at lost on what package and speed to pick.

I thought I could use your knowledge to select an ISP which would fill my needs but I am geting confused.

I would aslo like to include the contract of my phone line into the package but I am so confused at the resources out there I would like to use the knowledge base aquired in these forums.

In your opinion who are the most reliable isp's
In realtion to the fist question and also who gives the best value?
How amny of the forum memebers would like to go on over their download limit, if they have got one? In ohter word which package would you use?

I am sorry to say that apart from Yahoo etc. the choice would be done to a UK isp for the convenience but I am open to your experiences in selecting your ADSL package. I am all ears to read from your selection proess and us it when selecting my own ISP.

[Albacore]

This is avery difficult question to answer as it is personal pref. Eventually my area is going ADSL and I wonder what people are using. I have to up load and download files to and from the printers and also I send out proofs for the clients to have a look at and make comments.

The first question I would like to ask is, "has anyone found a ISP that they can rely on sending out files and a free firewall to stop the downloading of spyware.

What speed to you think a designer will have to use? I thought at least 1MB, and with the speed incresing very quickly due to the price drops. All of this is affecting my choice and I am at lost on what package and speed to pick.

I thought I could use your knowledge to select an ISP which would fill my needs but I am geting confused.

I would aslo like to include the contract of my phone line into the package but I am so confused at the resources out there I would like to use the knowledge base aquired in these forums.

In your opinion who are the most reliable isp's
In realtion to the fist question and also who gives the best value?
How amny of the forum memebers would like to go on over their download limit, if they have got one? In ohter word which package would you use?

I am sorry to say that apart from Yahoo etc. the choice would be done to a UK isp for the convenience but I am open to your experiences in selecting your ADSL package. I am all ears to read from your selection proess and us it when selecting my own ISP.

[John Rayner]

Hello Albacore,

ADSL has a very limited range. About 3 miles for the switching office. If your phone service is not picture perfect now, then ADSL will not be able to help you.

Personally, I like Cable better. The "pipe" is theoretically bigger. Depending on your cable provider you might be able to get 1Meg up and down. I upload 10 meg every morning updating my clients websites and have no problems. I start the upload, go have a smoke, when I get back I verify the updats are good. Total time 5-10 minutes. I have 1 meg down and 256 up. share it with 20 other computers and rarely, if ever, have any noticeable bottlenecks.

My mailbox is limited to the amount of room I have... About 30 meg... at the moment so never get a kicked back email. That is something else you will have to double check on. What is the space you are allowed to have. They might nickel and dime you to death on features you need but tease you with a cheap download rate, or upload rate.

[diniel]

John, cable isn't as widespread in the UK as it is the US, so for many people, their area just simply isn't covered.

Albacore, you'll have real difficulty finding a better service than Zen Internet (http://www.zen.co.uk/). It's a couple of pounds a month more expensive than some ISPs, but it is truly money well spent.

Buy yourself a Netgear DG834 (or DG834G if you want wireless access for your laptop around the house) from http://www.ebuyer.com (it's cheaper than buying from Zen, and the same product) - it will serve as a router and a firewall, handling your connection. The big benefits of using this over a modem connection are that your PC is online all the time (no 'dialup' connection to hook up the ADSL connection - the Netgear box does that), you connect to the router via network cable - not USB with drivers and software, and that the router is connected to the internet as the first port of call for outsiders... they see the router and not your PC.

You can get yourself a free software firewall if you still want one, Kerio is a good free one for personal use (cheap as chips for business use too). Spybot S&D, Adaware and SpywareBlaster running on your PC will keep you free of spyware - and changing Internet Explorer for Firefox will help a lot too.

All you'd be paying for there is Zen's service monthly, and the Netgear hardware one-off. (If your PC doesn't have a network card, you need to get one of those too - cost around £4. The router's box includes the network cable you need).

Zen don't impose bandwidth caps, so you have no worries of exceeding it. Their speeds range from 256 to 2000kbps.

Don't try to pay for your broadband and your phone line rental on the same bill - that'll restrict you to using BT, NTL, One.Tel or Tiscali ADSL, and you really don't want to be doing that if you can help it.

[Albacore]

Thank John and Daniel, John I stay in the Highlands of Scotland with very small towns dotted around and there is no way that cable is ever going to be laid here, ever.

Daniel at the moment I have a small wireless set up for my laptop and two other computers which works well. Thanks for your suggestion using the router and not the modem, also think I saw Spybot in this months PC Pro disc which I will use. Will go visit Zen's site and also Pipex as they seem to have good reviews in the ADSL Guide forum.

Thanks again for your information.

[diniel]

Pipex and Zen have good performance reviews, but in my experience, Zen have the better support. More than one of my customers have had spurious bills from Pipex, and on a couple of occasions, charges appearing on their credit card statements that didn't match their bill.

Don't forget to run and update Spybot and SpywareBlaster (and Adaware too if you run that as well, I don't) once a week or so.

Spybot: http://tinyurl.com/2b7s7
SpywareBlaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Kerio PF: http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html
Adaware: http://tinyurl.com/5kgsl

[Albacore]

Thanks again Daniel for your 5* information.
Looked quite closely at what Zen offered. I don't see the need for 3 static IP addresses and I think that is what the extra money is for.

In my brain dead opinion it is only biz. that need a static IP address and when it is required even for biz. I don't think many of them will ever use it for its correct purpose.

[John Rayner]

The strongest reason for a static IP is if you want to serve a website from your computer/office. As long as you do not have massive amounts of people visiting a site, then serving it yourself would be fine.

Businesses would be better served by having a server. A person monitoring the site/server 24/7/365 would not be economical for most businesess.