blonde poker forum

i am currently using bt which has been ok for the past couple of years but they are taking hte buicuit at present with disconnects every couple of minutes and they have also got the cap of 40 gig a month on downloads and impossbile to get to speak to anyone on a helpdesk i have spent best part of 4 hours today getting one answer machine after another today all telling me to phone a different number before cutting me off

so i am looking for a broadband company that can offer me unlimted usage without putting crap on my machine (like aol) looking for a trusted firm but i am not bothered about the cheapest service i prefer a better service

anyone got any recomendations?

My BT Broadband is okay most of the time apart from maybe one bad day every few weeks (touch wood).

They even speeded up my connection from 1 gig to 2.2 with no extra charge recently.

Do you think this is a regional problem ?

Can i ask what the problem with AOL is?

I've used it now for 12 months and it seems fine.

if i got one bad day every few weeks i would have switched long time ago

i have had 36 hours of constant problems and i aint happy i am paying money for a 24/7 service that they are no longer providing

last time i looked at aol they made you install there software on you machine which i would prefer not to do

Iron, I would try telewest if I were you, No limits on the downloads and its a great service. I would still be with them if i could get it in this area.

if you cant get it in killie what chance have i got in the sticks?

AOL block your machine up with useless software and if you ever switch you can't ever fully uninstall it.
Iron i use Tiscali and have done for years, i have NEVER had a problem.

i was looking into tiscali but they seem to only offer up to 2meg line where some others are offering 8 meg

Yes mate capped at 2meg at the time being, though VERY stable

You no longer have to use the AOL client to connect to AOL broadband iron - take it from an ex inmate :)

PM me if you want info.

Any opinions on the new "FREE" 8 meg broadband from TalkTalk?

I think the customer service is gonna be non existant with all the added custom, probably strain their servers too.

for what its worth i have to applied for disconnection from talk talk,this is due to getting disconnected every weekday evening,customer service is crap,today i finally got to speak to someone [90 mins on hold]they admitted that there service is frought with problems thats why they are now offering it free as long as you sign to other services[overseas calls being one].i  too had tiscali with now probs but was unfortunatly lured by charles dunstones magnificent marketting team.am now looking forward to going back to tiscali

meeant to say ,i too had tiscali with NO  problems......

Was just about to say the same myself.

No hidden catches, just a one off setup fee for £29.99

I think you still have to pay for a package of calls and line rental

bhm,how long have you been working for talktalk?
dont get me wrong i think dunstone has done fantastic things for the consumer,his carphone warehouse set up is obviously awesome,his home phone call packages are great too,however his broadband is bollox

You think because my 1st post is related to TalkTalk's services, I work for them - jesus!

Do you think if I worked for them, I'd come to a poker forum to spam about them? hardly.

What a welcome... to say the least.

I couldn't give two shites if they went bankrupt tomorrow, I seen the TV advert today for the first and just thought i'd comment on it - after checking it out as i'm on the 10mb broadband with NTL and am currently happy with it, bar their shite customer support.

Welcome aboard BHM!

Excuse Edy, but it happenas so often, when a new Member's first Post praises a particular Company, it's often the casde that it's Spam. And the blondes are a bit sensitive about Spam, as we don't usually allow it, & they like it that way.

Stay a while, you'll find it's a warm & welcoming place, the blondes are well-friendly. With no spam!

No bother ...I can see where he's coming from - I suppose.

Thanks for the welcome tikay, I hope to contribute the odd story on/off the felt every now 'n' again.

Love the new design to the site.

Long time lurker, first time poster. :)

Thanks BHM. What part of the country you from?

Northern Ireland Tikay, what about yourself - whereabouts in the UK are you from?

I live in Derbyshire now, but Londoner by birth. Brought up in Old Coulsdon till I was 5, then Acton, in West London.

Northern Ireland - we went to Sean Murphy's plasce in Belfast last year, & we took a trip round some of the trouble spots, which was very sobering. You near Belfast?

 :hello: ;welcome;

Ironside,

May sound ridiculous but we have used TescoNet for the last 6 years as an ISP and never ever had a serious problem with them at all.

We have had broadband for 18 months and never had any disconnections or such like, its great value unlimited for £25 a month. Its 100% unlimited because my brothers are always dwnloading music and all that and have never evperienced a limit on teir usage.

Have a look out for it mate, you may be surprised!

I have NTL and i really think they have sorted themselves out now, they used to be shite but i haven't had a problem for ages. Also, i started with 2 meg and now have 10 meg and am still paying the same money and it really is the nuts.

Ace2m,

Have you noticed any difference between 2meg and 10 meg?

Personally not so much apart from i don't get slow downs when my housemate is downloading loads of stuff. He says he notices that downloads and uploads go a lot quicker. But the biggest thing is it just hasn't gone wrong since it got upgraded.

Not very technical i know but i'm a bit of a luddite.

Yeah use to play in The Cavendish Club on a regular basis, until it was raided and shut down.

...as poker is illegal in Northern Ireland still unless you play it in a bingo hall - yeah don't ask our laws are well behind the times.

So apparently, Sean is looking into buying a poker hall just for the bingo license (and gaming license which poker falls under) and re-opening later this week in another location in Belfast, take it you got one of those red double decker tour buses then? :) ...yeah its all quiet on the Northern front these days - not much trouble at all.

Infact, we're probably one of the quietest countries in Europe now.

Have you changed your Alias BHM (ER) - I could have sworn it was just BHM when you signed up!

Good to hear things have quietened down in Northern Ireland.

No, it was not a Bus Tour, the Doorman from the Cavendish took Thewy & I to the Airport, & we asked him to make a little diversion & "talk us through" some of the areas which we hear about all the time, & never see.

WE went through some areas where all the Shop Windows were boarded up, many of them closed down & derelict. If ever somewhere needed some "regeneration money", that was it. I really felt that some Government or EEC funding was a long way overdue.

We went through that area where the litle children had to be marched through a district which was the "opponents" territory, & the children were shouted at every day by a mob of grown-ups. Apparently a urine-filled balloon was thrown at them, &, eventually, a bomb. So so sad.

Some areas were all one side, others the opposite, flags galore hanging out of windows, but we went up one road where BOTH sides lived, apparently in harmony.

Crumlin Road Jail (I think) WOW, how morbid & depressing is THAT? It's a blight on the area. If I were in charge (perish the thought) the task on Day One would be to demolish that & have a nice park instead, with grass & trees & stuff.

And the bleak & barren, chilling in fact, place where the Shankill Butchers did their "cutting people up" thing. Sent a shiver down our spines, I tell ya.

Please God let here be no more violence there.

Another diverse blonde thread - began with Broadband, involved a former Test Cricketer, & ended up with "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Only on blonde!

NTL are awful to deal with. Their customer service is horrendous.

I never had any problems with a broadband service from 'Pipex', though that was a few years ago now.

I'm currently on 8mb with Bulldog - occasional disconnections, although not as bad recently as it has been in the past.

I notice that https://www.bethere.co.uk/ have a 24mb connection out now - may be worth looking at.

Cheers.

Great thread.

I have been with Wanadoo (1Mb, 2Gb/month max, £18/month) for over a year now, so my contract is up - and they seem to want to charge me £20 for upgrading to 2Mb or higher.

As a result I am also interested in a switch, especially if I can get a better service for the price I'm paying, or an equal service for a cheaper price, if you see what I mean.

However - I don't really want to switch my BT phone line; this rules out some of the services (e.g. NTL?) I'm fairly sure - so does anyone know which of these options can be used without moving away from BT?

I heard a while back about something called 'Freedom2Surf', that was poised to take the world of broadband by storm... does anyone know anything about this?

Yeah realised I had the matching avatar with this username. :)

...yeah its good now that you can visit the historical side of our country that involved the troubles, hassle-free and not be worried.

The murals, the flags, the band parades, the divide... we've got it all - but sadly no poker in Northern Ireland.

Hope you enjoyed it in the North tikay!

www.adslguide.org

I did enjoy it, but I went home very sad. The area DESPERATELY needs investment, & I saw little sign of it. A General Election was on in the UK at the time, but NI was never mentioned.....I hate Politicians with a vengeance.

Yeah unfortunately by most people, Northern Ireland is rarely viewed as part of the UK. People think its just one big island un-attached from the mainland.

Parts of our country are still living in the 70's - but we're getting there. We never had a William Hill bookmakers or an ASDA shopping centre, until this year - so a lot more companies investing money in the NI etc. All we need is the legalising of poker/casinos and we'll be laughing.

...but what do you expect we have 100's of murderers let out on this day many years ago ...after serving a couple of years in jail, and now they're roaming the streets freely pocketing £100,000's in drug money/racketeering.

That certainly doesn't help matters.

I have just got bulldog, its 8MB unlimited and none of that FUP crap.

I was on tiscali which was great untill my 'unlimited' service got limited because i used it too much!!! What a pisstake! Its this "fair use policy" and knowing how much bandwidth u use Iron i would avoid any company that has such a clause, Bulldog is the best i found without it.

Can u Still use your BT line with this Flushy?

tbh i dont know, bulldog offer you £10 a month free calls to landlines so i just went for that. £30 for the whole lot!

my usage can vary from 5gig to 100gg a month which is another reason i need to get off BT as they want to charge me £1 a gig after 40 but dont give me a refund on the months my usage is low

give bulldog a ring iron, they actually have people who know what they are talking about on the end of the line, i was quite suprised!

i just ran some of the top firms thru the comparsion on www.adslguide.org

the shocker was that http://www.nildram.net/ seems torun other the big boys for speed reliabilty and support for past 6 months

bulldog and tiscali were down towards the bottom

checked out nildram they even offer a faster upload speed so i might have to investigate

Nildram are excellent, they run the FUP via a disenmcodex filter, with a 72gig rootbar hooked up to the Server.

 rotflmfao

im with NTL, its area dependant, yo can get 8 meg, ive only got 2. The TV is crap, customer services is school kid like but the broadband is fine.

Just checked my machine, it has been conected for 108 days!

Just prey you never need cust services

Ima with Uk online 8mb for £24.99 for total unlimited useage.

Horrendous when they first began, but rock solid connection for last 6 months.....They do 1mb unlimited for £9.99.....Or 22mb at £29.99 .

Customer service not that great(long wait on phone etc).

have a nice weekend all.

I've had NTL for about 6 years and their speed has increased great. If your like me and download tons of movies, games etc then you definetly want unlimited. I was on 3MB but they updated everyone from 3MB to 5MB soon to upraged everyone to 10MB and their prices are dropping also.

With 5MB I can get speeds of 600+kB/sec  from good torrent sites. The only thing is though the upload speed sucks, maxing out at 50kB/sec. But I think thats the case with all UK isp's.

Sweden is the place to be when It comes to ISP's 10MB for £20 a month!! plus they got 100Mbit/sec!

torrents.....Everyone talks about this.

Can anyone give me a v quick rundown and what to download to to be able to use this and then where to look for torrents?

Thanks in advance

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=9022.30

thanks for that link m8 !

Very helpful.

You know NTL say we all got 10Mb but thats bollox. With 10 Mb we should be getting max download speeds of about 1220 kB/sec but I never top 800.  Not that we really need these speeds but why say 10 Mb when true package we are getting is actually about 7Mb.

10 sound better than 7 ;)

haha rotflmfao so simple and true.

Iron,

I was about to post that I use Nildram and to check on adslguide.org.uk as they do speedtests etc... but you've done your research.

I've used Nildram for 2+ years now and only had to reset the router around 3 times and I think it was problems my end. Had one other problem, but customer service was ace and it was sorted very quickly.

They get my vote.

Cheers,

Eoan

Just read the Tiscali fair use policy... isn't it only 'limited' if you're using it loads between 6pm and 11pm? i.e. you can use it as much as you like (for torrents or whatever) off-peak?

i have been reading all the policys most of the unlimited usage are unlimited this is a minefield only certain thing is i wont be using btyahoo for much longer

They don't make it easy, that's for sure.

All I know is, that $17.99 for 1Mb and 2Gb max per month is not good enough :D But on the other hand, I don't want to switch to a company that's going to disconnect me every other day, either!

 ;goodvevil;

(weep)

I've looked at freedom2surf, they have several packages; any of which I could get up to 6Mb on, where I am; but none are unlimited. Having said that, they do have hefty monthly capacities...

5Gb for £14.99
20Gb for £19.99
50Gb for £23.99
100Gb for £29.99

...and usage caps don't apply between 1am and 6am, so one can do as much late night downloading as one pleases.

Also, the migration from my existing supplier would be free... and not the £50 that some places would like to charge.

100gb is alot of bandwidth and you should be able to get away with that quite comfortably unless your using it 24/7

To be honest, I will probably use it a lot less than that!

It would be nice though, for example, to utilise your torrent feature for catching up on 425 stuff I miss - I can't do much of anything in the way of big downloads (e.g. TV shows) on 2Gb/month.

2gb a month is only good for checking emails and webpages anyone that uses it for anything else needs to be on a more robust service

infact the 2gb service is there just to get people onto broadband

Anyone know about VOIP services?

Having said that, I've just looked at tiscali again - it looks very easy and simple...

2Mb speeds, Unlimited downloads outside of peak hours (6pm-11pm), £17.99/month, BT phone line so no switch - which is essential for me - and I won't be going nutso on the downloads like Flushy, so the FUP probably won't hurt me none.

Only thing I can't find is whether they charge a fee for the migration. If they don't, then they might just have a sale.

My only problem with Tiscali was the FUP, so if thats not an issue for you then i would go ahead!

Ironside,

Im interested in what the outcome of this was.

I am in a similar boat, at the moment i am using the distinctly average wanadoo service on the equally average 1MB connection, and I have been perusing Nildram as an option to change

1) they want a Migration (MAC) number/code, when wanadoo give me this is that the end of my connection with wanadoo, or will wanadoo work until a) either my monthly subscription ends b) they "migrate" the line over from wanadoo to nildram (i presumse this is what they do with the MAC number)

2) I use a router (linksys).. when any of you swapped over, was it a simple job of reconfiguring the router to your new settings, or was it quite irksome?


8Meg connection sounds pretty damn sexy.. might even start 16 tabling if its that fast.. yipee!

(anyone remember back when the 56kbps modems were around, getting excited if your d/l speed was 5k/b? technology rocks)

any help much appreciated

kind regards

If it's not too late, give Nildram a look into as a ISP.  I have never had any problems with them and the price is not too bad either.

www.nildram.co.uk (http://www.nildram.co.uk)

totalise -

I just sent in my request to migrate away from wanadoo - I went for Freedom2Surf in the end for several reasons

(1. as they were slightly cheaper than Nildram,

2. I probably won't need the 50Gb package which is all that Nildram offers,

3. F2S do a 3 month contract rather than 12, so I can migrate away again if I don't like the service, or if I spot something better)

Wanadoo, after a very half-hearted attempt to keep my business, sent me the MAC code in an email to my wanadoo email address - I asked them to sent it to my Hotmail address, as I never use the Wanadoo one (Outlook Express? perlease....) but they ignored this and sent it to the wanadoo one anyway.

Now, I have received two emails from F2S, telling me that Wanadoo has accepted the migration and have given me a date for the official switch over. They have also given me the details of my new connection (ISP codes and so forth), which I will have to use to reconfigure my router.

The switch over is in the 2nd week of May, so I will let you know how it goes, but I am fairly looking forward to it; I stayed with Wanadoo longer than the 12 month contract stipulated, and probably longer than I should have given that I was unknowingly paying £17.99 per month for a service that they offer to new customers for £14.99/month, these days...

When I get my new line it will be:

£19.99/month
6.5Mbit Speeds in my area
20Gb peak downloads/month
unlimited downloads 1am-6am
3 month contract only, after that I can migrate away again if I wish...

Bear in mind I have no idea what Freedom2Surf are like as of yet, I chose them because they are cheaper than Nildram but have better scores on adsl.org and a faster connection than Tiscali (2Mb), so they seemed like a decent compromise, but most importantly because the 3 month contract means I can get away from it relatively quickly if it turns out they aren't as good as I hope they are.

They won PC Advisor Magazine's best Broadband service award last year, however, so I imagine they'll be okay :D

I am still connected via Wanadoo until the 'switch over date' in about ten days time.

I use NTL and I am very happy with thier broadband service. However thier customer service is rubbish.

I am lucky in that I have a couple of friends 'on the inside' so If I need to speak to someone I don't have to wait 20 minutes to be told that I called the wrong number, only to be given the same number that I dialled an hour ago.

So I wouldn't recommend NTL unless you know someone who works for them, who won't mind sorting you out when you need something doing.

I Zimba,

thank you very much for the comprehensive post, was pretty much everything i wanted to know

regards