Broadband suppliers?

[_tom_]

Moving into my first "proper" house (uni) in less than a month and we need to start looking at broadband and electric/gas. Think we have the electric and gas covered by Utilities Warehouse but if anyone has a good reason we should be with someone else then let me know!

Anyway for broadband we were either going to go with Utilities Warehouse or O2 broadband. UW is appealing because we could pay for everything in one bill and line rental is included. However I dont know what the service is like as I cant seem to find any reviews/no one seems to use it! That should cost about £24 a month I think, with line rental included in that price.

O2 has a good looking package with unlimited downloads and high speed. Its also quite cheap for O2 customers, about £10 a month I think.. With line rental that should come to about £20 a month? Unless line rental is more expensive than I thought.

Any other suggestions or advice?

Oh and this sounds stupid but what do you actually need to do to get an internet connection set up? :lol: Get the line rental sorted by calling BT then ring up an internet supplier, or what?

[badgermark]

I use O2 for my broadband, and it's pretty good. Not had a connection problem in 18 months and for a 5Meg download speed and unlimited downloads it's pretty speedy.

I think I pay £12 odd per month, and on top of line rental it come to £23 per month on average, depending on phone usage. I recommend O2 for stability and it worked a treat when I'm on Xbox Live.

How it works is you get a phone line set up with BT, give your phone number to the broadband people and they flick a switch and you're on within a week i think. They send you out the router and the microfilters you need, the data comes through your normal phone line.

I was in your position a few years ago, anything else 'adult' you need a hand with just ask away, we were all n00bs once too.

[Will]

There may be something to do with a MAC code or MAC address I seem to recall, but that may be to do with switching companies with a 1 hour switch over.

[WezV]

yeah, when switching you need a mac code so that you dont loose yoiur connection for long, you dont need it for starting from scratch

[Fourth Feline]

I also have had great service from O2. I pay £7.50 a month, if I top up a 'pay as you go' phone with £10 per quarter. I have had no line connection or speed problems at all.  Free and very competent technical support, they even text me to warn me that my broadband payment is being drawn every month. The call centres are in Leeds and Scotland, and the operatives do not seem to be reading from a script as with overseas 'outsourced' centers of frustration. I also know a chap with extensive business interests who uses them happily too.

Before that I was in a protracted 'abusive relationship' with Orange ( spit !  ) - who I would say avoid at all costs.

 :)

[_tom_]

Alright thanks. Think we will go for O2, it sounds good to me! Dunno whether its worth going for the £9 a month option, it doesnt seem to be much better than the £7.50/month one.. just a lower top speed but tbh we're used to 1-2mb so anything around there is gonna be ok haha

[_tom_]

Just about sorted the phone line out now I think, should hopefully be active by 8pm on 1st September (when we get the keys) and ready for setting up the broadband. Took forever though, I think at least 5 minutes was wasted with the assistant fretting over whether the place was classed as an apartment or maisonette :lol: Hopefully there are no additional charges, apparently it can be up to £122 if the current sockets are damaged though :?

Think O2's standard package is looking like the best bet. Is the included wireless router any good or should we consider getting a new one?

[Fourth Feline]

Think O2's standard package is looking like the best bet. Is the included wireless router any good or should we consider getting a new one?

The one they sent me has been great; in that it looks very smart / compact - and of course sustains a constant and strong signal. Of the few routers I have either bought outright or been given by my previous supplier, this genuinely has been the most efficient , reliable and 'user friendly'.

They do not support M.A.C. filtering as a security option, but they do of course support WPA, although the default value it has ( when you just plug it in and load the easy-peasy software disc e.t.c ) is set at WEP. The free U.K. support line soon help you get you set up for WPA if you so require. You can tell when you have activated WPA successfully, as one of the router lights goes from orange to green.  In appearance. it looks like a minature white Apple Mac laptop.


Mine ( on the basic tarif ) is the one shown on the top of this web page :

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp
 
You can see the router in any O2 mobile shop, and if you so wish buy it for about £30 - for immediate refund off your first few rental bills. This (I gather ) is for folks not wanting to wait the 2-3 days for postal delivery.   

 :)

[_tom_]

WEP should be fine I reckon, I think thats what we use at home and dont seem to have any issues.

Think we're just gonna go for the cheapest O2 package as they're all unlimited downloads and the highest speed we can get in Leicester is about 4mb anyway, making the more expensive packages redundant.

[Andrew W]

I really wouldn't recommend WEP.  It's now so compromised that it can be cracked in less than a minute with a laptop, i.e. it's about as secure as not encrypting anything at all.  I'd urge you to use WPA with as strong a password as you think is reasonable.  Most broadband suppliers who give you a router now pre-configure them with WPA.  My one from Be did as did my dad's BT router.  The Wikipedia article on WEP outlines the main reasons why it's now deprecated.  There's much more info here.

[Fourth Feline]

As Andrew recommended, do take the five minutes or so on the (free) O2 support line - so the O2 staff can talk you through the quick process of 'talking' to the router from your P.C. - and asking it to give you a WPA or WPA2 link.

It is  no co-incidence that one of the  led lights on the router stays conspicuously amber  - and will not turn green until you 'do the business'.  I assume it comes with WEP as standard, as that requires no input from the prospective user, whereas a switch to WPA or WPA2 requires the typing in of an agreed alpha-numeric code , unique to your router.

Even if you ever do loss contact with your router, due to user error - secure re-connection is easy with O2 gear. The same for adding an extra laptop or home P.C. to your network later - a quick job, and handy for letting visitors 'piggy back' on your wireless ( subject to your security clearance of course ).

I also get about 4 Meg for my basic tariff, ( Orange struggled to feed me 1 Meg- and blamed B.T ! ) - and that is just fine and dandy.

Do however " heed the Andrew" ...  :)

All the best !

[_tom_]

Alright I didnt know WEP was so bad! Will be doing that then, my mate who I'm living with knows enough about networking to get it up and running ok hopefully :)

[HTH AMPS]

I work for one of the big six enegy suppliers.  Make sure you go for a 'online' tariff, they're cheapest by far.  When I last did a search for a new provider based on my annual usage, Eon were the cheapest by £30.00, but since I get annual bonuses for taking supplies through with my employer, it wasn't worth the swap (and my employer was 2nd cheapest anyway).

Tips - make sure you take meter readings when you move in and have them recorded on your tenancy agreement.  then phone them in to your energy suppliers when registering that you have moved in.  you'll have a small bill from whoever already supplies gas/elec when you move in till the transfer takes place (typically around 28 days).

Also make sure you record meter readings each month and send them to your supplier (again, a benefit of online accounts).  this will ensure your billing is correct and up to date - its very easy to fall into arrears and we get students calling us in the complaints dept all the time as they've run up massive bills (student houses typically use a shocking amount of gas/elec).  If there are four of you in a house with gas heating, expect to pay around £75/month per fuel - the gas might even be as high as £100/month.

Stay away from electric heaters or oil-filled radiators, these cost a fortune (seriously).

[_tom_]

Alright thanks a lot for that! We're with Eon for gas and electric already so will probably just stay with that but switch to an online tarrif.

[ToneMonkey]

Tips - make sure you take meter readings when you move in and have them recorded on your tenancy agreement.  then phone them in to your energy suppliers when registering that you have moved in.  you'll have a small bill from whoever already supplies gas/elec when you move in till the transfer takes place (typically around 28 days).

That's bloody good advice.  When I changed suppliers the old one tried to charge me over £400 for a months electric as the meter readings got balls up in the transfer.  Took ages to sort out.