[megasad]

Soon I will be moving house, getting a new eMac/iMac and also, for the first time in my life, broadband internet.

I know absolutely nothing about broadband internet.

This would appear to be a good deal:
http://www.zenadsl.com/Services/home500.asp

Less than £24 a month, after the £50 connection fee. Is it a good deal? Or would you recommend another ISP?

Also, whilst I'm rather ignorant when it comes to broadband internet, I do have suspicions that a modem/router/ethernet... thingy might be needed. To connect the cable that the ISP gives me with the ethernet port on said eMac/iMac. What would your recommendations be? Should I buy one from Zen? From another dealer? Highstreet or online? eBay? And what model would you recommend? Keep in mind that I know not very much at all about broadband internet.

As well as using it with my new machine, I have two iBooks that will need to connect to it as well, possibly all at the same time.

How?

And all of this in the United Kingdom.

Thanks,
Simon

[Sherwin]

Yeah, Zen are pretty good (I've been on the plan you mention for 12 months now). Fast and the contract is only a month (instead of the usual 12) so you can cancel at any time.

To connect, I'm running an Intertex router, available from DSL Warehouse. Google for them (sorry, can't remember URLs off top of head). Expensive but very very good.

[cms]

A re you able to get cable broadband(NTL, Blueyonder) in your particular part of "Nondol"? If so, I'd recommend it over ADSL any day of the week. Much more straighforward, simple and reliable than my ADSL experience, which was with BTOpen(but frequently shut)world.

Hooking up your various bits of hardware to share your broadband connection is dead simple, as long as you start with a decent router. Are you thinking of using Airport cards in your iBook? If so, you'll need a wireless router; the only way to go, IMHO.

The previous poster's recommendation of DSL Warehouse is an excellent one. They are very reliable and fast. Stuff ordered before 3:00 PM usually is delivered the very next day. I particularly like D-Link products and use a D-Link wireless router for my NTL I meg broadband service. I have had as many as 12 computers accessing it wirelessly and signal quality and strength is very good indeed throughout my three-storey house and right to the bottom of my 100 ft garden. DSL Warehouse has a good range of both ADSL and cable models.

When you've decided what ISP to use and whether to opt for ADSL or cable, post back and I'd be happy to help you with any configuration issues.

[as2]

Hi,

I am also using Zen for my ADSL with a Netgear DG814 router.

I've found Zen to be excellent value for money, and have had no problems with the service. The only slight niggle is the email address you get is not very helpful - mine is something like zen28813@zen.co.uk. If you are going to be using the address from your new ISP as your main one then this may be a problem, but as I use my .mac email address for everything it doesn't bother me.

Depending on where you are living, if it's in London, you may also be able to get Bulldog (http://www.bulldogdsl.com). They are offering a 1MB connection for around the price of a 512k connection at the moment.

If you do decide to go with Zen then you can choose the option of 8 IP addresses (5 usable) which makes life easier for playing online games/XBox live etc...

Zen are also about to offer a similar 1MB service, but they are about £10 more expensive than Bulldog per month for this service.

Also, if you are thinking of getting a router rather than a modem then it will make adding more machines easier, and also eliminates some of the driver problems with Mac OS X. I was constantly getting kernal panics with the SpeedTouch modem.

Anway.. I hope this helps.

If you do have any problems setting it up etc. feel free to email me.

Adam

[darren h]

You may want to look at Eclipse Internet (www.eclipse.net.uk), about the same price and they have recently been named the fastest ADSL provider in the UK, I have had no problems with them in the last 18 months. ;-)

Also using a Netgear DG814 Modem/Router, which works really well and is a piece of cake to set up. Downloading files is nice and quick and I am getting really low pings gaming online.

P.S. I would always go for a router now, I had a speedtouch modem before and it would'nt even work with my 12"PB. With the router I now have two computers and a wireless access point for PB all sharing the adsl connection, works well and the connection is there as soon as you switch the computer on.

Hope that helps

[megasad]

I have moved! Or, rather, I did a while ago but have been a bit lazy with regards setting up broadband. No longer!

My situation has changed a little. My iBook exploded, as did my backup hard drive, so now I am using my girlfriend's brother's iMac DV+ (his old machine), until new eMacs are released.

Anyway, what's changed from last time is that I now want to allow up to five computers to use the connection at once:
- In mine and my girlfriend's room, the iMac DV+ and a November 2002 iBook.
- The guy in the room opposite, using a PC running Windows XP.
- The girl in the room next to us, using a Snow iMac, Mac OS 9.
- The guy downstairs, using a very old PC running Windows 95.

Zen will hook me up, so long as I have a BT phone line and live in the right area. I have and I do.

Then I need a router, yes? To make and then split the connection? At the moment, I'm looking to buy the Netgear DG834 4-Port ADSL Router. It is a good choice?

The phone port is downstairs, so let's say that the router is next to it. There's a microfilter in the phone port, from which comes a cable for the router and then the regular telephone. The phone can be used at the same time as the Interweb, yes?

Then, from the router come four cables. Three of those go into the three rooms other than my own and I can forget about them; the people plug the cables into their computers, it's up to them to make it work.

So, the fourth cable goes into my own. What do I do from here? Is there a way of splitting the connection so that both my girlfriend and I can be online at the same time? Is another router called for?

And where would be the best place to buy the ethernet cables in the UK? The same place, DSL Warehouse?

Also, I'll get the either IP addresses from Zen, since they're the same price as one, but how would I go about assigning them to the different computers? Would they be static, and so allow for web hosting?

And, finally, since I'm asking questions, what is a Ping? I've heard the word for years with regards online games, but I've never bothered to find out. Enlighten me?

Thanks,
Simon

[Peter]

I am on Nildram and they have been awesome - wonderful for gaming.

[megasad]

Well, no-one seems to have replied to my last post, but I shall tell you all that I have solved it myself. The solution? Apple's own IP over FireWire. I installed it on my girlfriend's iBook a few months ago, in an effort to share our dial-up connection, and it didn't work. But, for some reason, it now works with Panther. All I have to do is plug the cable between my iMac DV+ and her iBook and my locally served website appears on her machine if I type in my IP address. So, that will work for when the broadband arrives...

Speaking of which, just one more thing stands in my way; the bobdamn wires. Had I the money, I would obviously go wireless. But I do not. The problem is, there isn't enough clearance under the doors to run the ethernet cables. And this is rented accomodation, so I can't rip up the floor either. Does anyone know of any other solutions? I'm thinking along the lines of, how much would it cost to get someone to install the cables under the floor? If I can get the landlady to agree to it, and it's cheaper than wireless, that's what I'll do. If it actually works out more expensive, then wireless will probably be the way to go... But then the other people I live with may not want to do that, and then I'll have to pay for the broadband all by myself.

Any ideas? Anyone?