[maximage]

Heya peoples, my GF leaves for a year in the UK in a day, and need to find her a good cheap provider so she can hook up her iBook she just bought to keep in touch with me. I work at an AppleCentre in Australia so she can iChat voice and type to me while I'm at work due to the time difference, but since I will be up and down helping customers all day, she will need something with generous time limits. Here in Oz, dialup accounts are generally timed, whilst Broadband is done by volume. Is that the same over there? And who is good with price and basic support? Thanks a million in anticipation.

[Forte]

Here in Oz, dialup accounts are generally timed, whilst Broadband is done by volume. Is that the same over there?

No, it's not. Generally, nowadays, you pay a flat-rate for either dial-up or broadband (which is more often ADSL than it is cable). Some broadband services also include a backup dial-up number in case the broadband service goes down for whatever reason. Also worthy of note, is that some of the very-low-priced services have usage caps, which sucks.

And who is good with price and basic support? Thanks a million in anticipation.

I've found that the biggest problem is finding ISPs who are Mac-friendly (in fact, I'm still stuck using my Windows machine to get online due to this, and a lack of help on the subject). I'm not entirely sure if you're after a dial-up or broadband service, though, and I've only really looked into Mac-friendly ISPs offering broadband, due to needing that myself. To that end, I've found that http://www.zenadsl.com/ appears to be a decent choice for this (I'll be switching to their service as soon as my current ISP contract expires).


YMMV, though, so I'd advise looking into a few other options before settling on anything. But that's my 2 cents, anyhow. Hope it's helpful in some capacity. ^^;;

[maximage]

Thanks heaps for that, each little bit helps. I think she will most likely be looking at a dialup connection as she doesn't really use the internet all that much. Any ideas on good value companies out there? Top level support isn't necessarily hugely important as I can do alot of that over the phone.

[Forte]

I think she will most likely be looking at a dialup connection as she doesn't really use the internet all that much. Any ideas on good value companies out there? Top level support isn't necessarily hugely important as I can do alot of that over the phone.

I'm afraid I don't know a great deal about good value/service companies when it comes to dialup. Sorry. X_X;;

[holygoat]

There are lots of dialup ISPs: either free, but you dial a local-rate number (pay by the minute), or "unlimited", where you pay a monthly fee for `all-you-can-eat' dialup.

Normally they like to charge stupid money for per-minute telephone support, but if you don't need it then ignore that factor!

Thoughts:

� I used Virgin Net for a while some years ago; it's got broadband, unlimited, and per-minute options. http://www.virginnet.co.uk/

� Demon have been around forever, and mention Mac support. http://www.demon.net/

� You could exploit AOL's free trial. http://www.aol.co.uk/products/anytime/

� I found this list on Google, but it might be rubbish. http://www.emailaddresses.com/email_internetuk.htm

� Here's one of the `call charges only' ones. http://www.uku.co.uk/

� I use Pipex's ADSL service, and they're great. The dialup service Pipex DIAL has been well-recommended for years. http://www.pipex.net/residential/

I hope some of those are of use to you!

[maximage]

Thanks a mill, that helps heaps. Looks like the phone system in the UK is TOTALLY different to that here in Oz. We get local calls at a flat untimed rate, so makes dialup alot cheaper.

[Freeflyer]

When I'm in the UK I use freewire (www.freewire.net)

review here

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/freewire/index.shtml

I like them because you don't have to register to just use their connection, just dial the number and use 'guest' for username and password. As I have my own mail server and webhost all I want is cheap access. You pay just the local call rate.

Might be of some use to you.

J.

[Sherwin]

For ADSL, Zen are good (I'm with them) unless you need technical support (they suck at it).

Demon are good for ADSL and dialup, with good support.


Phone calls have historically been metered but nowadays you can get both local voice and Internet dialup calls for a flat rate.

For example: My voice calls are metered by the minute during the day but are a 6 pence flat rate (for up to an hour) after 6 pm.

There's also packages (such as BT's SurfTime) which you can get that lower your dialup charges - for example before I was on ADSL I paid a flat rate per month and could literally stay dialled in 24/7 for no additional charge.

I'd recommend her going with a BT line and Demon dialup (Demon offers features which improve dialup no end - such as remote fetching of FTP files so you can D/L from a local server rather than remote one). Get a SurfTime package from BT.

Then if she needs to call you (i.e. internationally) there's a lot of add-on services which can be used simply by dialling a routing prefix before the number (i.e. I dial 1601 before international calls, which routes them via a different (cheaper) provider on the same line).

HTH.

[maximage]

Sherwin!!! Gotta say, thanks for the details, well and truly above and beyond! that helps no end! She landed only a few hours ago and is rather overwhelmed with it all, so having info like this for her to help her get up and running quickly will make a huge difference for her. Thanks heaps!

[Riddler]

The difference in price between un-metered Dial-up and Broadband in the UK is pretty small now, say �10 per month difference. Nildram are one of the fastest Broadband companies out there and are very friendly, if you do go for dial-up then Demon may be the best choice as they are Apple's offical ISP in the UK and are therefore likely to have good Mac support.

Excellent website for help with UK Broadband is ADSLguide. Good info on availability, ISP Ratings and a helpful forum.