[SWLUG] Introduction/ ADSL in cardiff

[Steve Hill]

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006, Jonathan Wright wrote:

> I think I'm still owed around £30 (£30.50 IIRC). Not sure if I'll ever use 
> it/get it back! :)

I'm still owed something like 50p bu NTL but they stopped sending me bills 
asking me to pay -50p a long time ago so I doubt I'll get it back :)

> I think as for CS and setup, it's similar between BT/ADSL and NTL - 
> generally, if you can get your setup in and running, you're laughing. If you 
> do get the occasional problems, the more technical knowledge you have, the 
> more they get into problems :)

Well, at my old job I dealt with a number of ISPs - some of them were 
pretty terrible if you know what you're talking about both others were 
very good at doing fault finding when you knew what you proved yourself to 
be technical.

ISTR one of the bad ones was Bulldog whilest EasyNet, PlusNet and Eclipse 
were pretty good.

I can always remember phoning RM about a fault on their network...
Me: "Hi, can I speak to 2nd line support please?"
Them: I'm sorry, but I can't do that, but I can help you with your 
problem"
Me: "Ok, <in-depth technical description of the problem and the settings 
on their routers they need to change to fix it>"
Them: "Right, I'm just putting you through to third line support - hold 
on"
:)

> However - most, if not all, of the problems do seam to come from the 
> installation/setup phase. At least that's been my experience :)

I think if you get a competent ADSL provider then certainly the setup 
phase seems to be the bit that can cause you the most problems, purely 
because the ISP is having to talk to BT and you're not allowed to talk to 
BT directly yourself to find out what's going on and bang heads together 
when things don't work.

One thing I did notice about PlusNet is that they're not afraid to tell 
you when BT screw up whereas some of the other ISPs (Demon for example) 
seem to have a policy of covering BT's arse for them.

-- 

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence