Advice for broadband please

[KEJP]

Hi,

our exchange is finally being upgraded to Broadband at the end of the month, and I'm after some advice about providers in the UK. Can anyone recommend a provider who's reasonably Linux friendly, reliable, (and cheap!)?

At present I'm using Freeserve dial-up, and I've found them reliable, with a good customer service team; however I seem to recall reading that the modem supplied as part of FS's package is not easy to set up with Linux (I'm on RH9). Can anyone confirm this, or possibly point me in the direction of a suitable modem?

Thanks for any help or advice - looking forward to joining the 21st Century!

[o0zi]

Well, the modem from FS's package, the Copperjet 800, isn't just difficult to set up with Linux, it's near impossible if you have a dynamic I.P. like Freeserve gives you.
There are only drivers for static I.P. addresses, and those are in beta stage and still hard to get going.

Go for BT - the Alcatel Speedtouch they supply is easy to set up in Linux.

[mrBen]

Or you could try NTL/Telewest cable if you in the right area - these are quite easy to setup under Linux too, and are cheaper than BT.

[Vaseline]

BT supplied my daddy with a 'BT Voyager ADSL Modem'.. It falls under 'eciadsl', also easy to get going. Just hoping that the latest version of smoothwall will support it now. :)

[Raoul_Duke]

I agree with MrBen ;)

I've phoned up NTL tech support before, they started saying "ok, now click on start > settings > cont......." i cut them off and said i was using Linux. "Oh!" they said "What's your IP address then?"

Lol, not exactly sterling tech support but at least it didn't confuse them too much :D

Oh, and the cable modems are great in Linux, just plug 'em straight into a NIC :)

[jme]

I've been using NTL service for over a year now with no problems. From the modem stright into an ethernet card so the installation was no problem - as long as you have a NIC that is supported under linux.

NTL support for Linux users leaves a lot to be desired though - like what Raoul_Duke said they expect that you're using Windows...but I've only had to call them a few times in that past and never in relation to Linux (reporting faults, problems with the exchange, etc..)

[KEJP]

Looks like it's BT then - sadly we're still in the Dark Ages here, only just getting broadband, and no cable for miles around!
Thanks for all the advice folks - any more pointers of course will be very welcome.

[root.veg]

You know there are dozens of different providers you can use, right? Check out

http://www.adslguide.org.uk

For lots of info and comparisons of providers. I'm gonna get an ADSL contract soon (well, after next pay-day!) and will go for Eclipse - they come no.1 on the speed test, seem pretty reliable, and have a no-restrictions policy. Take a look and see what you think. Basically, if you do the "wires-only" thing, you can buy the connection on its own and source your own hardware without having to go with what your ISP bundles in. Plus no-one needs to visit your house.

One thing, though - for ADSL you will definitely need to have a suitable BT phone line, near enough to an ADSL-enabled exchange. I think the adslguide site has a tool which checks according to your postcode. All the other info about what hardware you need is there too.

[Satanic Atheist]

Check this site out:

http://www.cheapest-broadband.co.uk/broadband/list_of_providers.shtml

I personally use Telewest and I find it a good stable connection with a virtually fixed IP (can be useful, can sometimes not be).

A friend of mine uses Nildram and he says they're cheap and reliable.

My upload speed is about 64Kbps, whereas Nildram offer 128Kbps. This is handy for remote access. If it's mostly web surfing you do, the upload speed is not very important.

ADSL IP addresses change dramatically every time you connect because it's not a "true" subnetted network like Cable is. This is for reasons of distribution and the technology involved.

James

[Arjay]

My exchange gets upgraded this year aswell. I've been looking at force9 for a while, they seem pretty good..

http://www.force9.co.uk

[root.veg]

Don't forget some ISPs can give you proper static IPs, too. That's what I'm getting, so I can easily run my own web server as a hobby.

[KEJP]

Thanks again for all the help folks, and the links especially - I've finally chosen virgin.net, as they seem to have a good rating for reliablility and customer service, and do not have a minimum contract to tie you down with.
They are also offering free activation, and a modem and filters for £49.99 - before I order this, can anyone confirm that it's Linux compatible please? It's a Speedtouch 330 - details are at http://speedtouch.virgin.net.

[root.veg]

I've not tried it myself, but I've seen plenty of posts while searching around saying you CAN use the Speedtouch 330 USB modem with linux.

However, as neither of my computers are modern enough to have a USB controller, and I had a spare NIC hanging around, I bought my own ethernet modem.