I'm moving out at the end of the month into my own flat and need both a new mobile contract and broadband. I've been trawling the net for a good few hours and the Orange deal of £5 broadband with a £30 contract is rather appealing! The Talk package is also rather appealing but I have no idea how it works!
I understand that you plug a phone into the Livebox but is this a regular house phone or a VoIP phone? I also understand that calls are made out over the internet and hence why they are cheap. Can someone call you on your home number using the phone connected to the Livebox? To clarify that, if someone calls your home number does the Livebox phone ring or do you need a separate phone for your BT line? And if that is so do you have a separate number for the Livebox that you can call from a landline?
Also, and this is for the techno boffins, I have a Yamaha Musiccast system in the flat. I want to connect this to the network so it can access Gracenote and download CD information. Would this be possible with the Livebox?
I'm presuming that Livebox is like a regular router just with the phone socket as an added extra and I'm presuming that you can connect wireless products like printers, musiccasts etc as you would with any router i.e. through the control panel or the quick pair button? If I'm completely wrong please correct me!
My advice is read the forums then look elsewhere for a broadband service.
Not exactly helpful. People have had bad experiences with many ISPs. For example I'm sitting here on AOL and have had no problems in the 5 years I've been with them. Search the net there are countless grumps about them hence why I'm happy to try Orange if I can understand how the Livebox works! People rarely write a review about an ISP if they have had a good experience. Its the same with toasters and tvs etc, people only report on them if they are angry and have possibly been unlucky.
And yes I've looked through the forums and cannot find the information I am looking for.
My advice also is to avoid Orange AT ALL COSTS.
You will regret choosing them as they are not an ISP just a lying, robbing, non-caring disgrace.
After my nightmares with Orange I moved to Idnet last September and have never had a disconnection or problems with the internet since.
With Orange you get problems, disconnections and far from a service that works.
Then I would stay with AOL if you have no problems what sort of BB service do you want for a fiver lol,because I would not pay Orange that a month A good review then here goes I moved to zen up to 8MB I get 6.1 constantly any time of day I have a download tariff of 20 gig a month so I know where I stand go over you buy more in. no threats of disconnection no subsidising people taking 120 gig a month and slowing the already congested LLu of oranges down.Great customer service so great they go home at 4.30 Friday and leave you to it,no having to phone India up asking why my speed on a up to 8MB line is actually 226KB.I pay £25 a month and I get what I pay for like I used to with freeserve and wanadoo before Orange came along and started giving BB away for free or a fiver.I was paying £27.99 a month now I am not.here is a speed test of an Orange up to 8mb at off peak time.
I am actually trying to be helpful that is why this site is called orangeproblems.co.uk you will hardly find the information you are looking for on here ,
Ok thank you that was a bit more helpful. The reason I am having to find a new ISP is because I'm leaving home and setting up on my own. I'll take a look at those websites and see what it says.
I was hoping for an uncapped usage as I'm unsure of any potential flat mates internet use and do not want to be stung with nasty over use charges. But I take your point on board about having an uncapped service but losing bandwidth speed because of it.
I really am looking for the best deal available since money is tight. The other option I have is Tiscali but that also doesn't get a good review and would mean me having to buy a router, although this would be mine for forever more. BT is just too expensive and you get some posh phone and router that really doesn't do much. I was hoping that it would do the cooking and cleaning for me. If it did it would be worth nearly £25 a month!
I'm not too keen on going with unknown/smaller companies such as Zen since it may (and I could be talking rubbish) be harder to get Ofcom to sort them out if they breached their side of the contract. But this is a small issue if they were proven to give fantastic service and if their prices were acceptable.
I would go with AOL again but the AOL browser bugs me intensly and AOL Email is awkward with Outlook so you're kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place with it.
Really what I'm after is a mobile contract (text heavy) and broadband and BT line rental all for under £50 a month and its proving rather difficult to find!
If you have any further suggestions please let me know!
Heeeheee you would never really need ofcom with zen .They are that confident as I said they have the weekend off no cs needed plus you are on a 1 month contract with 14 days notice to quit needed.Thats a confident ISP.But on a budget can be a problem and wanting unlimited too.Remember the unlimited usualy have a 40gb fair usage policy too.As for email get yourself a free google mail address and don't depend on any Isp for one this is what I do.As for what you are after not too sure I have a pay as you go mobile for texts only,and rarely phone anyone anyway.But i do appreciate a good BB provider
Last edited by Ciderfex on Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:15 pm; edited 1 time in total
Just one (thick) question (sorry) - I take it companies like ADSL24 (who are resellers for Entanet) are classed as Entanet as far as the ISPA is concerned, should anything ever go wrong
Hmm I'm still not convinced not to go with Orange and just risk it. Afterall its an 18 month contract at a fiver a month. If i cancelled say 4 months in i'd only have to pay £70 to get out of it - thats a lot less of a gamble than say going with Tiscali and perhaps having problems and having to pay out the rest of the contract to cancel. As I said before, people dont tend to review something unless they have a grudge about it. I've looked at a load of reviews for different ISPs this afternoon and very few have positive comments yet I know that there is generally nothing wrong with these ISPs and that people have just been unlucky and need to let off steam.
Meh I don't know. I could try it and if its rubbish by Christmas...treat myself to something better
Actually you will get a shock and find out that it's £14.99 a month cancellation fee but someone else may clarify that for you.Anyway good luck whatever you decide.
Eep! Didn't see that in the Terms and Conditions. It just said pay the remainder of your contract, nothing about an increased price.If I sign up for it i'll make a phone call or two first!
Have you tried www.dslzoneuk.co.uk. The comments that people give on the ISP ratings page range between excellent and awful. I used this site when looking for a new ISP.
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I suppose the ISPA is useful if the ISP doesn't give you your 
