Recommendations - ISPs for ISDN? (sort-of relevant to DIY)

What that doesn't tell you iif you can have it or not, even if your exchange is enabled. Our exchange is, but even though its less than a mile, as the crow files, its 3 miles plus as the cable goes....So over a mile too far for even the slowest ADSL. Still we do have National Thieves Limited and their "broad-band" (which isn't really so I'm told) in the area.

Niel, one of many radio hams whose repeaters had to move following demands of "commercial rates" by NTL when they took over the "management" of many transmitter sites in the UK.

Reply to
sue.fagan
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We've given up on getting ADSL so my company is paying for ISDN; now the family want me to find an unmetered ISP for their use that can offer 128k ISDN for a reasonable monthly charge - any suggestions?

I also need to get the home network sorted (the DIY relevant bit) so need a router and WAP. The Vigor 2600W has ISDN and an 802.11b WAP but it's pricey, can anyone suggest an ISDN router that supports VPN (for the work related access)?

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

IME only one worth considering - Clara

  • an access point of your choice.
Reply to
Grunff

I have a shed-load of Lucent/Ascend Pipeline 75s still in shrink-wrapped boxes and I'm wondering what to do with them as not that many people are interested in ISDN anymore.

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me know if you're interested...

RM

Reply to
Reestit Mutton

In message , Grunff wrote

I'd imagine Demon Super Showroom is in the same leage as Clara's offering. Whether the OP finds either of these to have reasonable monthly charges is perhaps another matter though.

Reply to
dave cunningham

I don't personally use Demon, but know at least 3 different people who've had connectivity problems over the past year.

They used to be great - I used to use them about 5 years ago. But I'm not so sure that this is still the case.

Reply to
Grunff

Dave

Don't sign up for ISDN this late in the day. How does your exchange look like on

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When BT finally enabled my exchange and the engineer came to hook it all up, he commented how many ISDN boxes there were lying around in skips these days.

Comparing ISDN to ADSL, it is worth the wait.

Colin M

Reply to
Colin M

"Grunff" wrote | Dave wrote: | > We've given up on getting ADSL so my company is paying for ISDN; now | > the family want me to find an unmetered ISP for their use that can | > offer 128k ISDN for a reasonable monthly charge - any suggestions? | IME only one worth considering - Clara |

Clara are generally very good but their news server tends to die or run like treacle about 9pm weekday evenings.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Not if the wait is going to be years which it may be for many people. Also 128k ISDN with compression is remarkably good subjectively.

There are quite a few ISPs offering 128k ISDN, just do a google search for "128k ISDN ISP" and you'll find quite a few. I'm in the process of selecting one at the moment, current front runner is NDO.

Here's a quick list of *some* ISPs that offer 128k ISDN:-

320 hours 64k, 160 hours 128k

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10:1 27.99
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24.50 Direct Debit

250 hours 64k, 125 hours 128k

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19.99

200 hours 64k, 100 hours 128k

----------------------------- www2.fast24.net 7:1 18.00

160 hours 64k, 80 hours 128k

----------------------------

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15:1 18.99
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12:1 22.55
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17.99
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15:1 19.99 Direct debit (?)
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15:1 19.99
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15:1 20.00
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30:1 19.95
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15:1 19.99
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15:1 18.99
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15:1 18.99

100 hours 64k, 50 hours 128k

----------------------------

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12:1 17.95
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12:1 17.99
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15:1 19.27
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12:1 24.99

Reply to
usenet

Ours has 25, trigger 300...

I doubt very much it'll rise.

Comparing ADSL to wireless community broadband is worth the wait. It's a bit variable depending on system load but 1Mbps full duplex is the norm, in the wee small hours I've had 4 to 5Mbps, full duplex of course.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I used

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when I was on ISDN before ADSL arrived.

Generally a helpful bunch, and they seem to offer unlimited connectivity, but with a 1 or 2 hour cutoff. This is no big issue because the router will automatically remake the connection. Just means that you have to use a download manager which can restart long downloads.

HTH Dave R

Reply to
David W.E. Roberts

I don't have any problems with them, I've been with them for about that time and can't say the service has got any worse.

Reply to
David

In article , Colin M writes

Oh I don't know, I can change to ISDN for an extra £1.50 /mth to BT and the demon 128k unlimited access line is the same price as what I'm paying. Its certainly fast enough for me ATM and trigger levels for ADSL are still too high for access any time soon in this area.

Reply to
David

How long ago was that? I *thought* that ADSL could now work out to the same distance as ISDN, around 6.5km cable length or 4 miles.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to support VPN and I need this for the "work breaks".

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

We've used Demon for analogue dial-up for many years, unfortunately they only offer 64k ISDN with surftime. The 128k offering is £60/month - a bit too steep for home use.

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

... but if you're on SDU it's costing you £11.75/monthi for something that just about everyone else is offering for free. For that sort of amount many ISPs will offer you unmetered connectivity.

Reply to
usenet

The exchange is enabled but the attenuation of both our lines is too high (although they won't tell us what the actual figure is!) even for extended-reach ADSL. The PowerLine trial doesn't cover our area. The cable services are too far away. .....AFAIK this only leaves satellite or ISDN and my employer is paying for the ISDN install.

This all sounds like we live in a remote Welsh valley - we actually live in a village a couple of miles N of Winchester.

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

Demon told me the charge for their unmetered 128k ("showroom"?) offering was £60/month - have I got this wrong?

Dave S

Reply to
Dave

What I have here, is a small CISCO router, ISDN business highway (so I can stll use the phone) and a Demon unlimited access account. Plus BT anytime.

The whole lot cots me about 1500 quid a year including phone charges.

The router is set up to do NAT, and runs a couple of computers fine.

Ths cisco is a 800 series with 4 ethernet hub built in. Its not the cheapest option, but it has never missed a beat. I got it because I am very familiar with Cisco kit.

BT anytime works as advertised.

Demon sucks, always has, always will, but you do get a fixed IP address which makes getting through other peoples firewalls a bit easier to manage. I think Pipex also do a unlimited access ISDN service on anytime numbers.

Transfer rates are about double what I used to get with a modem - about

6k a second if demon is not borked (which it mostly is)

Its advisable not steer clear of Demons popmail service. I have two Clara Net 'lite' domains+popmail and web services and one other which cost me about another 30 quid a year each.

If I could find four people withing wifi range who wanted brodaband, I'd bring in a leased line...and go 2Mbps...:-) But its about 8 k a year to do that...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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