Thanks tim
So it is suck it and see with the cable as the savings on the phone lines will pay for it over 3 years or so and the system will add value to the building if I sell it
BT have offered to undercut Pipex by 10 per month but it sounds as if they are more unreliable that pipex

If you want cheaper connection, PlusNet are only 34.99 for a 2Mb business connection, more reliable than Pipex in my experience but it won't necessarily fix your disconnection problems.

Bressie,
Re the reliability, I might be wrong on this but my experience is variable !

I currently have 3 ADSL links, one each from Demon, Tesco and PlusNet. The PlusNet link is very new and replaced a BT Business broadband link which itself replaced a BT Yahoo link. The Demon and PlusNet links are 2MB the others are or were 512K.

My experience has been that the ADSL itself has been rock solid from BT/Yahoo, Demon, Tesco and plusNet (only had that for a week), the BT Business service was terrible from the day it was installed to the day I threw it out last week. The ISP service has been very good from Tesco (no problems) variable with BT (mail not reliable, usenet poor) and so far very good with PlusNet (nice user web pages with good fault and status pages). I have recently been very disappointed with Demon, I have been with them since 1993 and they have had several very serious mail problems recently and they have been very bad at sorting them out, they also made a huge and costly error with my subscription which has still not been completely sorted out.

However I know several people with BT ADSL who have always had a good service, my feeling is that it if you get a badly setup connection of if your exchange has problems its difficult to get is sorted out, all of the providers I have spoken to about faults seem to do everything they can to imply that the problem is not with them its only when you have exhausted all other options that they really take it seriously and even then I am not convinced that half of the engineers know what they are doing.

So I guess my summary is that there is a degree of luck involved, with ADSL I have been lucky more often than not!

PS Kayak, so far I am very impressed with PlusNet.

Bressie,
With many adsl routers you can read the line quality - this ought to give a clue to the ability of the line to lock and hold 2Meg.
Maybe if you find and publish the findings here someone may be able to comment.

BB

edit - double post

Got this email from Pipex which some may find helpful, it reiterates some of the points mentioned by our learned friends on here.

There are many reasons why your connection may drop so we require a number of diagnostic checks to be performed before accurately diagnosing a fault.

PIPEX do not deliberately disconnect its customers unless they are subscribed to one of the PIPEX Xtreme Solo Lite Solutions and you reach your Monthly Bandwidth Quota but you would be able to re-connection but with a reduced connection speed.


The first step is to ascertain whether the ADSL light flashes or goes out when the connection drops and if there is a pattern to the disconnections.


IF THE ADSL LIGHT STATUS CHANGES:


1. Unplug all telephone devices on your phone line including extension cables and set-top digital television boxes. Plug the modem and one Micro Filter into your main BT phone point (usually located by the front door). Swap the Micro Filters over to ensure you do not have a faulty Micro Filter. If only one Micro Filter causes the problem, then it is likely that it is faulty and if within warranty and we supplied it to you, we can replace it for you. To view the PIPEX Returns Policy please visit http://www.pipex.net/legal/returns/

The basic configuration of your wiring should be as follows:

Main Telephone Socket - Micro Filter - Modem/Router - PC


2. If you are using an ADSL Modem, re-install the modem drivers and download the latest drivers from the modem manufacturers website.


If you are using a router, it may be useful to reset the router to Factory defaults. Instructions on how to do this should be provided in documentation that came with your router. Once done, re-configure the router and then re-test ensuring there are no Idle Time Out settings.


3. If possible, try your modem on a different computer or try another modem and Micro Filter on the same line. Another good test to carry out is to try your ADSL equipment on a known working ADSL line to rule out any of your equipment being faulty.


4. Check if there are any patterns to the disconnections, do the dropped connections happen at a certain time of the day or when the telephone is use?


IF THE ADSL LIGHT DOESNT CHANGE



1. Check if the disconnections happen when you are on a certain website or when you are using a particular software package.

2. Do you get the same problem if you leave your connection idle with no traffic being passed?

3. Have you recently checked for viruses on your computer? One of the biggest threats to PC's in todays world are viruses. If you have good scanning software, please run a full check on the machine and check for any viruses which could be causing the problem. If none are found, we can move onto checking the line itself.


Disconnect from the internet and then change your username to which you connect up to the
internet with.

Please enter it as:

bt_test@startup_domain

The password box should be left blank or if your router asks you for a password, simply enter 'adsl'.

You will not be able to browse webpages on this log in apart from the BT Test page which is www.bt.net/digitaldemo or http://193.113.211.125/digitaldemo.

When connected with this username, please test the connection and check for any patterns with the drop outs. If the drop outs continue then we will need to send the fault to BT.


At this stage, we require you to phone the support team on: 0845 077 8324. This is because we are unable to raise faults to BT by email as we need to run line tests with the equipment plugged in and someone on site.


We will also ask you the following questions so please have the answers available to us.


1. What times are connections dropping?

2. How often are you getting disconnections?

3. Are there any patterns to the dropped connections?

4. What are the light status on your equipment when the connection drops?

5. Are you uploading anything when the connection drops?

6. Are you going to any particular sites when the connection drops?

7. Does the connection drop when idle?

8. Do you need to reboot your equipment when the connection drops to be able to re-establish a connection?

9. Do you get any error codes when trying to re-connect?

10. Do you get dropped connections when there is an in/outbound call to your premises?


I hope this was helpful and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

voyager does appear to be an unreliable modem. I changed to a speedtouch 330 and haven`t had any dropped connections over two days. I noticed that bt are no longer selling the voyager 105

I have a wireless router. The connected speed seems to vary anywhere from 50 odd MBs down to 11 during the day. Is this normal? I'm assuming it is a bandwidth issue with my ISP - onetel?
Also the reason I noticed was I wanted to check if their promised upgrade to 2mb had taken place but I can't seem to find a line speed figure?

I'm looking for some general advice. My GF spends a lot of time in hotel bedrooms (she's a rep, or so she says ;-).

Anyway she's splurged out and bought a 399 ibm thinkpad r50 laptop from Staples and want's to connect to her email on BT Yahoo when in the various hotels. I'm now lumbered with the task of setting it up.
The question is what to? The laptop has a wireless connection but do hotels supply wireless connectivity? And how would I set it up so she can just point, click and connect (lovely as she is her knowledge of computers is err.. not good and that's being kind).
Or do I set it up for modem dial out? She's on BT broadband at home and presumably she can connect to her account on dial up I pressume?

Sorry to bother folk but I never stay in hotels these days so haven't a clue what reps etc. do to connect or what hotels offer.

Cheers in advance.

brianboro, ideal opportunity to join your girlfriend in the hotel bedrooms....just to see how the laptop connects...... sorry I can't help you with the technicals :-)
opto

kernow, no that is the wireless speed and is to do with the transmission between the base station and the client computers, dependent on local conditions. You can do things like try siting the base station aerial away from metal objects, in a higher place, etc. etc. The manufacturer's instructions will have some more suggestions.

Somewhere in the router stats it should give you the connection speed, should be 2272kb for 2Mb/s.

Kayak - thanks very much for this advice. I've been able to check my broadband speed and it has not been upgraded. The variable connection speed to the router is a puzzle though - I don't move anything but still see variations. No matter as it is at least an order of magnitude quicker than the ADSL end.

Brianboru - The best solution for me was to buy a 3G data card (O2 or Vodaphone). This simply slots into the laptop and connects either via 3G (fast) or if not available then GPRS - reasonable for e mail and limited browsing. Some hotels, airports, stations etc have wireless networks but they are not the same and you need to subscribe in order to get connected. My data card works pretty much anywhere - even abroad so is convenient though not too cheap - various tarrifs are available. The great advantage is you pay for data downloaded not time elapsed, so you can leave the connection on e.g. for e mail all the time at little cost.

kernow, you could be seeing interference from base stations in other people's houses nearby. Try using a different channel.

Brian,
I don't have a BT/Yahoo a/c but many ISPs won't let you send mail unless you are connected to them directly. Some ISPs offer SMTP (outgoing mail) authentication.
I have a vodafone mail account (available to contract customers) which I use for outgoing mail while I'm roaming.

skg

Kayak - thanks again. Will fiddle over the w/e.

Brian,

When I used to travel around and spend a lot of time in hotels, I signed up to AOL. I hate the service, but you get an 0800 number that you can use from any phone line here or abroad (although abroad you have to pay).

14.99 a month if she isn't too bothered about speed.

The idea of plugging a cable into the wall is a bit dated now, but it is still cheap and reliable.

our office computers are all XP but we have just taken on somebody with a Win98
and he can not get on the network should it work through network neighbourhood or something else or do i give him the dell broucher

BRESIE, connecting Windows 98 computers to Windows 2000/XP networks has outfoxed the best minds. I did get it to work eventually once. First thing to do is to set the workgroup correctly on the Windows 98 client (Control Panel/Network if I remember correctly) since the default is unhelpfully different for 98 and XP. If that isn't enough these notes I made a couple of years ago (W98 connecting to W2000) may or may not help.

W2000 server
------------

Client username must be set up on server, password may be blank (minimal privileges)

W98 client
----------

Network properties:

Client for Microsoft Networks: quick logon

File and Printer Sharing: Browse Master automatic, LM announce No

TCP/IP: IP address (address of server)/mask 255.255.255.0, DNS configuration disable, gateway all blank,
WINS configuration disable WINS resolution, Advanced Set this Protocol... unticked,
NetBIOS greyed out (ticked)

Primary Network Logon: Windows Logon

File and Print Sharing: both ticked

Access control tab: Share-level access control

Server username/passwords need not be set up on client

Thanks Kayak ,Space and SC all good stuff will have a go on monday