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john.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > My ISP is BTconnect.com i.e. a business account which I no longer need so I am > looking for an alternative. BT have several options but their terminology is very > confusing for an OAP :-). The residential accounts also have access to BTFON which > is apparently a WIFI facility which is not available with a BTconnect account. > Are there ISPs in our area which can be recommended for use with Linux as well as > Windows? Ah - the perennial question - what makes a good isp? IME, they all suck - but some suck less than others. UK bandwidth charges mean they're pretty much all capping data and relatively expensive compared to our european cousins. (A dutch friend has just upgraded to 24mbit, uncapped, including 6 weeks full newsgroup retention for 20 euros a month!) Some names and my opinion, for what it's worth. As far as linux goes - if it's adsl and you have a seperate modem/router then you can set it up via the webinterface and just connect via dhcp from any OS - pretty much plug, enter user/pass, and go. Netgear DG834's are a good budget router. Zyxel are also good, linksys variable and the really cheap unbranded ones awful. bti/o/c - okay for basic use but if you need support you'll get very little. Offshore or regional call centres with heavy accents, I've found understanding them difficult. tiscali, or a reseller - awful. Horrendously over contended in some areas with peak slowdowns very noticable, poor routing and high packet loss reported. Eclipse - used to be the local option. Bought out by Kingston some years ago and steadily being run down so that now it's a low quality budget provider imo - although I think they still do static ip's. They also buy bandwidth from tiscali for some routes and give poor service there. I've been with them for four years on two lines and while one has had no problems, ongoing issues with adsl and dns have affected the other line so badly that yesterday I regraded it to backup status and ordered another line with... Zen. Superb reputation. Ordered yesterday, and process painless and informative. Free block of 8 IP's, always handy for the geeks... I have high hopes for them, and many friends recommend them. Good luck! -- Simon Avery -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html