In reply to:

---

You don't have to have a 1-4-16/32

---

Yes I know...

I just like to add something/anything interesting to my very limited knowledge, and perhaps try it out on one of a few ADSL connections that I run/manage.

Grab yourself a cheap hardware firewall, or if you really brave an old PC with 2 NICS and a linux distro and let rip.

I'm using it as a learning experience too.

In reply to:

---

Grab yourself a cheap hardware firewall, or if you really brave an old PC with 2 NICS and a linux distro and let rip.

---

Oh but I do have a couple of PCs and a laptop, all running SlackWare. Been there long ago ( being brave that is .. ), but I wouldn't go that route yet. For this particular exercise, I'd like to give some old hardware eg: dsl routers, or/and ADSL routers, that have been lying dormant for a while, a try. Failing that, an old H/W firewall, as you say.

?????????

i have had uptimes in excess of 2 months with aaisp, with every other isp i have been with i was lucky to get a few days, every isp has its problems but the one thing i hate from the other 4 isp i have been with is that they take the pi55 when it comes to customer service, if something goes wrong i want my isp to tell me whats gone wrong with out charging me a fortune in phone calls.

well since I have logged into a&a the 1st day I have had none of these apperent problems so far so good for me

I'm also escaping.. in my case from Bulldog, who are a complete bunch of... Currently paying

Edited by TonyHoyle (Tue 19-Sep-06 20:35:51)

Don't forget that you can carry over excess usage into the next month (up to 10GB). So if you only need to "fetch something from MSDN" occassional that might cover it.

I work from home and use far less than 5GB during peak times, without even thinking about it. That includes quite heavy use of VoIP etc. too.

I was looking at Zen too, but I decided on A&A.

"reasonable technical support". I'm not sure where you heard that from.
Talking to guys that actually answer the phones when they ring, know what they are talking about and know how to fix it there and then? Also, IRC support (even as late as 10pm if you catch someone in there). "Excellent Technical Support" is more like it.
Also, accounts support via IRC is outstanding too. I had an issue in regards to something, and not only did they sort it out in one go (the mistake was mine, not theirs) they did it in less than 3 mins!!

As for the peak/off peak thing. I used to be a 8-10Gb month peak user (+40Gb off peak) on Plusnet. I'm at work during the peak period for A&A but I remote in and still do some downloading of files and stuff and my usage has not even hit 1Gb/month peak.
Because of this I transfered from Max5Standard to Max2Premium and now I enjoy 832K upload for the same price, and I'm still safe in the knowledge that I've got a 10Gb buffer should I even need it.

Zen maybe cheaper, it depends on your projected usage, and the reason why you don't hear about good reviews of A&A is that we all keep quiet so we don't get hoardes of people joining - it's almost like a secret society ;-)

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Sep-06 11:25:04)

You've given the game away then... I'll probably join when my line comes through. I probably need to talk to them about how soon I can get the order in to minimise downtime.