Moving to BTB

Hiya.

Okay, looks like I'm moving to BT Broadband soon, most likely the most expensive option.

I've had a quick browse for the answers to these but couldn't find them specifically, so hope you can help Apologies for the terribly worded questions

First off, can I use any router for BTB or do I need the Home Hub monster? I saw a thread about this earlier (further down the page) but it appeared to be directed at one particular router.

I currently use Pipex and Outlook Express on POP; I'm assuming I can simply put in my new settings from BT and I can carry on with them and all my previous mail will simply sit there.

I suppose involving the previous question, I helped a user (I work in IT, believe it or not) set up a broadband account recently and had to use lots of terrible CDs and stuff. Do you need to use all that, or can you just put settings in and be done with it?

And finally, the dreaded support question.. What's people's opinions on BT support? Pipex have been rubbish lately and I want people I can reach when I need and who speak the same language as me. Is that so much to ask?

Cheers fellas, hope you can help, sorry for the lengthy and somewhat bumbling post.

Yes, you have a free choice on which router to use. For what it is worth, I haven't had any problems with my current Homehub.

You don't need the BT CDs.

I haven't had any reason to call customer service for 2 years or so, so I can't comment.

I'm not sure what you mean about mail, I use outlook express on my laptop and Mail on my Mac and both are easy to set up and (touch wood), trouble free.

First off look at these comparison / rating sites (including Thinkbroadbands very own)

http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/ISP_ratings.php

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/isp_ratings.php


As an ex BTOpenworld / Yahoo! / Total Broadband customer & having experience of using the helpdesk, I'd have to say that the "Offshore" support is awful, take a good search of this BT board to find other peoples problems that they've had with them.

If you're going to get BTVision then by all accounts support is UK based.

Also, do you want a ISP that is passing all of your http requests to a 3rd party AKA "PHORM" ? With their 'webwise' (coming very soon) all your http requests will go via PHORM even if you "Opt Out". By opting out "PHORM" claim that they will ignore your data, but as a former spyware / adware company on many adware programmes under different company names I wouldn't trust them at all!

Look at the recent "News" Items regarding "PHORM" & there is a very long thread in the "Entanet" sub board. News on this is also being reported at "The Register".

With 6+ years of personal experience with BT (as an ISP, under various guises) I can state that they started off great and have become mediocre. I would say that Pipex offer a similar experience to BT's and there are far better ISPs out there... (Ignore the fanboys)

Edit Great letter here http://www.fipr.org/080317icoletter.html found in this thread http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=general&Number=3298292 which says "in their view saying that in their view Phorm's activities are illegal under s1 of RIPA."

Edited by phantom66uk (Mon 17-Mar-08 19:40:00)

Had a problem with BT Total Broadband at first but after contacting broadband support (yes based in india) my problem has been resolved even with a 2nd call from them to check everythin was ok... they even offered for me to speak with a supervisor if i wasnt happy with the case results....

All in all i'm now very happy with BT broadband and would recommend them to anyone.

BT is fine as long as you are not a heavy p2p user.

The kit all works without discs.

The email works through Outlook.

You can use your own router.

Tech support is poor - as is all isp tech support.

It's true that BT do not have a fan club that hunts down ratings sites.

"..All in all i'm now very happy with BT broadband and would recommend them to anyone. ..."

i lol'd

In reply to:

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Poster: andy2004
Subject: Re: Moving to BTB

"..All in all i'm now very happy with BT broadband and would recommend them to anyone. ..."

i lol'd

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Good for you... now i'm downloading at over over a 6mb connection i'm lol'ing all the way

In reply to:

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Tech support is poor - as is all isp tech support.

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"Foot"Balls

My current ISP is 100% better than the standard that I suffered under BT, no offshore call centers at all - 100% UK based, which means that when I tell them something clearly and concisely they understand exactly what I mean.

One of the great things is that 'Support Scripts' don't seem to exist either, pretty much "Hello Zen TS, can I have your Username please and what is the problem?" After a bit of 'umming' and 'arring' you can hear keyboards being tapped (yes Zen actually log each fault unlike BT), you also get constant email & webpage updates when something is investigated with the option to close the fault via the webpage which can be done in seconds.

So far I've had to make 3 Calls to Technical Support in Rochdale, each and every call was answered in a very quick time from being put into the automated systems. 1st phone call was about getting interleaving switched off, called logged on the Saturday afternoon and by the Monday evening it was switched off. The 2nd call was due to my PPP session being lost and could not reconnect (I thought stale session due to the load balancing that takes place), Phoned up at midday, and even though I'm using Linux the technical support guy walked me through some troubleshooting steps, and once realised it was going to be a long call rang me back immediately! This Call was at 1PM and had a working service again by 4PM (something was up at the exchange).

Finally my 3rd call to TS was about an intermittent fault that I was recieving, line was monitored for a few days and in that case the fault disappeared on it's own (Thankfully hasn't happened since) - Yes Zen email support is 'slow' but since I've technical knowhow anyway I always prefer to ring TS to get it sorted quicker since emails can go astray.

IDNET also have an excellent reputation for UK Based support and also the Entanet Resellers too.

Believe it or not "Madasafish" have offshore call centres and to my understanding are based in South Africa and they too have a good support team. Be* has Bulgarian support, which seem to do alright too...

So I absolutely refute your point that all ISP support is poor as there are a few that know exactly how to fix it efficiently.

(Sorry if this strays from the original topic, and is a bit long)

Edited by phantom66uk (Mon 17-Mar-08 21:51:04)

I've dealt with zen. Their support was poor, they were very expensive and their gaming pings adds another 200 miles to my trip to London.

All isp support is poor in my experience. But I suppose, if you are paying another �120 a year more hard earned, tax paid cash and getting none of the BT freebies, you need to believe you are getting something for it.

Edited by deleted (Mon 17-Mar-08 21:58:52)