AOL Any good

[poggy]

My Virgin broadband at home is pretty unreliable and it takes them a long time to fix problems, so I have cancelled it. Is AOL any good and do you use explorer or do they have their own browser which makes it restrictive.

Any other good broadband providers to look at.

 

[bulldog5046]

stay well away from AOL... Telewest/Blueyonder are good but maybe a little over priced but you do get cable not just ADSL... i havent tried many others but to be honest with ADSL they are just pushing the telephone lines limits so try to stay away.

Cheers,
Ryan Edge

 

[The Negotiator]

Forget AOL Andy....

I think there's a fair bit to look at on www.moneysavingexpert.com but it very much depends on your area, whether you mind changing your phone provider and what sort of speeds you want.

 

[arc]

AOL are one of the few ADSL providers offering no download limits arent they?

 

[poggy]

That will be a no to AOL then, thanks for the info.

I'll have a look at your site Paul and let you know. By the way did you see that new security dialler at B&Q for £79.00 with 4 inputs. I know you were after one for your grandfathers alarm.

 

[The Negotiator]

Sorry, should have updated, I got the Texecom dialler , also bought a remote microphone unit for upstairs (Texecom) and panic alarms so far (x4). No rush yet since I am not home to fix it all for a few weeks.

I think Texecom has 3 inputs which is 1 more than the alarm so not a problem, plus i paid £50.

AOL doesn'thave download limits but there are lots out there that don't, Andy may not require one and AOL is all around poor. The only way they have a market share is that they aren't as expensive as they once were.

 

[Stu DemonD]

I would not touch AOL with a bargepole....

I use Pipex, no download limits, but also not the cheapest around.

 

[Helz]

Same as Stu, have had no major outages except for problems where everyone else was affected. If you're suffering from browser fatigue and feeling restricted, try Opera which has more options, gizmos and gadgets than you can shake a stick at .

 

[FiatStiloJTD]

AOL is shockingly naf, do you want to have to use a browser that they have designed instead of Firefox, Netscape etc? no didnt think so,

Also with their stupid bandwidth limits, go with Tiscali, i am, unlimited 1mb broadband for the same price as BT 512kb.

(Therefore being twice as quick and no montly download limits) - this gets used up quick if downloading music, videos and lengthly webpages (e.g. FF)

 

[black_cinq]

Im with NTl and never had any problems

 

[wolfracepunto]

AOL is shockingly naf, do you want to have to use a browser that they have designed instead of Firefox, Netscape etc? no didnt think so,

Also with their stupid bandwidth limits, go with Tiscali, i am, unlimited 1mb broadband for the same price as BT 512kb.

(Therefore being twice as quick and no montly download limits) - this gets used up quick if downloading music, videos and lengthly webpages (e.g. FF)

Is your Tiscali service a bit dodgy at the moment? Because mine is

 

[poggy]

Actually I had two problems with Virgin, one was a network line problem which took them a week to fix. I was being stupid about the second problem, although I connected and got on the web no problem, somehow Outlook Express was changed to disconnect after send/receive. I didn't notice, so it kept disconnecting after 1 minute when it checked for messages. Strange thing is I thought it wouldn't affect it as it was set to "never dial", and as I connected manually I would have thought Outlook wouldn't close the connection.

So I was being a bit thick .

 

[Digimods]

Nothing wrong with aol..I'm on 512k, I use the AOL dialer, and use internet explorer.

Never had any problems whatsoever.

 

[Digimods]

Also with their stupid bandwidth limits

No bandwidth limits with AOL sonny.

 

[wozza]

AOL software sucks yes.

However with broadband network speeds are good i use AOL 2mbit at home and regularly have speeds above 230kb/s down and 30kb/s up. which is just about what it should be when you take into account overheads.

ADSL is no where even close to pushing current phone lines since it uses the copper section of the wire. ADSL can go up to 8mbit down. And ADSL2+ is now being put into testing offering 25mbit down. using the same lines.

The thing about aol is £27 a month for 2mbit and you dont need to use the software. can use windows own dialer to access the net.

just enter username and account as normal and have it dial 0,38.

or if you have a router set it up so that dials for you what i do.

Theres also no monthly download limits as i tend to download large amount of things during the month well over 300gb.

And NTL are about to introduce bandwidth limitation on there lines also there upload speeds have been reduced which is rather cruddy. 1mbit ntl now gives 100kb/s upspeed i couldnt cope with 100kb/s. it annoys me having only 256.