ntl Broadband - Worth having?

[delta]

I have received a flyer from ntl offering Broadband at £17.99 per month with FREE installation and modem plus first month free. Is ntl Broadband, (150K), worth having and has anyone taken up this offer? I am not a ntl existing customer and I currently use Freeserve Anytime via BT.

[Tides2002]

Yes it is. But at 150k it’s not really broadband, having said that given dial-up modems struggle to make 48k per second it is still three times quicker. The other factor is that the connection is always on so no waiting for the modem to connect.

[Starburst]

I've been using the NTL CM service (600k & 1mbit) for two years now and it's been an exceptional service in terms of reliability and performance.
The recent price rise for the then 128k CM service put a black mark against it which the slight speed increase to 150k failed to counter but as NTL know it's still competitive until BT bring out a similar low speed/low priced ADSL package.

I can't think of a practical reason not to take up the offer:)

[delta]

Thank you for your comments. It is being able to leave my connection open continually and it not affect my phone line that appeals to me. However, maybe someone can advise me further, (I am very much a novice!)...

My pc has two USB sockets, one is used by my printer and the other by my scanner. As I am considering switching to broadband and I will need a third USB input, can I use an USB 'multi-socket' adapter for this purpose and maybe connect the printer and scanner to it, thus leaving one USB socket clear for broadband?

Starburst, will this be your 1000th posting?

[Starburst]

You can connect a cable modem to your PC using a PCI ethernet card, infact I would recommend you do so.
USB connections do require some system resources to operate which might be an issue on a lower spec machines and ethernet is just so much more "right" for broadband:)

You really can't appreciate how good it is to know you can access the net at anytime of the day or night and for as long as you want with no restrictions until you can.
Granted the set price unmetered packages have been a boon compared to my first foray into the internet (£15 a month for ISP and then 0845 call charges ontop) but they are not in the same league as a broadband connection.
Who knows, perhaps after a few months and you'll be wondering how you ever managed and then upgrading to the 600k (£24.99) connection. :laugh:

Thousandth post, took a while:blush:

[encaser]

I'd suggest paying the extra £7 a month and go straight for the 600k connection. The time it reduces waiting for pages to load and download stuff is well worth it.
I, like Starburst, have had NTL for a couple of years:) And agree that you should get a NIC as it's trouble free and gives the best throughput.
On thing though, NTLs mail is crap and unreliable so use hotmail/yahoo or such for email.

[delta]

Good advice and much appriecated. Here's to progress, eh!

[MikeHarrison]

Yes it's worth having but make sure you get details of all offers on paper - they WILL screw up your billing at first, and you should expect to spend some time on the phone to them getting all sorted out!