Moving to broadband... What do I need and where to get it?

[Iain Shields]

Hi folks,

I will be doing my first build of a new pc over the next week or so and have decided to get broadband in to get onto the internet with, since there is no cable in my area I will be going with BT broadband

My question is... with 2 computers (and thinking about it, an XBox) in different locations in the house and with not having the option of running cables everywhere, how do I get wireless broadband access to all of them?

I understand that I need an ADSL wireless modem router (I think!!) but beyond that I'm not too sure at all.

What do I need and how do I set it up?, and also, any links on good places to get all the stuff would be really helpfull.

Don't know if you need the specs to give me accurate answers but the main ones are as follows:-

PC 1 - (Still to be built) Athlon XP 2500+ barton, Win 98 (soon to be XP but will be running 98 for a while) 1024 megs memory (512 megs while running Win 98 due to it's limits that I only just found out about :blush: )

PC 2 - Pentium 2 300, Win 95, 128 megs memory.

XBox - Erm, well.. it's an XBox :grin: and it's in the same room as PC1 which may help to keep costs down?

Thanks in advance for any help folks...

Oh, and try and keep any recomendations as cheap as possible ;)

Thanks a lot,
Iain.

[Hawklord]

Can't help you on wireless widgets but i'd shop around for broadband as btbroadband is not the best service and certainly not the cheapest. After much research I went for pipex. You can find details here:-
www.pipex.net
I have had no issues atall with the connection (had it 8 months now). It's super fast (even with online muliplayer games) and stable. Also there is no time lock in atall - if your not happy with the service you can change unlike bt and the like who lock you in for 12 months.

[LV426]

I'd agree. The BT service isn't the best. For one thing, they don't offer any pop email service, nor personal webspace. And, if you are currently accessing a pop email service from someone else, don't expect them to keep the account open for you when you cease dialling up to their server.

After some research, my choice was Tiscali. No set up fees, free modem and microfilters, £27 per month for a 512k down, 256k up connection. One reason why I chose them was because they are one of the few that do Direct Debit.

Just because you only have a BT phone line, doesn't mean you have to use the BT service. They are obliged, by the terms of their licence, to allow third parties (eg Tiscali) to access your line.

[JohnS]

www.adslguide.org is the place to go to answer all of your questions, www.plus.net is only £18.99 a month and gets good speed reports but I think they close the peer to peer ports if that matters. There is another company around the same price that doesn't restrict the service at all but I cant remeber what they are called.

As far as wireless equipment, either get a solwise sar715-pv-w or a a Draytek 2600W, both allow the built in firewall to dynamically change the ports using Upnp for things like messenger.

[JohnS]

Here (http://www.zionmedia.co.uk/acatalog/Vigor_2600_We_ADSL_Wireless_Router.html) is the Draytek and here (http://www.solwise.co.uk/modems.htm) is the Solwise. Then just add the pci/ pcmcia usb cards of your choise to go with them.

[didjerama]

i have bt wholesale and i think its good, but they have really bad customer service. :( i have to ring them up on 7 different times to get my modem replaced as it was faulty.

[JohnS]

This (http://www.giointernet.com/internet/home_adsl.htm) was the other ISP I was trying to think of, Gio Internet, £18.95 a month inc vat and no port throttling.

[BBD]

I went to wifiwarehouse.co.uk. If you want a 54Mps wireless link (g) then you may have to buy a seperate Modem and router. The combined units are due out soon. I bought the D-Link DI624 with matching modem and wifi PC card. You will get a discount when bought as a bundle with upto 2 wifi cards. Its easy to setup and you can locate the modem and router anywhere in the house (near telephone point). I have them on a high shelf in one of the kids wardrobes. I get good reception around the whole house and garden (Don't forget to set the security!). The connection is fast enough to watch tv recording from Nebula.
The modem supplied with most ADSL deals is a USB device and cannot be used with a router without an adapter (messy).
I'm with pipex and I'm very pleased with the service. When comparing costs include connection fees. Pipex have a new deal on at the moment. I went for a deal with a USB modem and then sold it, this worked out cheaper than the connection only package.

[Insp.Gadget]

I'm on BT broadband, and although it's expensive I think I have had 1 problem in the last 10 months (problem with NAT which was resolved within a few hours).
I ordered it for my Mac and had MAJOR problems with the supplied green frog modem so after a few weeks I complained and they took it back for a full refund, which went towards a Netgear router. The Mac has been permanently on since September (sleeping when not being used) and I've been on the net about an hour a night and I haven't had one problem.
Once the year is up I may look into a cheaper one though, as I can't see any reason why BT are still charging £29.99 for their service when others can do it for £18.99.

I'm not sure I follow the comment about the lack of pop email and web-space. I definitely have web-space, and the e-mail accounts are pop3 accounts - am I misunderstanding ?

[LV426]

Maybe you have a different BT service to the one they offered me (which I didn't take up). Definitely, their offer (which, IIRC was £27 per month) did not have any added-value services.

[Iain Shields]

Thanks for all the replies guys,

When I said BT Broadband I really meant broadband through the BT phone line but I didn't realise that there were so many operators available and it also good to see that the prices are getting very reasonable now, thanks for the suggestions there...

The Draytek and the Solwise units mentioned seem quite expensive, as this is only really for internet access, are there any cheaper alternatives?

Also, since the main PC and the XBox are in the same room, is there a wireless reciever box of sorts that I can get that would recieve the signal from the wireless modem router and allow me to hook up the PC and XBox with a couple of short cables? since this should work out cheaper than buying a wireless PCI card for the computer and another reciever box to hook up the XBox?

Anyway, thanks for all the replies so far, they've been very helpfull...

Regards,
Iain.

[ReTrO]

I too am looking for a decnt ADSL router/hub. I have a Linksys 5 port hub at the moment, but could do with summit with a router built in to save me from having to out both the PC's in the house on to use the internet in my room.

I am on Tiscali ADSL also, it is pretty good, no complaints at all.

[nathan_silly]

No probs with a Netgear DG814, works well and has been getting regular firmware updates (now supports UPNP & remote management)

Pretty secure as well, don't need a firewall app either.

[baldbird]

Can't help with a solution, but after a good look around, NTL have very good deals on broadband especially if you can change you're phone line (keep old number) to them. For £58.00 / Month, I've got 600k broadband (free installation and hardware), all national and local phone 24/7 (doesn't include mobile's but they're only 2p / minute) and all digital TV bar Movies and Sports.
If you want to upgrade to Movies and Sports an extra £12.
Pretty good deal....
If NTL are in your area......

[50/50]

stay away from Gio internet. Ive heard VERY bad things about there service.

You get what you pay for!

[nfordenfield]

Shame no cable, the 2mb service is awesome..........