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Dont Delay
Register Today
Marden is a large village we believe we should have
Broadband if you think the same register
REGISTERING DOES NOT
MEAN YOU HAVE TO ORDER.. IT JUST SHOWS YOUR INTERESTED
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE -- Except that slow 56k
modem :)
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UK
ADSL – Buyers Guide
Contents
Introduction
ISPs stand to make a lot of money
from Broadband. How can you distil the sales & marketing
information into knowledge upon which you can make a
decision? This article aims to separate the "hype" from
reality and gives a list of key issues to think about
before buying Broadband in the UK.
Buying broadband is a big commitment. You’ll
be paying, on average, £35/month +
£150+ for installation and sometimes
signing up for a minimum of 12 months. Although
cheaper packages are available from as low as
£20.00
Rushing into buying the first package
that comes along might leave you with a product that
doesn’t do everything you had hoped which you could be
stuck with for the duration of the contract.
Understanding some of the variations of technology and
what they mean will give you a better chance at
getting a package that will satisfy your needs.
In this article, we’re going to list the top
10 items that are important for an ADSL package. Some
of the points may be important to you. Others may not.
It’s important to know about them before you sign up.
You can print this article and pick the points
that are important to you before calling prospective
ADSL ISPs so that you have a list of
questions to ask.
For some of the issues on
the list, sales staff may claim no knowledge. If you
decide that a particular point is important to your
requirements, ask to be put through to someone with
technical knowledge who can help. (i.e. Don’t be
"fobbed-off"!)
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Top 10 Things to Know/Ask an ISP
1.) Fixed or Dynamic IP?
About
When you connect to ADSL, you are given an IP address. This can be either:
Static - it doesn’t
change between power downs of the modem
or
Dynamic – it is given a different
IP every time you switch on
the modem. For dynamic IP, DHCP is used at the ISP end to automatically assign
your IP.
Why it's Important
If you want to run any kind of server on your
ADSL connection, you need to have a fixed IP. To explain why, imagine
you run a web server. You want to connect to
your home server whilst you’re at work.
It’s no good having an IP that changes all the
time (how would you know the new IP if, for example, your
home computer/ADSL modem suffers a temporary
power failure and restarts?).
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About
There are two types of IP address:
-Public (or real)
– An address that anyone on the Internet can
see and connect to. These are unique and each one
specifies an individual machine connected to the Internet.
More expensive (business) ADSL packages sometimes
give you several real IP addresses so that you can
connect more than one computer directly using the
same ADSL device. NAT is not required in these
packages.
-Private –
Addresses that are reserved for local area
networks (LAN)s. These addresses can be used over
and over again on different LANs and, because they
have no context (i.e. are not recognised) on the
Internet. These addresses are non-unique
and only have context in the LANs in which they
operate.
The Internet is running out of public IP addresses. One way around
the problem for ISPs is to use, for example,
one public (real IP and connect this to several
private IP addresses. NAT can be used for this. A
typical configuration for ADSL NAT might be one real
IP mapping (or connecting)
10 private IP addresses. In a NAT configuration you will
have a private IP address.
Why it's Important
NAT is not all bad. NAT does usually offer
a limited firewall capability. As you are on
a private network, hacking attempts from the
Internet may be blocked. Check with the ISP if they offer this
as part of NAT.
NAT does not work well
with certain software. Some software and Internet
services need to be able to use your real
IP. For example, MSN gaming
zone needs your real IP. Microsoft Netmeeting
and ICQ also have known issues with NAT.
If you want to run a server of any kind, any
ISP NAT connection will have
to have Port Forwarding enabled. Port Forwarding
is a way of routing incoming requests from the
ISP to your server. Not
all ISPs have this feature
enabled, so it is worth asking if you intend
to run servers.
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3.) Port Blocking?
About
Some ISPs do not allow you to run
servers. Most say this is not allowed in the written
terms of contract. Some go further and physically
block the parts of connection that relate to servers.
Why it's ImportantIf you want to run a
web, FTP or mail server you will need ports 80,
21 and 25 respectively enabled.
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4.) USB or Ethernet?
AboutThere are 2 ways of connecting an ADSL
device to your
computer:
-USB -
Single user ADSL packages usually connect to your
computer using the USB port. The advantage is that
you don’t need to spend extra money on a network
card. You do need to run a USB aware operating
system (OS) and have appropriate USB software
drivers.
-Ethernet –
You need a network card. The ADSL device connects to
your computer through the network card. Ethernet has
the advantage that you don’t need a USB aware OS.
Ethernet is generally a little quicker than
USB.
Why it's ImportantIf you run an OS that
is not USB compatible (e.g. MS Windows NT4,
Windows 95,Windows 3.x, earlier versions of
Linux), you need to get the Ethernet
version.
Early versions of USB drivers
have proved to be unreliable but should mature
(improve in reliability) in time. Ethernet is a
well-established technology and is generally
more stable and slightly faster than USB.
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5.) Web Proxy
AboutSee our article "Web Proxies - What They Are, Why
They Fail & What To Do" for a
detailed description of proxies/caches.
Why it's Important
Proxies are great when they work properly. ISPs provide proxies (caches)
in one of two ways:
-Optional – The
ISP leaves it up to you
as to whether or not you want to use a proxy
server for web browsing.
-Not Optional (Forced)
– Sometimes referred to as a "Transparent
Cache". The ISP will automatically
route your web requests through its proxy server.
No problem if the ISP proxy is working correctly,
but totally unacceptable is the proxy server
has resource and/or configuration problems.
Broadband-Help strongly recommends you avoid
forced web proxy options.
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6.) Support(24/7)?
About
Most ISPs offer support as part
of the package. Some say that telephone support is
available 24 hours, 7 days a week. What is usually
missing is exactly how this support is implemented.
"Support" can have any number of definitions to different
ISPs so here are some specific
questions to ask:
- What Operating Systems do you support?
- What are the current telephone queue time
delays?
- If there are ADSL network issues beyond my
control, do the appropriate faults personnel work
24/7 or are they (usually typical) only available
Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm? (This is very important
to establish. It’s no good having "24/7" telephone
support if the people who can actually
fix the problem only work a
standard day.)
- Do you have a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in
place for non-availability of service?
Why it's ImportantThis is perhaps the
most important question to ask. Broadband
technology is very immature and problems are
inevitable. You need a support service that will
quickly recognise and fix any network issues at
any time of the day or night.
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About
Contention Ratio is nothing
new. It has been around for many years in the networking
world. With ADSL it has become more apparent as everyone
is concerned about sharing their bandwidth with others
on the ADSL network. Single user (USB) packages usually
come with a Contention Ratio of 50:1. More
expensive options are rated at 20:1.
Why it's Important
There are no hard and fast answers to Contention Ratio. Ratios
are assuming everyone is using maximum bandwidth
all the time (e.g. everyone is downloading a
300MB file at the same time). Clearly, this
situation is very unlikely. Most people will
be using a fraction of their available bandwidth
at a given time (e.g. web browsing, reading
web pages, playing games etc).
A lower ratio
(20:1) may help if you run a business and
frequently download large files. For most people
at home, they would not notice the difference
between a 50:1 or 20:1 ratio.
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8.) News Groups?
About
News groups (or USENET) are like web discussion forums,
but have been around for considerably longer. There
are many gigabytes of messages/postings flowing around
the Internet every day. Downloading files over USENET
is usually very quick as the server is located close
to you (in the ISPs data center).
To get access to newsgroups, you need access to a
news server. Most ISPs run news servers but most
throttle the number of groups and messages to save
bandwidth and disk space.
Why it's Important
If you frequently use USENET to download binary
files, having a full and complete message feed
is essential. Check with the ISP about the number of
newsgroups they carry. Check around on newsgroups
or web discussion forums as to what existing
users of the ISP feel about the news
feed.
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9.) Other services-portal, special broadband
services?
About
Broadband is the thing that every ISP wants to offer. As more
broadband ISPs become available, there
will be more choice for users as to which ISP they select. ISPs will need to come up with
extra service as part of the ADSL package as an incentive
to attract & retain customers.
These extra services might be
anything from a customized portal page (e.g. similar
to what Freeserve is doing now for dial up) to
hosted services (such as web based e-mail).
Why it's Important
It’s not. Generally speaking, these are
"bells and whistles" offerings. It’s really
up to you whether you think these extras add
sufficient value to decide between ISP1 or ISP2, but at the current
stage of development of Broadband in the UK,
it is probably wiser to go for a package that
works and has good support arrangements.
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10.) Price Basis & Contract Duration?
AboutPrice is obviously a big factor. When
comparing packages, you need to compare on a like
for like basis, so here are some suggested
questions:
- Are your prices inclusive of VAT?
- What is the minimum period for taking the
service?
- What are the penalties of early termination?
Why it's Important
Some ISPs quote with VAT, some
without. Do the sums and make sure you compare
like-with-like. If you are a not VAT registered
(i.e. most home users), you will be in for a
nasty shock on your first bill if you misunderstood
the price basis!
ISPs are obviously keen
to lock you into a deal for a certain time (usually
12 months). Clarify how long this is and what
the penalties are for early termination.
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SummaryThe top 3 technical issues at a
glance:
- USB ADSL devices – Beware
of these for unsupported Operating Systems (e.g.
earlier versions of MS Windows (95, 3.1x, NT4)
and Linux)
- NAT – Can
give problems with certain softare/services
(e.g. MS Netmeeting, ICQ and MSN Gaming Zone)
- Do you want to run a Server?
– Non-NAT, fixed IP and no port blocking
are essential.
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Conclusion
Taking a Broadband service is a significant
financial commitment. Being fully aware of the options
before signing up is vital.
Broadband is a hot new business area for ISPs with a lot of money to be
made. As a result, some of the sales & marketing
material sometimes has a tendency to be, shall we
say, on the incredulous side. This article tries to
give you the up-front knowledge to ask ISPs those questions that have
either been glossed over or deliberately omitted from
promotional literature.
This article has tried
to outline what is important and why. Please use it to
"break-through" the sales and marketing hype that is
typically associated with newly launched ADSL
services.
Good luck!
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