BT Broadband

[Dave_the_B]

I'm going to order it on Monday:)

Is BT Broadband any good? or is someone else better stronger faster and cheaper.

Will I need a firewall?

Any other advice you might think of please

Please take into consideration, when answering, that I know jack sh1t about computers:D

Thank you Thank you Thank you

Dave the ludite

[Ant]

I was going go with them but you have to pay with a credit card (they don't do switch) so I ended up with Pipex. A few links you might want to have a look at before you decide...

www.adslguide.org.uk *this site is pretty cool
www.pipex.net
www.plusnet.co.uk

Yeh, a firewall would be a very good idea (even with a 56k connection they can be useful). Go to www.downloads.com and download software called 'Zonealarm'. This is competely free and quite a good utility. While you there, get yourself something called 'Ad-aware' - you will find when you are on broadband you will be downloading and looking thru web for the fun of it and some sites can leave nasty spyware programs on your machine, running this software will remove it. Also, (you may already have this) get 'WinMX', great utility for downloading music, pics etc... and with a broadband connection you're laughing!

Regarding ISPs, for me it was a choice between Pipex and Plusnet. Both charge around 23 quid a month (cheapest anywhere??) but decided to go with Pipex because I've heard that Plusnet use network throttling on Peer2Peer connections (you dont want this if you're downloading). However, Plusnet seem like a really professional and helpful ISP - their site looks very professional and level of support looks good. Pipex do an offer where you can get a free ADSL modem if you send your 56k modem to them (Exchange thingy) - so that might be handy for you.

Honestly, I've had it for about 2/3 weeks now and its the best thing I've ever done - its like the internet re-invented! I download crap I would never have downloaded with a sloooow 56k connection!!

[Dave H]

uselful information, was thinking the other day that it's time to get a better connection, off for a look!

[cainy]

just a couple of things 1 because your always connected you keep the same ip number which inturn leaves you open to hackers 2 if you close port 139 or 132 it prevents the little gets from doing so:D

[andyf]

Generally the DHCP server will give you a new IP should you reboot the PC. Also the USB service (I don't know if this is what you are getting, I think USB is the normal service) is Nat'd, so basically your connection to the internet is routed in a manner which makes it difficult for the outside to connect in, if at all - general use won't give you any problems but certain programs and services may not run properly without some tweaking.

But broadband is excellent, can't recommend it enough - anyone who has been round this place and seen it go, anyone who has it since being on modem.. definitely worth it considering the price it is now.

[philrob2000]

I've been with bt broadband (home 500 I think it's called) for about 9 months without any problems at all. MUCH better than a modem. Defo on the firewall though as you do seem to get attacked by hackers alot more. I use Norton Internet Security but Zone alarm is also v'good. You might also be interested in the warehouse sites for the free software that you'll be able to download with ASDL so keep your Anti-virus software up to date as these sites are rife with viruses.