# Broadband



## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

I'm still happily using a 56k modem but my business partner (who lives in Poland) is giving me hassle about me being uncontactable for a large part of the day. 

Mind you it took me until 2001 to get a mobile, I am not a luddite just not prepared to fork out cash for things I rarely use, I hardly ever answer the mobile, especially when it's him









Is broadband worth the extra Â£12 a month, has anybody's life dramatically improved or even made just a tad easier after switching to broadband? The laptops always with me but work stuff is just simple files and instant messages.

BTW my kids wanted a DVD player for their bedroom but I remembered that I had a perfectly good Sony Betamax video recorder in the cellar






























I still had plenty of tapes too. It cost me Â£299 in about 1980 but boy were they ungrateful when I set it up







Kids nowadays eh?


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## Roy (Feb 23, 2003)

Mark it is definetly worth it,


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

Mark ... been on Broadband for about 6 months ... verdict ... excellent ... worth Â£12? Only if you have large e-mail attachments or download music etc. Mind you when Roy updates his site you would be able to beat the 56kers to the best deals









I have only just got a video recorder ....







... might get a DVD in 10 years time


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## ericp (Feb 23, 2003)

Mark,

Well worth the investment...

Not only is "surfing" smoother, but patches, fixes, new drivers etc.. become easy to download and install...

Cheers.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Mark,

Broadband is very good if you download a lot of files. The problem is, most providers insist that you can only use one â€˜phone number to access the service, normally your home number. Not much use for someone who travels.

If you are trying to access a website and the bandwidth of that site is quite low, it wonâ€™t matter too much how fast your connection is.

I was paying Â£15 a month for 56k, then the provider wanted to increase the price to Â£16 a month. I switched to Ticali 256k for Â£20, not much more money but a lot faster connection.

Itâ€™s worth a thought if you need the speed.

Betamax, what are you like?














(Not bad quality, though).


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## DavidH (Feb 24, 2003)

My provider ( NTL)is pushing hard for to get me to sign up for broadband for another fiver a month but I'm like you Mark. I don't see the need.

It worries me that they will put up the price after a year like they did with dial up ,which was supposed to be free . So I told them they could stick it ..............

Do you think dialup will be scrapped?

We can burn that bridge when we get to it!


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## DavidH (Feb 24, 2003)

mmmmmm

Three posts up by the time mine uploaded. I'll maybe have to give this some thought!


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Hi,

Your lucky it will be years before B.T update the exchange for our village.

















MIKE..


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

There will be a dial up for travel at least until cell phones are quicker (GSM about 8kb/s, GPRS best yet for me 80kb/s).

I use AOL - I can dial in when travelling on a pay per minute rate .. also when abroad they hav e pretty good agreements with overseas ISP's.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Just found out our exchange is giong BB in the summer, fingers crossed.


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Thanks for all the replies, though a cheapskate at heart I am going to give it a go via AOL









Telewest have jazzed me off with so much junk mail and unsolicited calls that I wouldn't take theirs for free:angry:

Stan, I will check out the "single number" issue first as that would be no good to me.

PG, I had to express my interest vis the BT website for broadband for my area and about 3 months ago it still needed 75% more people to do likewise for them to consider a BB installation. Now we have it, weird


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

our little local lbrary sent flyers out with the local paper asking people to contact bt and express an interest so they could get it for the library. It went from 50 registerd to over the 200 required in a day!


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

JoT said:


> There will be a dial up for travel at least until cell phones are quicker (GSM about 8kb/s, GPRS best yet for me 80kb/s).


 I meant bytes per second of course ... duh ....









AOL ... no complaints ... dont let the hijack you IE browser though when you install ... watch your defaults ... I always use the IE browser ... when I am online.


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## FrankC (Nov 3, 2003)

If your children want a DVD player then why not go to ALDI and get them an ALBA for just Â£32 I bought one of these about a year ago from ARGOS for Â£70 and it's better than my SHARP which I payed Â£250 for. It will play anything , any region, video disks , audio CD's you can't beat that for the money.

I used to have a Beatamax back in the ;ate 70's cost me abot Â£400 the only problem with it was you needed a blok and tackle to lift it off the table. Great system though.

Frank


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Hi,

I have had the total opposite exsperiance with an ALBA DVD, and just had to return our lads Christmas present off his Auntie as it was faulty. I got a slightly dearer Samsung instead. I think with these "cheap" brands you take a chance, you were obviously lucky Frank 

MIKE..


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

FrankC said:


> If your children want a DVD player then why not go to ALDI and get them an ALBA for just Â£32


Frank, are you mad? Â£32!!!









I can get a good watch for that AND I had a perfectly good betamax video recorder, honestly they don't know how lucky they are.









If and it's a BIG if they get a dvd player then I'll happily buy one from ALDI or similar. I have a set-up of hi-fi seperates that cost me over Â£2k but I bought a Schieder mini-system from ASDA for Â£40 and it is far better, unbelievable


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## Fred (Feb 23, 2003)

Hi Mike, i think a bit of luck goes a long way when you buy any thing nowerdays, electric stuff seems to last pretty well most of the time.I went for the VHS set up Hitachi, early 70s just short of Â£500 with remote by wire, dog took one look at that and chewed half of it first time i turned my back, for the last couple of years i have been using one that cost Â£65 no trouble up to now, What about the price of the Flat screen T.Vs [ very nice] but Â£3,000 / 4,000 no thanks.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

I got a "Tevion" DVD from Aldi for less than Â£40 plays cd's cdrw etc has zoom and different angle and all the gimicks.

The only trouble is the only dvd disc we have so far is the nippers Lion King.

Bloody hell has that got on my nerevs this holidays!

BTW that reminds me whatever happened to your DVD's you were doing Eric?


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

I didn't get any DVDs to play this Christmas.









Just nine sodding pairs of socks.... but I do need 'em.









Dear Santa, can I have all the Babylon 5 DVDs some day? You bugger!


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## FrankC (Nov 3, 2003)

MIke

That may be so, but many years ago I bought a second hand ALBA satellite reciever it was only about 10 channels. I had it for quite few years with no trouble and passed it on to someone else who used it up until Sky took all the analogue channels off. Never had a minutes trouble. Funny, my son was just a little kid then and so excited about getting satellite TV he even had me put the dish up as soon as I got it home, in the dark. Such is life.......

Frank


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## FrankC (Nov 3, 2003)

PG

When my son was little he had a video of 'Hopitty Goes to Town'

That drove us round the bend, he watched ever day........" and don't forget I told you so" ( That was a recurring theme ). Jeeze What we parents put up with

Frank


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Hi Frank,

I don't dought there are many ALBA products that have given many years good service, just that you posted about ALBA DVD's on the day I had to take one back.

You are so right about childrens' abillity to watch the same tape/C.D over and over again







with out getting bored with it, much to everbody else's anoyance.

MIKE..


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

I remember my daughter loved Danger Mouse....... so did I.


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Hi Fred,

I'm waiting for the price of them to come down which it will as history has shown us, Â£500 for a video then Â£50 now. Despite the ALBA, electronic equipment seems to be very reliable these days. When we were kids (early 1970's) the man was allways coming to fix what must have been one of the first colour T.V's or else he "liked my mum"









MIKE..


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