OT. BT Midband

Having been turned down for ADSL again (too far from the exchange) I'm
considering BT midband.
Anybody in here tried it and have comments please??
Cheers
Graham
header is munged. replace nospam with bbowers36 and correct obvious spelling
mistake

"Keith Lawrence" <false@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:40350d28$0$4101$5a6aecb4@news.aaisp.net.uk...
> "Graham Bowers" <graham@nospam.frzzserve.co.uk> wrote...
>
> > Having been turned down for ADSL again (too far from the
> > exchange) I'm considering BT midband.
> > Anybody in here tried it and have comments please??
>
> Personally I wouldn't go near anything to do with BT
>
> Immediate thought is to find a geek/friend that =IS= near enough to the
> exchange, for a couple of hundered quid or so you could WLAN bridge it (2
or
> 3 km shouldn't be a problem) and then go halves on the ADSL

You need a license to use WLAN at that kind of range.

Alun Harford

"Graham Bowers" <graham@nospam.frzzserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c12tbc$onv$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Having been turned down for ADSL again (too far from the exchange) I'm
> considering BT midband.
> Anybody in here tried it and have comments please??
> Cheers
> Graham
> header is munged. replace nospam with bbowers36 and correct obvious
spelling
> mistake
>
Haven't tried Midband, but used to use ISDN (Home Highway) and that was
hugely better than analogue dial-up, even at 64k. Midband is just Home
Highway with a very cheap ISP deal, essentially for £10 over the Home
Highway cost you get 24*7 access, max. 150 hours/month (normal dial up rates
after that.) It also gives you the option of channel bonding (128k, using
your call allowance at double the rate), probably the only ISP to do that on
a prepay basis, and some bandwidth management software.
Compared to Broadband it's a relatively poor deal, but if it's all you can
get then it's worth having, in my opinion. Can you get it though? AFAIK
distance limits for ISDN are similar to ADSL, so you may be out of luck.

"Alun Harford" <alunharford@yahoo.com> wrote...

> > Immediate thought is to find a geek/friend that =IS= near
> > enough to the exchange, for a couple of hundered quid or so
> > you could WLAN bridge it (2 or 3 km shouldn't be a problem)
> > and then go halves on the ADSL

> You need a license to use WLAN at that kind of range.

Really? You got a reference for that Alun?

K

"Bob Davis" <bob_nospam@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:Df9Zb.112$Ef7.92@newsfe1-win...
>
> "Graham Bowers" <graham@nospam.frzzserve.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:c12tbc$onv$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
> > Having been turned down for ADSL again (too far from the exchange) I'm
> > considering BT midband.
> > Anybody in here tried it and have comments please??
> > Cheers
> > Graham
> > header is munged. replace nospam with bbowers36 and correct obvious
> spelling
> > mistake
> >
> Haven't tried Midband, but used to use ISDN (Home Highway) and that was
> hugely better than analogue dial-up, even at 64k. Midband is just Home
> Highway with a very cheap ISP deal, essentially for £10 over the Home
> Highway cost you get 24*7 access, max. 150 hours/month (normal dial up
rates
> after that.) It also gives you the option of channel bonding (128k, using
> your call allowance at double the rate), probably the only ISP to do that
on
> a prepay basis, and some bandwidth management software.
> Compared to Broadband it's a relatively poor deal, but if it's all you can
> get then it's worth having, in my opinion. Can you get it though? AFAIK
> distance limits for ISDN are similar to ADSL, so you may be out of luck.
>
BT quote 97% availability and I think it's only around 80% for broadband,
but your point is valid. I believe the test can't be done until you've
committed, so I am asking for opinions before I commit.
Cheers
Graham

>
> BT quote 97% availability and I think it's only around 80% for broadband,
> but your point is valid. I believe the test can't be done until you've
> committed, so I am asking for opinions before I commit.
> Cheers
> Graham
>
Good luck! 97% sounds ominously like the anticipated coverage for Broadband
once the rollout to all* exchanges is complete - the only folk I know of who
still use Highway/ISDN are on exchanges which don't have Broadband yet, and
all of them are OK for Broadband when it arrives. Availability for ISDN has
always been very high, effectively limited only by distance, as BT can (and
do) equip any exchange for ISDN for single customers.
If it's any help, everyone I know who has had Home Highway has been very
pleased with the service. The only downside is the 12 month minimum
contract, but it doesn't look like you will have an alternative in the near
future so no real worry.
Cheers
Bob

*supposedly by the end of 2005 - excludes very small exchanges.

"Keith Lawrence" <false@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:40352c34$0$4097$5a6aecb4@news.aaisp.net.uk...
> "Alun Harford" <alunharford@yahoo.com> wrote...
>
> > > Immediate thought is to find a geek/friend that =IS= near
> > > enough to the exchange, for a couple of hundered quid or so
> > > you could WLAN bridge it (2 or 3 km shouldn't be a problem)
> > > and then go halves on the ADSL
>
> > You need a license to use WLAN at that kind of range.
>
> Really? You got a reference for that Alun?

Nope. Sorry - but I remember it was a potential problem when I was looking
into doing exactly what you suggested above.

Alun Harford

Keith Lawrence wrote:
> "Alun Harford" <alunharford@yahoo.com> wrote...
>
>
>>>Immediate thought is to find a geek/friend that =IS= near
>>>enough to the exchange, for a couple of hundered quid or so
>>>you could WLAN bridge it (2 or 3 km shouldn't be a problem)
>>>and then go halves on the ADSL
>
>
>>You need a license to use WLAN at that kind of range.
>
>
> Really? You got a reference for that Alun?

The maximum unlicensed power limit in the license-exempt bands
such as 2.4GHz is 4W. Whether commercial wlans
run at that level I don't know, as the IEEE802.11b
only claims 50m range. You could try looking in ofcom.org.uk.

- Keith

"Pete Melbourne" <psmvsl@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:95jb30tf3um4rrpudf26nc4jdl2tg23s1n@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 02:11:33 -0000, "Bob Davis"
> <bob_nospam@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> > the only folk I know of who
> >still use Highway/ISDN are on exchanges which don't have Broadband yet,
and
> >all of them are OK for Broadband when it arrives.
>
> Hurumph!
>
> I am on a broadband exchange but still limited to ISDN as I'm outside
> the range
>
> Pete
> diving 'at' melbourne 'dot' me 'dot' uk

If there are enough people on your cable who want broadband they will put in
a repeater/booster/can't-remember-what-its-called station-thingie to get it
to you.

CAS
--
Temperature @ Stoney? Find it or share it @
http://stoneytemps.calumscott.me.uk/

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 09:09:53 -0000, "CAS"
<calumscottTAKETHISBITOUT@yahoo.com> wrote:


>> I am on a broadband exchange but still limited to ISDN as I'm outside
>> the range
>>
>> Pete
>> diving 'at' melbourne 'dot' me 'dot' uk
>
>If there are enough people on your cable who want broadband they will put in
>a repeater/booster/can't-remember-what-its-called station-thingie to get it
>to you.
>

We are trying, but then so are BT in a different sense of the word

Any idea of the numbers required?

Pete
diving 'at' melbourne 'dot' me 'dot' uk